Thank you to my three reviewers who have stuck with me in the transition from story to story. Elvenwriter, LittleLotte and DaydreamingTurtle. This chapter is dedicated to you. Whoever can figure out who this mystery man is, they get a Snicker's Bar!
Chapter Two:

A Very Late Audition

When Christine saw what car the man –or Erik- was going for, she thought her mouth fell open. It was a black Lamborghini.

He had to be rich.

She had never seen that man before but he bore such a resemblance with Erik that made her doubt herself.

He opened the door for her and she climbed inside.

As he walked around the car, she watched him. Watching his moves, waiting to see if he really was who she thought he was.

He started the car and asked her where he had to go. He seemed to know where it was because he made all the right turns.

Christine looked ahead of her but watching him in the corner of her eyes. If it was her Erik, he would do something, anything.

He did nothing. It couldn't be Erik. There was no deformity of any kind. No scar.

Nothing.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop on your mumbling," he said almost chuckling. "But I wonder what audition are you to attend?"

Christine was caught off guard. "Oh, uh, Faust. In my university, that is. I'm auditioning for Margarita."

He nodded considering. "Margarita is tough, you must be very talented."

Christine nodded, too, now knowing what to do.

"You are a singer, then?"

Christine bit her bottom lip a nervous habit she never seemed to notice. "Not professionally, no. I just sing as a hobby. It's how I got to UCLA."

"College student?" He smiled. "I thought you would be out of college. You seem the age."

"Actually, I'm only twenty," she informed him.

He nodded again. "Westwood, right?"

Christine just blinked at the sudden change of topic. "Uh, yes. Yes. Westwood."

He made a left hand turn and when she told him the address, he made it there without even asking where to turn.

Well, that was very efficient.

"Thank you Mr.-" Christine cut off and waited for him to tell her his name. Maybe that way she'll find out who he was.

"Destler," he told her smiling.

'Thank you, Mr. Destler," she told him honestly. "I really appreciate this."

Right before she shut the door, he called out. "Do you need a ride to your audition?"

Christine shook her head. "Not really."

"If you wait until the cab gets here, you will most likely be late."

Christine considered. "That's true…"

Mr. Destler turned the car off. "I'll just wait out here, then."

"No," Christine said to him, almost laughing. "Don't be silly. Come in."

Christine led the way up to the third floor and turning the key into the lock, she was instantly greeted by warmth. It would have been welcome, if it hadn't had been so warm to begin with.

At least the apartment was clean. She made sure of that. If Christine was one thing, it was neat freak. She always had to have her home clean. Unlike Meg, who threw her sweater on the floor and said it was clean.

It was a good thing, she didn't live there with her.

Now she was glad that she liked to clean, because she now had a visitor with her.

Her apartment was nothing fancy. When you walked in, there was a small kitchen to the right. It had enough room for a couple of counters, the sink, refrigerator gas stove and nothing else.

Continuing forward and passing the kitchen, there was a small living room that doubled as the dining room if Christine ate on the couch. There was a TV and a DVD Player. Which Christine had bought with the graduation money Raoul had given her a year earlier.

It had a double glass sliding doors that led to the small balcony that only had enough room for one chair. It all faced north, which faced a very busy street.

In the living room, there was a door on the right that led to the lining closet, bedroom and bathroom.

That was her home, small but cozy. It wasn't as if she wasn't living with anyone.

She directed Mr. Destler to the living room. "Can I get you anything to drink?"

He shook his head. "I don't believe there's time. I am fine, thank you."

Nodding, Christine said, "Just make yourself comfortable. I'll be right back."

Then she ran to the bedroom and locked the door behind her as she began take off her shirt with speed. She kicked off her shoes and jeans as she ran to her closet, almost tripping over her pants.

She opened her closet and rapidly selecting what she would wear, she put it on. It was a white dress that was a halter top that tied at the back of her neck, leaving her back exposed. The dress reached her knees moved with her every time she took a step. She took white heels and placed them on her feet as she did her hair.

