by Dawn Burton
The rehearsal went well, and they walked through town up to Cathedral Lanes, Tay calling Tams and asking her to ring The Botanist and see if Lady Annabel Spencer and the rock group Audial could get a table at short notice.
Annie scrunched up her face as he came off the phone. “I hate that you did that.”
“I know,” sympathised Tay. “But it got us a table and saves us having to do it when we get there,” he shrugged, “and don’t tell me you don’t pull rank sometimes.”
“For charity stuff, yes, just because it tends to get more money out of those who are impressed by that sort of shit, but I try not to for personal stuff.”
“Oh well, you can sit outside on the benches then and I’ll bring you a doggie bag.”
She smiled and hit him, knowing he’d got her there.
Having eaten, they left the restaurant to a lone photographer snapping them as they walked out and down the Precinct. “See, someone’s been tipped off and is earning money out of Lady Annabel Spencer and Audial going out for dinner,” murmured Tay in Annie’s ear.
Sasha turned to Annie, “Oh I saw you got papped earlier this week. Nice photo!”
“Oh yes,” said Annie pointedly at Tay. “Why don’t you tell them the story, Taylor?”
“What? Well, ok, so I might have spotted the photographer when Annie didn’t, and I might have pulled her in for a kiss to make a good photo opportunity, and then she might have twigged and threatened to castrate me mid-pose!”
They came back to Spon Street, Sasha saying how much she loved the old buildings and heritage of the street, and Taylor revealing his nerdy side by saying that some buildings had actually been moved over from the other side of town to preserve them. They went into the H2O Lounge to get drinks, more and more of their friends turning up after they’d put a call out for as many as possible to come tonight, and then making their way into Watch House, getting everyone to sign filming consent forms.
Will was ready with his video camera, setting the group shots up of Tay and his friends in one group being typical party animals, then getting Tay to be his calm self, playing an acoustic guitar, drinking water, while the others repeated their party routines around him. They then swapped to Annie’s group of friends and her kids, doing the same party shots, then with Annie sitting reading a book and drinking tea from one of her china teacups.
He got shots of Annie and Tay pretending to see each other for the first time, and then he got Con and Sasha to dance together then kiss, in their own little world. He got Adie to sit, smiling, looking at photos of him and Mia on his phone while the party raged around him, then he turned to Hilly. “What do you want to do, Hilly, for your ‘other you’ shot?”
Hilly grinned, then whispered in Will’s ear, who looked surprised. “Erm, yes, I guess, as long as it’s ok with everyone else and you are absolutely sure. There’s no going back if you do?”
“No going back. And I’m sure,” confirmed Hilly. “Guys, I don’t know what will happen between Will and me, because this is all new for me and we’re going slow. But he’s been the best type of friend I could have asked for at this stage, so I just asked Will if I could kiss him on my video. Is that ok with you all?”
Adie shrugged and nodded his agreement, “Go for it, dude.”
Con and Tay looked at each other and nodded. Tay said, “No problems here, but do you think we should run it past the record company first? We need to let them know at least?”
Will suggested, “Why don’t we take a couple of versions while we’ve got this set-up? One with us kissing, one just embracing, and one with us just laughing and talking, and then you can sort it out later?”
“Ok, but I’m absolutely set on the kissing one. This is me. And I’ll fight anyone who wants to tell me otherwise.”
They roped in one of Annie’s kids who was doing a creative media course at college to work the camera and set Hilly and Will’s scenes up. Once that was done, all that remained was the live run-through of the song. Will set the cameras into position to cover all of the band, then he was ready when they were. Tay had a quick chat with Will about a couple of shots he specifically wanted, then they went for it. All the practice paid off, and they did three perfect takes.
As they finished the last take, a spotlight suddenly appeared on Taylor and Annie. Tay dropped to his knees and a gasp went around the room as he took Annie’s hand.
