This Could Have Been Our Song!: A coulda woulda shoulda ballad

by Ngontang Mba, Danielle-Claude

  “I’ll be five more minutes, boys!” I hear from their private bathroom.

  “Don’t worry about us, love. Take your time!” Matt shouts back with a sincere smile. Alright, who is he and what have you done with my mate? “What? She went to all that trouble for me; the least we can do is wait for her,” he tells me when he catches my choked look.

  “Right. And you care because?” I tease him.

  “She’s my wife, Marcus. I care about her more than I care about myself,” he grins and flashes a big smile.

  “Really? Since when? Is it because you’re thirty now?” I ask him.

  “No, mate. It’s because I married her months after meeting her. I know I’m not the easiest person to live with. But I got her! I can’t be that bad,” he says.

  We both laugh. “You have your bad days – no, a whole back decade of them.”

  “But she stayed. Beesly never walked out on me. You couldn’t even manage to keep Lucia around and I’m the one with bad days,” he says back.

  “Yes…and you were such a great help. Why didn’t you warn me about him? I saved your bony ass a million times with your wife. Did you even try to save mine with Luce?” I’ve wanted to ask him this question since I arrived yesterday.

  He leaves his chair and joins me on the comfortable, dark-red sofa. “I remember begging each time, mate. It was never a random act of kindness from you, and best mates don’t throw this kind of things in each other’s faces!” he tells me. I think I hurt his feelings. “Did you even want to be saved? You never acted like it.”

  “I do now. She’s been avoiding me since I arrived yesterday. What can you tell me? Beesly has been very tight lipped,” I tell him with a lower voice. I don’t want her hearing us just yet.

  “After starting it all? She’s wicked this bird isn’t she?” he says loud enough for everyone to hear.

  “Two minutes!” Beesly screams.

  I silently shush him. “So she told you? Has she told Lucia?” I ask.

  “No, she hasn’t. What I can tell you is that she likes Luce and Greg together, maybe even more than she liked the both of you together. And they haven’t walked out on one another yet.” He turns his face toward the rest of the suite. “Love, this is not an award show!”

  “I love her,” I blurt out, a first time for everything. “Surely, I can’t be too late.”

  Beesly enters the room in a short, dark-green evening gown. “Because it’s all about you, isn’t it? Not her feelings or happiness. You didn’t care about that before; why would you now?”

  Matt gets up and joins his wife. “Be nice to him, love. The poor bastard’s in love and we both know how much of a daft sod he’s become each time it’s happened to him,” he says. He kisses her cheek. “You look ravishing, Beesly. Such a long time for such a small dress.”

  “You like?” She mildly blushing and twirling for him. “I had it made just for today.”

  “Just like your hair. It’s phenomenal,” he tells her and takes her in his arms.

  “Stop! We’re going to be late,” she tells him as he’s nuzzling her neck. “Luce and I went to this famous hair salon a few days,” she explains to me.

  That clarifies the state of both of their hair. Beesly is now a light brunette. “How many times do you think I’ve been in love before?” I ask them, walking toward the doors.

  “Never,” Beesly responds.

  “Six times,” Matt says.

  “What?” they both shout to each other as we leave the room.

  “Who are the six women?” Beesly asks him.

  “Yes, mate. Who are they?” I laugh.

  “Let me see… Roxanna, Job’s sister! Three years ago you wrote a bloody song about her!” he says.

  “Alright, maybe her,” I say in the elevator.

  “Corinne, the French vocalist in New York,” he continues.

  “I was eighteen!” I tell them while we’re walking in the hotel lobby. Our limousine is waiting for us outside

  “And wanted to go backpacking with her. You almost dropped out,” he jokes as we get into the limousine. “Who can forget Tamsin Richard or –”

  “Alright! Alright! So I may have been in love a few times but I don’t remember actually saying it,” I tell them inside.

  “So, what makes it so different this time?” Beesly asks.

