Love's Dilemma (Sixty Minute Romance)

by Naomi Davies

  Clair turned her mind to listening to the bands that were playing this evening. She loved the thrill of live music. It was dangerous because things could go wrong. It was fantastic because when things went right, you couldn’t experience a better buzz. Some band members were finishing setting their gear up and tuning their guitars.

  It looked like a five piece guitar band was playing first. The drummer was already in place and waiting for the others to catch up and be ready. He did that thing that all drummers do when they have nothing better to do. He hit all his drums and cymbals constantly while waiting for the rest of the band to be ready. Drummers have no idea just how annoying this is! Clair had noticed this character flaw with all drummers many times before, and smiled knowingly to herself.

  The door marked ‘Private’ opened and another band member appeared. Behind him their new friend Max followed, with a good looking blond girl in tow. Max kissed the girl briefly on both cheeks before taking the stage and picking up his microphone. The girl was a bit older than him. For some reason her presence disappointed Clair and she looked at Jo with a glare. Obviously Max was spoken for. A bit disappointing, but never mind.

  “I will never understand guys.” She almost snarled at Jo. At the same time she couldn’t work out why it mattered to her.

  As she got used to the fact that Max was the lead singer in the first band, she noticed his blond girl walking around the back of the room. She was getting closer and closer to Clair and Jo. It was like she was deliberately trying to come and stand right next to them. ‘This could be embarrassing’, thought Clair for a moment. There was no real reason to be embarrassed at all, or was there?

  The band launched into their first number and the blond girl started talking to Jo and Clair. She shook hands with them both and spoke like they could hear what she was saying. They couldn’t hear a word as the music was drowning the blond girl out. So they stood three in a line and waited for the first song to finish. Clair couldn’t remember ever feeling so awkward about any social situation, as she did about the apparently random meeting with this blond girl. She decided that they wouldn’t stay very long. Clair looked at Jo standing next to her and tried to speak with her eyes. The message she tried to convey was ‘Help, we should go now, because there is a strange blond woman standing next to me who won’t stop talking.’

  Unfortunately Clair’s eye language was not that good, and Jo replied with a clear, ’What are you talking about’ expression. The band stopped playing and started the set up for the next tune. This was the moment that the blond girl could be heard.

  “Hi I’m Sandy. I’m Max’s sister. He told me to come over and make friends with you.” That came as a relief; maybe Max was not spoken for.

  “How did you know that we were the ones he was talking about?” Clair was very unsure about this girl.

  “He told me I would know you if I looked around the room, and he was right!” Sandy looked very pleased with herself for guessing correctly that Clair and Jo were the ‘Drop dead gorgeous girls that looked like a pair of backing singers in an eighties band.’ Sandy caught Max’s eyes and gave him a double thumbs up. He did the same and smiled at all three of them.

  Clair felt embarrassed and slightly wrong footed in this situation. This was a new experience for her. She thought that she should be at least a little bit nice to Sandy, because after all, her brother had bought them a drink. On the other hand, who were these people who almost forced themselves upon them? It wasn’t truly like that, but Clair had never been introduced to anyone in this way.

  After about twenty five difficult minutes for Clair and Jo, the band took a five minute break and Max jumped off the small stage to greet them. They quickly learnt each other’s names and Clair and Jo started to feel a bit more comfortable.

  “What did you think? Did you like it?” Max was full of enthusiasm for his own performance.

  “You were great, Max. You get better every time I see you perform.” Sandy was effusive and positive in her praise.

  Clair and Jo had barely paid attention to the music although the band’s Thin Lizzy cover was good.

  “I liked the Thin Lizzy song. Very good.” Clair tried to sound as gushing as Sandy but failed. Max didn’t notice anything wrong and offered to buy them another drink. In fact he didn’t even ask. He just nodded over to Duke at the bar and within two minutes they had another pear and mango juice with ice in their hands.