She put it up and her bangs covered her brown eyes. She tried to put them behind her ears but couldn't because they were too short. She had to put her hair up because not very long ago she had cut it and did a mess. One side of her head had long hair, the other had short. It was a disaster.

"That's what you get when you cut your hair yourself to save money," Christine told herself. Taking a quick glance in the mirror she took her purse, not even bothering with make up.

When she got to her living room. He noticed Mr. Destler was looking at a caricature she had mounted on the wall.

It was in a gold frame, the one that Raoul had given to her. She remembered that day, she had been so happy. It was about seven months ago. Happiness never seemed to last with her.

"It's me and my boyfriend," Christine told him.

He didn't turn, he kept looking at the drawing. Raoul's arms were around Christine's waist and Christine had a smile on that seemed to be exaggeratedly big. Raoul had pouty lips as if to kiss her cheek. The artist even drew huge hearts around them. Behind them was the ocean at sunset.

Even though the artist exaggerated in some things, like her curves or Raoul's eyes or his lips, it was her favorite because it showed how much they were in love.

"It was at the Santa Monica Pier. It was the first day we came to L.A."

He nodded. "He lives here too?"

"In Los Angeles," Christine answered. "But he works all the time now. He has this big company he runs with his brother and father."

Mr. Destler continued to the door and opened it, trying to avoid looking at her. "We should go, you'll be late."

Christine didn't notice, she searched for the keys and when she found them in the kitchen, she took them and headed out the door.

UCLA wasn't that far, neither was the auditorium, she didn't know why Mr. Destler kept his foot on the accelerator. When they finally arrived, Christine was glad of it and got out of the car quickly.

"Thank you," Christine said quickly. "I really appreciate it."

"Wait," he told her. He reached into his pocket and pulled something out. When he was done writing on it, he handed it to her and said. "If you ever need a ride or just want to talk. Here's my number."

Christine took it in her hand and waved him good-bye.

She didn't even look to see if he had left because in the next moment, she was running up the stairs of the auditorium and bursting open the doors.

She knew she was late by the looks everyone was giving her when she made her way onstage.

"Miss Daaé, glad you could join us."

"Excuze moi, monsieur," Christine said. "Pardón, Sorry I'm late." Christine started speaking in French. He especially enjoyed it when they spoke in French to him. And it didn't hurt to kiss up especially when you're half an hour late.

Maria was center stage, sighing. "Señorita Daaé, que mucho gusto verla. Excellent timing. I believe you're late."

Maria was Carlotta number two. She was pompous, an airhead and thought the world owed her something.

She had bleach blond hair, obviously dyed and more piercings than she could count, not to mention the tattoos.

"Miss Gonzalez," one of the judges said. "Can you please continue?"

Christine made her way backstage, excusing herself from the three judges. Christine spotted her friend and sat down next to him. He was wearing his sunglasses despite the fact that they were indoors.

But they made him look good and his motto always was, "A gay man always has to look good."

Christine leaned in to him, to whisper, so no one would hear them speaking. If the judges found out that they weren't listening to Maria's performance, then they would take off points. "What'd I miss?"

Dustin scoffed. "Nothing, we all auditioned and Monsieur Barc was going to kick you out of the performance and then you showed up. Thank God you did or else Maria would have gotten the lead."

Christine sighed. "Thank God. This guy spilled coffee on my-"

"Was he hot?"

Christine rolled her eyes. "Is that all you care about?"

He shrugged. "It never hurts to find out."

"Well," Christine said thinking. "I guess he's not so bad looking."

"Details," Dustin said excitingly, placing his elbow on bended knee and chin in his palm.

"Well," Christine began. "He's tall and handsome. He has long black hair and he's incredibly built and he has a very strong chin and he's so caring. He insisted on giving me a ride here." When she thought about it, he didn't seem like Erik at all.

"And the color of his eyes?" he asked hopeful.

"He had sunglasses on the entire time. I never saw-"

"He's gay," Dustin said quickly.

"Dustin." Christine said slapping his arm.

