Love Lurks Beyond the Notes

All sexually active characters in this work of fiction are aged 18 years or older.

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It was Saturday night in late September, and I was sitting in my subscription seat in Orchestra Hall. My coat occupied my second seat. I had the misfortune to renew my subscription the previous spring, just a week before I finally hit the wall with the North Shore harpy for whom the second seat was intended. I'd lifted a load from my overwrought emotions when I dropped the bitch cold, but I was fresh out of near-term prospects to invite to the symphony. At least my coat was seated comfortably.

The guest conductor was Sergiu Cellini, who I had only seen once in concert four years prior. I had judged him quite competent if not especially exciting. I wondered how he was developing. His program was more interesting than usual. Cherubini's 'Anacreon' Overture was the opener, an exciting curtain-raiser with some crescendos that could out-Rossini Rossini. It was rarely played these days. It would be followed by Mozart's Piano Concerto Number 19, one of the lesser-heard ones. After intermission would come the Sibelius Fifth Symphony, a brooding romantic work of more heroic proportions than its 35-minute playing time might indicate.

I was idly browsing through the program book and had just reached one of those slick-papered inserts. It was an ad for an upcoming ballet performance, one of those blurbs with an SQ code to scan for more info. It cruelly decided to eject on me as I turned the page, made a graceful arc downward just out of my reach and slid under the seat to my right in the row in front of me. "Shit!" I said in dismay. Oops, I probably shouldn't have said that so loudly.

A young woman in an emerald green dress retrieved the insert from the floor, turned to me and handed it back to me with a smile.

"Thank you. I guess they really wanted you to scan that code," I joked. She raised her eyebrows, then she turned around as the house lights began to dim. I'd caught just a glimpse of big brown eyes, long dark hair with waves, and cute Mediterranean features. She was sitting next to an elderly woman with blue-tinted hair, a regular subscriber I guessed.

Cellini came onstage to a decent round of applause, bowed, and launched into the 'Anacreon' Overture. The introduction was crisp, and I tensed a bit as the Allegro began with strings in the bass register. Cellini had the strings under firm discipline though, and carried off the ensuing crescendos with excellent control, tension, and finally, with genuine excitement. As the applause swelled, I began to get the little adrenaline rush of an unexpectedly good concert.

The Mozart was every bit as good. Helene Grimaldo played crisply, finding nearly all of the wit and nuance in the score. Cellini had reduced the string sections and the balances were excellent. There was prolonged applause. As I headed toward the lobby for intermission, I could hear the buzz in the crowd. I moved to one side of the stairs to avoid a chattering pair of elderly women. As I moved past them I saw the rear of the woman in green. Bewitching things were happening under that dress as she climbed the stairs in front of me. I came through the lobby door and accelerated to catch up with her. "Hello! What did you think of the Mozart?"

She turned to look at me and smiled. "That was really enjoyable. I'd love to stop and chat, but I really need to use the ladies room before the line gets too long. Sorry!" I watched her disappear into the crowd. Fuck. Well, that blew my idea of buying her a drink. I hadn't even managed to get her name. I shrugged and just strolled around the lobby to get some steps.

I heard the "five minutes" chime. I sighed and went back into the hall. The house lights were already dimming when she finally came down the stairs, squeezed past the blue haired lady and took her seat. Cellini was striding on stage when I saw something straight out of the Ambiguous Female Signals Handbook. The woman in the green dress swiveled her head, looked right at me, and flashed just a hint of a smile. Well, maybe I could catch her after the concert without being too creepy.

The first movement of the Sibelius Fifth ends with an accelerando launched by a repeated trumpet figure, then swirling strings and ringing brass punctuated with drumbeats. Cellini was really feeling it now. His baton slashed through the air and he stomped on the podium as he whipped the orchestra into a near frenzy. He was making little vocalizations to punctuate each downbeat. The electricity in the hall was palpable. I felt my hands clench as the music drove in urgent waves to the closing pages and the final chord rang out with absolute precision. I was breathing rapidly. To my right I saw the woman in green turn and look right at me again.

"Wow," she mouthed. I smiled and nodded.

I had a flash. I picked up my coat, moved over a seat and motioned to her. Her eyes widened. Then she got her own jacket, whispered to the blue-haired woman, crept out of her row and came back to take the seat next to me. The orchestra was going through some brief tuning between movements and she just had time to get settled. I leaned over and whispered, "I'm Nate."

