Entrapped (Musicians Hope Book 1)

by Claire Ayres

  “Hello, Henry. Thank you for having me,” says Luka as the men shake hands, a firm and friendly handshake.

  Taking a look around the garden Luka takes in the environment the swingset in the corner, the table being used as a bar, the BBQ cooking food next to the trampoline and a shed to the back of the garden like a forgotten treasure. Chamber music plays in the background, he recognises it as Symphony No. 94 by Haydn. Members of the orchestra are scattered around socialising and chattering with one another and Luka spots where the members are situated he is most friendly with

  “What would you like to drink, young man?” Henry asks.

  “Whiskey would be good, please.” Luka chuckles to himself at being called a young man, not feeling like one these days: at 32 he is feeling decidedly middle-aged.

  Henry returns from the makeshift bar a few minutes later with a drink and Luka slopes off to a quiet corner with the intention to hide for a few hours. Big social events like this frustrate and bore him and as much as he knows he needs to socialise and get to know his new colleagues, he would much prefer the ground to open up and swallow him.

  “Luka, you made it. I have someone for you to meet.” Holly, one of the violinists, grabs Luka’s arm and like a force of nature pulls him through the party.

  “You do?” Luka’s concern is sketched across his face, people are often trying to set him up: especially since his last break-up, they seem to feel the need to fix his broken heart. He doesn’t need or want it fixing, especially not with a random hook up.

  “Yes, here she is. Luka, this is Karla. Karla, this is Luka. I’ll leave you two to get to know each other.” Holly winks at Luka as she walks off, leaving him with a grinning Karla, who looks like a cat ready to pounce on a mouse at any second. Luka takes in the woman in front of him. Karla is a brunette, tall, late thirties, and squeezed into her dress so tightly she had best not sneeze for fear of losing her unnaturally large twins. It crosses his mind that she is the complete opposite of the woman who only a few hours ago had him gasping for breath. Now that was a woman he could have tolerated, even enjoyed, a set up with.

  “Hello, Luka. I’ve heard so much about you,” Karla purrs and places a taloned hand on Luka’s chest. Flinching, Luka takes a step back and knocks into the person behind him, spilling both of their drinks.

  “Sorry, mate,” he mutters, moving around in a circular direction to try and put distance between himself and Karla. This directness makes him uncomfortable, and as much as he doesn’t want any kind of relationship, Luka has never been good at rejecting women. She looks at him expectantly, and he remembers his manners.

  “Hello, Karla. You are ahead of me, I know nothing about you.” He smiles, knowing women love his smile. Karla is won over and visibly relaxes: the smile she returns is genuine and full.

  “I can tell you all about me if you like?” she responds and Luka nods. This works, and Karla launches into her life story. Luka’s mind wanders while she talks, he does his best to ensure his body language says he is interested, even though his thoughts are on the woman he saw this morning, and how he wishes she was stood in front of him right now, how he wishes his life hadn’t become so lonely. Things have happened the way they have, and here he is.

  “Can I cut in?” Paul, an old friend, and the person who helped Luka get the position with the Bristol Symphony Orchestra taps him on the shoulder. Could this be a way out of this awkward conversation with Karla? Luka smiles a huge smile for his friend and sweeps an arm around his shoulder.

  Paul is a percussionist, dark skinned, dark hair, blue eyes, with muscle everywhere which is well suited to the fact he hits things for a living. He could probably model but he seems to like his drums and cymbals!

  “Hi, Paul. This is Karla, Holly introduced us.” Luka puts an emphasis on the end of the sentence and Paul bursts into a fit of laughter and motions for Luka to follow him.

  “I need to go, I’ll catch you later,” Luka says to Karla before following Paul.

  The pair ends up behind the shed and sit down on a large log. Paul’s laughter is infectious and it’s not long before they are both giggling hysterically like a pair of schoolgirls.

  “You do get into some pickles, Luka,” Paul says while trying to control his hysterics.

