The Low Notes (6 page)

Kevin dug in his bag for his keys as he leaned against his car door, his impatience taking over as he slammed the bag on the hood of his trunk to get another angle for his search. Finally he saw the glint of silver inside the black abyss. He grabbed the keys and looked up just in time to see her walking out of the building. She was alone. She was beautiful.
Nina.

His breath caught in his chest seeing her stroll to her car. He noticed a thin white wire coming down around her slender neck. She was oblivious to her surroundings as she listened to a song Kevin could only imagine. He absently took a few brisk steps across the pavement in her direction. Nina glanced up from her purse and Kevin was in front of her in an instant. He watched as she pulled her earphones out and stared at him blankly.

Kevin drew in a deep breath before he spoke. “Hello Nina.” It was all he could manage to think of at the moment. Just seeing her face made him dizzy. He cursed himself for still wanting her. He should be the one with the grimace, not her. He noticed Nina shut her eyes for a moment, maybe in effort to make him disappear.

“
Do you want me to talk to the dean about putting you in another English class?” he asked delicately.

Nina’s grey eyes flew wide open and she began shaking her head vigorously. “No! Why would you--? No,” she blurted.

“
Well how exactly should I grade someone who doesn‘t attend my class?” Kevin retorted, his anger pushing its way out of him.

She sighed and turned her face from him.

“
I’ll be there Monday morning, okay?” she whispered.

Kevin nodded and turned quickly to walk back to his car before he let himself say or do something he might regret. He felt his breath quickening thinking about how easy it would have been to reach out and touch her.

“
Kev- Mr. Reed?” Nina called out, correcting herself halfway through.

He spun around to see her again, a vision of grace and beauty. She stood biting her lip primly, starring out at him across the lot.

“
I’m singing at The Black Jewel tonight.” Her statement was simple and true yet the implications her words held were clear to Kevin. He imagined himself running to her, closing the distance between them, sweeping her up in his arms and crushing his lips against hers but he stopped his thoughts dead in their tracks. He nodded at her once more, careful to not coax any more information from her. He was back to his car promptly and, only to torture himself, he glanced back. Nina stood outside of her car door, watching him. Time was stopped, the two of them gazing at each other through the sea of people. Kevin’s eyes smoothed over the curves of her face, the one he’d been dreaming of. Her pink lips parted and her red tongue slipped out to wet them. Kevin knew the gravity of what was happening. He knew the depths of the consequences that could arise and yet he was blinded by attraction and let all rationale escape him. Things were going to get more complicated.

“
What time?” he shouted out.

Chapter Ten

Kevin glanced at the clock for the fourth time in twenty minutes then he looked at Jeff, sprawled out on the couch with his hand grasping the remote. He was staring at the television like a drone. He hadn’t said a word in close to an hour. Jeff and Kevin had taken the night to hang out, though Kevin was ready for him to leave so he could get to The Black Jewel.

“
Well, man, maybe we should call it a night...” Kevin’s voice trailed off in effort to insinuate it was time for Jeff to go.

Jeff stretched his arms above his head and sat up from the indent he'd left in Kevin’s sofa. “Yeah, the wife probably wants me home.”

Kevin was glad it was going to be that easy to get rid of him. He still needed to shower and find something else to wear before heading down the block to see Nina perform. Every time Kevin thought of what he was doing, his stomach twisted into knots. He was changing his mind every few minutes. He
would
n't
go because it was inappropriate and he didn't want to lead her on. He
would
go because he was only going to take in some live music, nothing more. He
would
n't
go because he was still angry with her and there was no changing that.
Yeah right,
he thought.

Jeff started slipping his shoes on near the front door.

“
How did you know Jen was the one?” Kevin stumbled over his words.

Jeff shot him a look. While the two had been so close growing up, like most men, they rarely made mention of the really serious stuff. Jeff had been the shoulder Kevin cried on when grappling with hospital and funeral decisions for his dad, but they hadn't talked about women in anything more than a joking manner since high school.

“
Why?” Jeff asked, his eyes tight on Kevin.

Kevin sighed. “That girl from the restaurant. She... things didn't work out. And I don't think they ever could. But I can't stop thinking about her.”

“
I knew Jen was the one when I realized I cared more about what happened to her than I cared about myself,” Jeff said pointedly.

Mulling over his cousin's statement, Kevin tried not to think about it in terms of Nina. It was too soon, too painful.

“
You're not gonna go see her sing again are you?” Jeff asked.

Kevin let out a laugh. All their years of scheming as teenagers had given them a somewhat psychic ability with one another.

“
Come on man. If you wanna feel like shit, listen to the sappy love songs in the comfort of your own home. Preferably with scotch on hand,” Jeff chided.

He was right. It would be torture to sit in the darkened restaurant and hear her sweet voice wrap around him. If she saw him there, she might think he was there to rekindle their
romance and Kevin was forcing himself to believe that wasn’t what he wanted.

Jeff grabbed his keys and clapped Kevin hard on the shoulder. “Resist the torture.”

Kevin chuckled. “I will.”

With that, Jeff was off into the street and on his way home.

Alone with his thoughts, Kevin’s mind flipped through every image he had of Nina’s face. Burned into his brain was the picture of perfection he’d first glanced upon. Black dress, black hair, pink lips. That was the order in which he’d first seen her. And then there was the intangible beauty of her voice. The velvet sweetness flowing out of her in a captivating song. Kevin opened his eyes and realized he was still standing in the open doorway and his eyes flitted down the street in the direction of where he knew Nina was. He took a second to look down and examined his clothing. His snap decision made, Kevin shut the door and started walking down the sidewalk toward the restaurant.

He
would
go because... well, he just would.