She whispered back, "Alyssa." Then Cellini raised his baton and began the second movement.

The rest of the Sibelius performance was punctuated by a little game. Alyssa and I both went for the armrests between us, and after initial bumping, we just left our arms there, not quite touching. I noticed that at each musical passage that came off particularly well, Alyssa gave my arm a little nudge. The first time might have been an accident, but the nudges kept coming. Sideways glances accompanied them. Near the end of the slow movement Cellini really juiced up a descending violin phrase, vibrating his left hand over his heart. This time I nudged Alyssa first, and she nudged back. A smile played over her lips.

*******

Alyssa and I joined in the prolonged standing ovation at the rousing close of the Sibelius, then we finally ventured into the press of bodies wending their way slowly up the aisle stairs. I felt that the chatter level was unusually high, so I guessed that we weren't the only ones who had been pumped up by the concert. We finally made it into the lobby where there was at least a bit of air. I noted that she was no taller than five foot four, though her long legs, heels, and graceful posture fooled me at first. Also, she had all of those delightful lady bits in the right proportions.

We paused near the door. Since she was not exactly rushing out into the night, I took my shot. "Alyssa, would you like to get a bite to eat? Or maybe coffee?"

"What's open at this hour? I'm not really up for wandering very far in these heels." Those heels were pretty damn cute though.

I scrolled through my phone for options. "It looks like Miller's Pub serves food until 1:00AM. It's like a block and a half away."

"Let's go there!"

Once we were seated we realized that neither of us wanted a full meal. "Let's just get coffee and dessert," I suggested.

"Ooh, Tiramisu, my favorite! Hey, let's get two desserts and share them."

She smiled at me. She seemed to be in a really upbeat mood. She was even cuter now, smiling constantly.

The server came over. I ordered apple pie, but declined any ice cream. I also ordered decaf, but Alyssa went for the hot cocoa.

"It seems like you have a bit of a sweet tooth," I smiled.

"Guilty as charged." She returned my smile.

I couldn't help thinking that much more than her tooth was sweet, but I held that thought. "How did you wind up by yourself at the symphony? You know, at first I thought the lady next to you might have been your mother."

"The one who fell asleep in the Mozart?? Oh my God, I'll have to tell Mom. That's hilarious. Anyway, my girlfriend's piano teacher gave her the ticket, but she couldn't go because she was babysitting her niece. I called her at intermission to tell her what she was missing. I've only been to the symphony a few times but this concert was easily the best." She smiled warmly. "But why were you there alone? You had two seats."

I sighed. "I re-subscribed with two seats in the spring, but then I sort of came to my senses and dumped the bit... er, woman I was seeing."

"But surely you can find a date? You're a pretty good looking guy."

I flushed slightly. "Thanks. I guess I've been just a bit gun-shy around women lately. My ex was a real piece of work."

"Huh. Well I hope she didn't leave scars. Hey, here's our food."

Alyssa's idea of sharing was not to cut off a piece of her cake, but to just feed me random bites. I was a bit surprised by that, and even more by the gleeful look in her big brown eyes as she did so. Naturally I fed her bites of my pie, too.

Before long we knew a fair amount about each other. Alyssa worked as a Human Resources benefits specialist in a downtown office. Her family was of Italian heritage, apparent in her slightly olive toned skin and dark eyes. Her mother had lived in Chicago all her life, but was one of those little round ladies like those in the old country who would make ridiculously large meals, and say "Mangia, mangia!" constantly. She had two older sisters, one in New York and the other still local, along with a brother a year younger than her. Her father had died of heart trouble a few years ago.

I commented on Alyssa's apparent fitness, trying not to be weird about it.

"I jog a bit and do some yoga," she shrugged, "and I certainly won't eat a pound of pasta all by myself. I feel better when I keep my weight within bounds. Mom got into the habit of cooking for a big family, but I manage to make myself reasonable portions."

I told her about growing up downstate and moving to the big city after graduating. I was working for the local electric utility, whose corporate office was only a few blocks from Alyssa's office.

"You seem to have adjusted to the city, going to the symphony and all."

