Broken Serenade (14 page)

    “If
I knew you were the piano student, I would’ve powdered them with hot chili pepper.”

    He chuckled.

    “
Better than cyanide! Still, may I?”

    “By all means!
After all, you are my first piano student, and you deserve the treat.”

    It was her favorite
recipe. She made the cookies once a month and stuck them in the freezer to have them at hand for unexpected guests.

    “Hmmm,” he moaned
ecstatically, chewing the mouthwatering cookie. “These are the most delicious cookies I’ve ever eaten. And the fact that you touched them makes them divinely tasty. Hmmm…Vee…Hmmm…”  

   
She was elated by his indirect compliment, but she chose to hide her joy and not tell him that she had done a lot more than touching those cookies.

    “Is that it?
Then enjoy your culinary orgasm,” she snapped sarcastically. “That’s all the pleasure you’ll get in this house.”

  
Timothy almost chocked on it. He burst out laughing.

    “Vivien,
darling, I’m sure you can use your little sharp tongue for far more delightful things than caustic remarks. You’re too beautiful to act so spitefully. Although it’s very entertaining, I don’t want to fight with you.”

    “You
’ve started the fight! You wouldn’t let me leave your house,” she blamed him.

    “Now,
picture this: I come home, I walk into my bedroom, and I find a strange woman in there. Don’t you think that I’m entitled to ask her a few questions?”

    “We
ll… you did a lot more than that. You did things that you should be ashamed of,” she mumbled in a pouting manner.

    “Vivien, darling, I don’t know what planet you come from, but here, on Terra, civilized people like you and I tend to announce their visits. We don’t just pop up in
to other people’s bedrooms without taking some risks. God forbid, if I were a frail, overly sensitive man, I could’ve suffered a heart attack,” he said theatrically.

    “Yes, but fortunately for you, fr
ailness and over sensitivity are as strange to you as carnal pleasures to a monk. However, thanks to your beastly treatment,
I
could’ve been the victim of a heart attack.”

    “I would’
ve saved you, Vee. I’m CPR trained and an expert in
bouch à bouch
resuscitation.”

    Vivien grimaced and rolled her eyes again.

    “I’m sure you’ve done your number of very successful resuscitation of that particular type in your life. Your reputation speaks volumes.”

    “Don’t believe everything you hear, Vee. Malice luxuriates in some people.” 

    “Well, it’s always good to know both sides of the story.”

    “
Speaking of which, what if I had a live-in paranoid, crazy girlfriend, and you would’ve walked in on her?”

    “Do you have
a… crazy girlfriend?”

    “Not momentarily, but I’m working on it.” He stole a glimpse at his wristwatch. “By the end of this hour
, I’ll close the deal,” he said, self-assured.

    Vivien rolled her eyes at him.
  

   
“So, you’re interested in piano lessons…Or are you?” she asked matter-of-factly.

   
“I’m interested in you,” he admitted openly. “The moment I saw you, I was going to offer you my friendship and my…”

   
Vivien scoffed.

   
“Your friendship? You were going to rape me the moment you saw me!” she pointed out infuriated by his confident grin.”So you can take that sort of friendship and…” She stopped and took a deep breath.

   
“…and shove it up my ass,” he continued her thought laughing contagiously. “Correct?”

   
She chose not to answer.
Easy girl, don’t let him make a fool of yourself!

    “Qui ta
cet consentire videtur,” he pronounced slowly, in Latin.

    She bit her lower lip to contain the laughter t
hat suddenly effervesced inside her chest.

   
“Yes, Tee. You’re perfectly right. Silence gives consent,” she managed to voice the English interpretation of that Latin phrase.

   
“Well, in your particular case, the truth is that a man will most likely lie if he tells you that… he wants to be only a friend to you. Unless, of course, he is one hundred percent homosexual, a eunuch, or he is over eighty years old. You might even want to question the over-eighty-years-old category.”   

    “Which makes you a liar!” Vivien concluded fast.

    “Not quite
.
Nulla regula sine exceptione
. There is no rule without exception.”

    “And you’re the exception?” Vivien asked incredulously. “You want me to believe that you intend to be only a good friend
to me?”

    “I never said that.
I never said ONLY.”

    “There we go again!”

    “Look, Vee, if friendship won’t do it, then what about love?”

   
“What about it?” She held his stare for what seemed an eternal moment, then she returned to her task. He looked at her trembling hands as they struggled with the floral arrangement.

   
“Do you still hate me because I refused to marry you when you were eight years old? Are you still in love with me, Vee?” he asked presumptuously, glancing at her gold ankle bracelet.  

   
“Don’t flatter yourself,” she snapped, still angry with him.

   
“Do you?” he insisted.

   
“No,” she lied and hopped he would not notice.

   
“Too bad, because
I
am
in love with you,” he revealed very seriously.

   
“Then I pity you,” she replied, trying to keep her composure, though her knees were brusquely threatening to give up on her.    

   
“I don’t need your pity, Vee. Love is not a disease. They would’ve made a pill that cured it by now if it were.”  

   
“And would you take it?” she asked with her heart in her throat.

   
“The pill that cured my love for you?”

   
“Yes.”

   
“Not in a million years!” he declared categorically.

   
Her heart rejoiced.

