London Harmony: Minuette (9 page)

By the time the film was over, she was sound asleep on me.  The lights on the deck came back up as people started milling about again or standing and stretching.  Everyone looked happy, and I just sat there, afraid to move, afraid to breathe, afraid to wake the angel who was currently drooling on my shoulder with a lock of her sandy brown hair in her mouth.  She always looked so cute with bedhead.

In my head, this almost felt like a date to me.  I wondered how fast Mindy would have me move out if I ever voiced something like that.  My spirits started dipping as I looked down at her.  Her eyes fluttered open when Zil came walking over and said, “Dawwwww!”

She looked around quickly, getting her bearings and pushed away from me to sit up and pulled her hair back out of her face.  She had a subtle blush going that just brought out her light freckles.  She looked around bashfully and grinned.  “I'm up.  I wasn't sleeping.”

Everyone chuckled and I had to grin at her.  “No, not at all.”  Then I added as she nodded imperiously, “You snore a little.”

She squeaked and slapped my shoulder.  My smile was back full force.

We hung around for a few more minutes as everyone sort of filtered out, one couple at a time.  When June and Vanessa took their leave, June said to Mind, “It was truly a pleasure to meet Squirrel's Mindy, we were all starting to think you were her imaginary friend.”

Vanessa lightly slapped her shoulder.  “Play nice, love.”

June winked at us and let Vannie drag her down the stairs.

Mindy gave me a toothy grin. “Oh, I'm yours am I?”

I swallowed and went with playful.  “Damn straight.  Now drive me home woman, before I turn into a pumpkin.”  I draped the back of my hand over my brow in an overly dramatic fashion.

She stared at me for a second, with a look I couldn't decipher before the side of her mouth quirked up in a restrained smile.  “Watch it... Squirrel, I have the keys.”

I rolled my eyes and tried to will away the embarrassed blush.

Natasha said behind her hand to Francine, “If we ever get that syrupy cute as a couple, shoot me?”  Fran nodded staunchly, restraining her own grin.

I sputtered, “We're not a couple.  She's my best mate.”

Fran rolled her eyes.  “Well come on ladies, we'll walk you out.”

Mind made a show of clasping my hand, lacing our fingers to their giggling delight while I just blushed myself into the nether realms.  What had gotten into Mind?  She was being ultra playful and it was killing me.  They led us over to Tabby and her wife who they earlier introduced as Teri McClellan, from the McClellan Music Conservatoire.

Fran gave them hugs and said, “Thanks for having us again Tabs.  See you next week.”

She nodded and smiled, her copper eyes sparkling as she hugged the lady's arm.  “Our pleasure as always Small Fry.”  Then she looked at Mind and me. “June really likes you to have invited you to Thursday Night, the doors are always open to you on Thursdays.  Our little family grows.”

Mindy spoke for us, “Thank you for having us.  This was the most surreal experience of my life.”  They nodded and I gave a tiny wave and then was being pulled by the hand as Mindy followed Fran and Tasha down the outside stairs.

Once we got back to our cars, we bid the women goodbye and got into the old Anglia.  Mindy paused and looked at me.  Dipping her head when I lowered my eyes, to keep eye contact.  “Nett, this felt more like a date than just hanging out... was this a date?”

I couldn't read her face at all.  Bloody hell, was she upset?  It felt like a date to me too, but I couldn't voice that.  I panicked and blurted, “No, of course not.”

In an instant, I saw so many things flash across her face in micro-expressions.  She finally sighed and then put on a smile for me and said, “You'd let me know if it were?”

I nodded, blushed, and played it off.  “You are so full of yourself lady.”

She paused one last time then smiled at me, her eyes sparkling, and started the car and drove us home.  I shared with her that Fran was only missing the first three tracks and that we had figured out all her phantom melodies made another song.  I gave her an accusing crossway look at that.  Why hadn't she told me?  I also shared that we know that the Phantom Melody is coming to an end.

She avoided talking about it, and the moment we were inside, she retrieved Vee Jacob's book and pulled me to the couch.  “Read to me?  I'm feeling a little melancholy.”

And I read to her as she turned to lay across me to listen until we both drifted off to sleep.