"Yeah, a lot of orchestras played at the university on tour and I got hooked. That part was easy, but it wasn't that easy otherwise to become a city guy. I had to take baby steps at first, figuring out the parking, shopping, even where to get lunch. Now I go all over the place on the transit lines with a Ventra card, and even drive out to the 'burbs."

"I'm still surprised you aren't dating anyone." She arched her eyebrows at me.

"Well, I seem to be doing all right tonight!" It was meant to be a joke, but she blushed a bit and those big brown eyes bored right into mine.

A tall female figure suddenly loomed over the table. "Well, well, look who came out of his hole." The voice was gratingly familiar. I caught the overwhelming fragrance, something like Death by Eucalyptus, and groaned inwardly.

I looked across at Alyssa. She immediately sensed something was up, or had been up, between this overbearing she-shark and me. Suddenly I felt Alyssa's toes creeping up inside my pants cuff. It was like a jolt of molten courage.

I turned very slowly in the booth seat and wielded my finest stink eye. "Why hello, Marla. You're looking well, did you have another tuck done?"

Marla's chin jerked. She was not accustomed to snappy jabs from me, or from any other male. From anyone, really. But I'd had some time to reboot my self-esteem and repartee since giving her zero-weeks notice back in May. Her face screwed up. "You bastard... dropping me cold like that. I was the best thing you ever had. And you haven't heard the last of me yet!"

Her narcissism was solidly at the virtuoso level. I recognized her pasty-faced escort, some spineless mope named Gerald, or... Geoffrey, that was it. He was cowering in the background. Most men cowered around Marla. If I hadn't despised her so much, I would never have pounded her into her mattress for an entire weekend. That's how I learned that she treated a lover just as badly as a lackey.

Now I was feeling remarkably calm for someone whose attractive dining companion had chosen this, of all moments, to play footsie. "No doubt I haven't heard the last. But I've most certainly heard the worst of you. Casual insults were always your special talent. Be sure to save some of that pleasure for Geoffrey." I nodded cordially to him. "Good night, Marla." I pointedly turned back to Alyssa, who was trying very hard to suppress a giggle behind her napkin.

Marla glowered at Alyssa with a malignant look. "Well, dear, you can only go up from this one." She strode away, Geoffrey bobbing along in her wake.

Alyssa finally spoke. "Holy shit. What in the absolute fucking hell?"

I sighed. "That would be my ex."

Her eyebrows arched. "Her?? Well I guess your breakup wasn't entirely cordial! How long ago?" Her attempts to suppress her giggling had by now failed miserably. She looked just as cute as a button.

I nodded. "Four months ago."

"Can I ask why?"

I looked at her, straight faced. "No special reason. She was only a horrible bitch."

Alyssa again put her hand to her mouth, which was trying not to smile. That didn't work though, as she finally erupted in girlish laughter.

"My God, Nate, are you always like this?"

I shrugged. "I think it's just a defense mechanism." I sensed the lob about to come back over the net.

Her eyebrows went up again as she took a sip of her hot chocolate. "Defense against what?"

"Horrible bitches."

We looked at each other for a moment, and we both started laughing out loud.

We finally controlled ourselves. Alyssa said, "Let me see if I have this straight. If I'm not a horrible bitch to you, then I won't have to listen to your jokes?"

I groaned. "Please don't use logic against me. You're not fighting fair."

She had a crooked grin. "I never said anything about being fair!"

"True," I said. "Are my jokes really that terrible?"

She leaned closer. "No, but I would really like to know more about you than how funny you are."

"That's fair. I would like to know more about you than how sexy your toes feel."

She had the cutest blush. "I was only providing you moral support." God, her eyebrows...

"I appreciate that, but she insulted you too. She insults everybody."

Alyssa shrugged. "She said she thinks I can do better. That's not an insult to me, just some really poor judgment on her part." She peered at me wickedly over her cocoa, then made a bit of a show over licking it from her lips. This woman was seriously sexy.

Our server came back with the bill. I paid and added a 30% tip. She walked away smiling, then said over her shoulder, "You guys are such a cute couple."

Alyssa smiled at me. "Well, now I feel validated!"

I had my phone out. "Since you're now validated, maybe you wouldn't mind?" I opened a new contact, typed "Alyssa," and slid the phone over to her.

She typed in her number. I took the phone and quickly sent her a text. Her phone dinged and she pulled it out of her purse. Her eyebrows went up. She typed a reply and sent it. My phone buzzed on the table. I read the exchange.

