by Dawn Burton
“Perfect. But d’ya know what would make it even better?”
“Red wine and chocolate?”
“Yep!”
“On it!”
Annie headed to the shower, and Tay pulled on some joggers, then walked into the seating area to the whoops and applause of everyone else. He took a bow and moved towards the drinks.
“All ok?” asked Con.
“Yep, we’re all good. Gonna watch a film if anyone else wants to?”
Sasha caught his arm as he walked back to Annie. “Tay, I’m sorry. I was being over-protective of you and it came out wrong. I was so happy for you at how you’d handled your anxiety and I got a bit annoyed that Annie didn’t give you credit for that, but she didn’t know, so why would she? And I know that. It’s just that you two are so perfect together that I forget sometimes that she’s not been around forever. It’s like she’s always been here, but it wasn’t fair of me to judge her. Can I come and apologise?”
“Sure, give her ten minutes as she’s in the shower, but then we’ll be in the back.”
Adie scowled, “You two ain’t gonna be going to be doing it again under the blankets when you’re watching the film, are ya?”
“Probably, dude. You can watch if you want. Give you some ideas to get that cock of yours working again.”
“Twat!” Adie launched at Tay, throwing him over his shoulder and twirling him around, Tay’s long legs threatening to take out everyone as they ducked for cover down onto the cushions of the settees. Adie launched forwards and down onto his knees, tipping Tay to the floor, his head pitching back and about to crack into the bunks’ door. Luckily, Annie opened the door just in time and his head crashed down to land just in front of her ankles instead. She was wearing a denim skirt and he grinned up at her as she blinked down in confusion. “Hi sweetheart!”
She shook her head, stepped forward slightly so Tay’s head was directly between her ankles, smirking at him as she deliberately gave him an eyeful up her skirt. The men all groaned and laughed, and Tay crossed his ankles and laced his fingers with a smug grin on his face as he took in the view. “You’re very dirty, m’lady,” he said.
“Filthy, I’d say,” she shrugged. “Sash, I just wanted to apologise for walking out earlier. I wasn’t planning on it, but I got to the bathroom and just needed some fresh air. I felt I’d let Tay down when you made me realise how great he’d done, but we’re ok now, and I hope we are too?”
“No, don’t apologise. I wasn’t being fair to you. I was just saying to Tay how it feels like you two have been together for ever, and I’ll admit, I was a bit put out that you didn’t recognise Tay’s huge leap forward, but you don’t know the Tay of old, so I was wrong to do that and I’m sorry I made you feel bad.” She stepped over Tay’s head to hug Annie.
“It’s a good job you’ve got jeans on, Sash,” growled Con. “I love Tay but I’m not sharing that view.”
Tension broke, Tay, Annie, Adie and Hilly went to move into the tv room at the back of the bus, filling up with snacks and drinks first.
“Do you want us to put the volume up loud?” sniggered Tay towards Con.
“Yeah, hearing you two screaming out has made me horny. Come here and service me, woman!” Con grabbed Sash, who promptly twisted round and got Con in a headlock, forcing his arm up behind his back.
“Sash’s a proper trained self-defence walking warrior, by the way,” Tay said to Annie.
“Wow, you’re gonna have to show me how to do that!” Annie gestured, amazed.
Sasha smiled and nodded. “Sure. It’s good to have a way to keep these babies under control,” turning her attention to her husband, who was totally at her mercy in her arms.
“Ow, please don’t hurt me, Sash,” Con begged.
“So, just remind me, who services who, and is my name ‘woman’?”
“I live and breathe merely to service you, my dear, and your name is Aphrodite.”
“That’s better. Now get showing me how this servicing lark works.” She let go of him and stood, arms aloft, waiting to be adored.
Con dropped to his knees and began kissing her feet. Tay grabbed Annie’s arm, “C’mon, let’s leave Aphrodite and Dickhead to it.”
