Symphony in Blue

by M. J. Duncan

  Gwen could not keep from laughing as she played EQUINOX as her first word, with the Q on a double letter score square. “Double letter on the Q makes that one worth thirty-three,” she announced as she placed the X on the board, “and with the double word score, that gives me sixty-six. Your turn.”

  “Jesus fuck,” Dana muttered as Gwen victoriously reached for the bag of letters to refill her tray. Her phone chimed with what had to be a text notification, and she looked almost grateful as she pulled it from her pocket to check the screen. She huffed a soft laugh at whatever she saw, quickly typed back a quick reply, and rolled her eyes as she laid the phone face-down on the table. “Regan says hello,” she shared as she began rearranging her tiles on her tray, no doubt trying to find a word to play using the U that could get her to one of the double word squares above or below it.

  “I’m guessing I don’t want to know what she really said,” Gwen guessed.

  “Yeah, I’m not going to repeat what she actually said,” Dana agreed with a small grin.

  “Does she hate me?”

  Dana shook her head. “Well, I mean, she did at first—I told you I went over to her place after the gala last weekend and, I mean, I was kind of a mess and she pretty much wanted to kick your ass—but she’s okay now.” She lifted her right shoulder in a small shrug. “I told her what we’d talked about, and I hope that’s okay and that I wasn’t out of line with that, but she’s my sounding board, you know, and I just needed to vent and—”

  “It’s fine,” Gwen interrupted with a small laugh. Dana was utterly adorable when she rambled like that. “Really. Luke knows everything too, so you’re not the only one sharing state secrets or anything.”

  “Oh. Okay. Cool,” Dana murmured. “But yeah, like I was saying, she doesn’t hate you.”

  “Okay.”

  “She was actually checking in to see how our lunch went,” Dana shared.

  “Oh, I’m sure Luke will be texting me later to check in, too,” Gwen confessed, glad that her phone was in her purse on the table in the foyer so that she wouldn’t have to open a message from him with Dana around.

  “Well, I’m glad it’s not just me, then.” Dana tapped the corner of one letter tile on the table and then smiled as she leaned forward and started laying out her letters. “KUDZUS. Double word. Forty,” Dana said as she reached for the bag to refill her tray. “I’m gaining on ya.”

  Gwen rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Sure you are.” She pursed her lips as she studied her tiles and the board, trying to find the highest score.

  Dana hummed softly as she watched Gwen arrange and rearrange the letters on her tray and, after a moment, asked softly, “What does he think about this?”

  “Luke?” Gwen clarified, looking up at Dana. When Dana nodded, Gwen sighed and said, “I think he’s worried that it won’t work, but he just wants me to be happy and so he’s being, I guess you could say, cautiously hopeful and supportive.”

  “Sounds like Regan.” Dana nodded.

  “We should try and do something as a group sometime,” Gwen said. “The two of them together would be trouble, but it’d be fun.”

  Dana smiled and nodded. “That sounds like fun. We totally should.”

  “We’ll figure something out, then,” Gwen confirmed with a nod. She grinned and added, “But for now, you need to be worried about losing because I’ve got another good one…” She teased as she leaned forward in her chair to play her next word. “MITZVAH. Triple on the M and V gives me another thirty-eight.”

  “You cheat,” Dana grumbled as she glowered at her letter tray.

  Gwen smirked and reached for the letter bag. “You wish.”

  Dana rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Enough chit-chatting. I need to concentrate if I’m going to kick your ass.”

  “Yeah, good luck with that,” Gwen sassed as she pushed her chair back and got to her feet. “I’m going to go get a glass of water. You want one?”

  “Yeah, that sounds good, thanks,” Dana said without looking up from her letters.

  Gwen grinned and gave her shoulder a playful squeeze as she walked past. “No cheating while I’m gone.”

  “Like that’d make a difference,” Dana muttered. “The shitty high-value letters are all out there already and you played pretty much all of them.”

  Gwen laughed as she just picked up what Dana said, and shook her head as she made her way into the house. It had been too long since she’d had fun like this with anyone beside Luke and Jay, and she couldn’t help but marvel at how good it felt to just smile and laugh and be happy for a change.

