Hitting the Right Notes (10 page)

“Morning, my love,” he would greet her with a morning kiss as she opened her eyes. Then, Darya would curl in his arms like a kitten and purr and demand for a morning kiss, Eric would eagerly obey to her wishes.

He had developed this new habit of calling her just D., instead of confusing his woman’s real name and her stage name, which he had been murmuring in his sleep for so many years, that there was always a good chance of it slipping off his tongue. And he well remembered what had happened the last time he let his guard down and pronounced her stage name. He loved it none the less and sometimes would refer to her as DaYa when talking to Alison and Margo.

His two best friends now acted like their own personal Cupid who hovered overhead the lovers and protected them from any foe or any stupid mistakes one of them could make. In many ways, it made Eric feel more secure and at ease. Whenever he was to say something that a woman wouldn’t take very well, either Ali or Margo would elbow him lightly or cough loudly or even pretend to suddenly remember a joke and interrupt him midsentence. He was endlessly grateful for that as probably their thoughtful deeds had saved him a lot of fights with Darya.

Ali and Margo now visited them on weekends and it seemed that Darya was also becoming good friends with them. That warmed Eric’s heart immensely. His tiny world had always been limited to those three women and seeing them laugh together made him feel at the top of the world.

They had even been out on several double dates. Eric had never experienced that as a teenager, though he remembered most of his classmates used to go on double dates. It always made him wonder what the allure of that was. Now, having his own experience in that field he knew for sure – with his best friends’ fondness for public display of affection if was much better not to be a single around them. Compared to the times when he had been lonely and had to tolerate his favorite couple’s endless attempts to find a girlfriend for him and even their eagerness to demonstrate the benefits of having one, now, as he sat there with his beloved woman at his side, it felt so natural to be excited and aroused and even tempted to also publicly show how much in love he was.

Could life get any better?

Yes, in fact it could, or at least that’s what Eric believed. Although he sometimes thought that he could’ve lived the rest of his life lingering lazily in Darya’s bed, Eric still had an important agenda to fulfill. He was intent on bringing back the real DaYa – the woman with whom he had first fallen in love.

Having lived two weeks with Darya he could feel that the rock star still lived inside her. He would practically feel how she missed the times when she would be her true self, when she had not forced herself to forget her talent, when she would sing her emotions out loud.

He knew his wish was as much for Darya’s sake as for his own. He would never be able to forget the darkest days of his life when the world had almost come to an end because of Darya’s selfish decision to hide in a corner and lick her own wounds instead of caring for her fans. He could fight against those thoughts all he wanted, but he was unable to erase them from his mind. In the very corner of his dark selfish heart he still imagined that she owed him at least one attempt to bring back whatever he had lost back then.

At times he could almost close his eyes and see DaYa the rock star in his arms, kissing him passionately, singing for him as they made love, looking straight into his eyes when she was on the stage and dedicating a song to him – her man.

Eric was still working out the details of how to implement his plan. So when Kiara visited Darya, begging her to at least give her half an hour of her day to look through some paperwork, Eric thought he could use the time to drop by Margo’s and Alison’s office to have lunch with them and ask for their advice. Darya wasn’t very happy that he was leaving her to her own personal assistant’s care, but she knew she could not hide forever from her responsibilities.

“You must be out of your mind!” Margo started shouting as Eric told them about his plans to convince Darya to give her music career another try. Ever emotional Margo was so furious, that even Alison was unable to calm her this time. Yet, Eric didn’t feel guilty for making his friends angry; every word they said made his determination even firmer. “Have you forgotten how you almost lost her? Don’t you dare come back to us crying when you ruin this relationship once again!”

“I know her much better now. I know she needs it as much as I do. Why can’t you see that?”

While Margo walked around the cafeteria throwing her hands in the air and praying to unknown gods to fill his head with some reason, Alison tried different tactics to change Eric’s mind.

“We are your friends and we’ll support you whenever you need us. But we well remember how broken and miserable you have been. Now finally you’ve found your happiness and it scares us that you are ready to risk it all to pursue a long gone dream.” Alison covered his hand with hers and patted tenderly trying to sooth his emotions as she talked. “And the worst of all is that you might end up hurting Darya even more than yourself.”

Eric simply shook his head. They would not understand him. They had not seen the shine in her eyes as she sang in the shower or when making love to him. He considered those little steps his personal victories, but he craved for more. He knew the star inside her was finally ready to burst out again and he wanted to be the one to inspire her for that.

“This is clearly bound to failure. I refuse to support you in this! I refuse,” declared Margo as she hugged Alison and laced their fingers together. “And how on earth are you going to convince her to go back to the producers and say she’s back? Do you think it is so easy to do?”

“I was thinking I could secretly record her and send the tape to some of them. I could get their contacts from Kiara, she always claims she can find anyone on the earth with less than three phone calls.”

The two women exchanged worried looks as none of them dared to speak for a long moment. Finally, Margo sighed theatrically and rose from her chair. “Congratulations, Eric, you’ve come up with the worst possible way to kill a relationship.”

Kiara was finally gone, taking away all the papers that reminded Darya of the world that existed outside of the little heaven she had been cohabitating with Eric since their return. Eric was still not back and she decided to use the moment of solitude to reflect on everything that had happened in her life from the moment she had decided to try a relationship again.

She was sure about several facts. One – she was happy – endlessly and unconditionally happy. She had not been that happy for a very long time. In fact, she was even sure she had never been that truly happy in her life. Even when shining on the stage and thinking that the whole world was created to worship her voice, Darya had been deceived and lied to by the person she cherished the most.
She was not going to think about him now.
Instead, she considered the fact number two – she was enjoying those tiny moments when the emotions overwhelmed her so much that she could not hold back the music playing in her mind and sang for Eric. Those moments were so precious and she knew her voice had never ever sounded that powerful.