Chapter Sixteen
The bus finally rolled into Phoenix in the late afternoon, Tams reading out that the Twitter feed was showing a growing demand for Tay and Annie to sing Visible together, particularly from a core of fans who would be at tomorrow night’s gig. “What about it? Jez thinks it’s a good idea?”
“God, no! I’m not a professional, it’d make a mockery of everyone paying to come and see you guys to have me up there,” Annie recoiled in horror.
Tay shook his head. “You totally could do it, Annie. Look at how well you are received every time I wave to you or reference you on stage. Every clip we put on of us messing around is getting thousands of likes and comments. The fans love you. I wouldn’t risk my professional career by indulging a whim. You absolutely are good enough to be on stage with me. Let’s do it, please?”
“No, no, I couldn’t. I’ve never done anything like that before.”
“I’d be right beside you, you’d have all these guys supporting you, and the crowd will love you.”
Annie snorted, “Some of your crowd make it quite clear that they’d like me to drop-dead!”
“Some of them, yes, comes with the territory I’m afraid. But most of them love you and you know they ask for you at the end of the shows as well. Think about it, and maybe we could run through it in tomorrow’s rehearsal and see what you think? Is that ok with everyone else?”
The rest of the band nodded as Annie shook her head and frowned. They had no more time to talk about it as the bus pulled to a stop outside their hotel for the next two nights.
◆◆◆
At the following afternoon’s rehearsal, Tay had managed to talk Annie into trying the song at least, but she still wouldn’t commit to performing in the evening.
She felt the nerves as Tay came and grabbed her hand, pulling her onto the stage in front of the empty auditorium. She looked around, imagining how it must look to have the place full of people staring at you. She’d stood backstage and in the VIP areas enough times now to have a bit of an understanding, but being centre stage, the focus of all the attention? This felt enormous.
They ran through the song three times, it having been a few days now since they’d played it, and the band all agreed it was sounding good. The lighting guys tried out a few configurations, centred around Tay and Annie in spotlights. Tay took Annie’s hand. “What do you say?”
She searched his eyes for any sign that he thought she wasn’t good enough, but she could only see love and hope and kindness. “What if I let you down, Tay? What if it backfires and you get slated?”
“Sweetheart, you won’t let me down, and if it backfires, then that’s on my head. But I’m 100% confident that won’t happen.”
Con called over, “When will you ever get the chance to do this again, Annie? Just treat it as practice for deciding whether it’s something you and Tay might want to do in the future.”
She inhaled, something sparking inside her, and she grinned, “Ok. Let’s do it!” She called over to the side of the stage, “Sash, I’m gonna need an outfit!”
“Got it here, ready for when you said yes,” Sasha replied.
Annie went into the dressing room with Sasha and Tay. “Strip off,” ordered Sasha, helping Annie into a gold shimmery wrap dress. It sat just above the knee, with a thigh-high slit up the left side, with gold high-heeled sandals to match.
Tay whistled, “I like!”
“Thought you might,” smirked Sasha. “Put on your best push-up bra under this to get those fab breasts up into the air. What do you reckon?”
She brought Annie round to the mirror to see herself. The dress was V-necked, elbow-length sleeves, gathered just under the bust, then hugging her hips and following her contours down her shapely legs. “I love it! How come I a
lways look amazing in what you choose?”
“It’s your body shape. It’s amazing to dress but you gotta find the right things. More generous on top to accommodate the boobs, but not too baggy otherwise it’ll swamp you, then fitted around those waist, hips and arse curves, finishing with showing off the killer legs.”
“So what size is this dress?” Annie ignored the scowl on Tay’s face that always appeared when she talked about her weight or dress sizes.
“US size 12, so a UK 14. You need fitted 14s though, so it’s more about the fit rather than the size label. Or if it wasn’t fitted, I’d have gone with a wide belt around the middle. I wish I had your curves. I’m too straight up and down for this sort of glam.”