  TWENTY-ONE

  “So, how was your day off yesterday?” Luke drawled as he dropped into the empty chair to Gwen’s right. They still had ten minutes before their open rehearsal was set to begin, and he seemed more than willing to spend the time chatting instead of warming up more.

  Gwen side-eyed him and smiled as she rested the forearm of her bow hand on the curve of her cello. Rhode had given them the day off from rehearsal, but she had still had her seminar at USC to teach. “I talked to you when I was on my way home from class yesterday afternoon.”

  He grinned and shrugged. “Yeah, well, that was pretty much mostly me complaining about how hard I got my ass kicked at the gym.”

  “Yeah. You were pretty pathetic.” Gwen chuckled. “But it was fine. I did some extra practicing to make up for not getting my usual time in on Tuesday, and I went to a meditation yoga class at the studio after I talked with you. It was actually a rather relaxing, blissfully stress-free day for a change.”

  “Good. You need to de-stress.”

  “Tell me about it,” Gwen agreed.

  “We ready to go?” Rhode asked as he strode toward the rostrum in the center of the stage.

  “It’s show time,” Luke murmured stretching his arms up over his head. “Hey, you wanna grab lunch after this?”

  “I can’t. I’m going out with Mallory, remember?” Gwen said, pretending that she couldn’t hear the note of disappointment in her tone. She had been trying to convince herself all morning that she was looking forward to their lunch date, but had yet to conjure any real enthusiasm for it.

  Luke grimaced as he jumped to his feet. “Have fun with that.”

  Gwen glanced around them to make sure nobody overheard the exchange as she sighed, “Please be nice.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, shaking his head. “I know. I’m sorry.” He looked over his shoulder at the sound of Rhode tapping his baton on his music stand, and sighed as he turned back to Gwen. “Call me later if you need to talk.”

  “I will,” Gwen promised.

  “Mister Benoist, are you going to join us today?” Rhode teased.

  “Yeah, I’m still debating that one,” Luke retorted, shooting Rhode a grin as he scampered back to his seat to the amused laughter of the other musicians.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Mallory apologized as she speed-walked across the stage to take her seat. “Traffic.”

  “Right,” Rhode replied, disbelief plainly evident in his expression and his tone. Any other musician on stage would have had the grace to look properly abashed for their tardiness, but Mallory just lifted her violin to her shoulder and stared impassively at the conductor, waiting for his signal. He blew out a loud breath and shook his head. “It’s Harry Potter day, guys. So, here we go. From the beginning.” He lifted his hands. “And a one, two, one, two, three…”

  Playing the fun, iconic score while watching a bunch of kids run through the bowl in their colored Hogwarts gear was enough to take Gwen’s mind off her impending lunch with Mallory, and by the time the final note swept up the hill from the stage, slowly fading into nothingness, she was feeling much more relaxed and centered. Perhaps not as eager for her lunch date as she should have been, but certainly more prepared to face it.

  She lingered after their final bow to wait for Mallory, but she looked to be deep in conversation with her fellow violinists, so Gwen left the stage alone
to begin packing her things, hoping that whatever it was Mallory and the handful of first violins were talking about wouldn’t take too long because she was starving. She had woken that morning with unwritten music vibrating in her soul, and the melodies and notes had all but flown from the tip of her pencil to the page. It had been invigorating and exciting and entirely all-consuming as she sat, hunched over the coffee table in the living room, playing quick bursts on her keyboard to test their cadence and tone before transcribing the notes onto page after page after page. The idea of stopping to eat breakfast never crossed her mind, and had it not been for the rehearsal alarm on her phone going off, she might very well have worked right through, well, work. Blue had been a puzzle for so long, a piece to fiddle and tweak and second guess and play with, that it had been refreshing to sit down and let music, music she had never before even thought could exist, just flow from her mind to the page.

  “Hey, lady,” Luke greeted her as she pulled her case from the wall and laid it down on the ground beside the chair where he was disassembling his clarinet. “What’s up?”

  “Not much.” Gwen shook her head as she flipped the case open. She sat cross-legged on the floor and laid her cello across her lap to shorten the endpin so it would fit in the case. “That was fun, huh?”

