I was practicing a difficult passage from the Brahms 4th when my stand-mate arrived at the rehearsal. "Good morning, Anne," she said in her usual cheery voice. I nodded back to her, but kept playing. Karen and I went back to our conservatory days, and were quite good friends, but when I was in the zone, warming up for a rehearsal, I would never stop to chat.
I was principal cellist for the Philharmonic, a position I was very proud to hold at the relatively young age of 28, and a role which I took very seriously. We were a good orchestra with a fine, and very demanding, conductor, and we were embarking on a challenging season. There would be several concerts with new repertoire, a tour, and a recording session. I was excited to get to work at this first rehearsal after the long summer break.
As our conductor walked up to the podium, I stopped playing and got my music in order. He and I had discussed his plans for the first rehearsal at dinner last evening, before a night of wild sex. Oh, didn't I mention that part? Yes, I was sleeping with the conductor. It was a well-guarded secret, since neither of us wanted to become the target of orchestra gossip. But even though I felt the need to keep the relationship secret, I wasn't ashamed. After all, it's not as though I got my job because I was sleeping with him. It started about six months after I joined the orchestra, when he hatched an elaborate plan to seduce me, obviously not realizing that it didn't take much seducing for me to fall for his type - the older man in a position of authority. Anyway, the sex was great - but when we worked together, it was all business.
Frederick sat down on his stool and raised up one hand, and the orchestra responded immediately, ceasing all conversation, shuffling of music, and warm-up exercises. Those were powerful hands. He was a strikingly handsome man of 40, and it was difficult for me to decide which was his most attractive feature - his athletic 6'2" build, his strong but graceful hands, or his piercing blue eyes. He also had a huge cock, evidence that the desire to lead others with a baton doesn't always stem from having a small dick.
He of course had a few irritating pretentions, not uncommon among conductors, but fortunately for me, I found them charming. One of these came up right away, as he started off the rehearsal by introducing himself. "For those of you who are new to the orchestra, my name is Frederick (he pronounced each syllable: Fred-eh-rick), but you haven't known me long enough to be on a first name basis, so you can call me 'Maestro'."
As I watched a few people roll their eyes, I smiled to myself, enjoying the secret knowledge that he also liked me to call him 'Maestro' when we were having sex. Again, ridiculously pretentious, but I found it endearing.
He continued, "And before we get to work on the Brahms, I'd like to introduce a few of those new faces, the winners of recent auditions for a few open seats. Mark here joins the violas, Christian is the new member of the horn section, and the lovely Kylie is our new principal trianglist."
This last introduction shocked me out of my daydream, and I shot a glance to Karen. "What the hell - principal triangle?" I mouthed to her.
"Yeah, what's that about? There's only one way a young hottie like her got a bullshit job like that!" she whispered back to me.
Karen had no way of knowing that her comment would bother me; she was just one of many friends from whom I kept secret my relationship with Frederick. But as the rehearsal started and I fought to concentrate on the music, I couldn't help wonder what this news really meant. I had never heard anything as ridiculous as a principal triangle position. I couldn't believe that Frederick would be willing to put his reputation on the line in front of the orchestra to make such an announcement. And I couldn't help noticing two things about Kylie as I watched her from across the orchestra: she was an incredibly hot young woman, and she wasn't, shall we say, playing her triangle with a full deck. As she made mistake after mistake, and Frederick gently corrected each one - definitely NOT his usual style - I became more and more convinced that he was up to no good with this girl.
At the break in rehearsal, I joined him on the podium, pretending to ask a question about the rehearsal, but really said, "So, what the hell is going on with this new girl?"
"Oh," he said casually, "some patron apparently has a thing for the triangle, and decided to endow a new position in the orchestra, so we just hired Kylie last week. Any serious percussionist would be embarrassed to take the job, so we didn't have many candidates to choose from."
I returned to my chair, crushed that he had just lied to me so blatantly. I had watched Frederick fight so many times against inappropriate suggestions from donors or board members that I knew he wouldn't give in on something as inane as this. I was furious that he thought he could get away with lying to me about this.
As I stewed about this, angrily scratching away at my cello, Karen came back to her chair, breathless with newly-obtained gossip to share. "So, here's the scoop: this Kylie girl is a student at the conservatory, apparently making her way through more on her looks than on her talent, and word is she's getting principal pay to stand over there and try to hit the triangle at the right time. I'm shocked that Frederick would put up with this 19-year-old no-talent hack in his orchestra!"
This sent me over the edge - she was making the same salary I was?!? That did it, I was going to confront Frederick. It took every ounce of professionalism I had to get through the rest of the rehearsal. As I packed up my cello, I decided that I would pretend to leave, but actually hang back and watch him - follow him, if necessary - to see if I could figure out what he was up to with this girl. As I pretended to walk out with everyone else, I noticed Frederick watching me leave. As soon as he looked away, I quickly stepped away from the crowd and made my way back towards the stage, and then into the shadows of the backstage area, quietly setting down my cello in a safe corner.
Soon, there were just a few people left on the stage, and after a few more goodbyes, it was just Frederick and Kylie, the bimbo who couldn't find the beat if it slapped her on the ass. I was confident that nobody had seen me come back stage, and I sat down on a stool near the edge of the stage, giving myself a full view of the stage and auditorium, and waited to see what I could learn by spying on these two.
Frederick spoke first. "So, Kylie, you struggled a bit in today's rehearsal. What can we do about that?"