“Yeah, but I go up and down all the time. Over Christmas I eat loads and go up to a size 16, then I get fed up in January and get back down to a 14, then Easter hits and all the chocolate eggs, then I panic about getting into shorts and work it off, before sinking into comfort in Autumn, another brief panic and then head into Christmas again. When I was younger, I just used to get dragged to Harvey Nichols a few times’ a year and someone would kit me out, so I never took any notice. I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing these days.”
“You always look sexy to me and I can’t wait to cuddle up to the Christmas you. I couldn’t give a shit about what numbers are in your clothes or on the scales, so can we just shut the fuck up about this?” growled Tay.
Annie dressed back into her jeans, tank top and cardigan, before they rejoined the guys and headed off for an early meal.
◆◆◆
Four hours later, Annie was standing at the side of the stage, mic’d up with earpieces, in the gold dress and sandals, Sasha putting the final touches to her make up. “You nervous?”
“A little, but not too bad. Kind of just want to get out there.”
“Well, you look stunning, even if I do say so myself.” Sasha stood back, admiring her handiwork as one of the venue photographers took some photos.
On stage, Audial were just finishing their song, and after the cheers and applause had filled the arena, Tay put his hand up. “Now, ladies and gentlemen, I cannot tell you how appreciative we are at how you’ve welcome us back into your lives with such open arms. The long delay has been entirely my fault, but we are loving this second chance at being here with you. Now some of you will also be aware of the very special person that has come into my life recently.”
The crowd started whooping and cheering at this point and Tay waited a few moments, smiling at their response, before continuing, “and we are so grateful for all the love and kind wishes that have been sent our way. Annie has an amazing voice, and we wrote and performed a song at her home called Visible, which has been viewed thousands of times on YouTube. There are some very dedicated fans out there who are hopefully here tonight, who have been requesting that we sing it live here, so for our wonderful fans in Phoenix, please give a very warm welcome to my fiancée, Lady Annabel Spencer.”
Tay put his arm out towards Annie, and she squealed slightly as Sasha pushed her forwards, her feet propelling her towards her man. The sight of the crowd, and the sound, and the heat, and the smell, and the lights hit her, and she grabbed hold of Con’s arm. “I can’t do this Con, I can’t.”
He smiled as if she was saying something funny and offered his arm out as if to escort her. “Yes, you can. It’s no different to you singing at home or down the pub. One foot in front of the other, m’lady, that’s all there is to it.”
He took her over to Tay, who smiled and drew her in for a hug. “Just breathe, sweetheart. You look fabulous and you’re gonna blow them away. Just look at me. It’s just you and me.”
She inhaled shakily and peeked out from under Tay’s arm to look at the audience, “And thousands of them.”
He kissed her forehead and gently spun her round to face them. “She’s says there’s rather a lot of you!”
A section of the crowd started chanting “Vis-i-ble, Vis-i-ble, Vis-i-ble,” until it echoed around the arena.
Annie stepped out from under Tay’s arm and surveyed the thousands of faces, some discernible, most a sea of colour stretching back further than she could see in the lights. She turned to Tay and smiled, holding the microphone up, “I guess we’d better get on with it, then!”
He nodded to Adie, who counted them in and as soon as the opening bars started and she could just concentrate on the song, her nerves vanished. By the time the chorus kicked in and she could power into it, she was loving every moment, owning the stage and wowing the crowd. Every time her and Tay interacted, it sent cheers around the arena and they played up to this, Tay twirling her around at one point, tipping her back in his arms, then bringing her up for a quick kiss. Tay could see the happiness shining out of Annie and he was so thrilled that he got to share this moment with her.
Unfortunately the song came to an end all too soon, both wanting it to go on forever, but the response from the crowd was fantastic, a standing ovation that seemed to go on and on. Tay and Annie thanked the crowd and Tay thanked Annie along with another kiss, before she said her farewells and left the stage, waving at everyone as she went, then promptly grabbing Sasha and bursting into tears. Tay was talking to the crowd when he spotted this and held his hand up, “I’m really sorry, but just give me one sec.” He rushed off stage. “Annie, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
She wailed, “I just want to do it all again!”
