“You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll be fine.” I’ll try to pick up the pieces and carry on, she thought sarcastically. Heck, it’d be nice having a few days away from Heather. It’d be like a vacation.
“Maybe you and this hot professor of yours can hook up.”
“No!” As soon as the word was out of her mouth, she knew she’d said it too loud. The entire bus had heard. Their eyes turned toward her in curiosity. Chloe’s cheeks reddened and she took a calming breath. “I mean he’s a professor for one thing. And for another, I’m just not interested.”
“Well who are you interested in?” Heather inquired not seeming to care that a few passengers were now eavesdropping in their conversation.
Chloe wanted this conversation to end. “I haven’t found that right guy yet. Once I do find him, I’ll be sure to let you know right away.”
“Alright. But in the meantime, maybe I could set you up on some blind dates?”
Chloe rapidly shook her head and was grateful when the bus slowed to a stop near the class buildings. All conversation was halted as they and the rest of the students exited the bus.
The bus stop was near the Music Hall, the location of Heather’s composition class. Chloe waited for Heather to get off the bus then followed her inside.
As they walked through the lobby, Chloe started to get nervous and began contemplating what she thought she was doing. This was silly. Why should she even care anymore? It was only going to upset her.
The farther they got away from the exit the more anxious she became. She knew if she didn’t go through with this, it would only eat at her later. She needed to see him. She needed to do this for her heart and the love it still quietly held for him. After this she’d be done.
Tonight she’d treat herself to a nice cheesy break-up pizza. It was the actual name for a specialty pizza at the local pizzeria. As the name implied, it was a large all meat pizza shaped like a broken heart.
She smiled. Since Heather was going to confess today, Chloe might actually have the apartment to herself this evening where she could enjoy her pizza and probably shed a few tears alone.
It was five minutes till nine and the hallway had started to get a bit crowded. Sleepy eyed students were heading to class or sitting on the floor outside classroom doors waiting for their professors – some of them dozing.
At the end of the hall a few steps lead her and Heather up to a half level. From there they turned a corner and Heather stopped at room 210.
The door was open and less than a dozen students already inside.
“Well enjoy your stalking.” Heather said with a laugh and went inside before Chloe could say anything in her defense.
“Excuse me.” A male voice said causing her to jump and step away from the door.
“Sorry.” Slightly embarrassed, she quickly turned away from the door allowing the person to enter. A peculiar feeling washed over her. And it hit her like a blow to the stomach. She knew that voice.
Moving back to the now closed door, she stealthily peered through the square glass door pane, her eyes going right to the front of the class. There he stood, his back to her as he wrote his name and course description on the whiteboard.
Chloe leaned closer to the door pane willing him to turn around. It had been two years since last they’d seen each other and she wasn’t sure she could wait five more seconds.
Rhys finally turned and Chloe’s heart stopped. This was the man she’d never stopped loving. It was as if time hadn’t happened. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting but just the sight of him made her breath catch in her throat.
There were some differences in his appearance. His light auburn hair which he used to wear long and shaggy was now cropped short. His sideburns were the same stopping at the bottom of his ears. His face remained unchanged. He was still drop dead gorgeous. If she continued to stare, she feared she’d be the one dropping dead.
She vaguely listened as he spoke to the class. Her attention was drawn elsewhere. He was dressed casually. A white button up dress shirt untucked with the sleeves rolled back, and a pair of jeans that fit him so well she thought her mouth would water.
He’d always been tall, standing at about 6’2”. But she noticed that his once skinny frame was now lean. His muscles rippled beneath his shirt as he stretched to hand out the class syllabus.
The closer he got to the back of the class the more she began to notice the little things. He must have forgotten to shave. A definite shadow of hair darkened his upper lip and chin.
And those grey eyes. The eyes that she’d drowned in over and again were the color of a sky after a storm. A clear grey sky devoid of clouds. They scanned the class from their place above his straight and slightly pointed nose.
Her heart had started beating again and was now dangerously close to pounding a hole through her chest. Seeing him again made the past return to her. The memories of them together came flooding back in rapid waves. Her brain was trying to relive an entire year in the span of thirty seconds.
He handed the syllabus to the last student and his eyes darted to the door. Grey eyes locked onto green and Chloe felt the floor jolt beneath her feet. Chloe quickly ducked away from the door. With her heart in her in throat, she dashed down the hall and out the back door.
For the rest of the day while she sat in class trying to concentrate but failing miserably, her mind wouldn’t stop screaming the same thing over and over again. He’d seen her. Rhys had seen her.
****
Chloe unlocked the front door, sighing heavily as she entered the apartment. It had been a long day. Probably one of the longest she’d ever experienced.
She wiggled out of her book bag and let the heavy bag fall to the floor. It had been difficult lugging around all her text books today. This should teach her not to procrastinate. But at least it was over.
Dragging the over packed bag to her room, Chloe closed her door and fell face down onto her bed. She let her face sink down into her pillow before she let out the scream she’d been holding in all day. She should never have gone to spy on him. She’d convinced herself that she’d be able to get over him once she’d seen him. What a lie! Seeing him had only made things worse.
