Strung Out (22 page)

He gave a sharp bark of laughter and dodged around a stack of instrument cases. “Our guest performers come from some of the most prestigious music schools all over the world. I hardly think your résumé merits that sort of fanfare.”

Stung, Talia lapsed into silence. Mr. Van Noord turned abruptly right, and they entered the Symphony Hall itself. The beauty was overwhelming. From the understated Greco-Roman balconies and boxes to the delicate chandeliers hanging from the domed ceiling overhead, it was as though all of Talia’s childhood dreams were coming true at once.

“Take a seat there. Second violin section, last chair.” Mr. Van Noord motioned to the empty end chair. “Your music is in the folder on the stand.”

Talia kept her gaze glued to the ground. She was almost hyperaware of all the curious—and in some cases hostile—stares of the other musicians. Her word of thanks died on her lips, and she scurried to her chair like a rat into a hole.

The chair was cold, and she sat stiffly, with her back painfully erect. She tried to muffle the sound of the clasps snapping open on her case, but they seemed overloud in the cavernous space. The other members of the orchestra already had their instruments out. Most were talking quietly or adjusting reeds, valves, chin rests, or bowstrings.

“You must’ve been born under a lucky star.”

The half-whispered voice came from the chair beside hers. A young Asian woman with long, straight black hair and almond-shaped eyes was carefully putting rosin on her bow. Talia offered a hesitant smile, which was met with a guarded expression of curiosity.

“It’s not every day that someone calls up and offers to sponsor a chair in the second violin section. Especially not with a proviso that requires them to extend an invitation to a barely known violinist.”

The words took several seconds to process. Talia’s eyes roved the burgundy music folder before her. A yellow sticky note clung to the surface. She narrowed her eyes, searching the loops and swirls for the answer she didn’t want to know.

Funded in perpetuity by Aasen International.

“Someone could wait half their career to slide into a chair that was funded in perpetuity.” The Asian woman’s voice turned wistful.

Talia was cold. So cold she feared she would never again be warm. Cold with anger and hurt and fear and shame and so many other emotions that she couldn’t label them all.

She remembered the moment Erik had announced his intention to keep her in his Beacon Hill home like a kept mistress. She’d been angry, but not irrevocably so. It had been so obvious that a man like Erik was used to getting what he wanted. An endless supply of money had gotten him everything so far; why couldn’t it get him Talia?

But she’d been clear. She’d walked away without a word. And she’d chosen another life, one that took her away from Boston and Erik’s sphere of influence because she didn’t want to be that person. She didn’t want to be a woman who depended upon the money of others to make her mark. In fact, Talia Davies didn’t want to make her mark with money at all. She wanted to do it on her own, with her music.

But not like this.

She stood so quickly that her chair dumped over backward. Heads came up, the members of the symphony searching for the source of the racket. Her face burned with chagrin. Reaching out, she snagged the sticky note from the folder and handed it to the Asian woman.

“Take it. At least you earned it.”

If the woman said anything, Talia didn’t hear it. She was too busy trying to snap her case closed while walking out the door.

* * *

Erik was having a hard time concentrating on the figures sprawled across the page before him. He kept thinking back to the conversation he’d had with the symphony’s managing director only that morning. When he’d initially told Talia there was a place for her in Boston’s Symphony Orchestra, he hadn’t anticipated how difficult it would be to make that promise come true.

Of course, part of his difficulty had been that he knew little to nothing about the orchestra or its inner workings. It was the second time recently that he hadn’t been able to put an immediate price tag on something he wanted. And he’d wound up having to make a hefty donation and an agreement to sponsor Talia’s spot for what seemed to be a lifetime commitment. Whatever that meant.

Regardless, Talia was going to get her wish to play at center stage, and that’s what mattered the most. She’d have a place to fulfill her dream of playing music onstage in a venue that even his family couldn’t fault. So he’d managed to make everyone happy. It seemed like a win-win situation.

Which was why his niggling doubts made no sense.

Anita’s voice crackled through the speaker on his computer. “Mr. Aasen, your mother has arrived downstairs.”

