Limelight Melody

(III) In the Spotlight

"You really have to stop waiting for several hours."

Felix glanced up at Sharon. She had a disapproving look on, her hands on her hips.

"I'll do what I want with my Saturdays, thank you," Felix responded. Sharon rolled her eyes.

"You're spending your days off sitting in a cafe for several hours just because you don't want to play violin alone."

"So? Maybe that's how I want to spend it."

"No one wants to spend their Saturday like that."

"Prove it."

"Fine," Sharon grabbed the arm of a passing customer, stopping them. "Sir, would you enjoy spending several hours sitting in this cafe just so you can play an instrument for, say, an hour?"

The man looked confused, glancing between her and Felix unsurely. "Uh, no?"

Sharon let go of the man, raising an eyebrow at Felix. "See?"

Felix ignored her, smiling apologetically at the man she had grabbed, who now looked incredibly confused. After a moment of staring, he hurried off, disappearing out the cafe doors. Felix let out a groan, rubbing his eyes.

"Why did you just grab that poor guy?" Felix asked. "He had nothing to do with this."

"I needed to prove I was right."

"And you just grabbed a random person for it? Would you murder someone to prove you're right?"

Sharon shrugged. "Depends on what I'm proving."

Felix shook his head. "You're unbelievable."

"So are you. Deal with it."

Rolling his eyes, Felix turned to look out the window. No one had visited the piano all day. He was starting to lose hope that someone would actually approach the piano. Maybe he would have to look elsewhere to perform in public.

"Just go perform by yourself," Sharon said. "You'll do great."

Felix shook his head, turning to face Sharon again. "No, I won't. I'll get laughed at and booed away."

"Felix, no you won't. There's no one at this mall who would even dream of booing you away."

"I'm willing to bet there's several people. Besides, I'm not good enough to do it by myself. I need someone to cover me."

"I have never once seen you mess up. The people you play with mess up more than you do."

"I'd make a fool of myself."

"You're making a fool of yourself by not playing."

Felix shrugged. "Better to be a fool alone than in front of a crowd of people."

"You're hopeless," Sharon groaned.

Before Felix could retort, Sharon's boss yelled from the kitchen, "Get to work, Sharon! I don't pay you to chat!"

"I'm going, I'm going!" Sharon shouted back.

"Better get working, SHARON," Felix said, taking a sip of his coffee. Sharon glared, flipping him off.

"I hope you choke on that coffee."

"That's rude of you to say to a loyal customer."

"Shove it up your ass."

"Already do."

Sharon wrinkled her face in disgust. Felix laughed as she hurried off, shaking her head. He turned to the window, staring out longingly at the piano. If only someone would play it. He thought that covid would have made more people learn piano, but those people clearly didn't visit malls.