“Annie, my life is our life now. Everything I do from now on is for us and I will do whatever I possibly can to spend the rest of my life making you happy. I love you, my family love you, and my friends love you. You change the world of those you come into contact with, and you’ve most definitely changed mine. I can't imagine a life that doesn't have you in it now. Please would you do me the greatest honour in the world; please will you marry me?”
“Tay…Tay…yes!” Annie burst into tears as the room erupted into cheers.
“I haven’t got a ring and I wouldn’t want to choose that for you, but we can sort that later, so in the meantime, will this elastic band do? I’m so sorry, it’s the best I could do on limited time and resources! I’ve been hunting around, but I haven’t spotted anything else to use.”
“I love it. No-one’s ever given me an elastic band before!” She grinned through the tears and looped it around her left ring finger.
The rest of the evening was spent celebrating together and with their friends, until they finally collapsed into bed, happy but exhausted, cementing their engagement by losing themselves in each other’s bodies.
Chapter Thirteen
Annie’s alarm went off early, her Saturday morning music workshops needing to be set up. Leaving Tay sleeping, she slipped downstairs, made a coffee then started moving furniture in the lobby, bringing out instruments from the store room behind the stage. The cleaners had already been in and removed the debris from last night.
She heard a van pull up outside and she went out to take her delivery - two huge trays, one full of pastries and the other of fruit. Placing them on the kitchen table, she took six jugs out of a cupboard and started filling them with squash. Needing to wait until extra hands became available to move some of the larger equipment out, she jumped up onto the kitchen counter to finish her coffee. She loved this period of quiet each week before the madness started and the kids started arriving.
Which happened all too soon. The noise levels grew and hoodied teenagers of all ages crashed into the peace and quiet, changing from moody and sullen to chatting and smiling with their friends, helping her finish setting up.
Although she loved music and could play piano, she didn’t know how to teach them to play other instruments or to sing properly, so she paid for increasingly rare music teachers to come and help out, and somehow each week, a group of disadvantaged kids came together for free to make music. At the end of each week, they’d pick a song for the next session and would listen to it, break the parts down, discuss the established approach, what other approaches they could take, what the message of the song was, and then the next week they would just start playing it over and over again until they reached a final rendition; sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, with the occasional flash of brilliance. Annie always put the recording on the website; it didn’t really matter what it sounded like, it was giving the kids the message that they’d done something worthwhile enough to go on the website.
She got things underway by playing today’s song; All of Me by John Legend. She joined in on the piano, singing along in harmony with Mr Legend, and then gradually the groups of singers, drummers, guitars, bass, percussion, piano and keyboards started joining in, finding their way to their parts.
Annie’s heart soared when she saw Tay come out and do a double-take at the scene. She caught his eye and smiled at him across the lobby.
After getting to grips with the coffee machine, he came down to her and asked if he could help.
“Are you sure? You don’t have to?” she asked, not wanting to put any pressure on him.
“I want to,” he smiled.
“Ok, well it’s whatever you can help with really. We’re a bit short-handed today.”
“Great. I’ll see if anyone else is awake.” He WhatsApped Con, Adie and Hilly, then wandered over to the acoustic guitar group.
Within ten minutes, Con and Adie appeared, Annie’s heart bursting with happiness at seeing them helping her workshop kids.
A bleary-eyed Will stumbled into the hall and Annie yelled “At last! Morning William,” right up into his face.
“Oh, shut up and flip off,” he mumbled, pushing her to one side as he headed for the coffee machine. “Hilly’s coming in a minute.”
“Did you make it to a 15-rating last night?” she called to him.
He turned and grinned, “Yep!”, Annie and Tay whooped in response, as the kids looked at her confused.
Once refreshed, he moved into the dj booth, starting the lights and setting cameras up, running through a test, “Ok, we’re good to go. Right, international rock star gods, if you don’t want to be filmed and tagged in our social media yet again, then go to the kitchen now, otherwise pick your instrument and get joining in!”
Annie called across the hall. “Ok, let’s go. We’ll run through it 3 times and then the wonderful Will will work his magic to pick the best version and cut the camera shots. Ready? Adie, could you do us the honour of counting in?”
