They're Playing Our Song

Our Song

"Oh, that was lovely," Celie sighed, easing back into her chair like she'd been in raptures of their playing, slow clapping. "Leo, isn't she amazing?"

"She is," he said, his eyes still on her. Nora's stomach gave ten thousand flips and her face burned ten thousand times hotter with that one look he gave her. She felt like she needed to make the sign of the cross to cleanse her soul from that look. He wanted her, and he was making sure that she knew it.

"Nora. I think you should play the kundiman with the orchestra," Celie announced, and Nora jerked away from Leo's gaze. "That's it! The thing that will bring you right back where you left off. I mean your fingering has issues, and you're going to need to teach Leo how to massage those sore muscles, but you can do it. You can prove to everyone that you've got this."

"Excuse me?" Nora asked, her hand on the nape of her neck, tilted to the side as she gaped at her mentor. Celie leapt up from her place on the seat and moved to a very specific shelf of the music room, pulled out a piece of sheet music, and placed it on the piano for both Nora and Leo to see.

Minamahal Kita, a kundiman, transcribed for a piano concerto by C. Lacuesta.

"Celie," Nora gasped, slowly opening the book. It was a fully transcribed concerto of the song that nearly destroyed her. As she read the piece for the first time, Nora could almost see it, could picture Celie standing on a stage in front of an audience, raising a middle finger to them all by performing this. "You transcribed it."

"It was my catharsis," Celie explained with a fond smile at the music. Nora realized that she was smiling, not because of what the piece used to represent, but for what it meant to her now. "My therapist highly recommended it, and I needed to stretch my musical muscles anyway. Now mahal, you know I'm petty, but I'm not quire petty enough to perform this for an audience myself...But you can. Take the world by storm with this piece. I know you can do it."

"I can't."

"Why not?" Both Celie and Leo asked at the same time.

"They want you, Celie! They don't want a student that's been lurking in the shadows for years," Nora reasoned. "It doesn't work that way. I won't sacrifice the orchestra just so I can feed my ego, or prove something to people who don't care. You and I remember what happened the last time I performed for an audience."

"Does that still bother you?"

"No. But I'm not your replacement, Celie. If you don't want to do this, just tell me."

Celie looked taken aback, like she had no idea Nora's tongue got that sharp. And Nora knew it was a little harsh, but it was the truth. She wasn't Celie, she was never going to be Celie, and she was fine with that. And yes, she understood completely that Celie didn't want to do this, clearly. But it didn't have to be Nora. So there wasn't really anything else she could do but turn to the door, put her slippers back on and take the stairs up to the guest house.

Her neck was sore, her arms were tired, and it didn't matter that she was huffing and out of breath by the time she collapsed into the bed with a thud. She covered her face with a pillow and tried to push away nightmares of Mozart laughing at her.

***

Leo felt the loss of Nora in the room keenly.

Yes, he was just going to roll with his feelings, because they had been smacking him left and right with their intensity, and he was done trying to fight it. Playing with Nora was...amazing. She played with utter tenacity and sheer effort, like she was staring down a formidable dragon every time she played. And when they played together, he realized he missed the violin. He missed playing with someone else.