"Maia!"
Maia immediately looked up from cleaning the strings of the instrument.
"Please, a word."
"Gustavo!", Maia smiled widely, "Oh absolutely, of course."
She put her instrument on the bass chair next to her and the little towel away.
"Maia, I have to say, I've been absolutely enlightened by your participation for those last weeks."
The conductor stopped next to her and beamed at her with a bright face.
"I hope you enjoyed being with the LA Philharmonic?"
"I absolutely did!", Maia answered immediately, "I absolutely did, it was amazing. And thank you for making me your scholar in residence, even if it was only that short time."
Maia reached out to shake Gustavos hand.
"Thank you so so much.", she said emphatically and with a happy expression.
"You're very welcome.", Gustavo answered, his strong spanish accent clearly audible, "Your CV looks flawless and I was ready for this experiment, seeing how you'd do."
"Two weeks is by far not long enough but trust me when I say that I take a lot from here with me, for my studies and for orchestras I'll play in."
Since it was only three days left until the orchestra would have its dress rehearsal for the upcoming concerts, they already were rehearsing on the stage of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the home of LA Philharmonic.
Maia had gotten the incredible chance of attending rehearsals with the orchestra for the last two weeks. A chance she probably wouldn't have been able to get that easily if Timmy wouldn't have done some phone calls with friends of him in the music production industry.
For Maia it was a perfect opportunity to firstly not getting out of playing practice for the few weeks she'd stay in Los Angeles and secondly for making contacts for herself too.
At first she had felt very bad for using contacts only to be able to getting chances like that. She had insisted on being treated like everyone would treat her in classical music industry and not attending application concert and later the rehearsals as "the girl that Timothée Chalamet got here".
"To be honest, I had huge doubts on convincing you to have me for that time.", Maia laughed as she packed her bow and put her three wiping cloths into her tote bag.
Together with Gustavo she walked off the main stage, stopping next to the steps leading down to the seated area of the audience.
"Thank you again.", Maia said with a big smile, "And thank you a lot for giving me access to an instrument from here. It was an honour to play with everyone here, to work with you."
In the corner of her eye, Maia saw how one of the huge double doors to the audience opened and spotted the familiar figure of Brian walking in, followed by Timothée.
She got a little nervous as she quickly smiled in their direction. Gustavo turned around and did a little wave.
"Feel free to come up to us.", he said excitedly.
Timothée came a bit closer to them the moment Gustavo shook Maias hand again as a Goodbye.
"It was a pleasure to meet you.", he said, "I hope we'll maybe see you again?"
Maia made a surprised face and frowned slightly.
"May I ask how you mean that?", she carefully dared to say.
"Well, having you among us would be something I could consider for the near future.", the conductor elaborated, "You are very welcome as a scholar in residence first but as a constant member of this orchestra a little later maybe."
Maia blinked a few times and was overall speechless for a second.
"You think that'd be possible?", Timmy, who had come up the five steps to stage and now stood next to her, asked in that moment.
"Oh absolutely absolutely.", Gustavo said excitedly, "She's young, she's incredibly talented, she's a team player. I can't wait to see what your future career path holds for you!"
"That's amazing!", Timothée smiled at Maia and drew her into a tight embrace, "You definitely need to do that!"
"I'm...", Maia gave an overwhelmed giggle as Timmy freed her out of his hug again, "Thank you...!"
Her facial expression changed.
Gustavo gave a friendly nod.
"Take all the time you need to think about it.", he crossed his hands behind his back, "Just know that I'd be more than happy to maybe see your name reappear on applications here again one day."
Maia didn't really gain back her ability to speak and was giving the man a warm smile before he vanished behind the stage. Maia and Timothée walked down the steps.
"I can't believe it, you maybe have a future job at LA Phil!", Timmy was excited like a little boy, squeezing Maias hand on the way out of the concert hall, "Can you believe it?"
"No.", Maia breathed a quick smile that softly vanished just a half of a second later, "Not at all...", she added, absent.
"Double bassist in the London Symphony Orchestra."
"You need to tell your professor!", Timmy drew down his cheeks with two fingers, "So that he can prepare you perfectly for this application process."
"It's my biggest dream to play there, in this orchestra."
"Yeah, I... guess that's a good idea.", Maia answered with one nod.
"Since I'm a little child."
"Did they tell you when you possibly could start as scholar again? We need to get your instrument over here too then.", Timmy laughed.
"This is what I'm working for every day."
"This is really happening, you'll soon have a job here...! Here, in America, as a musician!", he started squeezing her hand again, "Ugh, I can't describe how happy I am, especially for you!"
"I would do everything to be able to play among them."
"You'll be here with me, every day...", Timmy stopped next to the car and Brian opened the door for them.
He turned to Maia and took her face in both hands, looking down at her. His curls, now hidden under a basecap in a desperate attempt to tame them against the wind, still framed his eyes and his cheekbones as he leaned down just a little to intensify the eye contact.
"I won't even find the words to describe how much I wish to have those mornings we had the last three weeks for the rest of my life.", he said softly, "You know that, right...?"
Maia blinked, then gave him a smile.
"I know.", she whispered and tiptoed to give him a kiss on his cheek.