  “Everything,” I say, smiling to myself. Everything…

  Greg

  “Okay, I just hung up with B. They’re on their way,” my fiancée says. She’s slowly walking back toward us. “Johnny, you made it!” she hugs him.

  “Hello, my dear. I’ve almost missed the fun, I know.” John’s hugging her back. “Nella is still touring in Asia.”

  “She will be missed I’m sure,” I tell him. I’ve known Nella for years. We even dated for a short while. Does he know about it? He shoots me an inquisitive look.

  “Right,” he says. He knows. “Luce, you look splendid! And your hair…” he adds.

  “Thanks.” She touches it as if to make a point. My fiancée does look splendid tonight; she’s glowing in her grey mini dress, the exact same shade of grey as her lovely eyes, her hair is down and all in one side. I can’t stop staring at my fiancée’s long, sexy legs. “Greg?”

  “Yes?” I say. Have they been talking to me? I put my arm around her waist.

  “John was congratulating you,” my fiancée repeats. I just love thinking about her this way.

  “That’s quite a ring,” John says but with an odd tone. I don’t like it. But what could I have expected from Marcus’ best friend?

  “My fiancée is quite a woman,” I snap back. At least Matt is friendlier. Then again, he may just be following Beesly’s lead. Honestly, I don’t care. Marcus and his pals can all go fuck themselves and leave my fiancée and me be. Okay, that was a bit too far.

  All the guests have arrived at Galaxy, the best and most expensive event venue in Glasgow. Beesly has rented the whole place for the night and has successfully gathered all Matt’s friends from the past decade. Matt is not a very likeable guy. Most of the people here are other stars that obviously have nothing better to do but be in Glasgow in February and there are a lot of them. I can easily count about one hundred attention-whore celebrities around the entrance only and the room is packed.

  “I like the decoration theme,” Kathie says.

  “Really? I can’t put my finger on it,” Michael tells us.

  “Thirty years of British pop music,” my fiancée explains.

  Seriously? What is Kathie doing with him? He’s an amazing singer but what an asshole! She looks so cute tonight in her black dress. “The eighties are around the bars,” I explain. Dum-dum.

  “The nineties are around the tables and the very large dance floor,” John continues.

  “The last decade is right here, the entrance where we’re waiting for the guest of honor to arrive,” I say with a harsh tone.

  My fiancée puts a hand on my arm. “Would you please excuse us?” She takes me away without waiting for their answer. “Let’s dance, Greg,” she says.

  “Okay,” I say, following her to the dance floor where people are standing and not dancing.

  “Maybe you will stop being a jerk,” she says.

  “I didn’t –”

  “Stop!” she says, so firmly I stop walking. “What’s with you? I thought you liked Matt.”

  “I don’t mind him but he and most of the people here are Marcus’ friends,” I confess.

  “And? This wasn’t an issue for you an hour ago, so what changes?”

  “Nothing. It’s still not an issue. I’m sorry,” I tell, taking her in my arms.

  “You better be, you idiot!” she says before kissing me. “I’ve been officially and physically branded,” she says, looking at her ring.

  “Branded? That’s what the kids are calling it these days?”

  “That’s what I call it. Now I need to brand you as well,” she whispers in my ears. “I see the women looking at you.” S
he slowly leads me to the dance floor and we start dancing to one of our many old routines.

  “We can always do this, can’t we? Pick up routines just like this,” I tell her.

  “Yup…”

  I lift her in my arms as the song and the routine are ending. “They’re here. Have you branded me yet?”

  “It will do for now.” She takes my hand and we head back. “I love you.” She pinches me.

  “Ouch! I love you too, Lulu.” I kiss her neck.

  “So, please behave!” she says steps away from Matt, Beesly and…Marcus.

  “I’ll do my best, Jagiya,” I tell her.

