(Untitled)

[song_n_dance]

After the war was over, Cole had often told people at parties that he'd served in the French Foreign Legion, which an outright lie (though he told the story with such playfulness that he couldn't imagine anyone believed it anyway), even if he did have a number of fancy dress uniforms tucked away in a closet that were fun to trot out on occasion.

Comments

[alaspoorwarrick]

I hear someone tickling the ivories, or trying, on my way down the hall to look for Nicky. There's music there, but it's not coming, and it makes me wince.

Ducking my head into the rec room to see who to blame for it, I see the problem right off. It's Cole Porter, with his arm in a sling from the shootout. I'd seen him that night, but with everything that happened, there'd been no time to talk. Jack had been with him at the time.

Seeing as how it's not some hack beating up the baby grand, I come on in. "Hey, man," I say with a nod, thinking it's probably weird to call Cole Porter 'man', but I'm hoping the friendly tone and smile while cover it over. "How's the arm?"

[song_n_dance]

"Both uncomfortable and inconvenient," Cole sighed. "Hello, Warrick. I'm afraid I can't offer to play for you unless you'd like your ears assaulted by this plinking mess."

[alaspoorwarrick]

"Doc say it'd heal all right?" I ask, not wanting to touch a sore spot if he didn't, but thinking of the bright side. I nod to the keys and shrug my eyebrows. "Working on something new?" New to him, I'd discovered, even if not new to me. I'd be lying if I didn't admit the idea we might get brand new never before heard Cole Porter tunes on the island had me as keyed up as a kid at Christmas whenever I saw him. "Or just want some music?"

Me, I don't like playing for an audience, and Cole Porter's not just any audience. But if it'd help, I'll stick my head down and try.

[song_n_dance]

"It should be fine," Cole assured him. "In a few weeks, anyway. In the meantime, I suppose I'll just have to build up the stock of lyrics in my head. I'd just started working on something before the accident."

He set his right hand down on the keys and played a simple melody. "Love for sale, appetizing young love for sale, love that's fresh and still unspoiled, love that's only slightly soiled..."

[alaspoorwarrick]

"Good news, then. Friend of mine got shot back home, and he was out a coupla months." Calling Brass a friend is stretching it, but it's close enough to true, and right now even Ecklie's starting to feel like a friend.

Love for sale. Get out. That's just...no shit, man, really? I'm sitting with Cole Porter while he's working out the lyrics from Love for Sale?

Damn.

"You want me to write that down for you? I think it's a keeper." I know it is, but I'm guessing if it's rude to tell people they're fictional, it's even ruder to play a man's music for him before he writes it.

[song_n_dance]

Cole chuckled. "Oh, this bit I've already got well enough up here." He tapped his forehead. "It's the verses that are giving me fits. Though I suppose here I don't have to worry about walking the fine line of propriety in my lyrics. My wife did warn me that she thought this song may be a tad obscene just from the title."

[alaspoorwarrick]

"Yeah," I say, shaking my head down into my smile. "Wouldn't be a problem in Vegas either." Rolling my shoulder toward the piano, I shrug, way more awkward than I'd usually be. "I can play a bit, if you wanna tell me the notes and rhythms you're after." Since I know the song already, it oughtta be easier. And if he doesn't, I can noodle around with something else.

[song_n_dance]

"You could give me a C minor chord progression," Cole offered, going through the melody in his head again. "Though I'm not sure it'll do much good. This is a rather difficult way to work."

[alaspoorwarrick]

"Sure, yeah," I say, straight up happier to play for an audience than I can ever remember being. I gesture to the bench for him to move over so I can sit. "I can probably catch that bit you were playing before, too."