Chapter Eight
Once outside she felt the weight of the scene crash on her. She walked slowly down the street to a café, hoping the process would naturally take long enough for Ambrose to return from his interview. Undoubtedly Glenda and Luciano would not be sorry for her absence while she sounded like this.
Eva sat down at a table to give herself even more time. A few extra minutes wouldn’t hurt. Anything would be better than walking back into that room without Ambrose. She sipped at her tea and looked out onto the foot traffic traveling by.
A tingling sensation went up her spine and she got the distinct feeling that she was being watched. Eva turned and looked at the patrons around her, she looked back out to the street.
Not seeing anyone, she stood and left the café. Her heart was beating a little too fast and she remembered the feeling she’d had in the park before she had almost been pushed from a bridge. There was a weight sitting on her chest, but it was just from her embarrassment from the scene in the rehearsal room, wasn’t it?
Eva stood back from the street, waiting for the light to turn. The longer she waited the more her body transition into panic mode. She looked back again but didn’t seen anything around her to panic about.
Was this to be her life now, running from rehearsal rooms and looking over her shoulder at street corners?
The light changed and Eva walked out into the street. She was moving fast now even though it meant she would get back to Glenda and Luciano that much faster.
A light, cool breeze blew across Eva’s neck, she felt a terrible presence behind her but couldn’t force herself to turn and look again. Eva began to run, tea jostled out of the cup she was holding and she dropped it.
From across the square Eva saw the light curls and tall, chiseled form of Ambrose moving toward the opera building.
“Ambrose,” Eva yelled out across the square. Everyone in the square turned to her, including Ambrose. He smiled at Eva, ignoring the obvious panic she ran at him with.
Eva ran straight into his body, pushing herself against him.
“Is everything alright?” Eva felt Ambrose’s hand push back into her hair and she closed her eyes.
“I felt…” she spoke into his shoulder, “the same things that I felt in the park—at least I think I did.”
Ambrose’s lips were close to Eva’s forehead and she could feel the heat of his breath, “Nothing to worry about now, you’re safe here. Safe with me.”
For days Eva had been picturing Ambrose entwined with other women, but despite all her lingering apprehensions she let herself go completely into him. She wanted to cry over her need for him, over the protection she hadn’t realized she’d been craving so desperately.
“I couldn’t sing without you in the room, my voice…” Eva looked up at him. His eyes were softer than she’d expected. He looked…he looked at her with such tenderness, such all-encompassing care.
“I’m back.” He squeezed her arm then stood back to look at her. “Come on,” he gestured with his head toward the entrance and Eva nodded. She followed him like a puppy up the stairs and into the rehearsal room.
Glenda and Luciano looked up.
“No tea?” Glenda raised her eyebrows.
“I dropped it,” Eva flushed. She’d left her fallen cup on the street, she’d have to remember to pick it up and throw it away on her way out.
“And your voice?” Luciano looked concerned.
“It feels perfect now,” Eva with real confidence over to Glenda.
The music lifted and flourished with Eva’s voice. Ambrose sang with her and the two voices together rose and twisted around one another, their sounds mingling, distinct and different, with the same flawless tones rising above anything Eva had ever heard before.
“Just be sure you warm up next time,” Glenda smiled at Eva. Luciano also seemed to have lost all apprehension over Eva’s rough start to the day.
“You are performing tonight?” Luciano asked Ambrose as the group cleaned up their empty paper cups, and strewn sheets of loose musical score.
“No, we’re off tonight,” Ambrose said beginning for the door. “I have the sheets for the beginning of act three so I’ll give them a look over. Goodnight!” He raised a hand to Luciano and Glenda then held the door open for Eva.
“Thank you for today, I feel like I could sing your music forever.” Eva smiled at Luciano who only looked vaguely flattered. It had become apparent to Eva that Luciano, and his perfectionist tendencies, would not permit too much in the way of self-congratulation. Eva was certain, that the older man would be making changes up until the day they opened, and maybe even after.
The two walked down the darkened hall together. Eva smiled. It felt so right being next to him, she felt like she could manage this possible new life, like everything might work out in the end.
“You sounded great today,” Ambrose said.
“Is act three finished then?” Eva asked, thinking about Ambrose’s comments to Luciano.
“It’s getting there, I can’t wait to look it over.”
Eva wanted to reach down and take his hand but she just let her own hand dangle instead, just in case he was feeling the same impulse. She thought about suggesting that they look it over together, tonight, right that moment. They could go back to his building, or her building. Or maybe they could go to dinner, have some warm food and laugh the way they had on their first night together.
The two walked into the night side by side. They said nothing but fell into step both breathing deeply.
When they got to the steps leading down from the square Ambrose stopped. Eva turned to him thinking he might kiss her, might hold her, wrap an arm around her. But Ambrose turned away from her.
“There you are,” he said to Tessa, who was strutting her way up the steps.
Tessa stopped at the top step and winked at Ambrose. “You should have told me you were running late,” Her voice was petulant. The top she wore was tight and a mound of cleavage spilled over. She turned to look at Eva.
“I don’t know if you’ve officially met,” Ambrose said, as he turned and looked between the two women. “Eva this is Tessa, Tessa this is Eva.”
“The famous daughter.” Tessa put out a hand and Eva wanted to smack it away. The other woman’s face dripped with superiority and, no doubt, with the knowledge that Ambrose was going home with her tonight.
Eva lifted her chin and tried not to attack.
“She’ll be famous in her own right, mark my words. You’ll have to hear her voice to believe me.” Ambrose focused his eyes on Eva. Tessa took the words in with a distasteful look that made Eva feel the slightest bit better.
Eva extended her own hand back to the woman.
When their skin met, Tessa’s hand was ice cold. Eva looked up at her with surprise. Did that mean she was one of them? Was she Ambrose’s girlfriend in the world of darkness he talked about?
Tessa laughed at Eva’s expression then released her hand.
“Come on, we’re already late, I made reservations.” Tessa focused her energy back on Ambrose, turning her shoulder only a few inches shy of Eva’s face.
“Be safe getting home.” Ambrose gave her a meaningful look and Eva wanted to stomp on his foot. Instead, she turned away from the couple and walked down the steps without saying a word of goodbye.
Eva was twenty feet away when she heard the grating female laugh come from her back. Eva didn’t dare turn around. She didn’t trust herself around that woman.
If she saw that Tessa was laughing at her she might grab her by the neck—and if Tessa had even one quarter of the strength that Ambrose possessed, then that would a very bad move indeed.