“We do. Bottle or tap?”
“Bottle, please and a Philly cheesesteak with fries.”
“You got it,” she says as she takes the menu and heads back to the bar.
I turn my attention back to Vince, “Everything ready for the performances?”
Vince tilts his head, giving me an incredulous look, as the waitress returns with my beer. “Do you even have to ask?”
I chuckle at his question, “Not usually but you never know when you’ll decide to go slacker on me.”
Vince scoffs, “Funny man’s been alone in the car too long.”
“What’s the itinerary look like?”
“I know you like to break up the formal performances with the hospital visit, but I could only get us a spot for tomorrow afternoon, at one o’clock.”
“That’s fine, I’m just happy to get to do those appearances.”
“Good. I know how much they mean to you.”
Before I can say anything else, the waitress brings my sandwich. I add some salt and pepper before taking a bite, immediately realizing this sandwich has nothing on the one Rose made for me.
Vince waits until I take a sip of my beer, “Have you talked to Rose lately?”
The mention of her name makes me smile, “I texted her when I arrived. I’m going to call her when I get back to my room.”
“Are you going to see her again?”
“I hope so,” I reply cautiously. “Where are you going with this Vince?”
He holds up his hands in surrender, “Woah, Alek, relax. I’m just asking a question.”
I take another sip of my beer, “She’s not like any woman I’ve met before. She’s beautiful and smart, she owns her own business and as a bonus she loves classical music.”
Vince studies me for a minute, “She sounds amazing.”
I smile at his comment, “She really is.”
Vince and I talk a little while longer while I finish my sandwich and beer. When the waitress brings the check, I pay for my meal, say goodnight to Vince and head back to my room.
Once I’m back in my room, I walk over to the window and push back the curtain. Stars are just starting to fill the sky as the moon begins to glow brighter over the Ohio River. I pull my phone from my pocket and call Rose.
“Hello?”
The sound of her voice sends a rush of warmth through me. “Hey you. I hope I’m not calling too late?”
“Not at all, in fact I really needed to hear your voice.”
Her reply and tone of voice set me on alert, so I press for information. “Everything go okay at work today?”
“Yeah, for the most part, everything was fine.”
Fine. I’ve been in enough relationships to know when a woman says things are fine, they are far from it. “What happened?”
“Nothing I’m not used to.”
“Rose, tell me. Please?”
She sighs, “Todd came in as I was getting ready to close.”
My grip tightens on my phone. From what she’s said, her ex-husband was never physically abusive, but she spent years being verbally abused by him. “What did he do?”
“He heard I’d been seeing someone and wanted to know…” Her voice trails off.
I close my eyes knowing I don’t want to hear this but knowing I need to know what he did to upset her. “What Rose? What did he want to know?”
I hear her sniffle and my chest tightens, her voice is barely audible through the phone as she says, “He wanted to know if you knew what a whore I was.”
Son of a bitch. Anger courses through me at the way he belittles her, they’re divorced for crying out loud, can’t he just leave her be? Every instinct inside me tells me I need to go to her, and if I were still in Charleston, there’s no doubt I’d be by her side. However, the fates aren’t always kind, and the distance between us keeps me from her, for now.
“Rose, I’m so sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize, Alek. It’s not your fault my ex is a bully.”
“Maybe not, but you don’t deserve to be spoken to that way. You are beautiful and kind, you deserve to be loved.” She’s quiet, possibly mulling over my words. “I should have been there,” I whisper into the phone.
“Alek, as much as I’d love for you to be here, you have responsibilities. Although,” she draws out the word. “If you had been here, you would have got to see the look on Todd’s face when I threw him out of the shop and told him I‘d call the police if he ever came back.”
I can’t help but chuckle, “You didn’t?”
“Oh but I did.”
I shake my head, even though I know she can’t see me. “And here I was thinking I needed to be your knight in shining armor and rescue you from your ex.”
I can hear the smile in her voice as she says, “Oh brave knight, haven’t you heard? Here in the twenty-first century, it’s the fair maiden who rescues the knight.”
She may have been only teasing, but she has no idea how true that statement is. Until I met her, I hadn’t realized how lonely life on tour truly was. Rose gave me more purpose, something to look forward to at the end of the day and a reason to want to go home at the end of the tour.
Chapter 11
Rose
Just like every morning since he left, I wake to a good morning text from Alek. Every morning those texts put a smile on my face and brightened my day.
As I wait for my coffee to brew, I look over Alek’s tour schedule displayed prominently on the refrigerator, not that I haven’t already committed it to memory. Yesterday was a travel day for him, going from St. Louis to Dallas. I’ve learned Alek likes to drive to each city whenever possible claiming it’s easier to drive than worry about his violin getting lost in the shuffle. Today he’s spending time rehearsing for his first performance, so I won’t hear from him until later.
Finishing my breakfast, I