He shrugged. "He's gay, Christine forget about him. Better yet, give me his number, I'm sure he'll need a friend."

"I don't like the way you said friend," Christine told him.

"The guy wears sunglasses so that no one notices he's gay." He pulled his sunglasses to his nose. "Believe me. I know."

Christine sighed yet again. "He didn't give off that kind of vibe. Besides, I wasn't thinking about him at all. Raoul is still my-"

"How is the delicious eye candy, by the way?"

"Frightful as ever. Never listens to me, works all the time, doesn't visit me at all. He couldn't make it to the audition.

"Well, he has some responsibilities that he must take care of."

"Responsibilities, my –"

"Christine Daaé," someone said.

Christine jumped at the sudden mention of her name. "I didn't warm up!"

Dustin stood up too. "You always knock their socks off, anyway. Good luck."

She ran onstage, where the three judges watched her from the audience. She looked at them, smiling, then glanced around the scattered audience. There were less than fifteen people and still, no Raoul.

"Miss Daaé," one of the judges said. "What part will you be auditioning for?"

Christine cleared her throat. "Margarita, ma'am."

"You're a freshman?"

Christine nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Margarita is a very difficult role for a freshman to take. Are you sure you can do it?"

Christine nodded. "I had a great teacher, sir."

The judges said something among themselves then said, "You may start when ready, mademoiselle."

Christine took a deep breath to calm her nerves and began.

She thought she did a good job, considering she didn't warm up at all. Her voice echoed around the auditorium causing everyone to be silent. Al though she did come a bit flat on some of the high notes, she didn't care. She continued until the last verse when the judges again began to murmur again.

"Thank you Miss Daaé, we will let you know how you turn out."

That was all he said but she left the stage, hopeful.

Dustin waited for her backstage with her purse. "You were great."

"Really? I thought I did badly with the aria."

"No, no, no. You did great!"

Christine smiled. "Thank you."

"What are you going to do tonight?" he asked as they left the stage with the group of other auditioners.

Christine shrugged. "I don't know. Go home and starve myself. After paying the rent and the body mechanic to repair the car –which I will get tomorrow, by the way- I only had five dollars left. Which I spent on a useless cup of coffee to help me stay awake."

"I know what you mean, toots," Dustin said. "Same here, but maybe we can go to Burger King or something. My treat."

Christine smiled at him. "No, thanks, it's fine." She knew better than he did that he couldn't afford it.

Welcome to college life, she thought.

"Speaking of treats," Dustin said pointing ahead.

"Christine looked and saw a large teddy bear with a large bouquet of sunflowers. Very large sunflowers, she saw. And behind the very large flowers was none other than Raoul.

Dustin made a growling noise. "Hot. You should go to him."

"Yeah," Christine said scowling. "I should."

Dustin gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Tootles, doll. If you won't take him, I will."

Christine chuckled.

She didn't move and when Raoul made it to her, she crossed her arms.

With a small voice he said. "Little Lotte, Raoul sent me." He was making the voice of the bear, she realized. How lame. "He wanted to say how sorry he is and that he loves you very, very much."

"I'm not impressed," she said to Raoul.

"All right," Raoul said, his voice normal again. "I'm very sorry, Christine. I came as fast as I could as soon as the meeting was over."

Christine sighed. "Okay."

"Besides, I made a reservation at the Chez Paris for us, to celebrate just the two of us."

Christine shrugged. "Fine."

"Christine," Raoul said apologetic. "I'm sorry. I am. Please, it would be an honor if you would accompany me to dinner."

Christine smiled, her defenses down. "Okay."

They kissed and Christine felt like doing somersaults. She didn't know how much she missed him.

When they pulled away, he gave her the sunflowers.

Her favorite, he remembered.

He placed his hand on her hip and pulled her to give her a kiss on the cheek. "Come on, we'll be late."

Yay! finished with chapter two! It's longer than the last one and next one. All you E/C shippers will be happy to read chapter three. That's all I have to say.
:o)