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Eoes But I’m not a pro like you”

“A pro? Me? I’ to be an actor I pick up a few bucks playing piano on weekends Want to play a little?”

He’d segued into “Malaguena” Erinned, put her hands on the keys and joined in

It turned out that she was no better and no worse than he was

“Is it hard to get jobs like this?” she’d asked

The wannabe actor had scribbled a name and number on a scrap of paper Two days later, Eozin and Pergozin She’d auditioned on a piano in Max’s office and he’d given her what he called a fake book, a collection of sheet music that contained theever written

“Keep this with you,” he’d said “You can fake your way through any tune”

The next weekend she’d played her first gig

She’d earned a pittance Well, union scale but one job added up to a pittance when there was rent to pay, groceries to buy, bills, bills and s had followed, all of theettable, none of thehed and explained that she was never going to get what he referred to as callbacks until she learned to judge the mood and needs of her audience

“You play a ladies lunch, they want Cole Porter You play a wedding rehearsal, they want Elton John You play an upscale singles hangout, they want Adele”

It ood advice, but hoould Emily have known? Max had yet to book her into a lunch or a wedding rehearsal or an upscale anything

She’d told hination of a physics professor explaining addition and subtraction to a five-year-old

“You got to work your way up, Miss Madison Right now, the kind of people you play for—they want lively stuff Big chords Big runs Schmaltz Knohat I mean?”

Schmaltz was not a word in Emily’s North Texas vocabulary

“No”