  “How is this my fault? I’ve only just turned up.” Luka raises an eyebrow in question at Paul, who knows he is telling the truth. People are always trying to set Luka up, he doesn’t stand a chance.

  “You shouldn’t be so good looking. These women, their panties melt at the sight of you.” Paul explodes into more laughter again. Luka takes a few minutes, letting Paul get it out of his system, tapping his back as though he is choking on some food.

  “Have you finished taking the piss now?” he finally asks his friend. For all their banter, and his pretence at being annoyed, he values this friendship and he will happily let some piss taking go.

  “Yeah, I’m done…OK, I have to talk to you about something.” Paul looks at Luka and his face has dropped the look of a jovial youngster and taken on the look of a sombre man about to share some bad news.

  “Oh shit. That sounds serious.” Luka takes a big gulp of his drink and braces for the bad news.

  “Mark called me.” Paul looks Luka directly in the eye, his mouth set in a tense line. Luka feels the oxygen sucked out of the air. Mark used to be his best friend. There are bloody good reasons why they are not friends anymore, and they are not up for discussion.

  “I don’t want to know, Paul. He shouldn’t be dragging you into this.” Luka starts to shut down, his eyes go dead, and he sweeps his hand through his short hair.

  “I know that this is between you guys. He said a few things though that made me believe that he was sorry and full of regret. He sounded genuine.” Paul looks at Luka, his face full of sympathy. “You’re both my friends, but I’m on your side with this, which he knows. But, I do believe he regrets it more than anything else he’s ever done. At some point, you need to hear him out.” He puts his arm around Luka’s shoulders, while Luka rubs his head in his hands. His emotions warring with each other over what to do with his ex-best friend.

  “I’m sorry you’re stuck in the middle, Paul, I really am, but I’m never giving him the time of day. I can’t trust him again.” Luka lifts his head and his drink, swallowing what’s left at the bottom of the glass.

  “You know, Luka, your friendship was stronger than what happened. I think you’ll realise that one day.” Luka shakes his head, disbelief that Mark will ever be part of his life again running through him.

  “I can’t talk about this, Paul. Where’s Eric?” Luka swiftly changes the subject, the talk of his ex-best friend becoming too painful and a stark reminder why his life has had to change so much.

  Paul and Eric have been together for two years. Eric is an airline pilot, so he doesn’t often get to go to concerts or to orchestra socials like the one the guys are at today. The couple met after Eric flew the orchestra to and from one of the overseas concerts and apparently things on the flight got a bit outrageous. Luka has always wished he had been there, but he was with a different orchestra at the time so has only heard the story from Paul and Eric who love to tell it with much hilarity, especially as it led to their introduction.

  “He couldn’t make it today, he’s in Italy.”

  “You know he’s always welcome to stop in on my parents when he’s there, they’d love to have him.”

  “I will remind him, he’d probably appreciate the home cooking. I hate not being able to have him at events like this though.” Paul has a sad frown on his face and Luka, wanting to cheer his friend up, makes himself the target again.

  “Is that why you’re so set on winding me up today?” Luka smiles as he speaks while Paul laughs mission accomplished.

  “That and you make yourself such an easy target, Luka.”

  Luka pulls a faux-offend
ed face. “I think you need to take that back. I’m quite hurt that you, one of my best friends, would say that about me.”

  “Luka, you bring it on yourself. You need to be tough with these women that fawn after you instead of letting them down gently which they never understand. You don’t want to hear it but be more like Mark. He would tell them to get lost. Then you wouldn’t need to hide on logs behind sheds.”

  Luka recoils at the idea of being like Mark. While he knows there is a sense in the idea he also hates it. “Yeah, I guess, but to be like Mark? Really?”

  “I don’t mean change your personality, just try not to let the women scare you?”

  Both men leave the safety of their hiding place and head back to the main party in high spirits. Luka spots Karla looking around, presumably for him, and he goes into stealth mode by starting to conceal himself in convenient spots hoping she won’t spot him. Whilst the idea of being more like Mark and telling women like Karla he isn’t interested appeals, but the idea of being like Mark does not and he’s not ready to give it a go just yet.