I woke up on the couch, with Annette curled around me, holding me tightly to her with an arm around my waist.  Last night had been torture for me.  For a bit, I thought maybe she might be feeling the same as me.  I thought she had used the gathering last night as an excuse to take me on an actual date. It all felt so intimate so I took a chance by holding her hand and cuddling in during the movie.

I can't tell you the kind of torture that was.  To be sharing her warmth, enveloped in her heady scent, my body tingling.  Wondering if she felt the same way.  She has always been there for me and accommodated my messy life by bringing order to it.  Some people call her obsessive compulsive, I call her Nett.  Her quirks make her the most interesting person I have ever met and my pulse races around her.

I'm not entirely sure exactly when it happened.  We had always been the closest of mates, but one day I realized that I wanted more.  I had gone and cocked up.  I had fallen for my best mate without even realizing it.

I was the happiest girl in the world when she moved into this place with me.  If I couldn't be with her, at least we were together.  I actually couldn't picture a life where Annette wasn't in it.  I think we balance each other.  Her quirks never stop her from trying her hardest at everything she does.

She is my hero, my voice.  And what a voice it is.  All my music is for her.

I just sat there, in her arms, basking in the feeling.  Then I sighed as I saw the clock in the kitchen, her alarm on her mobile would be chiming in a minute.  She was like a machine, a metronome, she had a set routine that she did every morning.  Whether she had a temp job that day or not.

It was that agency that brought the randomness into her life that I think she needs to keep her from dropping into a monotonous routine. So was it wrong of me to hope she never got a permanent position anywhere, which would suck the life out of her?

I pull her out of her comfort zone as much as I can, like asking her to sing for me at random locations.  Though there are some things about her clockwork routines that I find so very endearing.

Something has been different lately.  Ever since June; I still can't believe J8 is employing my girl; scammed her into working for her.  The job is so random since they can't spend the whole time searching for... well, searching for Annette.  Which I can only see ending badly.

She seems happier since she started there.  Doing different things every day, meeting more and more people who accept her quirks as normal.  It is a whole community of misfits, that when they come together, wonderful things happen.

That newfound happiness has spilled over onto me.  She seems more playful and sure of herself and I find that just makes my heart ache for her that much more.  A good portion of the people working at London Harmony are gay, and Nett doesn't even blink an eye at that.  So I hope she won't judge me.

She is so accepting of everyone, maybe because of how she has been treated her whole life and she knows what it feels like to be ostracized just for being yourself.  So I wonder if that would translate to me if I ever let her know my true feelings or the fact that I am gay.  There are split seconds in time that I feel she knows, but they are fleeting.

I grinned back at her then started poking her sides, and tickling gently.  “Hey, Nett.  Wake up sleepyhead.  Time to start the day.”

She was squirming and giggling and begging me to stop as she escaped from under me.  Then she sat on the arm of the couch and yawned.

“Why'd you do that, evil woman?  I was having a wonderful dream.”

She had a content look on her face when she said that.  She yawned again and rubbed her eyes. “You could have at least waited until the alarm...”

I pointed up as I smiled when her alarm started chiming.  She grinned and looked at me with bleary eyes and perfectly messed up bedhead hair.  She gave me some silly duck lips, then shuffled off toward the loo to get ready for the day, chuckling to herself.  See?  Playful.

I headed to our room to start gathering my things for the day for when it was my turn.  Whoever had to be to work first got the shower first each morning.  Since she started at London Harmony, she had to catch an early coach to get there on time.  I only had a short walk to the end of the block to the little mercantile I worked at, Matt's.

I pulled an outfit down from the closet and smiled.  I'm pretty much a slob, so it is a blessing to room with someone like Nett, who is an organizational savant.  Even as kids, she would clean up my messes and organize my room as we played.  My stuffed animals were always arranged first by genus, then by size.

Now, my outfits are always magically washed, pressed, and hung up on hangers in complete sets like this.  She always shoos me away when I try to help.  It always gives me more time to work on more music for her.

I laid the outfit on the bed then went into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee.  I wish she'd take the time to have breakfast sometimes, but her routine is set.  Once the pot was brewed, I poured some into a disposable cup and secured the lid.  Then I grinned to myself and walked to the door of our flat and opened it.

Moments later, Annette came striding out of our room, I smiled as I saw her lips moving slightly as she counted her steps.  She smiled at me, her eyes twinkling as she stepped out then spun around to come back in as I held up her coffee.

