A Melody from the Heart

She never liked the music I made for a living. She loved to play classical pieces written by Mozart, Vivaldi, and Beethoven while l loved to scream the vocals to the songs I had written. Our musical tastes were so different, yet when she heard me sing for the first time, she realized it didn’t matter how different our musical tastes were. The only thing that mattered was that we had devoted ourselves to the same thing…

Audrey was walking back home after a long day of working, and she wanted nothing more than to sit on her couch with a glass of wine. It had been one of those days that just drained you so much, and she was beyond exhausted. Needless to say, she wasn’t in much of a mood to be bothered at the moment.

When she reached the steps to her building and saw who was standing on them, she let out a deep, frustrated sigh. She hoped she would be able to sneak past him quick enough so she wouldn’t have to be bothered again.

How come most people never took no for an answer? When someone was hitting on you and you said no, for some reason most men heard “Sure, go ahead, touch my ass”. And when Audrey had said no to working with this guy, he, apparently, had heard “If you bother me enough, I’ll probably say yes”.

Audrey tried to walk as fast as possible to the door, past Matt, or whatever his name was, and already had her key in the lock. She had gotten them ready so she could make a quick escape. Audrey knew she was too late when she heard him laugh.

“You haven’t forgotten who I am already, have you?” Matt asked as he walked up behind her. Audrey had no choice but to turn around and talk to him now.

No, Audrey hadn’t forgotten Matt. As much as she tried to or pretended she did, he had been in the back of her mind all week. He was like an annoying fly she couldn’t get rid of. She didn’t know why she couldn’t stop thinking of him, though. She thought it was probably because he didn’t take any of her shit, like most people did. When she came off cold and calculating, people didn’t want to deal with her, and she liked it that way. Something told Audrey that Matt knew this was all an act with her.

“Unfortunately, no, I haven’t,” she replied, trying to get the message across that she didn’t want to talk to him.

“But I’m assuming you forgot about that CD I gave you last week,” he said. Matt smiled when she bit her lip, trying to come up with an excuse. He knew she hadn’t given that CD a second thought after he had given it to her. Matt had waited a whole week for a call from the record company, saying Audrey had changed her mind, but his phone didn’t ring once.

He knew he was being over confident in assuming she would be dying to work with his band as soon as she heard their music, but he just wanted her to realize that they were different than “some rock band”. In reality, he wasn’t sure what she would think about his music at all once she heard it, but it was his last shot.

“I tend to be awfully busy all of the time,” Audrey said, hoping he would just go away already. “So, no, I haven’t even looked at that CD since you gave it to me. I assure you, though, that I wouldn’t have changed my mind even if I had listened to it.”

“I take it you’re not so busy that you can’t take five minutes out of your time right now since I came all the way here,” Matt answered with a smile. He wasn’t going to let her off of the hook, no matter how much she wanted him to leave.

“I didn’t ask you to come and hover around my front door all day,” Audrey snapped, losing her last nerve. “Why can’t you just take no for an answer and leave me alone?”

“I promise to leave you alone as long as you listen to that CD,” Matt said quickly, knowing she wouldn’t refuse that offer. He watched Audrey’s face as she considered his offer, and he knew he was victorious when she let out a frustrated sigh.

“Fine,” she answered as she put her key into the lock again to open the door. “I assume this means you want to be invited in, too.”

Matt put his most charming smile on as Audrey left the door open behind her. She didn’t seem like the type of girl who held doors open for anyone, so he took that as an invitation to follow her inside. He closed the door behind him and followed her up the couple flights of stairs that led to her apartment.

The building wasn’t nice enough to have a doorman, but the interior looked fancy enough to tell him her rent was probably a nice amount of money every month. Matt remembered the record producer, Ryan, had told them her family was from old money, and he wondered if they paid her rent or if she paid it on her own.

When he entered her actual apartment, he noticed the interior was somewhat bare. Audrey had furniture and all the essentials to a living space, and all of the furniture looked high quality. He wasn’t thinking her apartment didn’t have enough stuff, though. He thought it was odd that there was a lack of pictures and little collectibles that most women had. It was almost like she had never become too attached to anything to keep it around, in the sense of objects and people.

He watched as Audrey put her keys on a table next to the door and then proceeded into one of the two rooms the apartment had. Matt followed her and he smiled internally as he looked at the room. When she turned on the lights, he instantly knew this was where she kept everything she needed for her career. The walls were lined with many violins. Some looked old, and some looked like they had never been used. There were shelves lined with thousands of books containing music, and Matt knew she probably kept anything she had ever played there.

No, Audrey didn’t keep much in her apartment, but this room was where she had everything she was attached to.

