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you.”
    She looked at me like I was nuts.
    â€œNo big deal,” I said. “I’ve just been setting aside a little every week. I figured I’d surprise you at graduation.” I’d only managed to sock away about fifteen hundred dollars, but it was something.
    â€œI’ve seen your black sweater, Bess,” Angie said. By which she meant I needed a new one, which I couldn’t afford.
    â€œDon’t be silly,” I said. “The money’s just sitting there.” I figured I could maybe shoehorn in a bartending job. It meant getting no sleep but what the hell, I’d do plenty of that when I was dead.
    We sat and watched the sea lick the shore. It amazed me that even Angie’s crisis hadn’t taken my mind off David Montagnier. His music played in my head like a soundtrack and the minute I let my mind drift a little, I was drawn to him again. I could see him standing all in white in the doorway of his apartment with the sun streaming in behind him, lighting him up like an angel.
    Jake flung another stone, and with his eye on its trajectory, he said, “So, Bess, are you going to tell me or not?” I knew I wasn’t getting off the hook any longer. Besides, I’d always told him everything there was to tell in my life including the episode where I took the rap for Pauline when she started a fire in the girls’ locker room. By accident, but she was already on probation and would have gotten chucked out of school. I only got a month’s community service and a couple of bruises courtesy of Dutch.
    I stood up and started making patterns in the sand with my bare feet. “Okay, it’s like this. I’ve got a bad case. I’ve never felt this way. It’s scary.”
    Angie shot a quick look at Jake. The stone he was holding dropped out of his fingers.
    â€œWho?” he asked.
    â€œDavid Montagnier.”
    â€œDavid Montagnier,” he echoed. “I don’t think so.”
    I burst into tears. Angie held out her hand and pulled me back down onto the log between her and Jake. I leaned my head against Jake, breathing in his salty smell. Then I choked out the whole story. It felt good to cry. I hadn’t even known I needed to.
    â€œYou’re going to be his new partner,” Angie said when I’d finished.
    â€œI don’t know that,” I said.
    â€œYou’ll see. Professor Stein’s told him all about you.”
    â€œYeah, a twenty-four-year-old prodigy who can’t even play in front of two ushers and a cockroach.”
    â€œMaybe you’ll be able to with Montagnier,” Jake said. Something in his voice made me check him out. His smile had a strange twist to it, like he was trying way too hard.
    â€œWhat?” I said.
    â€œThis is going to change your life, Bess,” he told me.
    â€œI don’t want to be in love with him,” I said.
    â€œYou can’t help who you fall in love with,” Jake said in that alien tone.
    â€œHe’s famous. I’m a nobody from Nassau County. It’s totally impossible.”
    Jake gave my shoulder a gentle shove. “You got a choice, meatball?” This was more like it.
    I wiped the tears off my face. “Fucking guy’s got me crying already. I don’t call that a great sign.”
    After a few minutes, Angie asked, “Was Cinderella Italian?”
    â€œWhy not?” Jake said. “Name ends in a vowel.”
    That cheered us up. We sat there for a long time with our arms around each other watching the waves sigh up onto the beach. One thing’s for sure. Jake was absolutely right—after that, nothing was ever the same again.

Chapter Three
    I spent the next week running back and forth between multiple jobs and practice rooms. The usual routine except that I was constantly wondering when and if David Montagnier would call. I’d seen a photo of him at a museum benefit so he was obviously back in town. I neglected