  “I’ve got to talk to you!” Max was forthright in the extreme. He was no longer struggling to look into Clair’s eyes. Clair looked at him with suspicion and intrigue. What was happening on this Friday evening? It was the weirdest night out she had ever experienced.

  They all decided to go outside into the garden so that they could talk. It was much quieter in the cooling breeze of the beer garden.

  “OK, cards on the table. You are a singer and you can sing! You are the best soul singer I have ever heard! No Exceptions.” Max was looking directly at Clair, his initial reticence had disappeared. Clair looked startled at this revelation.

  “I’ve seen you once before, a few years ago in the SU at Exeter. You were amazing. I’ve never forgotten it.” Max was staring in excitement at Clair.

  Clair was taken unawares and mumbled something about remembering that she had sung there once upon a time.

  “You didn’t just sing, you were incredible!” Max was making Clair feel uncomfortable again.

  “What do you do now? Where do you sing? Are you in a band?” Max was unstoppable with his inquisition.

  “Max, behave yourself. I’m sorry Clair, he is always like this when he gets an idea into his head.” Sandy started trying to slow things down a little for Clair’s benefit. While this was happening the band started playing their second set inside the pub.

  “Shouldn’t you be singing with the band right now?” Clair asked. She thought that a few minutes of deep breathing and cool reflection was in order, but she couldn’t do that in the face of the onslaught of questions from Max.

  “Oh! No, I was filling in for Duke. It’s his band and he is doing the vocals for this set. My own band is on after this.”

  “Oh I understand now.” Clair didn’t understand anything at all at this precise minute. Then she asked the fateful question.

  “What idea have you got in your head?” She knew what was coming, and sure enough, it arrived right on cue.

  “I want you to sing with us tonight. Just a song or two. I have to hear you sing again. It was magical the last time.”

  Jo looked at Clair. Clair looked at Jo. They had a problem. Jo would much rather that they were just having a great night out, the pair of them. Clair had already left that idea way behind and was dreaming of performing to the pub crowd that were there. This was the first opportunity she had been given to sing for two years. She could already feel her heart pounding, and her body cranking into gear to sing. There were times when Jo resented Clair’s obsession with singing and performing, and this was one of them.

  “What do you play? I can’t sing the sort of stuff you were playing just now.” Clair asked more in hope rather than expectation that she would know Max’s repertoire.

  “Our regular vocalist is ill with the flu. She is in the pub flat upstairs trying to get her voice back, so that she can sing at least a few numbers. So they are all songs for a girl to sing.” Max was getting more and more excited.

  “Show me the set list.” Max pulled out a piece of A4 paper with twelve songs listed. He showed it to Clair pointing out the seven songs they were hoping to do that evening.

  “I can do those three for you.” Clair was now catching Max’s enthusiasm for her to get involved. She hadn’t performed for so long, but she loved the thought of doing it tonight. Max jumped up with a yelp and hugged Clair.

  “Yes! Yes! Brilliant! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are a life saver! I’ll go and tell Gail.” Max left them in the garden, three girls looking at each other.

  “Is his band any good?” Cla
ir had only just thought of this aspect.

  “Well I am probably, totally biased, but I think that they are the best. They even have downloads on iTunes.” Sandy didn’t really know how good Max’s band was, but she was correct. She was totally biased.

  Chapter Four – The Impromptu Vocalist

  It became apparent halfway through the first song that Sandy had clearly overstated the quality of Max’s band. This was not a terminal problem in terms of Clair’s participation, but she knew that she would have to do some work with them when she performed.

  The drummer and bass player were run of the mill, and didn’t really concentrate on what they were doing. But they just about got through the numbers. The lead guitar player was also the lead vocalist, Gail. She played well enough but was struggling to make her vocals come over the sound system. Max played rhythm guitar and ukulele. He also added backing vocals. The keyboard player was the best musician by far. Her name was Anne, and Clair quickly decided what she would do when her moment came to sing.

