Played to Death Read Free

still five minutes before their official call time. “Okay.” He started unpacking his case.
    At two minutes after the call time, the second violinist appeared, flushed and out of breath. “Sorry. Traffic was bad.”
    Brian snorted. Scott, hoping to forestall any argument, said, “Get ready. We start playing in 13 minutes.”
    The girl shot him a pissy look, but she got ready.

 
    Jamie
    The estate was grand even by Holmby Hills standards. After checking our invitation, the guard waved us in through the gates. Another guard pointed us toward the house, where a gaggle of valets were helping people out of their cars. When we pulled up, the valet looked at Pete’s battered Jeep Cherokee with a raised eyebrow but opened his door without comment. Another valet opened my door, and I climbed out.
    The foyer of the house was high-ceilinged and the hallway that stretched to the back doors was as wide as a two-lane road. There were flowers everywhere in various shades of white, pale pink and fuchsia. Pete said to me, “Got your inhaler?”
    “Yep.” With my history of asthma, I never went anywhere without my inhaler.
    We didn’t linger in the hall. The back doors were open onto a huge infinity pool, sparkling in the sun. We walked out onto the pool deck and were met by a guy in a tux, wearing a fuchsia cummerbund and bow tie that matched the flowers in the hall. He checked our invitation. “Kent or Graham?”
    Pete said, “Kent.”
    “Left side, please.” He handed us two programs that had the dimensions of road atlases - like menus at an expensive restaurant, engraved with Kent’s and Graham’s names and the date. We walked around the pool to the left. The seats were arranged in three sections, with two aisles. We picked a row toward the back, since we were both tall, and on the outside edge of the row.
    We got settled and Pete started studying his program. “Geez. This is a little over the top.”
    “Ya think?” I decided to save the program to read in case the ceremony was boring and took a look around. There was a string quartet playing at the front. I glanced at them then did a double take. I nudged Pete. “Hey. Check out the string quartet.”
    Pete looked up. “Yeah? What about it?”
    “See the guy on cello?”
    Pete squinted a little. “Yeah?”
    “It’s my ex. Scott.”
    “No shit.” Pete scrutinized Scott. “He’s very... blond.”
    “I wonder what he’s doing here? He almost never plays weddings.”
    Pete flipped through the program to the back. “Here are the names of the musicians. No Scott.”
    I looked at the page in my own program. “Oh – Cameron Wiley is a friend of Scott’s. I bet he had to cancel at the last minute and talked Scott into substituting for him.”
    “And there wasn’t time to change the name in the program.”
    “Right.”
    “This is the guy who broke up with you in the hospital?”
    “Yeah.” I’d been admitted to the hospital after a vicious asthma attack had turned into a case of pneumonia. Scott broke up with me that evening. I’d had an oxygen mask on my face and IVs in my arms and was almost too sick to care.
    Pete glared in the direction of the quartet. “I don’t think I like him.”
    “Hey, he did you a favor. If he hadn’t broken up with me, I’d still have been with him when you wanted to start dating again.”
    “True.” Pete studied the musicians. “Those kids playing with him don’t look old enough for the Philharmonic.”
    “I don’t think they’re in the Philharmonic. Wiley teaches at Pasadena City College. Those are probably students.”
    “Kind of a comedown for a Philharmonic guy, right?”
    “Yeah. But I’m sure the money’s making it worth his time.”
     
    The wedding was interminable. There were ten groomsmen on each side, each wearing a tux with a fuchsia cummerbund and tie, and it took a while for them to all walk to the front. I noticed that the music was Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring . Scott was probably gritting his