Strings Of Time

XII

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After a long day of rehearsal with the orchestra, Mr. Mathews and Elise went back to the mansion that night. She was to help him with some slight revisions to a piece. Everything should be perfect, for tomorrow's festival.

The studio was dimmed and only a desk lamp was illuminating the ginormous place. Elise was trying to play several notes while Mr. Mathews was attentively listening to every chords that she was playing, he was checking if he could still add more depth to the music. However, he noticed that Elise kept peering at the door.

Mr. Mathews looked at Elise with curiosity, "Are you expecting somebody?" The young lady couldn't look at her boss and just continued with the piece that she was playing. But then again, the young lady couldn't stop herself from looking at the door even if she was playing the piano. She looked a little bit gloomy at this point. Mr. Mathews cleared his throat and pursed his lips, "My dear, I suggest that you keep your head in the game."

Suddenly, they both heard a crackle on the door. Henry narrowed his eyes as he waits for that person to come in but no one was opening the door. For the second time, they heard another crackle.

Elise looked curious yet excited at the same time, "It must be Alex? She might be having some trouble with opening the door."

"My daughter doesn't know how to crackle nor knock on the door. She would just enter right in without a breaking a sweat." Henry immediately went straight to the door and opened it and they saw Mikey sitting outside the dimmed hall with his tongue sticking out. The dog went straight to the couch and lazily laid his bulging body.

Elise chuckled when she walked towards the couch and patted the dog, "Couldn't sleep, Mikey? Just like your master, huh? I bet you couldn't sleep because of the noise... You want me to keep it down for a bit?" Elise looked at the dog with longing. "How's your master? Is she doing okay? I haven't seen her for days..."

Henry sighed at the sight of that scene. He knew he was doing the right thing before anything else grew to be something else. He simply can't allow it.

"Elise, come. We must finish this so you could go home."

The young lady kissed and smiled at the dog before going back to work.

Later on, after all the revisions, Mr. Mathews called it a night and he thanked Elise for her hard work and dedication. "You're welcome, Mr. Mathews." Answered Elise as she shook her boss's hand. "I'm sure the festival will be a success."

"And it's all because of you." Henry said with a smile.

They both nodded and waved goodbye to each other. Elise was almost at the gates when she noticed that her mobile phone was not in her bag. She irritably sighed as searches her bag to make sure that it was not there. She then remembered that she placed her phone on her desk and never took noticed of it for hours. She went back to the mansion and good thing that the Russian housekeeper was still awake and was about to lock the doors. The housekeeper opened the door for Elise with a sly grin. The young lady wondered why the housekeeper was smiling like that, she never took off her sight at the old woman until she entered the studio where she saw the young master holding her mobile phone.

"Alex..."

The young master turned her head at Elise's direction, "Is this yours?"

"Yeah..." Elise walked towards Alex with wide eyes and a smile on her face. The young master handed Elise her phone back and was about to walk away. "Wait." Elise grabbed Alex by the hem of her sweater, "What were you doing here? Were you looking for your dad?"

The young master turned to Elise and moved a little bit closer to her, "No..." she whispered.

Elise felt a gush of blood going up to her face, she knew she was blushing as her heart starts to beat really fast. She bit her lip as she blinks her eyes to the sight of her young master's electric blue eyes. If only Alex could see her, she would have known how the young lady longed for her. Elise doesn't even know why. "Then, what are you doing here?" she asked the young master.

The tip of their noses were almost touching and they could feel each breath they took. Alex couldn't see the young lady but she wished she could. She knew she was not allowed to see or even talk this girl in front of her. She doesn't even know why she has to. In the past few days she stayed away from her, she would dream about Elise without seeing her face, she would always see a red string that's attached to Elise's pinky finger, same with her. She would sometimes wake up longing for her, as if it was heart breaking not being with her. She couldn't understand her feelings, however, she kept hearing her father's voice telling her to stay away from the young lady.

Alex went back to her senses when she felt Elise's warm hands cupped her cheeks. The young master was tempted to place her palm on top of the young lady's hand but she refrained herself and turned her head as if to look away making Elise's hands be weeded off, "I was just... searching for Mikey..."

Elise looked down and forced herself to smile, "Oh... I see..." she sighed and tried to hold down a tear. She doesn't know why she was feeling like that but she couldn't help it. The only thing she knew was she missed the young master. She missed her company and their late night talks. She doesn't even know why all of a sudden she stopped seeing her. The young lady started to walk away with her head down. Before she left the young master, she turned around and said, "I hope you could come to the festival tomorrow night. I know your father said you didn't liked going to these kinds of events but I hope you do. There's a song that I wrote for you." She smiled at Alex and went on her way.

In that moment, something suddenly changed. It was like heaven and earth were coming together. All the colors of the universe, all that is written, all that is made was coming alive.

Alex Mathews eyes was suddenly seeing vague colors.