  Gail croaked her way through three songs before looking at Clair to invite her onto the stage. Clair jumped up and started talking to Anne to see if she could play the songs by following her. Anne said that she would do her best. Clair was relieved to see her favourite SM57 type of microphone standing there waiting for her.

  So it transpired, that a twenty five year old newly qualified solicitor from the borough of Hillingdon in London, commenced her own version of Dolly Parton’s ‘I will always love you’ in The George and Dragon Pub in Uxbridge.

  To start with no one paid too much attention. They had heard it all before. But Clair’s piercing tone and her soulful voice started to turn some peoples’ heads. By the end of the second song all conversation had stopped. She had the full attention of one hundred and fifty regulars and guests in the pub. She finished her set of three songs with Nina Simone’s ‘I Wish’. Halfway through she stopped the band and finished the song acapela. At the end there was silence. This never ever happens in a pub on a Friday night, but it did for just a few moments on this night. The small crowd then burst into applause, and cheered at Clair’s performance.

  Clair had a few tears running down her cheeks, as if she had been reunited with a long lost friend. She always let her emotions run away with themselves when she sang. Max led her from the stage and sat her down to recover. Gail finished of the last song with the band. Jo had simply witnessed a scene that she was very familiar with. She was glad for Clair but she also worried about her. Singing used to be her life. What was the good of reminding her of it when her life was pointing in a completely different direction for the future? After a few minutes of people saying well done they all went back to their drinking and talking and Clair was left to consider the evening. What should have been a quiet evening with Jo had turned into something very different. Sitting with Max, Sandy and Jo she pondered what she might do to follow up her performance.

  Max was effusive in his thanks. His memory of the concert in Exeter had not played tricks with him. Clair was better than he remembered. He was definitely a fan. Something inside him began to want to be much more than a fan.

  “Where are the rest of the band?” Asked Clair.

  “Oh Anne has taken Gail home in a taxi. We have to get her fit for next week’s concert. Tom and Adam are getting drunk in the garden. Anne and Gail are thinking of going off on their own anyway in a few months’ time. They have this crazy idea of a girls cover band.” Max was talking to the air rather than directly to Clair.

  “That’s not such a crazy idea.” Jo responded. “How many all-girl cover bands have you seen?”

  “Well maybe you are right. Anyway, we have two more gigs booked in the next two months, plus a weekend residency at Hammersmith, and then we will decide what to do. I’ll drop Tom and Adam anyway. Their playing is not up to scratch! Even tonight they forgot a middle eight and messed up a song.”

  This was not the loud and cheerful Max that Clair and Jo had met at the beginning of the evening. He had things on his mind. He sighed loudly and took a deep breath. He wanted to change the subject.

  “So, do you want to sing some more? You could join up with us for the next few months and get back into things.” The expected invite came and went with no response from anyone.

  “Hellooooooo!” Max was not giving up on this one.

  “I need to think about it. I’ll let you know.” Clair was torn in two about it. What harm could come if she did a bit of singing in her spare time? She couldn’t think of a problem, but there must be one.

  They all stood up to part company, and Clair and Max swapped mobile numbers.

  “Thank you for tonight. You are a star!”

  Clair said nothing and made to leave quickly. Sandy hugged Jo and Clair. She was a huggy kind of girl. Max just watched and hoped that somehow he could persuade this magnificent girl to join his little band, if only for a short season.

  “She is lovely.” Max announced to his sister, Sandy.

  “Stop it Max. You can’t fall in love with every pretty girl you meet. She is bound to be hitched up already anyway.” Sandy knew her brother only too well.

  “I was just saying.” Max was unrepentant.

  “Yes well, your saying, usually ends up with your doing. She is way out of your league. But I do agree that she can sing. It was like having every soul singer who had ever lived singing in our local pub.”

  “She is not out of my league; no one is out of my league!” Max was indignant.

