Love's Dilemma (Sixty Minute Romance) (2 page)

“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?” Clair 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 Thursday 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.

“You are home late tonight kiddo, did you get held up?”
Her mum, Cora, thought it was odd to see her home so late after work.

“I went for a drink with some friends.” Sometimes Clair
found it easier to embellish the truth a little when talking to her parents.”

“I don’t know why you go out drinking so much.” Cora
started up a standard conversation they had had many times before. Clair didn’t
want to partake this time.

“Leave her alone.” Said Clair’s dad, Aaron. “It’s good
that she has friends to go out with.

The agenda of the evening changed to sorting out dinner
and the three of them went to bed at about eleven o’clock.

About three o’clock the next afternoon Clair’s body was
giving her problems. She was nervous and had butterflies in her stomach. Her
work rate came to a standstill and she finally gave up doing anything serious by
four thirty.

Clay Smith, the office creep, came over to her,
carrying a file.

“Finishing early, are you?”

“I’ve got some things to do, so I’m packing up early.”
Clair felt guilty, but firmly rebuffed the file that Clay was attempting to
draw to her attention.

“I can’t do any more today, sorry. I’ll sort it out
Monday.”

“Monday will be too late!” Clay was confused and
annoyed.

“You should have thought of that this morning instead
of bringing it to me at this time of day.” Clair was shocked at herself for her
forthrightness in refusing to help Clay out. But inside, a bit of her was
saying
‘Go Girl!’

Without any further explanation she picked up her bag
and left Clay standing watching her long legs very closely as she walked
towards the lift. He always took any opportunity to follow a girl with his
eyes. He wasn’t even subtle with it.

Clair went to the place where Max was going to pick her
up at five o’clock. At five fifteen she was still waiting on the corner. A car
pulled up and a leering Clay Smith offered her a lift. She refused and felt
embarrassed. Clay roared off in his Lexus. Ten minutes later a huge noisy motor
bike roared up to her and stopped right next to her. The rider took his helmet
off to reveal a smiling Max. He was wearing a Red T-shirt with the slogan ‘This
is me on a good day!’ printed in white.

“Hop on!” Clair did not hop on. There was no way that
she could just ‘Hop on’. In fact, she had a number of issues to deal with that
were stopping her
‘hopping on’
. The main issues were as follows.

She was wearing an
expensive black business suit.

The skirt of the suit was
tiny and extremely short.

Her four inch heels were
all she had to wear on her feet.

She had never been on a
motor bike in her life.

The thought of riding a
motorbike terrified her.

She was expecting to be
collected in a car.

“I can’t go on that.” Clair was sure of this.

“Sure you can, look I’ve got a spare helmet.”

“That does not make it any better.”

“What is the problem?” Max was genuinely mystified.

“My clothes are not suitable for riding on a motorbike.”

“I don’t know. I think you would look terrific on a
motorbike in that outfit. In fact, I think you would look very sexy.” If Clay
Smith had said this she would have filed a complaint for harassment. Coming
from Max, it sounded quite funny.

Clair started laughing at the crazy situation. It was
the sight of her parents, a hundred metres away and walking ever closer to her,
which changed her mind.

“Quick. My mum and dad are coming.” Clair jumped on and
ripped the helmet out of Max’s hands and forced it onto her head. It didn’t fit
too well because of her hair bun.

“Go! Now! Go!” Her parents were now only five metres
away.

As Max roared off she thought she heard her name being
called out behind her. She closed her eyes and hoped that she was mistaken and
that they hadn’t seen her. She kept her eyes closed tightly for two or three
minutes before tentatively opening them and looking around. She was absolutely
terrified sitting astride the back of Max’s Motorbike. This was a very different
view of West London she was getting today.