And they were off, somehow all coming together from their disjointed beginnings to form a swirling musical miracle with solo spots, raps, a gospel feel to the backing vocals and even a guitar solo from Con.
Then it was food and drink time. “Right, form a queue you lot, you know the drill; a piece of fruit first, then you can have a pastry!” shouted Annie. She joined Tay and he hugged her tight, saying “You are amazing, doing all this every week.”
She smiled at him, “Thank you so much for joining in. I know it means so much to the kids when anyone spends time with them, let alone someone like you guys! Right, I’m off to mingle.”
A teenager approached Tay shyly, asking if she could ask him a question and then that was it, the lads were besieged with questions, which they were all happy to answer.
Annie shouted for silence, then explained that they wouldn’t be meeting until three weeks’ time due her joining Tay on tour. “I’ll send you all a message when I’m back, but the song we will be looking at is Blondie’s The Tide is High, so I’ll expect you to be perfect with three weeks to practice!” She put it on, and they all talked through the song, the lyrics, the feel of it, the guys joining in with their thoughts on the musical parts and playing an ad-hoc demo, ready for when she returned.
Then all too soon, the workshop ended, and the lobby fell quiet again as everyone drifted off to do their own thing before reassembling for lunch.
Finally, the cars pulled up and it was time for goodbyes, everyone discretely giving Will and Hilly space, while Annie handed out as many hugs as she could, telling her kids she would miss them. Hilly joined her and Tay in one 7-seater, grilling Annie about Will, while Con, Sasha and Adie went into the other, heading off to Heathrow.
◆◆◆
They met the band’s manager, Jez, at Heathrow, and Tay introduced him to “Lady Annabel Spencer, also known as Annie, and as of last night, also known as my fiancée!”
“Lovely to meet you, Lady Spencer. I look forward to you joining us on tour, but I hope you don’t mind slumming it.” Jez kissed Annie on each cheek as he shook her hand.
“Oh, it’s Annie, please,” she pulled a face.
“Unless you need to open doors. Particularly in America, they’re going to love her!” Tay bounced enthusiastically.
“Don’t!” she swatted at him.
“So, do we need to think about putting a statement out about you two getting engaged?” Jez asked. Tay told him about the video they’d made, while Hilly chipped in and told him about being gay and wanting to come out, with the various video options.
Jez shook his head, “One week in Coventry and everything’s changed. Hilly, I don’t know what to say other than ‘huh?’. I feel like I should have known all along and I’m sorry I didn’t. Let me see this video and we’ll check which version is going to work best for you all.” He turned away, immediately on his phone onto the record company.
Tamsin turned up to join them, a scarily organised and efficient woman a few years older than Annie, who had clearly seen all trouble that these lads could get into and was able to put them in their place with a word or a look. “No-one disrespects Tams,” stage-whispered Con, “she has the power to ground us and take away our beer money.” Annie liked her straight-away, thinking how lovely it was to have both Sasha and Tamsin around, although the thought struck her that they both had a role to play, a reason to be there, whereas she was ‘just’ Tay’s tag-along.
Then followed a period of waiting in the British Airways First lounge, before boarding their flight to LA. Her earlier thought had taken root and Annie felt a bit uncomfortable at the expense of her flying first class, asking Tay whether she shouldn’t pay her way.
Jez cut in, “Honey, we’ve already seen a 3% spike in downloads and a 5% increase in search results since you two got papped in Coventry. Not to be rude, but you’re good for business, and if this video is as good as it sounds like it has the potential to be, then you’ve already paid your way. Particularly with the interest in you being a Lady. Think about it, if we can get your video to go viral, you’ve saved us on pitching, creative, and marketing, plus dealing with who you are, Taylor’s past, your futures, and Nahil’s coming out, all in one fell swoop. It’s genius.”