  “Sorry to disappoint you.” Sandy smiled and started making moves to go home. “You are still in the ‘little league’ as regards finding a decent girl friend.”

  “That’s not fair. There was Melanie. I stayed with her for three and a half months. She was good looking, she was great.” Max was on the defensive.

  “Is that the Melanie that you left stranded in Alicante?” Sandy had a point here.

  “It was her own fault; she shouldn’t have gone off with that Spanish guy Emilio. Anyway enough! I’m glad you finally got to hear the legendary girl singer from Exeter.”

  “She was fantastic. I have to admit. No wonder you couldn’t forget her.” Sandy kissed Max and left. There was a taxi waiting for her. She was home in ten minutes. Left to himself, Max went upstairs and kipped on the floor in the pub flat. He still did not have a permanent address, although the floor of The George and Dragon was becoming a regular location for him to bed down for the night.

  At about two o clock a very drunk and cantankerous Duke, kicked him out, and Max walked home to a friend’s house in Ruislip. It was only four miles away.

  Chapter Five – The Wrong Type of Lift

  Clair spent the whole weekend thinking about her performance. She started to come back down to earth on Sunday evening when she realised that she had to go to work the following morning. Max had not rung her, which she was a little surprised about. She had his number on her phone and thought about ringing him a couple of times. She wanted to sing again.

  There was something else about Max that she found very attractive. It took Jo to tell her what it was.

  “He has no rules to live by. That’s what you like about him. He is a free spirit who lives life with a wild spontaneity. You have been brought up to live by a set of rules. The only time you go wild is when you sing.” Jo was concerned that Max might start to become a bit of a thing for Clair. He wasn’t good enough for her.

  Clair thought about this quietly for a few minutes.

  “You are doing it again. Say something!” Jo wanted to know Clair’s thoughts.

  “No. you are right. He is completely free from any of the restrictions that I have to live my life by. That is what makes him attractive. I wonder what he does for a job.” Clair had just thought of this. She couldn’t imagine him doing anything for a job other than play in a band.

  On Tuesday Clair could wait no longer and phoned Max. The unwelcome sound of ‘This number cannot be connected’ answered her call and she gave up. On T
hursday she decided that she might like a drink and popped into The George and Dragon. Duke was waiting for her. Max had left a note with him.

  “I’m glad I popped in now.” Clair said innocently. She took the note gratefully and found a place on her own at a table. The note was written in a bit of a scribble.

  ‘Sorry, forgot that I didn’t pay my phone bill. Call me on 00098765765 when you have got a minute. That phone should work. See Yah! Max’

  Clair picked up her mobile phone and rang the number.

  “Hi Clair, Max is here.” It was obviously Sandy’s number. There was some shuffling and movement in the background. After about five seconds Max’s voice came through loud and clear.

  “Hiya, superstar. Thanks for calling. I didn’t know what to do to get in touch.”

  Clair suddenly forgot why she had called for a moment and said nothing in return.

  “Hello! Are you there?” Max asked

  “Oh yes, I forget that I have to actually speak on the phone sometimes.”

  “Good, you are there, are you up for some more gigs? You must be because you have called me.” Max sounded full of enthusiasm.

  “Yes, I’d love to sing some more. Can we meet up to talk about it? I much prefer to be well rehearsed. Singing on the spur of the moment like last time is very stressful and difficult.” This was true to some degree, but Clair was actually very good at improvising and singing songs off the cuff with little or no preparation.

  “Great, you tell me when.”

  “What about tomorrow night? I finish work at five on a Friday. I could meet you somewhere about six if you like.”

  “Where do you work? I could pick you up.”

  Clair told Max a place where he could pick her up, which was only a few minutes from Holding and Marshall’s offices. For some strange reason she didn’t want Max to know exactly where she worked. She hung up and went home. Her mum and dad had just arrived home from dealing with an important legal case in the city.