“Are we crazy to do this?”
“Do what?”
I reached up to brush his hair back, swallowing. “This. Moving to New York. Without a plan. Without anything but each other.”
Reese smiled, leaning down to press his lips to mine before he propped his head up again. “Maybe. But if the one thing we do have is each other, I think the odds of us making it are pretty high.”
“Yeah?” I asked, smile mirroring his own.
Reese nodded, framing my chin as his eyes searched mine. “I’d bet everything I own on us.”
“Me and you against the world, huh?”
His smile doubled at that. “I like the sound of that. What do you think?”
I threaded my arms around his neck, pulling him down into me for a long, tender kiss. And in that moment, I knew without a doubt that I would do the same. If anyone could make it, if anyone could defy all the odds and somehow emerge even stronger on the other side, it was us.
It was him, the broken man too bruised to feel, too scared to love, who somehow found a home in me.
It was me, the scarred woman too afraid to trust, too busted up to believe, who somehow found music again in him.
And it was us, the unlikely couple, the man too old and the girl too young, the teacher and the student who weren’t afraid of what others would say, what they would think, what they would assume.
If it really was us against the world, one thing was certain.
I couldn’t ask for a better man to have on my team.
“I think nothing can stop us now,” I answered on a breath.
And I knew nothing ever would.
Three Years Later
Sarah
It must have been a fun house mirror.
That’s the only thought I had in my mind as I stared at my reflection in the crisp white room, the bright lights that surrounded the mirror casting my skin in a golden glow. I traced every edge of the reflection that stared back at me, half with wonder and half with disbelief.
It couldn’t be me.
It couldn’t be me, standing there, confident and strong and collected. It couldn’t be my eyes that glistened in the light, couldn’t be my lips that parted, letting out a long, steady breath. It couldn’t be my face that was framed by those short, tight, bouncy curls — each one hairsprayed to perfection. I reached one hand up, the reflection mirroring the movement, and touched one curl — just to be sure. I felt the rough tendrils of it, plucked it down before letting it bounce back into place.
Still, it couldn’t be me.
It couldn’t be me, standing backstage at Carnegie Hall, less than an hour from playing for nearly three-thousand people.
It couldn’t be my hands — those cold, clammy things at my side — that would play the piano tonight.
It wasn’t possible, and yet, it was true.
I was here. It was me. This was my literal dream come true.
Nerves fluttered to life in my belly like a hurricane of butterflies, and I pressed my hands against it with a smile, smoothing my palms over the silky fabric of my black dress. My eyes fell to where my hands framed my stomach in the mirror just as a knock sounded on my dressing room door.
“Come in,” I said, still marveling at my reflection. When the door opened behind me, my eyes shot to the tall, dark figure who entered, and my smile slipped from my face like sand through an hourglass.
I turned, letting my eyes drink him in from head to toe as Reese let the door close softly behind him. He was doing the same as I was, his eyes trailing from my face, following every smooth inch of fabric that covered me all the way down to my crystal high heels before they climbed their way back up. And I took in every inch of him — his long, chestnut hair, neatly styled and flowing down just past his shoulders, his broad shoulders stretching the charcoal tuxedo he wore, the slacks hanging off his hips in a way that made my stomach spring to life with a completely different set of nerves.
And in his hands, he held a bouquet of lilies — my favorite flower.
Our eyes met at the same time, and we both smiled. Reese crossed the room to me, holding out the flowers as an offering between us.
“You look…” He swallowed, eyes trailing down again before they met mine once more. “You look like a dark queen, here to seduce us with your magic and eat us all alive.”
I laughed. “Thank you?”
“It’s a compliment. Trust me,” he said as I took the flowers from his hands.
I inhaled their scent with a smile, careful not to get any of the pollen on my hands or dress as I turned back toward the mirror, placing them carefully in one of the empty vases provided by the hall. I was still facing the mirror when Reese slid up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me into his chest. One hand skated up, thumb brushing my bottom lip, which was painted a glossy, candy apple red.
“I like this,” he murmured, but it turned into a growl when he removed his thumb and saw it was still painted red. “Fuck, I really like this.”
I smirked. “You can take it off me tonight.”
“Woman,” he growled, pulling me into him more as he shook his head. I giggled, leaning into him, and our eyes found each other in the mirror as we both released a content sigh.
Three years.
Three years I’d been in New York City with that man holding me in the mirror.
Three years of living together, of learning together, of loving. There had been struggles from the very beginning — starting with Reese finding work after being removed from the city for so long. While I studied with James, working on my technique and networking my ass off to get the right connections to play at Carnegie, Reese had been looking for any place that would pay him to do what he loved. He’d started off as a tutor for private students, eventually landing a gig at a restaurant much like The Kinky Starfish. But it wasn’t until last year, until one of his old colleagues reached out to him that everything changed.
They’d invited him to teach at Juilliard.
It was part time for now, but ever since he started teaching, I’d watched him bloom into a brand-new man. His purpose had been refilled, refueled by these students.
“Their passion reminds me of you sometimes,” he’d said one night at dinner. “And I finally feel like I’m using my talent to make a difference in this world.”
Reese wasn’t the only one who had to struggle when we got to the city, either. On top of feeling the pressure of studying with James, of networking, and playing whatever gigs I could find to make ends meet, I was also dealing with the trial.
After I told my mother what happened with Wolfgang, she went with me to press charges. And in a long, grueling process, we tried to fight against what happened to me — what could possibly have still been happening to others.
Unfortunately for us, no one else spoke out against him.
It was my word against his, no rape kit or witnesses to provide testimonies. The one and only person I told, Dr. Chores, testified against me, saying she had no recollection of my confession of what happened, nor would she have ever have brushed it off as I implied.
For the longest time, I felt crazy. Reese would hold me in our bed in our small apartment, rocking me as I sobbed and wondered if I’d made it all up. Did it really happen? Was I crazy? Did I invent the injury, the rape, all of it? Did I black out, thinking I’d told someone when I hadn’t really?