Instead of closure, she’d felt her heart break all over again. Seeing him had only dug up the past and left her once again wanting to understand why. Why had he left her?
She groaned and flipped over onto her back. Why couldn’t she get over him? Maybe she should have dated someone else? She’d been asked out plenty of times. Had she accepted any of them then she’d probably be happily involved by now rather than pining away for a man who hadn’t wanted her.
Her heart didn’t want to admit it, but it was past time she got on with her life. Maybe she’d ask Heather to set her up with someone. Or she could go to Stevie’s the new club and flirt a little. The idea made her giggle. She’d never been much of a flirt and the idea of her wearing some skimpy outfit while batting her lashes was embarrassingly comical.
It was time to move on. Rhys doesn’t want you! He never did and he never will! To hell with him, she’d make him regret it. Should ever they accidently run into each other, she’d make sure to be happy and in the arms of another man. Someone better. Someone who actually loved her. And should Rhys ever want her back, she’d tell him “no.” Let it be his turn to suffer for a change because Chloe had suffered enough.
Sitting up, she forced Rhys out of her head. She’d thought about him long enough. Chloe got off the bed and unpacked her text books putting them neatly in her bookcase before she gathered up her bed linens and headed into the laundry room. If she stayed busy, her mind would be too occupied to think.
She started a load of laundry then did the few dishes in the sink. Once that was completed, she vacuumed, dusted, and straightened her bedroom. The washer kicked off so she put the wet clothes in the dryer and started another load.
Chloe had just sat down to check her e-mail when the front door opened and Heath
er hurried into her bedroom.
“Why didn’t you tell me he was so good looking?” Heather asked and flopped down on Chloe’s mattress. “I could hardly focus, he’s so sexy.”
This so wasn’t what Chloe wanted to talk about now. “I thought I told you so this morning.”
“I figured maybe you were being nice. You never call anyone ugly. To you everyone is nice looking or attractive. Anyway, you should have seen how all the girls were drooling over him.”
“You included?”
Heather laughed. “Hell yeah me included. He’s total eye candy.”
“I’m sure it was a big ego boost for him.” He probably enjoyed their attention. What man wouldn’t?
Heather shrugged. “I’m not sure he even noticed. He was too busy teaching. That man may be super sexy, but he’s one of those obsessed with his subject kind of professors. Did you know he’s already given us a five page placement test due on Wednesday?”
“What’s wrong with that? It’s just a placement test. Those things don’t usually mean anything.”
“Not this time, he said that if we miss more than five he’s kicking us out. He said this wasn’t music theory 101 and that if we wanted to stay in his class we needed to know how to read music.”
Chloe frowned. She didn’t understand why Heather was getting so upset. “Wait, you did take musical theory last year didn’t you?”
Heather shook her head. “I was going to but I couldn’t fit it into my schedule. I was going to take it next semester.”
“Heather, you can’t take musical composition and know nothing about music.”
“But I have to! Jett was so excited that I was taking it. I can’t back out now.”
Chloe fidgeted in her chair, not liking where this was going. “But if you fail the placement test, you’ll be kicked out anyway.”
“I don’t plan on failing.” Heather said crossing her arms over her chest. “I’ll just Google all my answers. Plus my singing instructor is coming by in a while. I can just ask her.”
“You’re doing all this because of Jett?” Chloe asked feeling sorry for her friend. She knew what it was like to want someone’s approval. “How did lunch go? Did you two talk today?”
Heather frowned. “He canceled. He said he had to run back to his apartment during lunch. Apparently he forgot a text book or something. Oh Chloe, I’m afraid if I can’t take this class Jett will blow me off all together. He promised to help tutor me. But that won’t happen if I can’t pass the placement test.”
Chloe sighed. It was beginning to look like Jett might not be that into Heather. Heather was crazy about him. And it didn’t seem right giving her false hope. Then again, who was Chloe to judge? Would it be so bad for Heather to keep trying?
Chloe wanted at least one of them to get the guy, and since it would never be her, why not Heather? “Bring me your placement test. I’ll look over it while you’re having your singing lesson.”
Heather narrowed her eyes. “You don’t know anything about music.”
“Don’t I? Then I guess all those years of piano lessons never paid off.”
Heather leaned forward. “I didn’t know you could play the piano.”
“I took lessons for five years when I was in elementary, so I’m pretty sure I can help you with your placement test.”
“Say something musically?”
Chloe laughed. “Like what? Uh… treble clef, bass clef, stanza, sharp, flat, middle C.”
Heather jumped off the bed exclaiming “Oh my God,” before running out of the room. She returned a second later and shoved the placement test at Chloe. “You’re a life savior.”
Chloe took the test and smiled at Heather. “I know. But I’m not just going to fill this out for you. I want you sitting next to me, so that you can learn okay?”
Heather nodded.
“Can we do it after my lesson? She’s going to be here soon.”
“Sure. I have some more laundry to do and some sonnets to read anyway.”
Heather got up and walked to the door. “Thanks for wanting to help me.”