  Marcus

  I can’t stop looking at her, even with McMullan all over her she’s still by far the most beautiful woman in the room. He’s rather quiet; just staring at me looking at her. Smug bastard! Matt is still going through his many birthday wishes, so we’re moving away from the entrance very slowly. Beesly and Lucia are chatting and John is trying to strike up a conversation with me but it isn’t working. He goes to the next best thing.

  “So, Luce, how’s your producing work doing?” he asks her.

  “You’ve met Michael,” she says

  “I have. He’s a bit of a shit,” John teases.

  Lucia and Beesly laugh. “But a talented shit,” they both reply. “He just needs to meet his Beesly,” Lucia adds. We all laugh, even Greg, but Matt missed it.

  “Wait a minute; that’s not funny!” Beesly tells her. “What about Kathie?” she says, looking at the couple, already sitting close to the stage.

  “No!” Luce and McMullan scream.

  “She’s not Beesly material. We all went through our bad-boy phase. Intense fights…” Luce says.

  “And even better sex,” Beesly mumbles.

  “The wild years of youth,” Luce continues and McMullan shoots her an outraged look. That’s right, mate; she had a wild youth we were not a part of! “You eventually get it out of your system.”

  “You do?” Beesly asks then turns and looks at her husband. “No comment,” she whispers back to us.

  This tour is going to be a lot of fun; I can feel it. Too bad I won’t be a part of it.

  We’re finally at the center of the room where our table and the festivities are. We all sit down after a quick thank you speech from Matt. The music then starts again and dinner service with it. I want to speak to her but it will have to wait. She’s sitting next to Beesly and I’m next to John, with Matt next to him.

  “Are you alright, mate?” John asks me.

  “Don’t I look alright?”

  “You’re still my dashingly handsome lad,” he jokes, patting me in the back.

  “Right,” I’m looking in Luce’s direction. She smiles briefly and turns her attention back to McMullan.

  “You saw it?” Johns says, eating his food.

  “What?” I finish my drink and pour myself another.

  “The ring, Marcus, the big shiny one on her left hand,” John reveals.

  I almost drop my drink on him. “No, I must have missed it,” I answer. And I’m not really sure how…

  “McMullan, Luce, may I cut in?” I ask them on the dance floor. I’ve been gathering my courage for the past four dances. This time is as good as any. But it’s not to McMullan’s liking.

  “I don’t think so.” He’s holding onto her even tighter. That’s just childish!

  “Jagiya, it’s alright,” she tells him and pulls away. “I’ll be right back.” She kisses him before taking my hand.

  “Greg,” I say before we both walk away, but Luce has other plans; she keeps walking until we enter one of adjacent, small rooms. “Right…this is not the dance floor.”

  “What do you think you’re doing, Marcus?” she says, crossing her arms.

  Her ring is in full view. “What? We can’t even be civil? I just wanted a dance.”

  “Really? After all this time you still think that routine of yours will work on me,” she tells me.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” I tell her. Sadly, I know exactly what she meant.

  “Okay then. So we can go back to the party where we will be civil,” she declares, walking toward the door.

  “Wait,” I shout. She stops. “Are you really getting married?”

  “No I’m not. I’m only wearing an engagement ring,” she says.

  “Isn’t it the same thing?” I’m coming closer. “It is to me.”

  “That’s great but it’s not about you. It’s about Greg and me, so we’re free to interpret this any way we want to.”

  “Luce,” I whisper. I try to touch her but she violently pushes my hands away. “I’ve fucked up. I’m sorry.”

  “How many times have I asked you to stop calling me Luce?” she lashes out, taking a step back. “Whatever you’re trying to accomplish, Marcus, is not going to work. You’re too late, months too late,” she continues.

  “I love you and I’m sorry it took me so long to say it back.”

  “You broke my heart! Not once but twice. Are you asking me to go for round three?” she screams.

  “So you just stopped loving me, loving us?” I ask her. I’m trying not to match her tone but it’s not easy.

  “And you? You magically started? When did you get this epiphany?” she asks.

  “Does it matter?” I tell her.