She grinned as she took it. “Brilliant.  See you tonight, love ya lady.”

I called after her.  “That street goes both ways.”  I watched a moment as she headed down the hall.  I closed the door and leaned against it and exhaled as I murmured to the ceiling, “Love you too Nett.”

I exhaled and chuckled at myself for my 'schoolgirl with a crush' behavior and got ready for the day.  After a shower and a quick breakfast, I headed off to work with one of the little brown lunch bags from the fridge marked meticulously “Friday; apple on the counter.”

I had to grin as I took an apple out of the fruit bowl beside the fridge and slipped it into my lunch.  She took such good care of me.  I always felt like I mattered around her.  Every little thing she did showed me that.

As I walked to work, I thought about what she had shared last night, that London Harmony figured out that all the Phantom Melodies were another song.  Once they had all the pieces, then my secret would be out, and I was petrified.  There was only one last song to write, and once they had that and the first three tracks, they would find the other message I had buried yet another layer deep.

I couldn't do this forever, live with Annette and not confess the truth to her so it was sort of a relief too.  But if she didn't feel the same way, I was terrified she would leave me.  Maybe it was time to lay all my cards on the table.

I pulled out my mobile and quickly texted her. “Have a wonderful day!”  I put a smiley after it.  I knew she loved little unexpected things like that.  I smiled at the little heart she sent back.  I realized I was absently fingering the piano by my sides as I walked.  Possibly the final Minuette track ever.  I exhaled and nodded once in determination.  I had made my decision.

I looked down at my mobile when it buzzed just before I got to work.  I grinned, it was from Mindy. “Have a wonderful day!”  I found myself blushing.  I really loved it when she did random things like that.  It let me know that she was thinking of me.  It made me feel... special.

Before I could stop my fingers, I shot a little heart back to her.  Bloody hell.  I need to get my head out of the clouds and think before I act.  She probably wouldn't think anything of it.

I saw a couple workers head through the black door into London Harmony as I got off the coach.  When I reached the door, I heard someone turning the knob and I quickly knocked three times before Jen could pull it open.  She was grinning like a loon as she said, “Drat, not fast enough.”

I just gave a smug grin right back as I stepped in, my head held imperiously.  She had the last laugh though as she followed me as I moved quickly through the lobby and froze at her desk.  Shite.  I hurried back past her to get my steps right.  She burst out into giggles.  “Serves you right lady.”

I took the high road, one of us had to be an adult about it, so I stuck my tongue out at her as I passed by with the correct count this time.  She giggled some more.  I smiled to myself, there was no way anyone could get upset with that woman.  I snuck a peek down at her as I headed up the stairs.  What?  Only human, remember?

No sooner had I cleaned the green room, then I poured two coffees and headed up to what Fran was now calling 'the Nest', coffee in hand.  Then the evil woman dropped a big stack of books on the desk in front of me.  She had a wicked gleam in her eyes as she pointed at three other stacks.  “These are the senior yearbooks we were able to get from five years back.  One hundred and twelve, that's not even half of them so this may be a futile effort.  Just skim through them and see if you recognize the woman who paid you to seed the music.”

I blinked. “One hundred and twelve?”

She chuckled and pointed to seven huge boxes stacked along one of the workbenches.  “Just in that year, we have four other years to go through too.”  She gave a toothy grin with wide eyes.

I really felt guilty.  I felt bad before, but now this was going to be the biggest waste of money for them as I faked it.

I had gone through fifteen books by the time she said she had to head off to class.  She was sifting through the ones I had already been through with her feet up on the desk as she read out loud what people had written to whoever had owned the books.

As soon as she disappeared down the stairs, I just slid the rest of that year over to her side of the desk.  I needed to organize or something so I didn't feel guilty.  I entered all the new intros for Fran into the SmartCanvas database which we had started calling the Matrix, getting her all caught up.

I finished indexing the company's potential talent database and organizing it for ease of entry and lookup for the scouts and created some automatic triggers to alert June about any artists the scouts found to be high-value targets.  I included automatic linking to audio files associated with each talent.

After lunch, I was arguing with Zilrita in one of the two executive offices adjacent to the conference room.  She shared this one with Vannie.  June had the other one.  She whined, “But I like my mess.”

