Andante con Brio

CLXXXV

She caught his eye straight away and gave him the broadest smile, before focusing back on what she was doing. 
Anna. 
He cringed slightly as he thought back of a younger Eddy, at a barbecue in Perth, back when he and Brett had only just gotten together for real. That seemed like a lifetime ago now, but he could recall his awkwardness very easily, how she had shown interest, how he had had no clue how to let her down easy without telling her Brett was his boyfriend. 
Was that why they had never kept in touch, even though they had been planning to? Because it was actually nice to see her, and nice to see she was still concert master. 
"They sound good, right?" Brett whispered to him as they walked further into the hall and sat down on some chairs that were lined up against the side wall. 
"They do!"

"Eddy, Brett! Hi!" 
Anna had bounded up to them the second John had dismissed them, and was flinging her arms around them both in turn. "It's so good to see you! How have you been?"
"Hi, Anna! Good, real good. And you?"
Had her smile been this wide last time he had seen her? She had seemed quiet, almost demure then. She was radiant now.
"Real good, too! You know... I auditioned a couple of weeks ago, and I'm in! I'm going to be at your con next year, and so is my boyfriend. Look, he's the flute over there."
Eddy quickly blinked several times to try and absorb all of this information. Following her pointing finger he did see a guy with a flute. A really handsome blonde guy, who smiled at her and waved. 
"Whoa. So... you're going to the con instead of being a lawyer and you're dating a white guy. Has your mum had a nervous breakdown yet?"
The second he blurted it out he wondered if it was appropriate, but she laughed straight away. 
"Trust me, some conversations have been had. I don't care. I'm going, and so is he."
"Wow. Well... congratulations. It'll be great to have you there."
"Thanks."

"Quartet, you coming up here?"
John's voice was soft enough, but somehow it seemed to carry through to the furthest reaches of the room. Kids were still milling about everywhere, packing up instruments, leaving the room to go... well, Eddy had no idea where to, yet. He did know there wouldn't be a field here, for them to sit and have barbecues on. He felt old, suddenly. Last time he had been just one of the kids, but now they were the oldest ones in the room, apart from John. 
"Of course." he replied, his violin already in his hand. 
They took four chairs and formed them quickly into a semicircle. 
"So, how was your first night in Taipei?" John asked them all. 
"Awesome. I love Taipei." Todd enthused straight away, and Eddy felt that surge of pride again. 
"The hotel is really good too." he added quietly. 
John looked at him and gave him a little wink. 
"Good. So, shall we get started on the first movement?"

Suddenly the little bit of warming up they had done in the hotel room didn't feel like nearly enough. Eddy took a deep breath as he put his sheet music on the stand, and tried to compose himself. Look, he had practised this. He knew this. It wasn't that hard. And it was only John, here. 
But he knew straight away that that was exactly the issue. What John would think mattered to him, it mattered a great deal. 
He smiled manfully and gave the quartet his A.