Page 78 of Serenade Me

“5 minutes!” I reply, every cell in my body already tensing at his mood.

“5 minutes is 5 minutes. This is serious work, Anca. If you can’t be professional then you can’t be here at all. We’re not fucking around. A lot of people are relying on us.”

“Whoa, man.” Marius steps in before I can step in. “We were just downstairs talking to Hailey. She had some fan mail for give to Anca.”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Marius. My little sister needs to learn some better work ethics if she wants to make it in this industry. It’s not all stars and candy.”

“Hey…” Marius cuts in again, and I stop him with a hand on his chest. It’s hard, as tense as I’m feeling.

“It’s ok,” I say, trying to keep my voice calm, before turning back to address my brother. “Fine. Sorry I’m 5 minutes late. What are we doing now?”

“If you’d been here...”

I cut him off. “You’re wasting time lecturing me, just tell us what we’re supposed to be doing now.”

“Get your gear ready. They’re taking it down to the stage in an hour,” he snaps at me.

“Fine. Done. Come on, Marius.” I pull on his shirt, but he doesn’t budge. He’s locked in a stare battle with my brother.

“Marius!” I raise my voice to get his attention, and he sighs and relents, and follows me to our instruments.

“That was bullshit, Anca,” he whispers when we’re out of Jez’s earshot.

“I know, he’s just… he’s just processing. Ignore it.” I tell him, trying to keep the hurt out of my voice. My whole life I’ve been the apple of my brother’s eye. Now I’m the thorn that causes him pain.

Marius turns to where Jez is holding up his cello, running his fingers over it, checking every inch of it, before turning back to me.

“But he can’t speak to you like that, Anca, brother or not. I’m not going to tolerate him being rude to you, you know that, right?”

The butterflies in my stomach tell me without words how much his words mean to me.

“Funny, you should say that. Because I recall someone once telling me my conversation skills couldn’t keep a chair stimulated.” I say, trying to lighten the mood, giving him a little nudge with my foot and winking at him.

The look on his face is priceless as he moans at the memory and palms his face. “Don’t remind me! I was trying to be so clever.”

“And you were. You were a surprise.”

“As are you, babe. Every second.”