I gesture with my hand for him to take a seat. I activate both phones and get the videos working. With some small adjustments, I take my seat opposite him.
“Do I look okay?” I ask.
“You look beautiful. It’s just me remember,” he said sensing my nervousness as I adjust my top.
“There is a reason why I’m in print media,” I say while giving myself a silent pep talk of ‘come on - this was your idea’. “Okay. I’m going to do the little intro part, and then we can get into it okay?”
Reece nods his head.
I take a deep breath and look at the camera over Reece’s shoulder.
“Hi. I’m Madelyn Arnett and thank you for joining me with this tell-all, exclusive interview. Today we are joined by a man widely known for his music. Known for being a bit of a ladies’ man, but I’ve had the pleasure of learning the deeper and more honest side of this man. He’s a musician, some would even lay claim to a rock God. He’s got a growing flair in the kitchen. He’s a chocolate lover and a habitual pinner. I give you, the Reece Ashton I know and love.”
Epilogue
Reece - One year on.
I shut the door to the oven and place the perfectly cooked roast chicken and vegetables on the bench to plate. My mouth starts to water as the beautiful smell wafts through my senses. Dinner is almost ready. Freshly warmed bread rolls in the basket next to me and vanilla cheesecake, Madelyn’s request, chilling in the fridge. Tonight I’m cooking for Sean and Hannah to celebrate their anniversary a few weeks ago. Who would have thought, the man who burnt a loaf of toast and stuffed up the humble cup of tea could have turned into a pretty decent cook? I haven’t done anything official other than helping out occasionally at Trent’s pub. I wanted to learn how to cook for myself. I was even featured in a magazine for my cooking, funnily enough, not my music. I still love music, that will always be my passion, cooking just happens to be another one of my loves.
“That smells good,” Madelyn calls behind me. I glance over my shoulder to see her standing by the island, and my mouth starts to water in a different way.
“You look good,” I say as I turn the oven off. “Better than good actually. Might slather some butter and honey on you—”
“Stop!”
Trent, AKA Passion Killer moves to his sister's side, and I laugh as he tries to cover his ears. I pull the platter closer to the roasting pan and start to plate up. He moves over and picks up the bread basket. It would seem that Trent is also a fan of my cooking. He puts in a request for the token weekly family dinner, and I never struggle in passing on some leftovers to him.
“You do know how that baby got in her tummy don’t you, Trent? Wasn’t from swallowing a watermelon seed.” I love to watch him squirm, and he’s actually become one of my best mates. “Everyone seated?”
“Shh. They are, and if you don’t hurry up with that roast chicken, everyone else is going to be ordering pizza,” Madelyn warns trying to keep our secret. Madelyn falling pregnant might not have been part of our plan, but like a lot of things in my life over the past year, nothing has gone to plan.
The frenzy to catch us together died down pretty quickly following our interview. It helped clear up a lot of what the media and society wanted to know about us. Madelyn got the chance to clear her name too and thankfully the media backed off once they got her version. Fun fact, Caitlyn ended up with James. A match made in heaven, they will cause each other to implode. Trent was the most vocal about that relationship, but as long as it doesn’t involve Madelyn or me, I’m not bothered by it. I thought Madelyn was confident before, but now, she just seems to shine.
Sean has made a successful career move to music producer while Hannah is still my manager, I’m just not her primary artist. My acoustic sessions album debuted at number one even in presale mode, and that has led to my first solo tour. David is still trying to get his hooks in wherever he can, he just takes a while to accept that he’s been beaten I guess. We came back to Portmouthe and I bought this house and after much badgering for about a month, Madelyn finally moved in with me. She’s still fiercely independent, and that’s pretty much all we argue about - her trying to make sure she pays her way.
