Page 69 of Requiem

Julia 26

“Are you alright?”

I pull the pillow over my head and scream into it.

“Okay, then. Not so much alright,” I hear Matthew say as he climbs into bed with me.

I feel the palm of his hand under my nightgown, rubbing my back gently. Left to right. Up and down. Circle, circle, circle, just like he does to calm David. He doesn’t say anything, just rubs until I gradually stick my head out from the cotton cocoon that envelops me. He is lying with his head on his own pillow, facing me.

“Hi,” he says with a smile.

“Hi,” I echo.

We lie like that a little while, just looking into one another’s eyes. He runs the back of his hand along my cheek.

“What can I do for you?” he asks.

“Not unless you’d like to represent me at the CD launch party so I can stay home and play with our son …”

He tips his head back and laughs. “Hah! You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Well, too bad, Mrs. Ayers. I’m not the one the public is clamoring to see!”

“Ugh! God, this like one of those weddings that keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. You know, they’ve temporarily cleared out one of the sculpture exhibits at the gallery to make room for us?”

“Wait, wait, wait …” he begins, scrunching up his face like he’s trying to process this information. “The Beau-Radcliffe is a huge space! How many people we talking about here?”

“Two-hundred,” I mouth with exaggerated enunciation.

“What?” He props his head up on his elbow so he’s looking down at me now. “How is that even possible? Who are they inviting?”

“Oh, let’s see… per the Kreisler Competition office, it’s an assortment of donors, press, Kreisler competitors and, of course, my personal guest list.”

“Which is all of what? Like a dozen people?”

“If that!”

“Now … when you say Kreisler competitors, you don’t mean …”

“Jeremy? No. I asked that he be excluded from the invitation list.”

“Still …”

Now I’m up on my elbow, too, a wave of panic washing over me. “What? You don’t think he’d show up, do you?”

Matthew shrugs and shakes his head, his dark hair falling over his eyes. I reach over and brush it back and he grabs my hand before I can pull it away.

“No. I don’t think so, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to ask Tony to be there …”

“Well, he’s on my list anyway …”

“I know, but as a guest. I think I’ll ask him to come in a more ‘professional’ capacity.”

“You really think that’ll be necessary?”

“I know I’d feel better.”

A horrific thought occurs to me and I can’t keep the panic out of my voice.

“What about David? Should we leave him home with Nat? I mean, just in case?”