'Alyssa, are you free tomorrow'

'I am, and you won't get rid of me easily ;)'

I helped her with her jacket and we headed out the door.

Alyssa turned to me. I had braced myself for some parting awkwardness, but her text was true to her mood.

"Nate, how are you getting home?" she asked, her eyes all innocence.

I waved down the street. "My car's in the Grant Park garage over there."

"Could you please give me a ride?"

My God, if she batted those eyes like that once more I would probably have driven her to Sardinia. Yes, I know it's an island. She took my arm and we headed to my car.

*******

We were driving north on the Kennedy Expressway. Alyssa directed me to get off at Montrose and I nodded. Then she turned to me. "So, what actually happened with Marla? I mean, I know you broke up, and she was like a total bitch in Miller's, but what really happened?"

I sighed. I had never told anyone the whole story, and I was painfully aware that those big brown eyes were going to drag it out of me no matter how much I resisted. It was probably best to clear the air.

"Ok, I'll let you in on the dirty laundry. She was a blind date, for some North Shore charity event. A work friend knew she didn't have a date and set us up. I saw that she acted pretty beastly to a lot of people there, but I guessed they were all used to her. I figured I could suffer through it, and her, for a couple of hours, drop her off at home, and never see her again." I paused.

"That's not what happened, though." Alyssa's voice was softer now. Goddamn her, she was so adorable.

I nodded and continued the story. "So I took her home and she asked me in. We were standing in her kitchen while she made coffee, and she started giving me some shit about my tie, then my haircut, then about wearing a brown belt with black shoes. I finally kind of snapped. I got right in her face and asked her just who the fuck she thought would be looking at my belt when she was wearing this slinky black dress with a neckline almost down to her fucking navel. Then... I kind of shoved my hand in there, for emphasis you know, and sort of grabbed her boob." I glanced at Alyssa, who seemed to be breathing faster. "Then I backed her up against the wall and... well, let's just say that clothes started coming off."

Alyssa was biting her lip. She turned to look at me. "Jesus. So basically she sniped and jabbed at you until you lost your shit and finally ravished her. Is that it?"

"Pretty much. Four times." Whoops, that slipped out. Dammit, don't judge me, please don't judge me...

"Ok."

"Ok??" I still wasn't sure how she was taking all of this.

"She figured out how to get what she wanted from you. It's not the way I would have gone about it, but I guess when you're basically a horrible bitch, your options for getting a guy all horny are a bit more limited than most women's. How long before you bailed on her?"

"Three weeks. Maybe closer to four."

"And you haven't dated since. Well, it all makes more sense to me now. Except I don't get why she's still trying, like she did tonight."

"You think tonight was... the same stupid tactic? Right there in front of you? And Geoffrey??"

Alyssa nodded. "Like I said, I think her repertoire is pretty limited. And obviously it didn't work very well. But anyway, it looks like your dating drought is over."

I looked at her, smiling. "You think so?"

"Well, yeah. You asked a woman you barely knew to have dessert with you. I didn't even need to hint around." She arched those eyebrows and smiled again.

Fuck. She was so adorable. But, she was right, I totally wanted to keep dating her. Among other things.

*******

Alyssa had an apartment in Ravenswood Manor, near a small park. I found a parking space a block away which was pretty lucky for North Side neighborhoods on the weekend. She pulled a small pad out of her purse. "Do you have a pen?"

I handed over my trusty Parker lacquer ballpoint. She looked at it, figured out the mechanism, and scribbled on the paper.

"This is an overnight parking pass for visiting residents in this area. Leave it on your dash and you won't be ticketed." Apparently I was coming up to her place. Not a bad outcome for someone who couldn't even find a date for the symphony, I thought.

She got out of the car and I followed her up the street. Her jacket did not conceal the sinuous motion of her shapely butt in the green dress, and I stared, enraptured. She stopped at the corner and waited for me, then grabbed my hand as I came up. "Why are you dragging along back there?"

"Reasons," I shrugged.

"What do you mean, 'reasons,'" she snorted.

"Two very enjoyable reasons," I deadpanned. She whacked me in the chest with her free hand.

"You're incorrigible."

"I love it when you talk dirty like this." She elbowed me. But she was still smiling.