Like all couples, we had some settling in issues, but there was one fight that I thought had her walking away permanently. We were talking about how much she worked, and I was saying that she should and could cut back. Things were said, she said I was unreasonable, and I said she was stubborn to a fault. An hour later, she returned, thrust the pregnancy test box in my chest as she made her way to the bathroom. My life changed again in three minutes. Madelyn stood in stunned silence while I couldn’t fight the smile on my face. I’d be lying if I hadn’t fantasized about asking Madelyn to marry me and have a brood of kids. It took her three hours of me reassuring her that I was happy, thrilled, and over the moon. She never said it, but I know she was thinking about how people were going to think that she did this to somehow try and trap me. Finally, a smile came to her face when I told her that my ‘super sperm had other plans’.
That lay way to the next fight with me taking over her shifts from Trent. The decision was even easier when Trent learned she was pregnant. I didn’t mean she was going to become a kept woman, just that she didn’t need to work crazy hours anymore while studying. Yeah, I was pulling beers and doing the shitkicker jobs like an Aussie tourist, but if it meant she was going to be rested during her first trimester, then I would do it a hundred times. I gave up on trying to patch up the relationship between her father. She’s right. He has her number, and if he wants to talk, he will make the effort. I leave that hornet's nest alone.
I’ve been toying with the right time to ask her to marry me. I’m torn between doing something elaborate and completely over the top, but then I’m reminded that we are not those people.
“What can I carry in?”
I watch Trent shove one of the homemade rolls into his mouth, at least he’s shut up, and look to the love of my life. “Just that precious cargo you have in there,” I say with a nod to her growing tummy. To look at her, you wouldn’t even know she’s pregnant, but when I see her naked, she’s got the cutest little bump. “Glad you have your appetite back. Was beginning to take that morning sickness, no appetite thing personally.”
“Food, now please.”
Following after her, I bring the platter down to the table where Sean, Hannah, Trent and Deni are waiting. Trent and Deni have been playing hooky, but every time I ask him what’s going on, he clams up and tells me nothing about her working in the city. It’s all too coincidental that something or someone in the city seems to attract his attention on the slower nights of the week when I fill in for him, though. I can see why he’s trying to keep it on the quiet, his life was also invaded when it all blew up about me and Maddy. I think he’s doing everything he can to protect Deni, I just don’t want him to waste his opportunity with her.
Taking my place at the head of the table, I take hold of the knife to carve when Sean clears his throat.
“Before you do that, we have some news.” I look to Hannah, who, only now I notice has a familiar rosy glow, and I know what’s coming. “Hannah and I are happy to announce that we are having a baby.” I start to clap as I get to my feet to move around to give him a hug. Madelyn’s in tears as she hugs Hannah tight. “We are heading into the second trimester.” I lock eyes with Madelyn, who gives me a quick nod. We hadn’t told anyone as we wanted to clear the first trimester.
“Wow, Sean, Hannah. That’s fantastic news. Looks like there’ll be a new band forming in about six months’ time.” Sean was out of his seat giving me a tight hug. I returned to my seat to catch an awkward glance between Trent and Deni. With our announcements, we’d effectively shoved them into a conversation they couldn’t participate in. I reach over and squeeze Madelyn’s hand to garner her attention so we can quell the baby talk for now and she gives me a look that if I don’t fill her plate, she’s just going to pull the platter to her placemat.
<
br /> As I fill my plate, pass the bread rolls around and smile at the groans of satisfaction around the table, I take stock of how far removed my life is from my old one. I was so focused on the journey to get to the top that I had no skills when I fell. As hard as it was to take, my rock bottom proved to the best place for me to rebuild and refocus. And as I look around at the friends I’ve made, the love of my life with another love of my life within her, I know I wouldn’t change a thing.
“Marry me,” I say causing everyone to stop eating and look at me.
Madelyn gives me a curious look before swallowing slowly. “Did you say what I think you said or marinade?”
“I’ve been doing my head in,” I say as Trent cuts me off.
“And mine.” I quickly lob a bread roll that he easily dodges.
