Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
I swallow. “I didn’t say that. I just said I have a full-time job.”
Will flashes me a smile. “This would be a full-time position. Benefits and everything included.”
I look at Will’s business card. It has his office number and email address on it.
“Would I just have to call you, set up a time?”
Will nods. “Or you can email. We’re not hearing that many people. Like I said, we’re scrambling. If you can get an hour or so off from the hospital, we’d love to hear you.”
I look down at the business card, back at Will, and then down to the card again.
Do I want to try this?
I left this part of my life behind. Spurned it for a more stable career.
I stifle a laugh. Most nurses would say their job is anything but stable.
But compared to being a musician? I’m on solid ground.
But…I felt something tonight. There is such joy in creating music. Even music that is as dark as the Shostakovich symphony we listened to this evening.
To fill the space of silence with beauty… With emotion…
There’s nothing quite like it.
But music also broke my heart. Multiple times over.
And me leaving the UK to pursue two degrees in music is the reason my mother…
No. I won’t let her ruin this magnificent evening.
I stare blankly at Will, unsure of what to say.
Perhaps he’s playing a trick on me. He and the other associate conductors are about to go behind closed doors and laugh at meek little Alissa Maravilla. The failed flautist who actually believed she had a shot at a position with the CSO.
By this point, Maddox has walked up behind me. His strong arms are on my shoulders.
“When are auditions?” Maddox asks.
Will crinkles his forehead at Maddox. “I’m sorry. We haven’t been introduced.”
I blink. “So sorry. Will, this is my boyfriend, Maddox Hathaway.”
Will’s eyebrows jump. “Maddox Hathaway. The Maddox Hathaway?”
Maddox rolls his eyes. “The one and only. When are the auditions?”
Will clasps his hands. “Next week. By appointment.”
Maddox nods. “She’ll call you.”
Will grins. “Great! We’re looking forward to hearing you, Alissa. Prepare any piece you like. Whatever shows your skills off the best.”
I look up at Maddox, narrowing my eyes. Then I look back at Will.
“Of… Of course.”
“Wonderful.” Will shakes my hand again. “It was great to reconnect. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to schmooze a few donors. I’ll see you next week.”
I force a small smile. “I guess you will.”
With that, Will disappears into the crowd.
Maddox hugs me from behind. “Look at you! Can you believe my girlfriend is getting recognized by the orchestra higher-ups?”
I turn to him, my eyebrows furrowed. “Why did you speak for me?”
He sears his gaze into mine. “Because this is what you want, Alissa.” He gestures toward the concert hall. “You belong on that stage. You should be making music.”
“You haven’t even heard me play.”
“I don’t have to. I could tell just watching you listen to the symphony. You were living and breathing it in. This stuff is what you were put on earth to do.”
“I’m a perfectly good nurse.”
“And I would have been a perfectly good city councilman.” He shrugs. “Doesn’t mean it’s my calling. My calling is the shop. And your calling is music. I just know it.”
I look down, kicking softly at the floor. “I haven’t gotten the gig yet.”
“I know, baby. And even if you don’t, you’ll still have a stable job at the hospital. But tonight you were in the right place at the right time. That conductor guy recognized you, remembered your audition. That has to mean something, right? Feels kind of like fate to me.”
I scoff at that. Fate is meaningless.
If there were a just hand guiding all of humanity along a predestined path, we wouldn’t be going to a bloody mortuary right now to learn about what happened to May.
Everything is random. By chance.
I wouldn’t be here tonight if it weren’t for…
If it weren’t for Maddox.
Sweet, sweet Maddox.
The man whose shop I walked into one week ago, completely on a whim.
Because I wanted to do something different.
Wanted to leave my sterile, prepackaged world. The world my mother wanted me to live in.
The last seven days have been some of the best—and worst—of my life.
All because I took a chance.
I had no idea what I was signing up for when I walked into Maddox’s shop. When I descended the mirrored staircase into the technicolor world of Aces Underground.
But because of that, I now have a shot at performing with a world-class orchestra.
It probably won’t amount to anything, but I have a shot.
And if I, a silly little girl from Brixton, raised by an abusive mother and an absentee father, have a shot at this position? If I have a shot with Maddox Hathaway, the most beautiful man—inside and out—that I’ve ever met?
I might just have a shot at achieving justice for May, too.