Chapter Eleven

Nina peeked out around the thin black curtain on the side of The Black Jewel’s small stage. The room wasn’t very crowded and she didn’t recognize anyone, making her feel at ease and discouraged all at once. She saw Louis playing the black baby grand piano that would be hers in just a few minutes. It was nine o’clock, a later time slot than last week which meant there was a different group to perform for.

Walking back to the women's restroom, she shut the door and took in the image of herself in the mirror. Her blue dress dipped into a V at her neckline and in the back as well showing a bit more skin than the black one she donned last week. She was wearing the dress for Kevin though she'd never say that truth out loud. Her hands smoothed down the sides of the satin dress and she let her eyes linger in the mirror.
He's not coming
. Her heart sank. It was better to come to terms with it now than in an hour.

Nina walked out of the ladies room and passed Louis in the hall. He was a slender man about seventy. White hair and large wire-rimmed glasses framed his sweet but aged face.

“
You're up, Cookie,” he said, walking by without looking at her. Nina gave a little laugh and pushed her way through the black curtain to the stage. She loved the sound her heels made as they clicked against the hardwood floor. She loved the scene that was laid out before her as she stood there looking into the crowd. Candles were lit on every table and there was a sprinkling of romantic couples and mysterious loners. She took a seat on the shiny black bench and scanned the room in one fluid look.

“
Thank you,” she said softly at the minimal applause she received. She played the starting notes of “I Fall To Pieces” and drew in her first breath when she saw the front door open slowly. Kevin breezed in just as Nina sang out her first line of the classic song set to her own slower arrangement. Kevin stopped just inside the door and starred at her as Nina continued on with her song, not missing a beat though her heart had all but stopped at the sight of him. She turned her head back to the keys, breaking the gaze held so intently between them. As he moved to the bar, Nina felt a chill run up her spine. Nina watched him in the back of the dark room as he stood listening to her. The words she sang were coated in a sad tone. She couldn't help it. He started moving back from where he came and when his hand touched the door, the moment between them was nearly lost. Turning back to meet her eyes one last time before vanishing, her lips formed the words that were all too true for the both of them. Nina finished her song feeling each phrase dig into her heart, leaving gaping holes filled with sorrow. Every song she heard, every song she sang, would always be about him from then on one way or another. The crowd gave a light applause and she was off the stage in a flash. Nina jogged in her heels back to the ladies room and shut the door firmly behind her sliding down to the floor pulling her knees to her chest.

He walked in and walked out. How could he have been so cruel? Was it out of spite? Walk in to show her he could and walk out to show her he didn’t really want to be there? A lump formed in her throat, the kind that warned her tears were on the way. She breathed in deeply through her nose and blew out a huge gust from her mouth. She repeated it again and again and still the moisture started to build in the lower rim of her eyes. When the light knock sounded at the door, she shot up to open it, her tears subsiding. It was David, the manager of The Black Jewel.

“
You alright, Nina? I thought we decided you were going to do a whole set tonight and not just the one song,” his voice trailed off in question.

Nina nodded and smoothed her hands over her cheeks then ran them through her hair.

“
Sorry. I felt sick for a second. I'm fine, though. I’ll be right out,” Nina said, fidgeting with her hemline, waiting for David to leave. He smiled cautiously and made his way back out to the restaurant. Nina drew in one more ragged breath and went back to the stage, leaving her emotions at the door.

Chapter Twelve

A sea of paper was laid out before him, a mess of un-graded work and a slew of sketchily written notes on his own lesson plans. Kevin shuffled through the pile of paper absently. He put assignments in one stack and tiny scraps of paper in another then threw them into separate folders. He was still adjusting to the job. He had no clue how to be a teacher but it seemed like he was getting the hang of it. With the exception of the two senior creative writing classes he had first and second period, his other classes were all freshman English.

He was still arranging the slew of papers when he opened his lower left hand drawer and saw a stack of pastel colored index cards. It had only been two weeks since the first day of school. He grabbed the stack and began thumbing through them. Each student had written down their full name, address, parent’s names, phone number and a personal email address. As he flipped through the stack, her name jumped out at him.

He pulled the blue card out from the rest and stared at it closely feeling his heart wrench reading her card for the first time. He took the information from his students as a formality, a precautionary rule set by the school. Kevin wondered if Nina purposefully made her handwriting so elegant. Her words were scripted in perfect cursive giving the entire card a fluid look.

Nina Maureen Jordan lived at 56 Victor Boulevard with her parent Harold Jordan. Kevin scanned the words and felt an ache in his heart as he pictured Nina going home after their date. The bedroom she slept in that night would one day be what she called her childhood bedroom. His eyes lingered on her phone number. His thoughts tempted him, reminding him he already had that number stored in his cell phone. He imagined being able to talk freely with her just to get to know her better. There would be no schoolmates or fellow faculty to answer to, no age difference or face to face tension. Just the two of them having a conversation.

The warning bell rang, disrupting his wandering mind. Students began staggering in through the door and he waited impatiently for Nina. She told him she'd be coming back to his class but that was before they exchanged glances at The Black Jewel.

When he walked in that night after wrestling with his choice to hear her sing, he wasn’t expecting to feel the way he had. It had all been like a dream to him. First he was walking down the street, then a bit more swiftly, then nearly in a full jog. By the time he could see her car in the parking lot, he was running toward the door like a mad man. He collected himself and opened the door smoothly, letting the stagnant air from the restaurant waft over him as he entered. He glanced to the stage not expecting her to be there as she was. She was stunning, her dress showing him just enough to keep his dreams interesting for the next few weeks. Then as their eyes met from across the room, she sang words that seemed written only for them. Kevin tried to just listen and enjoy her voice as a patron. But it was far too difficult.