“Thanks for the heads-up.” He sighed, wondering what she could possibly have to bitch about before the cocktail hour. “Go ahead and send her right in.”

“Thank you, sir.” The woman didn’t bother to hide the thankfulness in her voice.

He glanced at his cell phone, trying to resist the urge to call Talia just to hear her voice. She was likely in the middle of rehearsals and wouldn’t appreciate the interruption, but he couldn’t wait to hear her excitement and see her happiness firsthand later that evening. It might even be worth a phone call to Nicolai and a special night out on the town.

“Have you lost your mind?” His mother didn’t bother to let his office door close behind her before airing her thoughts.

“Not that I’ve noticed.”

“When Selena told me what that Talia woman was doing last night at the benefit, I nearly had heart palpitations. You cannot expect us to put up with that kind of embarrassment, Erik. I won’t stand for it. I won’t!”

“Calm down, and sit before you faint and hit your head.” He gestured to the leather chair before his desk. “Do you need a mineral water?”

“No, thank you. I didn’t come here to pay a social call. I came to find out why you’re sleeping around with all the help.”

“All of them,” Erik said drolly. “Wow, I had no idea I was fucking all those maids you keep hiring and firing. How do I have time for sleep?”

“One of these days you’re going to push me too far, and I’ll have a heart attack and die, and it will be all your fault.”

“I should be so lucky.” He held up a hand to prevent her launching into another indignant speech. “While you pry that stick out of your ass, I’ll say that what happened last night wasn’t a regular thing.”

“How can you be sure?”

He glared at his mother. “Because she was doing a favor for a friend, a very talented friend with her own locally recognized string trio. But she’ll be too busy with her own commitments to fill in for her friend again. So it won’t matter.”

“Busy doing what? She can’t possibly have your dick in her mouth at all times, Erik. Although, vulgar as it sounds, at least that would keep her too busy to embarrass us. Why on earth did you have to propose to this little minx? Couldn’t you have just stuck her in a townhouse and fucked her on the weekends?”

Erik winced at the crass description of precisely what he’d tried to do. Knowing Talia as he did now, it was impossible to imagine treating her with such disregard. Yet he’d been prepared to do just that in order to have his cake and eat it too. “She’s been offered a slot in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Not even you can argue with the prestige in that.”

“Perhaps not, but you’d better take that little vagabond shopping for a proper wardrobe as soon as possible.” His mother stood up and examined her manicure. “Every time she appears in public in those knockoff rags, she embarrasses the hell out of your sister.”

A grin played at the corner of Erik’s mouth. “Oh I think I can convince her to shop for some new clothes.”

“And I hope you’ll buy more than just lingerie. While I’m sure that’s an important part of her wardrobe, I’m more concerned with what the public is going to see.” Without another word, she whirled about on her Manolos and clacked her way out the door.

Erik slumped in his seat, lowering his forehead to the desktop and wishing the day was over. A nice, long bath sounded like heaven. And adding Talia’s silky wet body to the equation would put a bit of the devil into the mix.

“What’s wrong with you?” He looked up to find Desiree poking her head into his office.

“Didn’t you see Mother on your way in?”

She stepped the rest of the way in and closed the door. “Sure. But she never seems to get to you.”

The innocent expression on her face nearly made him want to wring her neck. “She didn’t get to me until Selena became a tattletale. Couldn’t you have possibly put a good word in for Talia?”

Desiree propped her hands on her hips. “I’d have had to be an idiot to get in front of Selena once she started in. You know how she gets. Add Mother’s theatrics, and we were ready for Broadway this morning.”

“I got that from my conversation with her not five seconds ago.” He lounged back in his chair and pointed a finger in Desiree’s direction. “Thank God I’d already found a decent compromise for the issue.”

“So I heard on the way in.”

“Then why are you here?”

She rolled her eyes, looking every inch the big sister. “I was in the area, and I’m hungry. You’re going to take me to lunch.”

“Wow, how gentlemanly of me.” He’d never been able to stay irritated with her for long.

