Music in the Key of Love

Chapter 25: After

Oh. My. God.

Cressida looked at Graham, unsure what to do. Should she go to him? What was the protocol in situations like this? This was the equivalent of an actor forgetting his lines in the middle of a performance; it mattered little that the audience in this case was only a handful of people.

"Go back to the beginning of the third, I'll cue the accompaniment," Katherine said, her voice urgent.

Graham nodded curtly at her, and began again, at the beginning of the third movement. This time he played through, flawlessly to Cressida's untrained ear. The applause when he finished was deafening, though he did nothing to acknowledge it, but merely sat, staring at the keyboard like when he'd been frozen before.

Now Cressida did go to him, putting her arms around his neck from behind and kissing his cheek.

Phillip's voice rang out, mocking and derisive, his English accent cutting like secateurs. "I told you. Nothing like coming up soft at the wrong moment, is there, Graham, old boy? Even if you get it up eventually, you always remember when you couldn't get it done, don't you?"

Graham rose, forcing Cressida to release him. He was over to Phillip in two long strides, pulling him around to face him, and this time there was no Cressida close enough to stop him. He landed the punch to Phillip's jaw so fast most people didn't even see him do it.

Phillip staggered back.

The sound of Graham's fist connecting rang through the room like an echo, and then he was pulling back, shaking his hand as though trying to shake water from his fingertips.

"Oh dear god, Graham, your hand!" Katherine's voice, horrified.

"You just cost yourself the deClerq, you imbecile," Phillip sneered. "Well worth a punch from you not to have to hear you play with the rest of us!"

Graham turned and exited the room without another word to anyone. 

Katherine made as if to follow him, but Cressida was there first, running out the door, calling his name, and Katherine stopped.

The elevator was already gone when Cressida got to the foyer, and she had to wait for it to come back up before she could go after him, punching the button with L on it over and over.

"Which way did he go?" she asked the doorman. He pointed north on Fifth Avenue, and Cressida went out into the cold November night after him. Even this late at night there were people walking, and he was lost in the crowd.

She walked as fast as she could, calling his name from time to time. She thought she saw him on the park side of the street, entering the park, so she crossed and followed, calling him again.

She hurried down the path and almost ran into him.

"Are you out of your mind to be walking in the park alone at this time of night?" he growled, grasping her arm painfully with his left hand.

"Graham, thank god I found you!"

"Where's your coat? You'll freeze out here."

Cress put her arms around his middle, hugging his taut body to hers. "You're not wearing a coat, either," she pointed out, speaking into his chest, her voice muffled.

He said nothing, merely turned them so they could head out of the park and back onto Fifth again.

He hailed a cab and gave their Myrtle Avenue address to the driver.

"Graham? I don't have any money, everything's in my purse in your room, back at the apartment," Cressida told him. "How are we going to pay for the cab?"