    “
Love is a beautiful thing, Vee,” he went on. “It is God’s special gift. It would be such a pity to ‘cure’ a felling like this. Even when it hurts, it hurts… good. Love is the right kind of pain, Vee.”

   
Watch out! He’s playing games with you
, her mind warned her.

   
“In our particular situation, you’re confusing love with lust,” Vivien retorted, making efforts to act coldly.

   
“I can’t lie to you, Vee. You’re too damn sexy and desirable for a platonic relationship. Yes, it’s love and lust. The perfect combination of both.”

    “Hol
y crickets, Tee!” she broke into a short, childish giggle. “You know me as the grown-up Vee, for how long? A little more than a couple of hours? As a piano player, you’ve listened to my interpretations for the last month… maybe. You’re very charming when you don’t want to rape me, but profoundly confused for a guy of your age and intelligence. Practically, you don’t know what you want from me. In only ten minutes, you’ve already mentioned piano lessons, friendship, love, and lust. You can’t even make up your mind.”     

   
“Well, you’re definitely wrong here. If you would allow me to make up my mind, I would know the color of your underwear in an instant.”

   
“What makes you think I wear any?” she asked boldly. A second later, she regretted the playful touch of her answer.

   
“You’re playing games with me, Vee,” he growled. “Dangerous games… And I love it! I have an idea,” he said excited. “Let’s play this game: you close your eyes for one minute and imagine you’re making love to me, and I’ll watch your face. Then we switch, I’ll think of making love to you – although I’m already doing it – and you’ll watch my face.”

    “You’
re wicked, and your game is scandalous,” Vivien exclaimed, acting outraged. But, secretly, she was playing the game nonetheless.

    “Come o
n, Vee! Give it a try! It’s only make-believe…” 

   
“Let’s get back to business, the reason you are allowed in my house actually,” she said abruptly, in an icy tone of voice, determined to discourage any new attempt on his part to build intimacy or engage in flirting with her.

   
She started to look through a score. Timothy interrupted her.

   
“I would rather like us to talk today,” he announced calmly.

   
Vivien erupted nervously.

   
“Look, Tee! I don’t intend to serve you my past on a platter. I let you in, but you shouldn’t stretch your luck.”

    “Vivien…Vee…”

    He called her name tenderly and with so much passion, as no other person had ever done it before. It sounded like a symphony of love to her ears, and it was impossible for her to stay mad with a man who was able to utter her name that way. She remained silent.

   
“Vee… You and I have been good friends once, long ago,” he continued. “Let’s bury the hatchet, my dear girl! We are two grown-ups now, two intelligent people who have not seen each other in fifteen years. Don’t you have anything to tell me? I know that you didn’t shake your childhood habits, or at least not the most dangerous ones anyway! I know now that you’re so damn beautiful that I’m going to have white nights until I’ll have you. And you’re going to be mine, I promise you that! I know that you’re not a good liar, even when you struggle to play cool. But that makes you even more attractive, if you ask me. And I know that every night before bedtime you play the piano. I will be in the garden, by your window, tonight. Choose something joyful, Vee! There is too much sadness in this world anyway.”  

  
The tranquility in his voice, or maybe the warmth in his brown eyes, or the relaxed manner in which he lay on her white sofa among the multitude of unnecessary pillows, she did not know exactly what, but something soothed every cell of her body as if by magic. She came closer to him and sat on the same sofa, a few pillows further. They told one another about their lives’ most important events, emphasizing the last years, and when the old clock in the hallway beat five times, they both got up. There was regret in their souls, but none of them mentioned the regretfully rapid flow of that amazing hour.  

    
He left with a short:
À demain!
She wasn’t even able to answer his French salute. So suffocated she was with emotion. She wanted to run after him and shout:
Stay, please stay! Don’t leave, don’t you ever leave me! There is so much peace around you, no demons, no fear, no panic…”

     Timothy kept his
promise and came to her window that evening. Vivien felt his benefic presence. She didn’t open the door. She was terrified that she would not resist the temptation, and she would throw herself into his arms, begging him to make love to her. She chose Mozart and started with Symphony no 40. She played transfixed, with Tee’s face in her soul, imagining that her fingertips touched him gingerly with every musical note.

CHAPTER 10

      
 
I
cannot comprehend what this client is preparing for,
Timothy thought, examining the miniature-scale replica of his last masterpiece – a huge mansion in the Monterey Peninsula, erected magnificently right on the border of the ocean. They were asking for changes to the project again, alterations involving, as always, secret entrances and exits, and hidden rooms. The real reason of all these perpetual modifications eluded him. It was the fifth or sixth time already, and their repeated request had become annoying.      

   
Architect Timothy Leigh had never met this client. He had no idea how she looked like, or if indeed it were a woman. Her lawyer and accountant were the only contact persons. He presumed she was a Hollywood actress fed up with publicity who wished to escape into the picturesqueness of Pebble Beach without being chased by the paparazzi.  

   
Standing up, Timothy stretched his muscles as his mind slipped again into the charming territories of his newly found love. Following a flash of inspiration, he pressed the interphone button, and very politely, he called his secretary. 

   
“Miss LaFontain, I need your help, please.”

   
The woman materialized immediately into his office.