Music of the Knight

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3

“Ugh. This thing is making me f*****g crazy.” Lou was squinting at her laptop screen. “Why is it doing that?”

“I told you, the file is corrupted.” I went back to my to-do list. I always wrote out the week’s priorities on Friday afternoons and in longhand. It was one of my little quirks. A way to focus and remember it all.

“Oh, goddamn f*****g piece of s**t!” Lou yelled, slapping the table. She rubbed her wavy black hair back. “f*****g fascist Word program!”

Trying not to laugh, I looked around at the coffee shop. We were in our usual spot by the window at our favorite local cafe on De Maisonneuve Boulevard, right by my apartment on Saint-Laurent. A few people were staring at Lou in disapproval.

“Sorry,” I mouthed to the woman in a black suit jacket who was frowning at us.

When I’d first started working with Lou on Friday afternoons, I’d been a little taken aback by her spontaneous outbursts of anger and cursing. Now I secretly enjoyed them. It was a vicarious pleasure for me. I just made sure we never worked anywhere where young children were frequently present.

“Call it a day, Lou,” I said, gently kicking her foot under the table. “Anyway, it’s close to eight P.M. and you know you’re not getting any overtime from me.”

She scrunched her nose and stared at the screen a little longer. “Fine. f**k it.” Finally, she shut her laptop off and leaned back in her seat. Pressing a finger to her lips, she gazed out at the street that was already crowded with people getting ready for a Friday night out. I watched her face for a while. The first time I’d met Lou, I’d been struck by how much she looked like Snow White in a Nine Inch Nails T-shirt. She had a bob style haircut. Milky white skin. Strawberry lips. I’d almost expected her to break into a sweet song and for little bluebirds to follow her around.

Then she’d opened her mouth and blew that image right out of the water. She had the voice of a chain-smoker and the attitude of a race car driver. If Prince Charming ever tried to kiss Lou while she was asleep, she’d punch him in the face and sue him for s****l assault.

“Hey,” she said, locking eyes with me. “Let’s go bug my brother.”

“Oh, I don’t know…” I yawned and started collecting my things. I’d had another hectic week. September was fast approaching and that meant I’d be losing many students who were resuming their classes. There was the new training session to organize and I was already preparing the end of the year budget. Not to mention my new contract with the New Horizons Manors. All six of them. “I’m kind of beat. Lots of work to do tonight.”

“Come on, it’s Friday! And I’ve been wanting you to see my family store for weeks now. You can’t say no. You just can’t.” Lou eyeballed me. “It’s like, my f*****g life, Micah. And my friends always meet my family. Always.”

I stared at her, not sure if I should laugh or what.

“I want you to see all the guitars. The pianos. The drum sets. And maybe even the f*****g ukuleles. But I warn you, if you pick one of those little shits up and play ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ my brother Louie will throw you out the window.”

“You know, I’m beginning to think I did the right thing hiring you as my communications officer.”

She cracked a grin and grabbed my hand over the table. “Will you swing by for a few minutes? It’s ten minutes away from here. Right on Sainte-Catherine. I keep telling everybody about you.”

“Yeah?”

“Duh, Micah.” She tipped her head and gave me a warm smile. “I’m so happy I met you. I’ve learned a lot in the last months. Your outlook on life is pretty f*****g fantastic.”

She rarely showed me this softer side of herself and it flustered me a little. “Oh, well, thank you.”

“And I’m not sucking up to you for more money, ‘cause I know we don’t have any.”

I drained the last of my black coffee, my fourth today, and winked at her.

“Oh, and by the way,” Lou said, leaning in, “the new barista keeps looking at our table. At first I thought I was the one he was checking out, but alas, it’s you he’s interested in.”

“Yeah, I saw him.”

“Okay…and?”

I slipped my pens into my pencil case. “Not my type.”

“No? Hmm. We never discussed this. What is your type? ‘Cause after three months of openly flirting with you, I figured I’m not it. Not a bisexual bone in your body.”

“You don’t flirt with me. You—well, okay, you do, and you shouldn’t. But I kinda like it, so please don’t stop.”

“Wait ‘til our governing board finds out.” Lou winked.

I gave her a serious look.

“Kidding,” she quickly said. “So come on, Micah. Tell me. What kind of guy rocks your world?”

I discreetly tossed my chin up in the direction of the handsome dark-haired guy with the angular jaw and expressive eyebrows I’d been discreetly watching from time to time. He was still staring at his screen with a serious expression. “Him. He’d be my type.”

Lou squinted at the guy, who never looked up. “He kind of looks like one of my brothers.” She c****d a brow. “Speaking of them, let’s go say hi.”

I grabbed my bag. “I don’t know if I’m up for meeting your family. I feel like I’m a ham sandwich, you know what I mean?” I chuckled. “Like, I wanna be a sexy vegan spread on a whole wheat cracker, but I’m just—white bread and ham.”

“What? The things you say make no sense sometimes, do you know that?” She stood and grabbed her empty cup. “Come on. Please!”

I had to admit that with the way she was constantly raving about her family store, I was a little curious to sneak a peek. “All right,” I conceded, “let’s go see this Music of the Night store.”

Lou gave me a strange, almost eerie look. “What did you just call it?”

“Music of the Night. I thought that was the name, no?”

She spit her gum into her cup. “It’s Knight Music. You know, ‘cause of our last name.”

“Oh.”

She kicked my foot under the table. “Dork.” But still, her expression was troubled.