Free Rhapsody on a Theme by Matthew J. Metzger Page A

woke your boyfriend up,” she called after him, pausing in the key-smashing long enough to speak. “Don’t blame me for him!”
    Jayden rolled his eyes, setting the honey jar on the counter, along with Darren’s blister pack of painkillers. His shoulder had felt very knotted and tight, and he’d been grumpy even for him. Jayden knew pain when he saw it, and when it got that bad, there was no massage in the world that was going to cure it.
    “What are you doing anyway?” he asked when Rachel abandoned the piano and wandered into the kitchen. It wasn’t really big enough for much wandering, but she sat on top of the washing machine. Her cat was face-down in a food bowl on the floor, and ignored the pair of them.
    “D’you think Darren would teach me the piano?” she asked instead of answering his question.
    “Why?”
    She shrugged. “Kids like a teacher who can play. Like, their favourite songs and stuff. And loads of the other teachers play instruments. I just want to know how to do stuff like, you know, lullabies and hymns and stuff. And Tony plays but I don’t want to ask him, I’ll look stupid.”
    “He’s your boyfriend.”
    “Yeah, but I’ll look stupid, so would Darren do it instead?”
    “You’d have to ask him,” Jayden said awkwardly, feeling cautious. He didn’t know. He’d never seen Darren teach anyone anything. He’d never had an interest in learning himself, and Darren had never had an interest in showing him. Jayden didn’t even understand him when he talked music, and there was something ever so slightly sexy about that, so Jayden had never tried to understand.
    “I dunno,” Rachel said, kicking her heels. “You don’t think it would, you know. Upset him?”
    Jayden blinked. “Um.”
    “He just gets weird when he hears violins,” Rachel clarified, and Jayden was a little startled she’d noticed. He supposed she would have done, but he just forgot sometimes how perceptive Rachel was under her general flakiness. “You think he’d be okay to teach me?”
    “Well, he’s not going to teach you Chopin and stuff, so maybe,” Jayden hedged. “I really don’t know, Rach. I mean, Ethan asked him to play at the wedding so he’s going to start having a go again, you know, here where we can look out for him, so maybe if you combined your lessons into that, maybe…I don’t know. It might even help. Keep his mind off the classical stuff.”
    She chewed on her sleeve thoughtfully and nodded.
    “I’ll ask,” she said and brightened up. “Make some porridge for me too?”
    “Fine, Jesus,” Jayden grumbled, topping up the pan as the shower shut off. A moment later, the bathroom door opened and Darren padded back up into the attic. “Let him wake up a bit first,” he advised. “He was grumpy, and I think his shoulder’s acting up.”
    Rachel rolled her eyes and retreated out of the kitchen again. She bounded away up the stairs—Jayden hoped just to get changed—and left him to make breakfast. The porridge was beginning to bubble lightly, and he rummaged for bowls and spoons. The cat meowed, decided porridge didn’t smell like bacon after all, and whined to be let out. Jayden locked the door just in time to hear the footsteps on the stairs, and then Darren appeared—in jeans and his glasses and nothing else, because the man seemed to not believe in clothes sometimes—just as Jayden emptied out the pan. Wordlessly, he popped out a painkiller and knocked it back with a glass of orange juice like a pro.
    “Feeling okay?” Jayden asked, adding a generous amount of honey to Darren’s bowl and pushing it along the counter towards him.
    “Mm,” Darren said. “Had to heft a lot of evidence out of the scene last night. Went into overtime, though, so this month’s pay slip is going to be good.”
    “What happened?”
    “Bloody murder,” he said shortly and yawned widely. Jayden kissed his cheek and pressed the hot bowl into his hands. “Thanks.”
    “Go sit down.” Jayden