Ethan Wong, an ex-prodigy violinist, thinks it's not meant to be.
After his latest mental breakdown at his last violin competition, where he placed tenth out of ten contestants, he's not sure why his music professor appointed him the soloist for th...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Apparently, coincidences were a common thing on this trip. Ethan would call it a coincidence, but running into each other in the lobby at the same time again was starting to sound a lot like fate.
Judging from the handful of orchestra students and his advisor behind him, he was also returning from practice. We stopped as our eyes met, my teammates nearly running into me from the sudden stop before going ahead to the elevators. Kenji glanced curiously between us before being pulled along by Felipe and our catcher, Eric.
I resisted the urge to get too close to Ethan, not because he was with his friends/classmates, but even after all these years, there was still that magnetism about him that made me want to be around him.
It was like seeing an old friend again, except Ethan didn't look as pleased, and I was pretty sure he was pretending I was some crazed stranger as he turned back to his group.
I tried not to feel hurt by it and epically failed.
When we had dated, I habitually ran to him in a crushing hug, lifting him to where he'd flail his feet in the air until I let him back down. He always insisted it was embarrassing and hated it, but I could tell he had secretly enjoyed it back then.
Now, I doubted even hand-holding would be an option based on the look in his eyes.
Ethan turned to his classmates behind him. "I'll see you tomorrow."
They hesitated before waving at their professor, answering a phone call, and heading to the elevators. Taking just a few strides toward him, I gave him a friendly smile and wave, which I hoped wouldn't come off as creepy or too over-the-top.
"Hey," I tried, my smile dropping as he narrowed his eyes between the rest of my teammates and me. "I was just thinking of picking up some pizza if you want some."
"Or not," I added, seeing his face hadn't changed. Glancing nervously at the elevators, I added, "The team's probably going out for wings and beer nearby, but I can get that anywhere. New York pizza in New York, right? As the Romans do, or however that saying goes."
"Pizza?"
I nodded. "Or anything, really. If you'd like to join me. Or I can grab food and bring it up to share. Or we could order room service or something. Unless you're eating with your classmates...."
Ethan's professor approached us after hanging up his phone, luckily sparing the embarrassing rambling from my mouth. A bright smile donned his face. "There is a great pizza spot nearby. It might be good for you to take your mind off the concert, Ethan. Enjoy some food and see what Manhattan's got to offer."
If looks could kill, I was about to be the primary witness. Either Ethan was close with his professor, or his professor was laxer than most. Alan, as I recall was his name, just shrugged, turning to me. "You two were close; it might do both of you some good to catch up. You're sharing a room, but it's only the weekend. I'm sure there's a lot to catch up on."
