Page 37 of Little Monster
“Very well.” He sighs and walks off to speak with some of the other musicians, and my joy is knocked down just a peg.
In the greenroom, a group of women talk excitedly, and despite my anxious thoughts and the disappointment gnawing at my stomach, I can’t help but overhear.
“Someone saidDex Reidis in the audience.”
I pause putting my violin away.
“No way. Why would he be here?”
“I don’t know, but hurry up! Let’s try to catch him before he leaves.”
The women hurry past, not paying me any mind, and my stomach turns. I hope he’s not being bombarded with people and cameras and requests for autographs. Seeing the way he rolled his window up in the car earlier, I know he’s not in the mood for it tonight.
Now I’m doubting whether it was a good idea to even invite him to the concert. Maybe he just said yes because he felt bad, and now he’s going to be swarmed with crazy fans.
After hurriedly packing up, I make my way out the main doors, keeping an eye out for throngs of people. I don’t see Dex anywhere, and the women who were talking about him are standing in front of the building, looking dejected.
Good. That means they couldn’t find him.
Heading around to the back of the building, I spot my Honda in the far corner of the parking lot, a dark figure leaning against the passenger’s side. The sun has long since gone down, and Dex is just a faceless shadow standing in the dark.
“Hey,” I say, a little breathless as I get to the car and look around to make sure no one has spotted him. “You okay?”
When he turns around, his face is calm. “Yeah. Why?”
I let out a relieved sigh. “Oh, I just heard some people saying they’d seen you and was afraid they were bothering you.”
His calm expression shifts, and now he’s smiling at me.
“What?” I ask.
“You were worried about me?”
Heat flares in my cheeks, and I grip my violin case a little tighter. “Yeah, I guess so... I didn’t want anyone harassing you.”
Dex leans his elbows on top of my car, and my eyes trace the ink running up his forearms, across his biceps, and under the sleeves of his tee.
“That might be the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.” His smile is shifting into a smirk now, and I roll my eyes, hoping he can’t see the flush in my cheeks in the low light.
“Okay, hurry up and unlock the car before a horde comes this way.” I gesture at the rear door, and Dex smirks at me a moment longer before pulling the key out of his pocket and unlocking the doors.
When we arrived, I headed in first to prepare for the concert, and he stayed in the car until the start of the concert to avoid being seen by everyone in the auditorium. Sure, he was still spotted, but our plan seems to have worked considering there aren’t any groupies flocking around him right now.
I ease my violin into the back, then slip into the driver’s seat. Dex gets in on the other side, and as I start up the car and head for the exit, he looks over at me.
“You were great tonight,” he says, all playfulness gone from his voice.
His compliment makes my stomach flutter, and I focus even harder on the road to keep from getting flustered.
“Thanks. That night Ashton saw me play, our first chair wasn’t there, so I got to step in as concertmistress.” My lips pull into a smile just thinking about it. “She’s retiring after this season, so we’ll have a new first chair next season.”
Beside me, Dex shifts in his seat to face me. “Is that what you want? To be the concertmistress?”
He asks it so casually, as if it isn’t the thing I’ve yearned for all these years, the thing that feels like it’s right at my fingertips and yet still out of my grasp.
My voice is small as I say, “Yeah.”
“How do you do it?”