  After a couple of hours of hiding behind trees and the very few orchestra members as tall as or taller than him, Luka makes his excuses and leaves for home. He’s avoided any more Karla encounters which he’s eternally grateful for.

  --!--

  Luka returns home and after an emotionally charged day he picks up his cello and is inspired to rehearse. He finds himself playing more romantic pieces, starting with the Polonaise Brilliante in C Major by Chopin. When he closes his eyes so that he feels the music at his fingertips all he sees is the picture-perfect face framed with dark hair, highlighted with streaks of pink, vivid blue eyes. His body instantly ignites, and he pours that into his music which is soon oozing desire and lust.

  As he becomes more consumed by the music, and the image of this woman becomes more detailed in his mind, he is certain that he needs to find her and kiss her at least once.

  Chapter Three

  Jess

  Jess wakes late on Sunday and as the autumn sun streams in through the window she decides to take her coffee and one of Jay’s delicious leftover muffins out onto the balcony with a book to take advantage and enjoy the sun before it disappears.

  She finds it wonderfully relaxing to sit on her private balcony and watch people walking up and down the street, and the boats travelling to their destination gently lapping the water. During her darkest days, she would sit in this chair contemplating life itself. Now she sits here and contemplates why her life isn’t changing, why she is so stuck. She asks herself how she got stuck in a job which isn’t moving in the direction she had hoped it would. Ultimately, she questions how she has become a 28-year-old who is completely wedged between nothing and disillusion in life.

  Sighing, she picks up her Kindle and starts reading. Better to read about somebody finding their heart’s desires than dwelling on her own miserable life. Ade was right about her, he did the right thing getting away when he did. She would have dragged him down with her, sucking the life out of him as they went. As she has that thought, a tear runs down her face which she viciously wipes away with her sleeve, the knowledge of how much of a failure she is, is too much to bear.

  As if on cue she hears music start drifting from next door, the same beautiful sound as Friday night, except this time she recognises the tune, it’s a track by The Blaze a popular rock band. Again, she finds herself pulled towards it.

  Before she realises what she is doing, she has stood up and walked to the boundary between the two balconies. She presses tightly against it and leans over to listen as closely as possible. There is something about that man and his music which pulls her towards them. Her thoughts imagine him listening to the music the way that she does, his entire body and soul captured by the sounds in the same way she is and finally she starts to imagine her body entwined with his. The music leading them in a slow dance which is sensual even with his strong arms wrapped around her and his body leading the way. Jess is so caught up in her daydream she doesn’t notice her feet lifting off the ground. Her knuckles are white from gripping the top of the boundary which her belly is balancing on. She is stretching her neck to get as close as possible to the doors on the other side and hear the music, which is igniting her whole body. The music is making all of the small hairs everywhere stand to attention, ready to march into battle, although she is not sure what battle they are expecting. Her breaths are becoming pants, and there is a ringing in her ears accompanying the pulsing between her legs.

  As she strains to hear better the music stops and she topples forward almost falling headlong into his balcony. Saved only by strong arms, the arms she was fantasising about. Now those arms are catching her by her waist, not before they brush her breasts and sends heat signals to parts of her body which need no further encouragement.

  He lifts her back to her side of the balcony, where she glances up, taking a glimpse of him through her eyelashes and feeling the heat rising from her neck into her cheeks she hastily picks up her Kindle and turns to her patio door. The humiliation that he caught her falling into his balcony burned through her like the heat of a thousand suns. She paused briefly to look over at him standing calmly watching her. “Ummm, thank you,” she says before quickly running inside to the sound of a deep chuckle following her.

  She spends the rest of the day in her favourite position on the sofa, with her favourite cushion, in a state of wonder. She pretends to herself that she is watching a movie when she’s actually caught in a net trying to understand why everything about her new neighbour and his music has her so jumbled.