  “Yeah. Did you see the group of kids playing Quidditch in the stands?”

  Gwen shot him a surprised look as she laid her cello in the case. “No. Seriously?”

  He laughed. “Yeah, it was pretty cool.”

  “I can’t believe I missed it.” Gwen secured her bow in the lid of the case and started wiping the rosin dust from the body of the cello and asked, “How’d they do it? It’s not like there’s a lot of room up there for something like that.”

  “Looked like hula hoops or something. I have no idea how they propped them up. Part of me kinda wants to run up there and see if it’s still set up and maybe try and talk them into letting me have a try, though.”

  Gwen laughed at the idea and nodded. “You totally should.”

  “Right?” Luke grinned as he focused on removing the reed he had used from his mouthpiece.

  Gwen stiffened at the feeling of a light touch gliding over the back of her shoulders, and bit her lip as she looked up to see Mallory standing behind her. How Luke had missed seeing her approach was anyone’s guess, and Gwen sorely wished she was not so aware of the feeling of heavy obligation that settled in her chest when Mallory’s fingertips lightly tickled the back of her neck. “Hey, you. You ready for lunch?”

  Mallory hummed and nodded. “Yes. I hope you don’t mind, but I invited Tom and Clara and a few of the other violinists to join us. It’s been so long since I’ve spent any time with them because of this audition, and I thought it’d be fun for us all to go to Far Bar for lunch.”

  “A…group lunch,” Gwen murmured, disappointment pinging hollowly in her gut even as a thrill of relief fluttered in chest. It was bewildering to be both hurt that Mallory didn’t want to be alone with her and simultaneously relieved because the meal would be so much easier with other people around to act as buffers. “Yes, of course.” She looked from Mallory to Luke, who was clearly listening while trying his best to not look like he was. And, yeah, she knew it was petty of her, a cheap kind of retribution for Mallory spoiling their lunch date that she hadn’t really been looking forward to anyway, but she was just so tired of kowtowing to her whims. “Well, if this a group thing, then… Luke”—she waited for him to look up before continuing—“would you like to go to lunch with us?”

  The quiet huff of annoyance from Mallory was nearly as rewarding as Luke’s devilish smirk as he accepted, “Lunch? You know me, I’m always hungry. Sign me up.”

  “Awesome,” Gwen said, unable to contain her grin as she looked from him to Mallory, who was glaring at Luke. “Mal?”

  “Hmm? Yes. Shall I meet you there, then? I really do need to get home to resume rehearsing those audition pieces some more as soon as we’ve finished, so I don’t want to have to drive you back to yours…”

  Gwen nodded, perilously close to being beyond caring about what happened over the next couple hours. “Sure.”

  “Brilliant. I will see you there.” Mallory gave Gwen’s shoulder a light squeeze before she ambled off toward the corner of the backstage area where the small cadre of first violinists Mallory considered friends always stowed their gear.

  “Gwen Harrison, I am so goddamn proud of you right now that I could kiss you!” Luke declared, his eyes twinkling with mirth as soon as Mallory was out of earshot. “Lookit you growing some balls and not just taking her shit. I love it!”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Gwen chuckled as she finished cleaning her cello and closed the lid of the case. Truth be told, she was quite proud of herself as well. Not too long ago, she would have just accepted the change of plans without reaction, too worried about a possible confrontations to stand up for herself. “Would you want to drop your car at my place and ride over with me?”

  “Bet your ass I would.” Luke flipped the latches on his case closed with a loud pop and leapt to his feet. He held out a hand to help her to her feet once she was ready, and pulled her into a light one-armed hug. “Seriously though, and I know I need to stop and I won’t say anything more about it after this, but I really am proud of you for that one.”

  Gwen smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Thanks. I am too, to be honest.” She sighed as she pulled away and hefted her case onto her back. “Of course, I have a feeling she’s going to be in a terrible mood now.”

  “Fuck her,” Luke grumbled. “It’s not all about her. You deserve to be happy, too.”

