Diving Deep (UK Crush #2)

Chapter 52

And the distance between me and Teddy remained as wide as it ever had. Wider, maybe, because now there was this weird animosity slash courtesy which hadn't been there before I'd gotten sick. Some layer of something had been peeled away, and nothing we said or did could put it back.

He basically lived in the music room, while I had the run of the downstairs. He didn't even bother to tell me where he was going these days if he went out, and I did wonder if he was seeing other women, maybe, in addition to Jennifer Jordan. I saw nothing online, however, and this was minutely comforting.

I was having trouble keep up the facade to the boys, though, and I wondered what Teddy was telling them. I filled my texts to them with a lot about my practices, and how busy I was with that, which wasn't a lie. The Mozart was kicking my ass all over the place.

Richard came back from France, along with Mia and the rest of them, and it surprised me how happy I was to see him. Our weekly sessions were getting better, though I just didn't seem to be getting what he was telling me about my piece. We seemed to be at loggerheads, always.

One afternoon in late December, as he was leaning over me and the keyboard, pointing out to me for what seemed the hundredth time how I wasn't getting the discipline, how I was just letting the passion loose to take over too often in too many places, he turned to look at me, placed his hand on the back of my head, and moved to kiss me.

I backed up on the bench and moved my head.

"Richard, no!" I said quietly, shocked.

"It's okay, Ms. Foster. Tinker Bell." He smiled. "You're not my student. And even if you were, with doctoral candidates it's allowed." He sat down next to me on the bench.

I took a deep breath. "I know it's allowed. It's not about that. I have a boyfriend. I'm living with him. I'm in a relationship. What makes you think I'd do that?"

He looked at me. "You haven't mentioned him for weeks. I haven't seen him since the first day. And don't think I haven't noticed that he hasn't followed through on his promise to chauffeur you to and from our sessions, either. I've seen the car that drops you off and picks you up.

"I think it's admirable and mature of him to stick to his agreement to give you a place to stay and practice until your audition, but please don't insult my intelligence by telling me that you're still in a relationship with Mr. Shelley, Tinker Bell." He placed a gentle hand over mine.

"I've been waiting all my life to meet someone like you. And finally, here you are." He looked at the piano as he spoke. "Look. I'm not saying 'marry me' or anything like that. I'm just saying that you should give me a chance. I know about you, I've talked to Professor Van Dyke. I know that Mr. Shelley is your first real romance, and that it must be pretty overwhelming, you know, pop star and all that.

"But that's not really your world, is it? This is where you grew up, this is where you belong. Just listen to how you play, my god. I've seen the photographs of you with those young men in the tabloids, the videos of you online with them. Well, it's a crazy life, isn't it? Is that what you want? To live like that? With paparazzi following you around, with crazy girls screaming that they want to kill you because of whom you're dating?

"You should be filling concert halls in the great cities of Europe, meeting heads of state, teaching at universities. I can give you all that. Or if not me, someone like me. Or even on your own, it's not like you need someone else to get it for you. You're a remarkable young woman. Don't sell yourself short by irrevocably joining your life to someone whose life is so different from your own, who can only bring you down and lock you out of so much that you deserve, that you've worked so hard for."