I was shaking my head. “I almost explode every time I'm in here, I'll just clean up a little.  It looks like the Russian Mafia ransacked the place.  Just look at Vanessa's desk, clean and organized.”  Zil did more work than any three people in the company and I didn't understand how she could do it all in a place that looked like a bomb went off.  She was so extremely organized, almost OCD so, outside of her office, so I didn't understand.

She squeaked, “Well Van is anal and does ninety-five percent of her work in the field.  That's what talent scouts do.”

I wouldn't back down, I just grinned and said, “Fine.  Let's try something else then.  One hug for me organizing your inbox.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Grawl?”

That got her attention.  So bribes would be the only way to stop me from breaking in at night just to clean the place, knowing the mess was here was driving me slowly insane.

She murmured with a smile, with a pause between each word, “Things just got interesting.”  She held up two fingers.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, “Fine, two hugs.”

She gave a toothy smile of victory as I looked around, dear lord, if she got two just for the inbox, I was going to be her huggy squeak toy for life to get the rest organized.

She raised her hand to her ear, indicating that someone was taking in her earbud she had tied into the entire intercom system somehow, and said, “Yup, I have her down here, I'll send her right up Small Fry.”  She looked around at her office then sighed in relief as she turned to me with a pleased look.  “Saved by the bell.  Your zookeeper is back and ready to work.”

I chuckled.  “This isn't over lady.”  I waved my hands around the mess. “This is going to get organized... soon.”

She chuckled as I turned toward the door.  Wait!  Never turn your back to her Annette!  I turned back to her, she had already closed the distance and her arms were open.  I held a finger up. “Aht!  Not until I do the work.”

She batted at my finger like a cat would as she said, “Booooo.”

I backed out with all the humor I could muster still shaking my finger at her as I counted my steps out.

She was about to say something when I saw her tilt her head and her extremely professional mask came up and she touched her ear.  “This is Zilrita, how may I help you?”  She glanced up at me and gave a little wave as she headed toward her desk again.  “That is unacceptable.  Our contract says twenty thousand units by the first, we expect you to honor that or we find another distributor.”  Her fingers were flying over her iPad as she pulled up the contracts she had obviously memorized.

I walked off shaking my head.  For such a fun loving, happy woman, she was a cutthroat professional with a head for business like I have never seen before, when she was in her element.  It was easy to see why London Harmony was so successful with her and June at the helm.  I absently wondered which of her two personalities was the act.  I had a strong suspicion it was the business professional.

I headed up the stairs then walked to the desk, moderating my steps.  Bam, the count was spot on.  Fran was thumbing through a yearbook with her feet up again.  She hung her head backwards to see me arrive.  Then she asked, “I'm just curious.  I'm just trying to understand the obsessiveness, not poking fun or anything.  But once you've counted the paces once, why do it every time?  Do you expect the count to change?”

I blushed and grabbed another box of yearbooks and sat in my seat to look through them for no reason.  I shrugged. “No, yes, maybe.  I don't know.  It is just sort of... reassuring?  Knowing everything is exactly as it should be.  I try not to be that way, but it sort of eats at you if you don't verify.  I know, I sound like I'm off my trolley.  And I know the distance will never change... but...”  I whispered the last part, “...what if it does?”

She stared at me a moment, then swallowed.  Oh great Nett, freak her out.  Then she shrugged and went back to the book as she said, “No, you don't sound off your trolley.  Everyone has their own coping mechanisms. I'm glad you shared one of yours with me.”  Then she shot a toothy grin at me. “Mine is words.”

I tried to suppress a smile as I opened the first yearbook.  “Really now, thesaurus girl?  One would never have guessed.”

She chuckled and said, “I really am glad you are loosening up so much around us here now.  It's like watching a flower bloom.  A really shy flower, but a flower nonetheless. You are fun and snarky.  I can see what Mindy sees in you.”

I blushed and said in a murmur, “She's just my best mate.”

Fran took a long look at me with an arched eyebrow then went back to her perusing.  She paused and looked over at me.  “So, I hear yearbooks are relatively new in the UK?  I tried to get yearbooks even farther back but these were the only years we could dig up.”

I shrugged. “I don't know, we had them in secondary when I went, I assumed that they had always been there.”

She shook her head. “Apparently they are a fairly new tradition here.  And they are a lot different than the States, where we just had rows of individual student pictures with names, for each class, then a few pages of class and candid photos with short descriptives from the yearbook committee.”