It turned out that Max’s riding skills were good and he
was a very sensible road user. It was nice to see that this aspect of his
character was well formed and sensible, even if nothing else was. It also
transpired that Clair was beginning to enjoy her first time on a motorbike. She
started to settle down and take in all the sights and sounds of a motor bike
ride with Max. The only on-going issue was that her skirt now resembled a belt,
and it looked to passers-by that she was only wearing a suit jacket and her
high heels. When they stopped at traffic lights, she drew a lot of attention
with her classy leggy look on the back of the motorbike.

They eventually pulled into a small car park belonging
to a block of six flats. Sandy had just arrived home in her old Citroen Saxo.
She smiled at them and then started laughing at the sight of Clair on the bike.
She tried to stop laughing but failed miserably. Clair saw the funny side of it
too.

“Avert your eyes, Max! I’m getting off!”

“I’m being good, honest.” Max kept his eyes wide open,
and looked in his small wing mirror to see Clair pulling her skirt back down.
She wiggled around a bit to get her outfit looking good. Clair looked fantastic
in her work gear. He wondered what her job was. It didn’t matter right now. He
was feasting his eyes on Clair’s curvy body. His heart had been pounding
throughout their little motorbike ride. He liked her, that much was sure, but
he loved the look of her. She was like an accomplished model or a TV star in
one of those CSI programmes. The ones where the amazingly pretty girls always
tease the hungry work colleagues, and never seem to fall in love with them.

Ten minutes later, inside Sandy’s flat, the three of
them were busy having a drink and talking about Clair’s singing. Clair was
drinking plain water with ice, her favourite drink. She was starting to like
this brother and sister pairing she had just met. They were not very complicated;
they had an easy going relationship.

Sandy was obviously much more organised than she at
first appeared. When you spoke to her she came over as a bit dizzy and perhaps
a little crazy. Her house, however, was very tidy and everything had its place.
The cook books were arranged neatly in the dining room and nothing was placed
at an angle other than ninety degrees. All the knick knacks and ornaments were
arranged symmetrically within the room.

Max came over as very laid back and easy going. In fact
he was so laid back that it seemed that nothing ever happened, unless someone
else made it happen. His highly dishevelled brown hair and his thrown together
clothes gave him a slightly wild appearance. This was not without its
attractions. Most of the men Clair had met were so straight laced that they
would stand to attention if you spoke to them.

Together Sandy and Max made an unlikely pair. You would
hardly know that they were related, but Clair could see the deep affection they
had for each other. This came over in all their conversation and looks. She
found it easy to join in with their well-practiced repartee.

“Have you heard from Lionel?” Max asked Sandy.

“No, and I don’t expect to or want to. He’s a complete
loser as far as I am concerned!”

“Who’s Lionel?” Clair asked in all innocence.

“Lionel is Sandy’s boyfriend. She caught him in bed
with his Ex last week.”

“What?” Clair was shocked.

“I can show you where this all took place if you like.”
Max walked towards a door off the living room.

“Stop it Max! Come back here and behave!” Sandy pushed
Max onto the sofa and sat down next to him.

“He was my boyfriend, but I chucked him out. I don’t
want to talk about this!” Sandy was red faced and angry with Max.

Max started behaving and they turned their attention to
their guest. They talked about what a coincidence it was for Clair to meet up
with Max. What were the chances of that? Max again related the story to Sandy
of how Clair had hijacked the open mike night four years earlier.

Clair hardly wanted to talk about her singing. She was
enjoying the company so much. Eventually, however, they got down to business.
Gail and Anne had decided to start their covers band, so Max’s band was no more
after they had fulfilled the next two months of bookings. But Max had the idea
of Clair and him making up a duo. This would allow Clair to really bring her
improvisational skills to the fore. Max could follow her lead, with his guitar
as a simple backdrop.

Having discussed things for an hour Clair agreed to
sing with Max’s band for their remaining gigs. The next gig was the following
weekend on the Saturday. Gail and Clair would share out the vocals. Rehearsal
was this Sunday in an old closed down church in Acton. Clair suddenly began to
get very excited with the prospect of singing again. It was what she had been
missing. If felt like a lost part of her life was being given back to her. This
unexpected opportunity was like a dream come true.