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Maestro, Virginia

Very early Saturday

She’d drunk way too much She was an idiot Why had she, Delsey Freestone, a reasonably intelligent twenty-five-year-old supposed adult, swan-dived into those last twocheese director of Stanislaus was treating you like his favorite student, arita recipe, that’s why, and you were afraid to turn him down To be honest, you were flattered, too And as in those ood?

She was very sure at that moment she didn’t want to know

She didn’t understand why Dr Elliot Hayman, the new director of the Stanislaus School of Music—Call me Elliot, raduate student fearitas and attention on her Not only was Dr Hayious music school, he was also an internationally celebrated concert pianist, with a libido, she’d read in a critic’s review, to rival his glissandos When it came to renown, he was in a different universe than hers She and Anna Castle, a violinist from Louisiana and her best friend in Maestro, had decided Dr Hayman enjoyed the role of director because it appealed to his vanity, but they also both acknowledged it was only the older graduate students, like herself, who believed that he was, at the core, faintly contemptuous of the students On the other hand, he was a sharp dresser, dropping in conversations that he shopped twice a year in Milan for his suits, always fashioned for him by Bruno Giraldi himself Whoever Bruno was, Anna observed, Dr Hayman certainly dressed to impress

So why had Dr Hay her entirely too much attention until she was certain every student within hearing distance now hated her guts? Thank you, Dr Hayman—Elliot—that was just what she needed And ould Anna say about hih and say so it out in her lazy Louisiana drawl until Delsey would want to yank the words right out of herthat Anna had come, but no, Delsey had had to fly solo

Delsey supposed the sudden waves of gut-wrenching nausea co brain had been heaven-sent, since it had gotten her out the door of Professor Rafael Salazar’s sprawling ranch-style home on Golden Meadow Terrace in under a minute, with no one the wiser, only one arm in her coat when she’d quietly closed the back door behind her She’d sucked in the cold winter air, grateful to be out of Professor Salazar’s whooping hoedoay from both him and his twin brother, Dr Hayman, and wasn’t that a hoot? Twins! Separated as boys and ending up with different last na they had in common, as far as she could see, was their incredible talent

She drove very carefully until her head was pounding so hard and she was feeling so woozy she erving like a drunk, which, she supposed, she was No cops, please—too much humiliation She eased her ancient Spyder to the curb of Tinsel Tree Lane and shifted into neutral She pressed her forehead against the steering wheel, willing the world to stitch itself back together for her, swearing to any power listening that she’d go back to her one-drink limit She’da bottle of hooch with her boyfriend Davie Forman, and wanted to die, certainly not have sex with hiht was the first time she’d broken that promise in nine years What an idiot you are; you deserve freezing your butt off and having your head explode, and the

She finally cracked an eye open to see the half-moon crystal clear overhead It looked as cold and hard as the solidaround her—trees, street signs, cars,snow, the locals called it—unusual, the locals also said—yet here it was, a big honking snowstor down for a while, but they said it would begin again hard near dawn She’d come to realize after the first heavy snow in December that if she hit a snowdrift, she and her Spyder wouldn’t be found until spring

Looking at the unrelenting white made her ht jas her for To top it off, her car heater was struggling to stay alive, her Spyder noweather than she was She sure wasn’t helping any, staying out all hours of this frigid night—it couldn’t bedown Houston, we have a problem She squeezed her eyes shut; what should she do?