  “I know,” Gwen agreed in a soft whisper. Her phone ran with an incoming call, and she could not keep from grinning as she pulled it out of her purse, knowing that since Luke and Mallory were here with her, that it was most likely from Dana.

  “Now that’s a happy smile.” Luke gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Tell Dana I said hi. I’ll meet you at your place.”

  Gwen nodded as she turned and lifted her phone to her ear. “Hey, you,” she greeted, her voice soft and warm and, yeah, happy. So very, very happy. “What’s up?”

  “Not much. Just finished my workout and thought I’d just give you a call to say hi.”

  Gwen bit her lip and looked down as she slipped through the stage door, glad that she area was clear enough that nobody could see her. “Hi.”

  Dana laughed. “How’d the open rehearsal go?”

  “Good. Really good. It was one of our theme days—Harry Potter, this time—so the music was really fun and Luke said he saw a bunch of kids playing Quidditch in the stands.”

  “No way. Really? That’s so cool!”

  Gwen hummed in agreement as she walked through the gate to the parking lot. “So what do you have on tap for the rest of the day?”

  “Oh, the usual. Lunch and then a quick coaches meeting before weights and afternoon practice. How about you?”

  “A bunch of us are going out to lunch at Far Bar and then I’ll probably either go home and practice a little more or do something with Luke. Not really sure.”

  “Far Bar? Damn. That sounds so much better than the salad and sandwiches I’ve got up in my office. Wanna trade?”

  Gwen chuckled and slipped her case from her back as she stopped beside her car. She opened the back door and then pinned the phone against her shoulder so she could angle the hard case across the back seat. “You know, I can’t believe you’re in the shape you’re in with how much food you eat.”

  “It’s just one of the perks of being a swimmer,” Dana replied, and it was clear by her tone that she was smiling.

  “And the others?” Gwen stretched the seat belt across the case and snapped it into place.

  “Well, let’s see…we get to see some truly incredible sunrises, we’ve got great tans,” Dana continued as Gwen closed the rear door of her car and then climbed behind the wheel, “and, with that, goes the
incredibly awesome tan lines. Oh! And I definitely can’t forget the eau de chlorine perfume that I don’t even have to buy.”

  “I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen chlorine-scented perfume at the store,” Gwen teased as she tossed her purse onto the passenger seat and started her car, the speakers coming to life with the sound of Dana’s laughter as her phone switched over to bluetooth.

  “That’s because you’re shopping at the wrong stores.”

  “Right,” Gwen chuckled. “I’m sure that’s it.”

  “Absolutely,” Dana replied, her voice warm and tinged with laughter. “Oh, and I was talking with Regan last night and we were thinking of maybe going out Saturday night to play some pool. Would you and Luke want to meet us there and we can all hang out?”

  “I’ll ask Luke when I see him in a minute, but I think that sounds like fun. Is it okay if his fiancé joins us too?”

  “Of course. The more, the merrier.”

  “Okay. Good. But yeah, I’m picking my kitten up Sunday morning, and besides that I don’t really have any plans for the weekend so I’m in.”

  “Sweet. Have you picked out a name yet? You can’t call her ‘Kitten’ forever…”

  “I know,” Gwen sighed as she steered her way through the wraparound on-ramp to the 101 South. “I just really suck at this kind of stuff.”

  “Naming pets?”

  “Anything that’s not music.”

  “That’s not true and you know it. What about Shadow? Or Storm? Or…fuck if I know.”

  “I don’t think Fuck If I Know is a good name for a cat,” Gwen deadpanned.

  Dana blew a loud raspberry. “Fine. See I try and help you out anymore.”

  “I’m sorry,” Gwen chuckled, shaking her head. “Really. Storm is a great name. I like that one.”

  “You do?”

  Gwen made a small sound of agreement. “It’s a perfect name for a gray cat. Storm Harrison.” She nodded to herself as she turned onto the Hollywood Boulevard off-ramp. “Yes. That’ll do quite nicely. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” A warm, easy silence filled the line as Gwen inched down Hollywood Boulevard, and she smiled as she pulled to a stop behind Luke at the light for her street. “Are you almost at the restaurant? Do you need to go?”