Page 56 of Wants and Needs
Then I process the “guard dog” comment and wonder if he means Carter.
Who . . .
I look up and see him there, staring at me with a soft smile on his face this time.
“Hello,” I tell him without thinking.
His smile grows, and I don’t know why but that makes me shift on the bench.
“How are you today? Everything okay?”
His soft, melodic voice soothes me into breathing out slowly.
“I’m better,” I confess, and even considering my hectic morning, I realize it’s true. I am better now. “Ready to get to work,” I add for some reason. He nods simply, then turns. I watch him walk away until Wolf’s voice coming over the speakers in the room has me snapping to attention.
“You good?” he asks.
“Yes,” I call out, speaking a bit louder. “Can you tell me if you plan on breaking the sonata up, or if it’s just all continuous?”
“It’s all going to be one long thing,” Hawk says this time. “We’re gonna use it as an intro for the next album.”
“All right,” I mutter as I place the sheets on top of the piano. “I’ll probably get a few things wrong, but let me try to run through the whole thing one time, and then we can see where I’ve missed and if you want any changes.”
“Got it. I just uploaded it to the system here, so we’ll be able to see any missed notes,” Wolf says, and I know he’s not trying to be mean, he’s just stating facts to inform me they’re ready.
And so I begin.
My mind clears of everything and anything but the notes in front of me, and I can feel how hard I’m smiling when my cheeks start to hurt.
Monday
“Hey,”Carter says as soon as I open the door to my apartment.
He’s wearing a royal-blue tux with a matching bow tie, and I find myself speechless for a full five seconds.
“He-hello,” I stumble over my words.
“You ready to go?” he asks, and looks briefly at my attire.
I’m wearing my only tux. It’s black, and not nearly as cool as his.
“Yes.” I nod and grab my phone from the entrance table, then I pat over my chest to make sure my earbuds are in my suit pocket. “Eric is waiting downstairs for us,” I tell him as I make sure the door to my apartment is locked.
“What about your parents?” Carter asks.
“Paco took them a few minutes ago.”
“That’s great,” he says quietly as we wait for the elevator. There’s a pointed moment of silence, and I feel this need to saysomethingbut can’t think of anything.
The last four days have been hectic. Well, not yesterday.Carter and I had lunch to finalize all the details about tonight, and then I finally had some quiet time, which he insisted I needed.
I wanted to ask him to come over and listen to music with me, but I chickened out in the end so I spent all evening alone.
I did rest well, though, so that’s something.
Thursday and Friday were full days at the studio, and we only managed to get a perfect recording late Friday night, then on Saturday Carter and I went to the park and talked a lot about what to expect at this ball.
Now it’s time, and I feel like I don’t even know how to speak anymore?