Matt walked over to the wall where her violins were hanging, and he looked at the first one, closest to the door. It looked much smaller than the one she had been using that day in the recording studio. This one looked the most worn.

“That one was the first violin I ever owned,” Audrey said from behind him as she put down the case she had been holding when she came home. “My parents got it for me when I was four years old.”

He looked at the next one in the line. It was bigger than the other one, and it was polished so much that it shone in the light. She noticed where he was looking this time, and she walked over to it.

“I used this one the first time I ever played in Carnegie Hall,” Audrey said as she carefully took it off of the wall. Matt watched her as a small, reminiscent smiled crossed her lips. It was then he knew she wasn’t as unfeeling as everyone thought. “I was so nervous that night, and I almost thought I couldn’t go through with it.”

“This means everything to you, doesn’t it?” Matt asked quietly as she still studied the violin she was holding in her hands. He knew music meant everything to her, because it meant the same thing to him. He wasn’t happy with the album they had recorded for the same reason it took her almost all day to record something in the studio. Everyone else thought they were crazy, but it was because for them, music was their life. This was what they loved, and if they couldn’t make something as perfect as possible on the first try, they kept trying, no matter how long it took.

Audrey cleared her throat uncomfortably as she hung her violin back on the wall. “I guess I should listen to that CD now,” she said, realizing she had let her stiff outer shell down for a few moments. She didn’t want Matt thinking she was some kind of softie on the inside.

“Yeah, well as long as you can remember wherever you put the one I gave you,” Matt replied.

“It’s not like I threw it in a corner somewhere and forgot about it,” Audrey said as she went to find the bag she had been using that day. “I’m not careless with things.”

Matt watched her dig around in the bottom of the bag, and she gave him a triumphant grin as she pulled the CD out of the bag. He took it from her hand and looked at it.

“It has a crack on the cover, nice,” Matt said humorously. Like usual, it didn’t make him mad. He had hundreds of these CDs in his garage at home, anyway.

“Sorry,” she answered carelessly as she walked back down the hallway to show him where her stereo was.

Matt went over to it and figured out how to work everything on his own. He had already known which of the songs he was going to show her. He didn’t want her to listen to something too over the top, because that would have made her stick with her current decision.

“Are you ready?” he asked with his finger hovering over the play button. It was then that he started to doubt this plan. He thought he was pretty stupid for thinking that listening to just one song was going to make her change her mind.

“Yes, I’m standing here, aren’t I?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. Audrey folded her arms across her chest as she waited for the music to play.

Matt pressed the button and then turned around because he wanted to watch what her expression was as she listened to his band. Because of his sudden doubts, he was now nervous that she wasn’t going to like anything she was about to hear.

As soon as the music started, Audrey closed her eyes so she could concentrate on the music to the best of her ability. Matt remembered that she had her eyes closed that day when he had watched her play her violin, but this wasn’t the same. When she was playing, everything she was feeling was clearly written across her face for the world to see. She was cold and emotionless to most people, but when Matt was listening to her play, he had realized just how many emotions she really had.

He had chosen Seize the Day for her to listen to, as he thought that was the song that had the most emotion behind it on that album. It wasn’t his personal favorite, or the most difficult thing they could play, but he knew she would appreciate the feeling behind that one the most.

As the song progressed, Audrey kept her eyes closed, but her face was still kept emotionless. Matt thought he was going to be able to tell what she thought about the song by watching her expression, but her face wasn’t telling him anything. It was making him even more nervous, and by the time the song was over, he was going out of his mind with anticipation.

When the song ended, Matt took the CD out immediately so she wouldn’t be able to hear the next song, since he didn’t think Trashed and Scattered would make that good of an impression. He turned back eagerly to see what she was going to say, and he noticed her eyes were open now. Audrey’s eyes were now open, and she was looking at him curiously, almost like she was studying him, trying to decide whether her first impression of him was right or not.

“The guitarists in your band are quite talented,” she said quietly. It wasn’t the answer Matt wanted, so he restrained asking her whether she had changed her mind or not. He knew she didn’t like to be rushed.

“Yeah, they are. I consider them to be some of the best out there,” Matt said with a proud smile.

“And you’ve never put any orchestral type instruments into your music before?” she asked, still with the same quiet tone.

“Yes, with some,” Matt replied. “But not to the extent I want to. Before we used them for some background parts, but what I want you to play would be much different.”

“I’ll do it,” she replied quietly, knowing she had lost and he had won. Audrey was certain that at that exact moment, she had finally lost her mind and sanity. Matt gave her a happy, thankful smile. Everyone thought he was crazy for wanting her to play on his album, but now he was going to show them that they were wrong.