Allegro con fuoco

LXV

"Hey, you're awake."
Brett was sitting on the edge of the bed, putting on his socks. 
"Yup. I can't believe how sporty you've become this holiday. I like it though. Even though I feel like I'm slacking."
Eddy swallowed away a hint of guilt. Look. Brett would know why all this secrecy soon enough. And actually, it wasn't a bad idea to run more often. You know, for real. 
"We'll see if I can keep it up when we get back home." he said, quite truthfully. 
Brett smiled. 
"I should come with you. We'll motivate each other."
"That would be awesome." Eddy paused for a millisecond. Was he going to say this? Was Brett going to see right through him? But this was the time, he knew that. Neutral. Just, a normal conversation. "So... I saw this thing as I was jogging about this monastery. It looks really pretty, I'd love to go visit it later."
"Oh, sure. Do we go by bus or something?" Brett said as he grabbed his phone and turned it on. Eddy exhaled without sound. Okay. So far so good. 
"Yeah. I'll look up the route in a minute, after I stop myself from smelling like a beast." he said, just as neutrally as before. "But we can have breakfast and maybe a bit of practice first?"
That would take them to three, right? There was no way he could get there early and have the surprise spoiled. He had to get them there by three exactly, no earlier, no later, and on top of it he would have to make sure Brett didn't suspect anything was up either.  
He sighed quietly as he took off his only slightly sweaty shirt to go shower.
God, how was he ever going to pull this off?

"Are you feeling okay?" 
Shit. Brett's searching eyes were on him over the hotel restaurant table and he knew why, of course. He was struggling to eat anything, yet again, and of course Brett would notice. 
"Yeah, I think I just overdid it yesterday with the hotpot and the buffet." he lied smoothly. "Not very hungry. But I'm feeling fine, don't worry."
Brett nodded and looked back down at his bowl. Eddy could see that he was only half nullified, but there wasn't very much he could do about that, right now. His heart pounded in his throat, but still he kept his voice neutral.
"So, I looked it up. The monastery is like half an hour on the bus. So if you want we can get some proper practice in first? I haven't touched my violin in three days. I feel like I'll forget how to play at all if I don't practice soon."
Brett grinned. 
"Not to mention your violin will be mad. Yeah, good idea. I really need to work on my etude, because my lesson is Monday."
Eddy managed not to sag in relief. Okay. So far so good. Brett wasn't suspecting anything, he thought. 

They practised side by side, like they had done a million times, and probably would another million, but somehow today Eddy just couldn't get into it like he normally would. He kept stealing furtive glances at the clock, but he thought he was making sure Brett didn't notice a thing. The hands seemed to crawl forward, and even throwing himself into Prokofiev wasn't helping it much. The nerves were swarming his system like insistant fireflies, pervading every pore, stopping his breath from working properly. Twelve thirty. Back to the Prok. One. Back to the Prok. One thirty, and he was gritting his teeth. Could time crawl by any slower? He was counting the minutes by this point, so he saw it when the big hand finally, finally fell on the twelve. He took a deep breath and put his violin down abruptly. 
"Right. What do you reckon? Shall we get on the bus?"
Brett nodded and smiled as he put his violin down too. 
"Absolutely. I can't wait to see this monastery."
"Me either. It looked so pretty on the picture."
Eddy took another deep breath as he packed up his violin. Brett mustn't see his nerves. He'd know, straight away, that something was up. He nodded to himself and put a smile on his face. 
"Ready, then?"
"Ready for anything." Brett said as he picked up his satchell. "You lead the way!"