Phoebe's Performance

Reopening

Chapter 28

One week goes by and we don't talk about the kiss. Another week goes by and we don't talk about Kathleen. A third week transpires and neither of us mentions Ben. A full month rolls and Otto and I behave like nothing has ever occurred between us.

I've known him four lovely months and I obsess over him.

A list of moments we've shared form in my head. The first moment was in his room with the Bio Oil. The second was when he snatched the newspaper from me and pinned me to the ground. The third occurred outside Antonio's when he ravished my neck. Then there was a definite zing that very next day when we sat on the piano stool together. But the kiss is the highlight. The kiss in the basement of the Hope and Anchor replays in my head like a pop tune and implants itself in my memory.

Every day we sit together at the piano, I have immense difficulty ignoring his manly presence. His dreamy blue eyes captivate me whenever his instructs me, magnifying the intensity that's building.

Sometimes instead of heading back to my office I observe him from the music room doorway. I know that every time I watch, I fall for him a bit more, for he awes and inspires me.

His dedication to his instrument is evidenced in every action he does, it's extraordinary. Since the cast was cut off, the time spent on recovering has increased incrementally.

He starts with Eve's exercises then moves onto Maestro's movement retraining. Maestro tasked Otto with technical exercises. Otto spends copious amounts of time learning the entire book which Maestro gave him. The exercises are drills which assist him with regaining agility and dexterity in his hand. But Otto doesn't just play them in the way Maestro instructs. Otto's internal disciple pushes the training further, where he transposes the exercises into every single key. Like a body builder he exerts himself further on the piano. He's determined that his hand will regain the strength to perform keyboard callisthenics like it used to.

The issue is that his limb is still healing. Essentially he needs time for his hand to rehabilitate. But Otto is determined to cut that time down. In the last few days, he ceases his physio and piano practice, around the four hour mark. Not because he wants to, but because he's pushed himself too far too fast. He claims that the surgery has left his hand with a constant pain. So only when the intensity becomes too much does he stop.

On the night of the grand reopening for Beans Café, I'm so perturbed about Otto that I desperately want to talk to the girls without him. I purposefully don't remind him over the event. Except he remembers about the opening. I can't uninvited him.

That evening we arrive at my sister's café and for a few moments I stop outside. I take a few breaths. It's been around four months since the fire. I've got to give it to my sister. I didn't know how long she'd remain a mess. But as we stand outside the shop my eyes become moist, there are no more boards hiding the frontage. Through the floor to ceiling windows I notice a gorgeous display stand with different flavoured muffins and cakes. There's new stencilling above. Cursive letters have been painted. The colours aren't the same this time. She's gone with a modern black and white. I didn't help her this time but I imagine her having stood up on a ladder, lovingly painting the front, again.

From the outside Beans Café appears sleek, fashionable and modern. Mickey reaches for a red velvet muffin from the window display and she notices us both standing on the pavement. Her entire face breaks into a beam, one which stretches from ear to ear. She waves and gestures that we should both come in.

A jingle of the bell, attached to the doorway, notifies people we've arrived. Not that anyone would hear the tingle because there's jazz music in the background and about twenty different faces milling around the café. A table in the centre of the café is laden with finger food and glasses. My head darts round the room and I notice Carol and Sophie at the back of the shop. There's also Antonio from the restaurant. Eve's there too, who waves at us. But it's Jack, beer in hand that steam rolls through the crowd. He embraces me into an all encompassing hug.