“I’ve been doing my head in trying to think of a perfect way to ask you. I can’t imagine my life without you, Madelyn. You helped me find my feet when it felt like I didn’t have any. You showed me that I was capable of so much more, and you just keep … you just keep improving my life for every day that you are in it. I don’t want to wait for the perfect time to ask. What better time than to ask now … with an audience … making it harder for you to say no.”
It’s my turn to swallow slowly as I see tears form in her eyes. No one else at the table speaks.
“Trent’s right you know,” she starts. How is this about Trent? “I’ve been doing his head in asking him of how I can propose to you. I was going to ask you tonight when everyone left.”
“You were going to ask me?” I shift out of my seat and get down on my knee next to her, and she cups my face in her soft, gentle hands.
“Yes.”
“Yes, you were going to ask me or yes, you say yes?”
The tears squeeze from her shut eyes as she starts to laugh. “Yes. Does it matter which question? Yes, Reece. Just yes.” The table erupts as she places a gentle kiss on my lips.
“Oh. Hang on. I got so caught up in the moment that I didn’t have the ring on me.”
“You have a ring?”
“Told you I’ve been thinking about it for a while,” I laugh as I turn on my heel and run to our bedroom. I return just as fast to see my plate cleared along with our guests. “Where’d everyone go?”
“They said it should be a private moment,” Madelyn said standing next to my place setting. I look down to the small ring box and then back to her. “I’ve been thinking about how to say ‘the rest of my life is with this ring’. You were my diamond, my rock at the bottom. You have seen me at my worst, most inept moments, and you stuck by me. I can’t wait to share the highs with you. I know whatever comes our way, with you beside me, we can take on the world.”
Money, fame, success - they are not what I crave anymore, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Who would have thought?
The Rock Bottom Series Continues With SKY HIGH
This is an unedited preview of Book Two in the series.
Chapter One
Baxter Riddle - aged seventeen
Please, Mr Colson. Please. Not her.
“Right, eyes to me. The big assignment. You are going to be paired up.” Great. “You will work fifty-fifty on this.” Even better. “You are to compose your own lyrics and music which you will perform.” Pfft. Piece of cake. I write a song a day, sometimes two. Kinda easy when you are a specialist school for the arts. Music, dance, and art are the focus here, but I still have to do English, Math, and Science. School work and I never got along but music, music I loved. Preferring to work solo, word was slowly getting around that I could hold a note as well as play one. Girls were starting to notice me. Well, that’s a lie. I’ve started to notice girls, and as I took a step closer to the bag with everyone’s name in for picking, I sent a quick prayer to the man above with a quick wish list of nots.
Not Lily Maltree. The girl has been here for three weeks, and I still haven’t heard her talk. We share the same classes, and she’s oddly quiet. In a school full of drama queens, the quiet one stands out. She’s so beige that I sometimes forget she’s there. Glancing at her, she’s hunched over the table, hand moving at a furious rate across the page of that diary that seems to be a permanent growth to her digits.
“Baxter,” Mr Colson calls, and I drop my hand into the funky smelling bag. I’m fourth from the end and out of the few candidates remaining, I still have two on the don’t want list.
Please, not Lily, not Ruth, not Fiona, not Eve. Definitely not Stella. The paper rustles against my fingertips as I look out across the room again before my eyes catch Lily’s. Staring into the inky depths of her brown eyes cause my fingers to pinch as I realise this is the first time we’ve made eye contact. “And the lucky victim is …” The bag is pulled away, and I’m still holding onto the piece of paper. “Okay. Suddenly mute. I’ll read it.” Lowering my hand to my side, Lily is the first to pull away and as odd as she appears to me, looking into her eyes made me want her to keep looking. “Lily Maltree.” Even the call of her name wasn’t enough to get her to raise her head. “Take a seat next to your partner.”
Dragging my feet, the remaining people have been paired up, and our teacher again calls for our attention, and I take my seat next to Lily who pulls the cover of her precious book up to block my view of what she’s writing. “Hey,” I say.