  “No, you’re right, it doesn’t because there is nothing you can tell me that would make me walk away from Greg. I love him,” she says.

  “No, you love me, Lucia,” I tell her. We’re so close we’re almost touching.

  “Maybe so. I won’t lie about that. But I do not want to be with you. I want to be with him. He makes me feel loved and safe.” She backs away. “Look at me; I’m myself again. Being with you, it took that from me.” She keeps backing away, “I like who I am when I’m with him and that’s why I love him so much,” she tells me.

  “Ten years of blind devotion is better than one year of us?” I blurt out bitterly. This can’t be…

  “Right now it is and you have to accept it,” she bites back. She backs herself all the way to the door. “Or not. I honestly stopped caring about your feelings a while ago. You never really cared about mine until now.”

  The door opens before she touches the handle and Beesly walks in. “There you are,” she tells us.

  “We’re done. I’m going back there,” Lucia tells her.

  “Yes. Please. You’re on in five, Luce!” Beesly says.

  “Yes I am! I need to go grab Lucita,” she quickly responds and runs out of the room.

  This is how it ends? I need to go grab Lucita? I honestly stopped caring about your feelings a while ago?

  “It fucking hurts doesn’t it?” Beesly sneers.

  “Nice to know that you’re enjoying this,” I tell her.

  “I’m not. I didn’t last August and I’m not now,” she says.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about the ring and the rest?” I ask her. She let me come here and pour my guts out. “Because today isn’t about you. It’s my husband’s birthday, Marcus; therefore it’s about him,” she says.

  “I lost her, B,” I tell her, sitting in one of the chairs.

  She comes and sits next to me. “Oh, Cushion, you lost that battle, it’s true. I’m not so convinced about the war,” she says in her most reassuring voice.

  “The war?” I ask.

  “The Trojan one lasted a whole decade. So…why don’t we go back in there and listen to Hélène singing. We can always strategize tomorrow and any day after that,” she says, taking my hand and leading me to the door.

  I give her the warmest, most loving hug I’ve ever given her. Matt is really the luckiest bastard I know. “Thank you for being on my side,” I whisper.

  “What can I say? I still think she’s the female you,” she says and closes the door.

  I have a feeling that it’s far from being over.

  Catch up on the Lucia, Greg, Marcus love triangle and their lives in This Would Have Been
Our Song! Catchy Tunes And Dancers in Spring 2014. Secrets are revealed and lives are changed forever...

  Don’t miss the preview at the end of this book!

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  This Would Have Been Our Song! Catchy Tunes And Dancers

  Lucia - The Encore…Back By Popular Demand!

  Eight and an half months ago…

  I’ve had always hated the fabulous Altogether Women, the ones who had all their shifts in order, who knew where they were going in life and with whom. Never a cloud in sight in their destinies forecast; they purely made me sick to my stomach…until I became one of them.

  I now was a member of that exclusive, wonderful club, The Altogether Women Society. We Altogether Women had fulfilling careers; we opened our own small music production companies and were our own bosses. And we were successful at it! We kept being nominated at all the famous music award shows – platinum, gold, diamond awards, you named it, we got them all over our walls. In our spare time, we toured the world in style with our perfect fiancé. How perfect did you ask? Mine was the one and only famous choreographer, Greg McMullan, ranked fifteen sexiest men alive in 2010. He was patient, kind, supportive and an incredible sex partner. Oh, he was also so crazy about me, almost as much as I had been crazy about him. Nah! He was with an Altogether woman; he was counting his blessing every day. I should have done the same because since my last birthday I had been missing being Altogether every day.

  Axelle was standing at the main entrance of the hospital when I arrived. This wasn’t the way I had planned to spend my birthday. It was supposed to be our usual birthday brunch, but Noor and Axelle both cancelled on me a couple of weeks ago (and the worst older sister awards went to…) and now Noor was in labor! Four weeks early! On my twenty-eighth birthday!