She held up the one she was going through.  “Here it is all student contributions.  It is sort of neat that each person has at least a half page dedicated to them.  Though in some cases the content is a little stark or blunt.”

She pulled one from lower in the stack on her side.  “You went through all these so you saw my embarrassment.”

I swallowed, I hadn't gone through most of them.

She flipped to a page that made me grin.  It was Fran.  I didn't know she had gone to secondary here in London.  She looked so cute in trendy clothes instead of her leathers.  I had to smile.  She had an entire page dedicated to her.  I scanned it quickly, most of the stuff they printed about her was flattering.  It seems she was quite popular.  About the only disparaging thing it said about her was that she was alright for a Yank.

She hmmed.  “This was Colleen Lane's book.  I wonder why she doesn't have it anymore.”  Then she paused and said a little quieter, “Or maybe I don't.”  I could think of all sorts of depressing reasons the girl didn't have her yearbook anymore so I understood.

She flipped to the back cover and grinned. And pointed at one of the miscellaneous signatures and notes that were written in the book when people traded their books to sign.  I leaned in and in familiar loopy handwriting I read “Colleen, thanks for putting up with an American girl and showing her the hot spots in town.  I know you will go far in all your collegiate or vocational endeavors.  Francine Brighton.”

I grinned.  It was the generic type of thing that everyone said to each other, so I knew they weren't close or anything, but were friends.  That's about all I got in mine besides the whole back cover which had a huge note from Mindy that I will always cherish.  “So your extended vocabulary isn't a recent development?”

She snorted and tossed a paperclip at me.  I smiled then after a couple seconds had to grab the paperclip off the floor and put it back in her little cup.  The bird looked smug with herself as she went back to skimming the books and reading any fun entries.

I was absently skimming my fourth one not really even focusing on it when Fran made a strangled gleeping sound.  I looked up and she was grinning maniacally at me.  She held the yearbook up so I could see the cover and my face went pale.  Bloody hell!

She said, “You were so adorable.  Let's see what they had to say.”

I tried to pull the book from her.  “No need.”

She wouldn't let me as she started reading the entry on the book next to the picture of me with my hair looking like a deranged poodle.  I had got my one and only perm for the picture in the yearbook, and it went terribly, horribly wrong.  “Pavlov is the most likely to...”  She squinted and didn't finish, she found it as distasteful as I did.  “There's that 'stark and blunt' I was speaking of.  They teased you for your quirks?”  I nodded and she asked, “Do I want to know what the Pavlov thing is?”

I shook my head again and shrugged as I said, “Just school kids having their fun.  I was a little obsessive compulsive then too.  They were too dense to know the difference between the man and his dogs.”  I smirked. “Mindy always said that the wankers didn't realize they were calling me brilliant, not conditioned.  Her little inside joke was that I was her Pavlov.”

She just looked at me for a long few seconds in silence before she went back to the book to look at what people wrote in it.  “This book belonged to a... David Strauss.”

I looked up from my book again with a sigh.  “He died just after graduation.  Some complications with a minor surgery.”  She paused and looked at the book again and closed the cover and set it in her finished stack.  Way to go Nett, the silence was uncomfortable now.

I absently wondered how many of these yearbooks found their way back into circulation due to similar circumstances.  Fran seemed to lose her curiosity after that and silently went back to working on the SmartCanvas unit as I faked my way through books, feeling, even more, guilty than before.

I finally had to say something so I said, “Sorry for putting a damper on things. And that I'm not helping any with this.”  I nudged my chin toward the books.  “I told you I was the wrong person for the job.”

She smiled. “No it's alright, really.  I just have this weird thing about loss.  It's my damage, not yours.”  Then she brightened up.  “And you are helping.  With each thing we do, we are inching closer to finding out who Minuette is.  I must admit, I'll be sad when we do.  This is the best-kept secret since J8 and it is a blast to unravel the mystery.”

Then she gave a silly grin, “Besides, you’re the best assistant I have ever had.”

I started to smile then aborted into duck lips.  “Wait, I'm the only assistant you've ever had.”

She just chuckled and went back to work.

I mumbled, “Cheeky bird.” Which only fueled her grin.

A minute later she said offhandedly, “Seriously though, everyone in the Pit thinks you are a godsend.  I think you're sort of ok too.”