I get a hey back and there dispels that rumour that she doesn’t talk.
Mr Colson calls for quiet again. “So. Assignment. Write the lyrics and compose the music for a two-minute song of your choice. Can be a song about love.” Some of the boys boo while the girls clap. “It can be about a ride on the bus and who gets on. Can be about anything you want. There are some rules. No swearing.” The uproar from that request sounds like they’ve just been told they are off to boot camp. “No singing about burning the school to the ground.”
Grabbing the ties on my bag to reach in and pull out my notebook I have specifically for songs, it slaps on the table a little too loud and makes Mr Colson stop talking. Giving me a pointed look, he starts up again. “Has to be a new song. Not a reworked one from your collection. Remember, fifty-fifty. I want to see who did what work and it’s due next class. Class dismissed.”
Sliding my book off the table, it drops perfectly back into my bag. Little Miss Notetaker next to me though, hasn’t bothered to look back up at me, and it’s irking me to know what she’s writing.
“I can work on this assignment through the free periods and lunch times,” she says. “I can’t stay any longer than the bell, and I can’t get here any earlier. I have a free period first thing tomorrow morning.”
So do I and all I can manage to get out is ‘okay’ as she slams the cover to the book and any hope of seeing further into her world and she gets out of the chair and leaves me to sit on my own for the first time ever in my time at school.
***
Usually I can think of lyrics at the drop of a hat. Get a catchy hook, and I’m in. Today is not normal. I haven’t been able to think straight since being paired up with Lily yesterday, and I can’t stop thinking about why she is the way that she is. She’s been here for two months, and no one knows a thing about her other than ‘oh the chick that carries the notebook’. Leaning my favourite guitar against the cement wall, I wait for her on the front steps of the school. This is a prestigious school known for award-winning musicians and actors. One of my idols, Reece Ashton, didn’t go to a school like this, and he’s making big waves with his band having just won a radio competition. Mark my words, the world will know his name, he’s that talented. I want to be one of them. I want my name to be the first thing they think of when they hear this school’s name. That’s why I can’t have this assignment messed up by someone who doesn’t take it as seriously as me. My reputation for not only my music but me is starting to become common knowledge as I choose to savour my voice from saying good morning to my fellow classmates in favour of a nod. I know it might seem cocky, but I have other classes that n
eed my voice, not just this assignment.
I’ve waited outside the school for fifteen minutes after the bell has gone, no sign of her in at the front, the halls are silent, and my anger is starting to fill at being stood up. I’ve wasted half the period before I walk inside and head to the music rooms. As I get closer to the first studio, the muffled sound of slow guitar strumming fills the air. Moving past the door to find a vacant studio, natural mousey brown hair had me stopping and backing up. Raising a knuckle to the glass pane on the heavy wooden soundproofed door, two taps and those same brown eyes that pulled me in yesterday, look up to lock with mine.
Speaking as the door opens. “When did you get here? I’ve waited for twenty minutes outside for you,” I say with a little more force. It’s not the fact that I could have been working on the assignment that pisses me off. It’s the fact that someone kept me waiting. People wait for me.
“I said good morning to you,” Lily says as she steps back and into the corner as I pass her and set my guitar case down to open. “You were too busy making googly eyes at Stella .” Stella Stevens. That girl has a name destined for Hollywood and what I wouldn’t give to have her on my arm. “And too busy fixing your hair.”
“You wanna run your fingers through it,” I quip and plonk my arse in the seat she was using. If I hadn’t been so distracted, I would have noticed her book was open until she walks past and slams it shut to take the seat opposite me.
“I was thinking—”
Raising my hand, she stops talking. “When it comes to songwriting, you don’t have to worry. I’ve got this.”
“I do have cause to worry if you are going to be singing about some blonde who won’t even give you two seconds of her time. Please. No one wants to hear about a silly little crush. This is my idea.”
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