Chapter Twenty-two

“It was the most embarrassing moment of my life, Les. I felt like a tiny zit on the ass of the musical world.” Talia wiped her eyes and tried to breathe deeply. Anything to stop the tears. They’d started right when she’d gotten onto the MTA in front of Symphony Hall and hadn’t stopped since. Now ensconced at the familiar school where she’d always belonged, it was a relief to let it all out.

Leslie rubbed her back, everything that had happened at the museum forgotten. Because that’s what friends were for. Real friends, the ones that didn’t try to buy you with ridiculous promises and lies.

“He just doesn’t understand, Tallie. Things are different for him. He probably thought he was doing you a favor.”

“You’re defending him? What the hell, Les!”

“You came in here less than a week ago and told me he tried to make you his mistress. How could you not see this one coming?”

“Because this is so much worse.” Talia slumped into the seat in Leslie’s tiny studio, suddenly glad for the suffocating soundproof walls. “He insulted my ability. Hell, he insulted my intelligence. How could he think I wouldn’t find out?”

“He probably thought you wouldn’t care. You have to remember this guy has always had everything bought for him. Now he’s an adult who tries to buy everything for himself. Why wouldn’t he assume you were the same way? How could he even understand that a spot on the Symphony Orchestra has to be earned and then offered?”

“God! Then I went in there and looked ten times the idiot because I believed it.” Talia moaned. “Me. I believed that nonsense even though I haven’t made it to a chamber group yet.”

Leslie made a soft sound of rebuke. “Give yourself a break. You were just excited.”

“He understands baseball. Maybe I should explain to him that it’s like skipping from Little League to the major league. Would that make sense to his rich brain?”

Seconds ticked by on the round clock hanging above the door. Talia wondered how long it would take him to miss her phone call. If he missed it at all. She was like a dog. When she was around, he loved her dearly. But when she was missing, it took him forever to notice.

“What are you going to do, Tallie?”

“I love him, Les.” Tears streaked down her cheeks. “God help me, I do. But I can’t live like this. I can’t go on waiting for him to turn to the dark side and become my Darth Vader.”

“Then go to New York and ask Jupiter for another chance.” Leslie touched her arm and smiled. “This isn’t the end for you, Tallie. It’s just the beginning.”

Talia took out the cell phone and selected Erik’s name from the list just like Jake had instructed. Moments later the thing was ringing in her ear. Four times and it clicked.

Desiree answered. “Hello?”

Talia tried to swallow back the teary hiccup that threatened. “Isn’t this Erik’s number?”

“Erik had to step out for a moment. Are you all right? You sound awful.”

She waffled, torn between speaking with him in person and giving him the chance to repent his horrible sins, and giving him a message through Desiree like a coward. It was so tempting. There would be no begging or pleading to deal with if she spoke to Desiree. She’d have a much better chance of sticking to her decision.

“Didn’t your rehearsal go well this morning?” Desiree prodded.

She took a deep breath, trying to remember this was the best decision. “I need you to tell Erik that I’ve decided this isn’t going to work between the two of us. There’s no place for me in the symphony. And I gave up a fantastic opportunity in New York to stay here in Boston. But I know now it wasn’t the right thing to do. So I’m flying out today to try and get a second chance at my big chance.”

Her mouth was dry after delivering the speech. But there was only a brief silence on the other end of the line. “So, you’re leaving my brother?”

“Well, I guess so.”

“I thought you were offered a symphony spot so you wouldn’t have to give up your music. Wasn’t that what you wanted?”

It was difficult not to scream like a crazy person into the phone. Talia tried to remember that Desiree couldn’t possibly understand. “It wasn’t offered, Desiree. Erik bought my way in. When I got there and realized what he’d done, I was humiliated. It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. How could he do it?”

“He couldn’t have anticipated that, Talia.” Desiree sounded earnest. But she had already made her choice. Did it matter?

“I need to go to New York. This can’t work. You know it can’t.”

She tsk-tsked. “Don’t put that on me. I think you should stick it out. I haven’t always appreciated the spectacle the two of you seem to make of yourselves, but you’re probably the best thing that’s ever happened to my brother. But if this is what you feel is best for you, then you have to go with it. Nobody can make your choices for you.”