Chloe smiled. “It’s no problem.”
Later, while Chloe was deep into her Shakespearean sonnets trying to analyze what each one literally and figuratively meant, she heard the washer kick off. Yawning, Chloe stood up and stretched. Somewhere between the sonnets to a handsome young man and those to his dark lady, Chloe’s foot had fallen asleep.
As she walked to the laundry room, her foot tingling slightly, she did a few foot flexes her ballerina mother had taught her. If there was one thing her mother was good at, it was ballet. Too bad she couldn’t use some of that gusto toward parenthood. A skilled dancer she was, but when it came to motherhood Sophie had failed miserably. She’d had to learn the hard way that her mother didn’t love her, and Chloe could honestly say the feeling was mutual.
When Chloe had left home, she’d done so gladly and without a word. She’d have contemplated if her mother ever thought about her or wondered where she’d gone, but that would just be a waste of brain power. Sophie Arment cared only for Sophie Arment. She was the most selfish person Chloe knew.
Sophie loved to be in the spotlight even if that meant turning her daughter into her own performing marionette with Chloe’s strings wrapped tightly around Sophie’s wicked fingers.
The stage had meant more to her than her own daughter. And Chloe had been left with no other option than to escape. She just wished it hadn’t taken her so long to do so.
After moving her bed linens to the dryer, Chloe went to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water. She could hear Heather in her bedroom practicing her scales, her voice soft and unsure. Chloe leaned against the bar, sipping her water, and listening to Heather’s lesson.
“How is la la la going to help me sing? Shouldn’t I be practicing an actual song or something?” Heather whined. Chloe could hear the frustration and disappointment in her voice.
Oh Heather, Chloe thought, you have no clue. Heather wasn’t a patient person and always expected instant results. Too bad life didn’t work that way.
“What song do you want to practice?” The instructor inquired sounding equally frustrated.
“How about some Beyoncé?”
Chloe choked on her water and broke out into a coughing fit. This lesson was turning into a nightmare. Surely her instructor wasn’t going to put up with this?
“Why don’t we try something more easier?” The instructor purred. “Here, let’s try this song.”
“You’re joking right? You really expect me to sing ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’?”
The instructor ignored her. “One time with me and make sure you read the notes this time.”
Before returning to her room, Chloe listened for a few more minutes as the two of them practiced the children’s song. Heather’s voice sounding deep and full of humiliation.
And as Chloe delved back inside her book of sonnets, little black sheep dancing around merrily in her mind, the song poured out of her mouth. She’d made it past the first verse before she realized what she was doing and quickly clamped her mouth shut.
She threw her book against her closet door as anger erupted within her. What the hell are you doing? Chloe’s brain screamed. You promised to never sing again. And damn it that was one promise she’d intended to keep.
Chapter Five
It was early morning and Rhys was sitting in the coffee shop downtown across the street from campus sipping an espresso and grading homework before his morning lesson. Fall session had just begun, and judging by the homework, Rhys figured – or rather hoped – that a handful of students would be dropping his class.
The student whose homework he was grading didn’t appear to know the difference between bass and treble clef nor could he locate or accurately mark the notes in either clef.
Rhys frowned. This was about the fifth placement test he’d graded where the student had known little to nothing about music. He was beginning to wonder if students had signe
d up for his class because they either thought it would be easy or they figured composing music seemed like a cool thing.
Maybe they thought they could become the next big pop star or something, even though they themselves knew nothing about musical notes.
Just looking at all the wrong or the many “I don’t know” answers that had been scribbled down made him want to growl in frustration. He almost did when he read what this student had written under the question “What do you hope to gain from this course?”
In response the student had written, “I want to be the next P Diddy.”
Rhys rolled his eyes. Was this student joking? He stared at the paper and angrily bit down on his pen cap, which was a bad habit of his. Pulling the pen out of the cap that was still in his mouth, he wrote in large red letters, “Perhaps you should try musical theory.” He wanted to add “you moron,” but thought better of it and instead added about four exclamation points. That’s all he needed, a class full of aspiring pop artists.
The next one was even worse and nearly made him spit out his cap. It was from a female student who under the question of “what do you hope to gain” she put “You’re phone number,” and had even listed her cell number at the bottom.
On hers he wrote, “You should try Daryl Jones, you two seem to have a lot more in common.” Daryl was the name of the student who wanted to be just like P Diddy. Underneath Rhys suggested she also try musical theory.
He was beginning to wonder why he had agreed to help Bill and taken this teaching position in the first place when the door to the coffee shop opened and a pretty girl dressed in a humongous sweater caught his eye.
She was a little on the small side with long black hair that she’d tied up into pigtails, skin the color of unblemished ivory, and the deepest green eyes he’d only seen once before and would never forget.
Chloe.
So Josie had been telling the truth after all. Not that he’d ever doubted her, though it still came as quite a shock. Given what he’d once thought, he figured Chloe would still be in the spotlight reveling in her success. Instead, here she was in the small town where he’d grown up, a student at his Alma Mater. Chloe really was here. And more beautiful than ever.
Sing for Me Page 5