The Luckycharm -A Brian May fanfiction- English

Only two days

I thank her with a slight nod and I go to sit in the right-hand chair, without even turning to look where I am going to sit. A thudding sound from below, the classic noise of the sheets that curl up, snaps to a halt.

"Oh my God!" I exclaim and immediately get up again. I turn around and I see some sheet music on the chair, the sheets that my butt was crumpling.
"Sorry Lilibeth, I... I'm really sorry" I humbly apologize, I grab the sheets music and try to roll them out with my hands to undo the damage done, but she reassures me: "Don't worry Brian, they're not broken".

She reaches me and she reach out her hand to me. I give her the crumpled sheets music and she gently grabs them while my hand still lingers on hers. My eyes stare at hers, they're beautiful, large, full of expression and light, though there's something, something that I still haven't understood what it is, something that doesn't make her fully happy. Lilibeth lowers her head embarrassed, she feels that my interest for her is not just the friendly interest of musician to a colleague, so she takes her hand off mine and reaches the nightstand.

"Were you ... were you writing a new song?" I ask her, I hope this can help to distempered the tension between us because of me.
"Yes, well... I tried to do it last night, but..." she starts to explain, then she stops.

She places the sheets music and the belt on the nightstand, then come back to me at the foot of the bed.

"Now you can sit down, the chair is free" she says and smiles at me.
"Oh yes, thank you" I answer her and I take a seat on the chair, this time without doing any damage.

She sits down next to me, on the other chair, and unfastens some of her coat buttons to be more comfortable.

" Do you ... do you often not sleep at night?" I ask her.
"Yes I do, It often happens to me. When I'm nervous or stressed, so almost every night. When I was a child, when I was upset about something, I couldn't sleep at night. Then over the years..."
"How old are you?" I ask her point-blank.

I know a man should never ask a lady for age, but she's young, she's very young.

"I'm nineteen years old" she answers me.

I've imagined it, it's clear she's younger than me, she's young and beautiful, her smile instills me a sparkling and lively shiver like the spring air.

"You're very young, I think that you'll be able to overcome this difficulty with time" I try to reassure her.
"You talk as if you were eighty!"
"I'm not eighty, but in July it will be thirty-seven and, believe me, I'm starting to feel them"
"You can feel them, but ... but I give you ten less" she answers me and gives me a very, very sensual look.
"I ... I thank you for the compliment" this time It's me who bows the head for embarrassment.
"It's the truth and... we don't have many years of difference, they are just ..."

"Seventeen" I point out "We have seventeen years of difference"
"You're very quick to do the calculations, congratulations"
"Yes, well... you know, I'm a physicist as well as a guitarist"
"I know it: you like stars"
"Yeah, I like the stars and since I was a child. My father took me out of the city to see the stars with the telescope we built together. It was then that I realized that in life I wanted to study them, I wanted understand all the ... the universe mechanism, the Planets, the galaxies. All this has always fascinated me" I explain her.

I hope I'm not boring her, but from her admiring looks I don't think I'm boring her.

"My father is an engineer, so he has always supported my idea of go on with my studies, my graduation..."
"Did you build your guitar with your father, it's right? "
"Yes, we built the Red Special together. Beyond the stars, the other thing I could never do without is music. Paradoxically, I started taking piano lessons, then when I was seven my parents gave me the first acoustic guitar and ... and since then I've never left a guitar in my life"

"Do you still play the piano?"
"Yes, I still play it. But I have to concentrate a lot, I don't have the same fluency as Freddie!" I laugh and she laughs with me too.
"Well, I understand you. I'm terrible with the guitar instead. Mizzy, our guitarist, tried to teach me how to play it so many times, but without success!"
"Everyone is more inclined for something, I think it's fair. So ... so your band name is RodaViva, how many years have you been playing together?"

"We have always been play together. We knew each other since we were child. We're all the same age, at primary school we were all in the same classroom. In the afternoon we did our homework together, we played together... Around seven years old we started to love music. Marilena, who's Mizzy, started to take guitar lessons, Lisa bass guitar lessons, Annalisa, that is Allison, drum lessons and I piano lessons. The idea of made a band came naturally..."
"So Mizzy is my colleague. I'd be curious to hear her play"
"Yeah, it's true! Mizzy is your colleague" she says with a smile "But ... unfortunately we're forced to perform in playback here in Sanremo, so you won't be able to hear us live. I would be very happy if you accepted my invitation to one of our concerts, maybe the one in London, next June"

"It would be an honor for me"
"What are you saying? The honor is mine. It'll also be the first time we will play in England"
"Have you never played in my country?"
"No we haven't, in England we have never made concerts. We've performed in France, Belgium, Spain...but your country is one of our main goals, also because we are Italian but we write songs in English"

"Oh, I understand, well ... this increase your target and not just a little" I explain her, I feel more like a music producer than a musician in this moment.
"Yes, but it also increases the competition too" she replies "Do you know how many singers and band write lyrics in English even though they are not English? A lots, Brian, you can't imagine how many. And this is the hardest obstacle to overcome, believe me"
"But I'm sure you will overcome it" I try to reassure her.

I slightly get closer to her and I put my hand on her knee. Lilibeth looks at me strangely, she didn't expect such a daring gesture from a shy and insecure guy like me, and indeed I'm surprised too for what I'm doing.

"But ... but how can you say such a thing if you haven't even heard one of our songs yet?" she replies in a low voice, moving her knee to force me to lay my hand somewhere else.
"I say this because ..." I try and I retract, I'm embarrassed this time "... because if you are here in Sanremo there will be a reason. I know is the most important singing competition here in your country"
"Oh Brian, Sanremo Festival has changed a lot" she sighs "When I watched it when I was a child, the singers sang live. That one was really a musical competition!"
"Yes, you're right. The playback is not the best thing in a musical competition both for the singers and the guests"

"Yeah, I agree perfectly. And we RodaViva had another problem: the songs in the competition must all be in Italian and..."
"... and you girls write the songs texts in English"
"Exactly. So we had to translate the text in Italian, arrange the musical part and... what a mess!"
"But you did it in the end, now you're here"
"Yes, but... but I don't know... When I listen my song in Italian ... I'm not convinced"

"Did you write it?"
"Yes I did, I wrote the text"
"Good. What the name of the song?"
"Moon Flames. We could leave the title in English at least"
"Oh well, at least" I comment "Moon Flames... it's an intriguing title and I bet that the text will be nice too since ... since you wrote it"

Lilibeth bites her lip and lowers her head, maybe I'm flirting with her too shamelessly, but I have only two days, only two days and one is already passing by.