The Maestro | RusAme |

Sixteen

The week was very uneventful, Gilbert saying that he was never able to catch Yan coming out of the office building that entire week. He even waited just before he was supposed to go on with the band, but never saw her.

Roderich suggested that he may not have ever caught her at the right time. Ivan told Roderich her work schedule was very sporadic.

However, the day before the party, Gilbert did see her walk out of the office, and stand outside for a few minutes on her phone. A car pulled up, and Gilbert wondered if she called a Lyft or an Uber; but a man with black hair and blunt bangs got out, opened the passenger door for her, and held her hand as she stepped in. He walked around to the driver's side, and they went in the opposite direction of where she would go to get home.

Gilbert was so shocked, but so pleased to know that he just made big progress. He wished he caught it on camera, however he knew a guy who would be able to get the traffic camera footage from the camera that watched the parking spaces on the side of the road, in front of Yan's office building.

He felt thankful that he was in the right place at the right time, and that he was fortunate enough to maybe have his hands on some video evidence...

As Gilbert told Amelia this, she flipped. She was both angry on Ivan's behalf and glad she had something to catalise the falling out between him and Yan.

The look on her face was impossible to create as Gilbert said, "And he was holding her hand!! He was such a gentleman, that I'm not sure that was an Uber..."

Amelia was, at first, excited to have some possibility that Ivan was being cheated, but the more she thought, she realized he was being cheated on while he paid her bills and worked on the chores in, around, and outside the house.

"What a snake!" She exclaimed, gasping and firmly setting a hand on the kitchen table. "Who would even have the time or put in the effort to do that? I dont understand..."

Gilbert reassured her. "Don't fret, little Amelia, I will be following her tomorrow, so I'll make sure I figured out what it is that she's doing, because I'm such an awesome friend." He smirked.

"How are you getting into the party?"

He sighed. "Roderich said its a black tie event, so I guess I'll sneak in as a guest or a waiter... Ugh, I hate fancy clothes. I have to wear that crap everyday at the bar already."

"It's worth it, you love getting into people's business." She smiled, patting him on the face condescendingly.

He rolled his eyes, laughing. "Well, anyways, Frau, I have to talk to my buddy and see if he can do anything about getting his hands on some of that footage."

"Who is this friend, anyways?"

He sighed, "It's kind of complicated... I know a guy, who knows a guy who's dad is the traffic commissioner here. His dad puts him in charge of some of the security footage in the evening after school, you might have seen him at the school... He's tall, blonde, wears glasses... Weird accent?"

Amelia thought for a second.. "Nerdy kid from uh... Finland? Or Estonia I think?"

Gilbert laughed, "Ha, yeah! That kid. Totally tech savvy kid, he can get the surveillance video for us."

"Okay, then we'll get the footage, and for now, you follow Yan home and to that party."

"Aye aye, captain. Hey, how's writing that song coming?"

Amelia face palmed, shaking her head. "I sound awful. I suck at guitar and I don't know what to write."

Gilbert then asked, "Do you even own a guitar?"

"No, I'm borrowing one from Roderich. I've gotten better at strumming and playing chords, but I'm so awful at singing, and I don't know what to right. I sound like a screaming goat." She griped, getting up from the table and walking over to the couch, and flopping down face first, groaning.

Gilbert went and grabbed the guitar from the corner of the small livingroom, and opened the case.

"Decent instrument. Can I try playing something Frau?"

Amelia nodded, "Mhm."

He turned it up a bit, and played a chord. "You need a capo. I think I have one... He set the guitar down and went into his dresser drawer and found one, and returned to his seat on the couch at Amelia's feet. He serenaded her with his raspy, harsh voice.

"I take back what I said about sounding like a dying goat." She joked.

"Excuse me," he corrected, "Don't you mean a screaming goat? Personally, I think I have a unique sound." He said with an inflated head.

"Uh huh," she laughed.

He continued to sing and play guitar. He was not very good at either, though he was sometimes able to play some legible chords. However, he was miserable at finger picking. He was getting notes but his fingers were not able to pick the notes.

Amelia took a stab at it and ended up being better at finger picking and playing chords, but didn't know how to play and sing at the same time. So she continued playing tabs from her phone.

"You need to learn how to read music, how else are you going to right a song?" Gilbert asked.

She sighed for the millionth time that day, "I really don't know. When something sounds good, I record it. I'm not good at this, so I have no clue what I'm doing. Would you help me with this?" She implored him, desperate for something that would make writing Ivan a song easier.

Gilbert obviously wasn't going to write the whole song for her, but he said he'd help. They say at the couch for a few hours, coming up with different ideas and brainstorming. They came up with a good backup in case they couldn't write a song, so they came up with a good song to serenade their Russian friend with.