He laughed, relieved, and kissed her briefly. “We’ll tour together, one day, me and you, I promise!” He ran back on stage, apologising and saying he’d got worried when he saw Annie crying, but it turned out they were happy tears, sending him off on a ramble about women and tears, until Con silenced him with a stare, and he quickly introduced the next song.
Annie watched the remaining set from the VIP area, feeling the happy glow inside her and loving it. When they finished, Tay turned and thanked her again, and it felt amazing to wave back at him and the crowd, knowing she’d been a part of the night.
They headed to an after party that had been arranged in a local bar, once all the fans had been greeted and the selfies taken, Annie included at the fans’ request.
Tay felt on top of the world, his gorgeous woman was by his side and sharing the stage with her had just felt so right. He felt a pang of panic at the thought of her leaving in two days’ time, but pushed it to one side for now, opening his arms as Annie moved to sit on his lap and put her arms around his neck.
They were kissing as one of roadies came up to their group with a new round of drinks. As everyone cheered, the roadie shouted out it was Vegas next, “Are you two going to get married by Elvis out there?” he joked, nodding towards Tay and Annie, unaware of Tay’s past.
Tay felt Annie stiffen in his arms. Shit. He glared at the roadie and started to speak, but she pushed off him and slipped up and away from his arms.
“No, Tay’s already been there and done that. Haven’t you?” She turned her head to the roadie. “But thanks a million for reminding me about it. Excuse me.” And she walked off towards the toilets.
Tay was up and out of his seat, grabbing at the roadie and drawing his arm back as if to punch him. He hadn’t properly punched anyone for years, might’ve been Charlie actually, but as he was pondering this, he felt a hand holding his fist and Con’s arm coming across his body.
“Calm down dude. He’s a fucking idiot but he didn’t know. Just let him go, and go after Annie.”
Annie had locked herself in the bathroom, standing at the sink, looking in the mirror. Where did that come from? She hadn’t given Tay’s first marriage much thought. But Vegas. That’s where him and her, Lizzie, had been, walking around, laughing, joking, getting married. They would have kissed, hands on each other’s bodies, him touching her skinny body, tongues in each other’s mouths, had sex. She felt irrationally jealous at the thought. Ok, it all went wrong after that, but they would have had their shared moments.
And now she was go
ing there with him, with this ghost of her and that wedding hanging over her.
A reminder that Lizzie was his first choice, and she was always going to be in second place.
She stood for a minute, then shook her head. Grow up, Belly. He’s got a past, you knew that, so why are you suddenly jealous? She couldn’t answer her inner monologue. She had a past, it was ridiculous to be jealous given how many blokes she’d slept with. Did she really think not getting married gave her some sort of moral higher ground? Course it didn’t, you twat. Get over yourself and get back to your man, she told herself.
Motivational speech over, she straightened up, jumping as Tay knocked on the door and softly called her name, asking if she was ok.
“Yep, I’m fine. I’m coming.” She opened the door and gasped to see Tay holding his hand up with a tea-towel wrapped round his hand, blood soaking through. “What have you done? Did you hit that guy?”
“I was going to,” he admitted. “But Con stopped me so I shouted at him and punched the wall instead. But you should see the state of the wall! It didn’t stand a chance against me, I tell you!”
She chuckled. “My brave man. Come here and let’s try and clean you up,” opening the door to let him in and walking over to the sink. She unwrapped the towel and examined the cut. “It’s tiny for the amount of blood!”
They washed him carefully and Jez appeared with a first aid kit and a member of the bar staff to put antiseptic spray on it and a dressing. Once they’d finished, Jez asked if they were coming back to the bar.
“Just give us a few minutes,” said Tay, leading Annie down the corridor to an area overlooking the outdoor space. He pulled her in for a hug. “If I could change my past, I would.”
She nodded against him. “Don’t worry, I’ve given myself a good talking to. I just got insanely jealous at the thought of you being with someone else, of being intimate with her, of loving her on your wedding day, of thinking as much of her as you do of me-”