Player's Guide To Catfishing (PLAYBOOK #1)

CHAPTER 43: Dinner with the modern-day Kennedy's

ODESSA

"So Vecker." Anthony sips his rum and coke.

I insisted they call me Odessa but they prefer following Liam's lead, who gave me a kiss on the cheek to show off his silent victory.

"Yes?" I wipe the corner of my mouth.

I let Liam order for me this time and I can't enough. I don't even know what I'm eating but it's freaking delicious.

"Liam tells us you're a music major. Do you mind me asking who made you fall in love with the art?"

I don't expect the question but it triggers my favorite memory.

"It's a funny story actually," one I haven't told in a while. "Back in Russia, there was this old lady who lived next to my family shop. She had this record player that played horrible music, I'm talking noise pollution horrible."

They all smile as their eyes stay on me. It's a little overwhelming but Liam also got me pink champagne that makes me feel like a butterfly.

"Then one day my mama, accidently—honestly purposefully kicked the player and it stopped but to her dismay it didn't break. The lady flipped the record, put it back and an old version of La Vie En Rose started to play."

"Wait what?" Liam is the one to ask.

"Turns out she was partly deaf and didn't notice the record was playing backwards all this time. So every day, we would hear these beautiful different versions of La Vie En Rose, none like the last and eventually it stuck. I did everything in my power to learn the song so I could make my own."

I had to sneak off at night and even miss break times at school but it was worth it. No words could ever describe the feeling I felt when I fell in love with music, the words haven't been made yet.

"We only had a piano at my old school so I practiced till eventually I got the notes right. I played it for my brother, who introduced me to Mozart and all the greats. I knew then that I wanted to be just like them."

I wanted to change the world, one note at a time.

"Wow," Anthony looks at Liam then back at me. "What did your parents think? About you pursuing music I mean."

"Well, my mama chased me with a drumstick around the house." They all laugh. "She was scared because school things have always been easy for me, she expected me to want to become a doctor or a lawyer or anything stable."

She wanted me far away from our life in the mob.

"And now?" Hailey sips her champagne.

"She plays my songs for everyone in Portland and my father cries every time he hears me play. They are my biggest supporters," one of the perks of being the family baby.

The main one being, they got grandpa to back off.

"Wow, now we can't wait to hear you play at the showcase." Pamela winks.

"Showcase?" I look at Liam.

"I got everyone tickets to see your show," he whispers and I remember the 6 tickets Jessica mentioned.

They were for him and his family? That was way before our trip to Cambridge, way before we slept together.

"So you better not suck," Neels points a tiny finger at me.

"I won't." I point one back and he blushes.

"Tell us more about your family, they sound amazing." Pamela cuts into her dessert.

I watch her cautiously and she shares the same interest Liam had for me the first time we talked. Like she genuinely wants to know and isn't asking, just because.