These two facts led her to consider what Eric had been hinting on over and over again. What if she took another risk and gave herself another try? After all she had decided to overcome her boundaries and give Eric a chance, though she had sworn time and time again that she would never believe in love.

What if she took her brave experiment even further and tried to sing?

Darya sighed as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. She knew the reason that was holding her back, but she was not ready to say it loud even to herself.

For a moment, Darya thought she needed advice. She was about to call Kiara and ask her to return. She could use some advice from her assistant, who was never making any decisions on the spot and could probably draw a long chart of pros and cons and make conclusions based on the facts rather than what Darya’s heart wanted. And what exactly did her heart want? There was one certain answer – she wanted to make Eric happy. Darya bit at her lip. She could not confess to herself that she was head over heels in love with her young boyfriend, but was she ready to make such an ultimate decision for his sake?

She left the question hanging for now.

*

Darya knew she was not ready to embrace the music again. Perhaps, she would never be. But Eric’s less than subtle attempts to direct her attention towards music didn’t irritate or anger her. Deep inside her heart she enjoyed them, as they made her feel desired and cherished.

That evening Eric seemed particularly active in his actions. First, he tried to hide his mobile phone in the bathroom leaving the recorder on. Next, he started listening to her first album on his iPod, while making sure to make the volume so high that Darya could hear it through the headphones. When none of these gave the results he had been aiming for, he turned off all the lights in the house leaving only one lamp above the couch where Darya was sitting.

“I love seeing you awash in lights, D., will you sing something for me?” he asked in his sweet sincere voice, which Darya could never resist. And she did as he requested – she sang as never before; she sang with all her emotions, leaving aside all her worries and concerns.

What if she could really do this? If not for herself, but at least because of the endless love she felt towards this young man, to whom her music meant so much.

*

Two days later, Darya parked her car in front of the studio, where her career had started years ago. She took a deep breath. If Eric was not sitting next to her and looking at her with so much love and dream in his eyes, she would’ve turned and drove back.

“You can do this, D. We can do it together. I’ll be with you all the time, I promise.” At that moment

Darya felt as if she was the young ruthless kid and Eric was the adult trying to empower and reassure her.

“I don’t know what to do. It’s been so long. Maybe they don’t even remember me…” She knew the last was just a lie she was trying to tell herself, as if that could protect her from a possible disappointment.

She looked out of the window. It was a beautiful warm day with the sun shining playfully and the clouds floating in the sky like pieces of ice in milky blue cocktail. She could do with some drinks now.
No!
She rejected the thought firmly. If she was stepping on this path again, she was to make sure that she was not going down the slippery road of destructive drinking and oblivious hiding from the real life surrounding her. She was trying to get back to music – and music only. All the other aspects of the rock star life would be left under the dusty covers of the past.

“Of course they do. Nobody has forgotten you but yourself.” He laced their fingers together. It had become one of Darya’s favorite touches – their fingers fit to one another ideally as if they were made to belong with each other. “This is only a try. If you don’t like it, you can always go back.”

Darya smiled. If only going back was so easy and painless as he imagined. Eric’s confidence in her was what she had been lacking all these years. Maybe there were people who always needed inspiration and flame from another person to keep going, or at least now Darya had convinced herself in that.

“Let’s go and see what happens,” she was not going to fill her mind with vain hopes. The sooner they were done with this, the better.

Eric brought her hand to his lips and tenderly kissed all of her fingers one by one. Although he tried to encourage her, Darya could feel his own nervousness. Even now, years after his depression and anxiety, he was still very fragile in stressful and emotional situations. His fingers were slightly damp with sweat, his back was probably a bit warm, and annoying butterflies stirred in his belly as he liked to describe them.

“Well, I can’t wait to see the surprise on their faces,” Eric exclaimed and jumped out of the car. Darya threw another look into the mirror. She was ready. When she opened the door to walk out of the car, Eric was already there with his hand extended towards her.

They walked into the biggest Rock ‘n Roll record company hand in hand – ironically this felt like a déjà vu to Darya. She pushed the thought away. Whatever had happened in the past was going to remain under the thick cover of dust and dried tears.

In a very twisted way, Darya could already feel the familiar air and atmosphere wash over her from the entrance. She was not sure whether it was welcoming her or pushing her away. There was a certain pull, certain temptation to it. The studio had grown much bigger since Darya had last been here, but although they had opened several much larger offices in different cities, the headquarters had remained the same.

“Welcome to the Temple of Rock’ n Roll,” she whispered looking around and surprised to see that none of the old posters had been removed from the walls. There were hundreds of new popular names in the industry now, but it was the company’s motto to never forget the legends that had walked the path long before the new platinum names blazed in the music sky.

Eric looked around in awe. His eyes were bewildered; mouth partly open, even the hand that was laced with Darya’s felt numb. He was looking around in complete oblivion. Darya recognized that look of astonishment. She had had the same when she had first entered this building hoping against hope that her voice would be heard one day.

Darya noticed a security officer walk towards her. She felt momentary confusion – how was she going to explain who she was and why she was there without a preliminary appointment? What if they asked her to leave a CD with her contact information and wait for a call, which was never to come? She felt almost as confused and shy as she had been years ago.

“Ms. DaYa, such a pleasure to welcome you in RnR records. I am Dave,” spoke the young security officer with deep, throaty voice and polite smile. He did recognize her! Darya was almost ready to jump and make a little happy dance. The man was probably younger than Eric. How come he knew who she was?