“Oh,” muttered Annie in surprise, unsure why she, or her title, really justified such interest, and a sense of unease at the suggestion they’d capitalised on the last few days purely for the sake of the band’s sales. “We didn’t intend it to be that.”
“Didn’t you?” Jez raised an eyebrow at Tay.
“No! It was, and is, pure and innocent in its conception and execution. Piss off with your attempts to corrupt what we did. It’s about us laying ourselves bare, and don’t you dare cheapen that,” Tay frowned at Jez and pulled Annie away to go and browse the shops. “He’s a cun-, sorry, twat, at times, but he’s good at what he does.”
Annie kept quiet; their music world was all new to her, but she hoped Tay had been genuine over the last few days, and not thinking cynically about what they were doing.
Tay stopped outside a jeweller’s shop. “Shall we get your finger measured and see what rings they’ve got in that size? No worries if you don’t like them, but no harm in looking.”
She got measured and they brought out what they had. As soon as she saw the large round diamond with oblong-shaped diamonds coming out of it, like a sun, set on a platinum ring in an art-deco style, the tears filled her eyes as she touched the sun. “On my bad nights, sometimes I’d only be able to get through the darkness by sitting near a window and waiting to see the sunrise. It always made me feel safe when I saw the sun because it meant I’d survived the self-hatred I always felt at night.”
Tay put his hand over Annie’s. “Then that’s the one we shall have,” he said softly. “Because between me and the sun, we’ll always make sure you feel safe with us.”
They headed back to the group, Annie wearing the ring and getting used to the feel of it, huge grins on both of their faces.
“Photo!” yelled Con, grabbing Tay’s phone as they stood in front of the window overlooking the runway. Sasha posed them to get optimal exposure of the ring as they stood with Tay’s arms around her and her left hand up on his right bicep. They kissed as the group cheered.
“Champagne on us once we’re airborne,” shouted Tay, as Annie just hid in his chest, treasuring the feeling of being wanted, of belonging to someone, of having someone who was hers, and together, of being part of something.
Their plane was announced for boarding, so they moved through onto the plane, got cleared for take-off and then t
hey were off; the champagne being poured as soon as the cabin crew were able to move. Three bottles down across the group, and Tay pulled Annie slightly away from everyone, reclining his seat to make a bed, and pulling her down to squash in next to him, slightly shielded from view. “Hi, I decided I hadn’t kissed you enough in this past hour!”
He started slowly, kissing the side of her mouth, running his thumb, calloused from all the guitar playing, around the outside of her pout, pulling at the lip slightly to open her up and then watch as her lip came back into position. He kissed her lips, gently, drawing back to gaze at her, before dipping his head back down. He slowly licked his own lips and then hers, taking her bottom lip between his teeth and nipping, before releasing and kissing it better, laughing as she growled at him.
His hand moved down to her breast, gently cupping and squeezing, seeking out her nipple with his thumb through her clothing. They both felt his erection grow and he whispered, “See what you do to me.”
“Well, tough, I’m not joining the mile-high club in front of everyone, so down boy!”
He pouted and she kissed him this time, biting his lip, laughing as he growled, and then their tongues finding each other, swirling around. “After dinner, will you put the freebie pyjamas on and let me have a quick feel of your tits?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. You’ll just have to wait and see.”
“Oh, I see! ‘Treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen’ is it?” He grumbled happily, just settling down to lie with Annie, their arms around each other, until dinner was served.
After food, after drinks, the lights were dimmed for the remainder of the flight and gradually the cabin grew quieter. Annie changed into the provided pyjamas, grinning to herself, then snuck back into Tay’s bed for them to spoon, pulling the blanket over them. He murmured his appreciation as his lips found her neck and his hand found her breast under her top, and they curled up together for a bit. However, Tay’s long legs were soon needing to stretch and it was just that little bit too cramped, so with one last kiss and quick fondle, Annie moved back to her own seat to fall asleep, knowing she was going to regret it jetlag-wise, but there was no way she was going to stay awake throughout the night just so she could then sleep once they arrived.
