CHAPTER 160: CHAPTER 160 A PLACE TO LIVE

*LORENZO*

“Are we heading to the orphanage?”

She shot me a wide-eyed look, then frowns and looks down at her lap.

“No. I left when just as I turned eighteen few weeks ago. That’s the rule.”

Oh!

They were meant to go look after themselves after turning eighteen, it must be rough navigating life with no family.

I glanced at her and she seemed to have deflated like a balloon, withdrawing into herself.

Shit. A tingle runs down my spine.

This must be sensitive for her.

I tried to encourage her.

“You’re an amazing person, Danica and you’re doing well on.” Hurriedly I continue, “I wanted to ask you, how do you remember each piece so well?”

She raised her head, and it was obvious that she was more comfortable with this topic of conversation. She tapped her temple. “I see the music. Like a painting.”

“You have a photographic memory?”

“Photographic memory? I don’t know. I see the music in colors. It is the colors that help me to remember.”

“Wow.” I’ve heard of this. “Synesthesia.”

“Syn-a-thee—” She stopped, unable to pronounce the word.

“Synesthesia.”

She tried again, with a little more success. “What is this?” she asked.

“You see musical notes as colors.”

“Yes. Like that.” She nodded enthusiastically.

“Well, that makes sense. I’ve heard that many accomplished musicians are synesthetes. Do you see anything else in color?”

She looked puzzled. “Letters? Numbers?”

“No. Just music.”

“Wow. That’s really something.” I give her a smile. “I meant what I said the other day. You can use my piano anytime. I love hearing you play.”

She gave me a glorious smile that I feel in my groin.

“Okay,” she whispered. “I like to play your piano.”

“I like to listen.” I grinned back, and we fall into an easy silence.

Forty minutes later I turned in to a downtown area and we arrived outside a modest semidetached house. Night had fallen, but I saw a curtain pull back in the front room and a young boy’s face clearly visible in the light from the streetlamp.

Her boyfriend?

Fuck. I have to know.

“Is that your boyfriend?” I asked, and my heart kick-starts, thumping in my ears as I waited for her answer.

She laughed, a soft, musical laugh that makes me grin. It was the first time I had heard her laugh, and I wanted to hear it again...and again.

“No. That’s John, the landlady’s son. He’s fourteen.”

“Oh. He’s tall!”

“He is.” Her face lights up, and I feel a momentary pang of jealousy. She was obviously fond of him. “Thank you for taking me to my home,” she whispered, shutting down any further conversation.

“It was a pleasure, Danica. I’m sorry about this morning. I didn’t mean to pounce on you.”

“Pounce?”

“Um...jump. Like a cat.”

She laughed again, her face shining and beautiful.

I could get used to that sound.

“You were dreaming,” she said.

Of you.

“Do you want to come in and drink a cup of tea?”

It was my turn to laugh. “No. I’ll spare you that. And I’m more of a coffee person.”

She frowned for a moment. “We have some coffee,” she said.

“I’d better get back. It will take a while with the roads like this.”

“Thank you again for driving me here.”

“I’ll see you on Friday.”

“Yes. Friday.” She gave me a radiant smile that illuminated her lovely face, and I was smitten.

She climbed out of the car and headed to the front door. It cracked open, shedding a soft glow onto the snowy path, and the tall young man stands on the doorstep.

John. He scowled at me as I started the car.

I laughed.

Not her boyfriend, then, and I turned the Maybach around, crank the music up, and with a ridiculous smile plastered on my face, I drove back home.

*************

“Who was that?” John asked, his voice clipped and frosty, as he glared at the vehicle outside. He was only fourteen, but he towered over Danica, all shaggy black hair and skinny loose limbs.

“My boss,” she answered as she peeked through the front door to watch the car drive away. She shut the door behind her and, unable to contain her glee, she gave John a quick, spontaneous hug.

“All right.” John shrugged out of her embrace, his face flushed but his brown eyes bright with embarrassed delight.

Danica beams at him, and his answering shy smile hints at his adolescent crush on her. She steps back, careful not to be overly affectionate. She doesn’t want to hurt his feelings. After all, he and his mother have been good to her.

“Where’s your mom?” she asks.”She wanted to see me this morning.”

“In the kitchen.” His face fell, and so does his voice. “She looks quite sad.”

“Oh,” Danica’s pulse quickened with a sense of foreboding. Taking off her coat, she hung it on one of the pegs in the small hallway and went into the kitchen.

The landlady was holding a cigarette, sitting at the tiny Formica table. The smoke curled above her in a hazy cloud. Though small, the kitchen was neat and tidy as usual, and the radio was burbling in Polish in the background. Magda looked up, relieved to see her.

“You got home through the snow. I was worried. Good day?” Magda asks, but Danica notices her strained smile and the tension in her lips as she takes a long drag from her cigarette.

“Yes. Are you okay? Is your fiancé okay?”

“It’s just...I feel pity for you, my dear. I wish I could keep this place for you but the real owner won’t let you stay. And now it’s official, John and I are leaving in two weeks. You have to find somewhere else to stay.”

“I know. I know. I’ll find something.” Anxiety fluttered in Danica’s stomach.

Every night she lay in bed going through her options. So far she had saved three hundred from her cleaning work. She will need the money for a deposit on a room.

With John’s help and the use of his laptop, she would try to find a place to live.