  --!--

  It’s finally Friday and Jess is so relieved: she hates her job but getting a new one is hard work and involves a confidence she currently doesn’t have. Her colleagues haven’t been the best people to be around for some time. She realises that she may have put out a ‘leave me alone’ vibe while she was really struggling, and everyone listened to it. The thing is now she wants to connect with people and some days she doesn’t speak to anybody at all. And this week has been full of those days.

  She sighs, leaning back in her chair and yawning, consoled by the fact she only has this afternoon to get through and then it’s the weekend.

  “Jessica, could you come in my office for a few minutes?” her boss asks from the doorway of her office. This won’t be good; she is normally gone by now on a Friday. She likes to slip out before lunch to beat the motorway rush to her weekend cottage in Cornwall.

  “Sure.” Jess walks nervously into the office and closes the door behind her, notepad in hand ready to write down her instructions.

  “Jessica, we have been doing some streamlining, and are letting some positions go.” Her boss pauses and looks at Jess, her head tilted to the side, a serious look on her face. Jessica starts to get that feeling she is going to be dumped again.

  “I think you are probably aware that your role isn’t busy. We have decided to make you redundant.”

  Have I just lost my job? The thought runs through Jess’ head quicker than she can process it, her mouth falls open in an obvious gape. Jess is consumed with a feeling of panic: she hates this job, who wouldn’t as it’s such a toxic work environment? Regardless, she still needs a job.

  “You can finish working today but we won’t need you back next week,” her boss finishes, her hands clasped in front of her on her desk. “Do you have any questions?”

  Jess shakes her head. There are probably a million questions, but right now Jess feels ambushed and can’t think of any.

  The boss nods. “HR will send out all of your paperwork. And Jessica, pink hair really isn’t professional.” Picking up her bag, she walks out. Jess sits in a stunned silence in her office while her now ex-boss heads off to Cornwall for the weekend. What a bitch.

  Jess eventually makes it back to her desk, where she starts to pack up her belongings. Her colour changing unicorn mug which
Katie bought her as a birthday gift a few years ago; the photo of Jess, Ade, Katie and Jay, taken when the four of them went on holiday together last summer, back before her life started falling apart; and her snack stash, which when she looks at it, she decides she really needs right now as it was there for stressful days and this really qualified as a stressful day. She rips open a pack of Maltesers and inhales them, barely tasting the chocolate.

  After everything is packed into her bag she heads out of the office, a walk of shame of sorts. Nobody, not one person says goodbye or wishes her luck, even the few who had been friendly, look uncomfortably down at their desks or picks up their phone when Jess walks past, and she realises how alone she is. Well, except for Katie, there’s always her, and she types on her phone.

  Jess: Hey Katie, So I lost my job today… Surprise!

  Katie: What! What did you do? Flash your boss?

  Jess: You know that’s your thing! Made redundant. Nobody said goodbye though, am I really that bad?

  Katie: Well that sucks. And you aren’t, they are. Do you want me to come over?

  Jess: No, you have plans tonight, I’ll be OK, I just feel deflated. I hated that job though, I should be pleased.

  Katie: Jay will be OK if you change your mind. And you will be pleased, once you get back on your feet. You know from the Ade debacle, it gets harder before it gets easier.

  Jess: You’re right.

  Katie: I’m always right. Love you.

  Jess: Love you. Have fun tonight.

  --!--

  Jess’ bus is late and by the time she gets home it’s almost 7 pm. She won’t miss having to deal with the buses in and out of the far side of town now that she doesn’t have to work there anymore, so there’s perk number one to having lost her job.

  She exits the elevator and drags her feet along the corridor, feeling subdued and exhausted. Part of her wishes she had taken Katie up on her offer to come over, but she’s interrupted too many of Katie’s date nights with Jay. She doesn’t want to bust in on another one. As she reaches her next-door neighbour’s place she hears that music again and freezes.