This Could Have Been Our Song!: A coulda woulda shoulda ballad (21 page)

“
It might be a bit premature, but after today I have to welcome you into our family,” Paul said to me with a reassuring smile.

“
Thank you,” I answered, not sure what else to tell him.

“
I’m not an idiot; I know you’re not there yet. I’ve been part of this peculiar clan for almost twenty years. The most rewarding thing in my life. It brought the most beautiful wife and two amazing children. But the thing is, with the sisters, they’re a package deal. You might be
in love
with one, but you will
love
all three of them. They will take over,” Paul continued.

“
Take over?”

“
Your life, your goals, your expectations, your priorities. They will become your whole world. But in the good way. Scary, right?”

“
Yes…” Not the thing to say.

“
Don’t worry. You’ll get it…or not. They’re quite addictive those girls.” He gently patted me on the back. I believe I will, but will I accept it?

Lucia comes in the room wearing only a towel, her hair still wet and those sad eyes. Addictive, he said
…  I try to softly kiss the pain away but she has another agenda. She drops the towel and pushes me on the bed. So much focus in her eyes, so much passion in her kisses.

“
I’ve missed you too, Luce –” I attempt to say but she doesn’t let me. Got it! No talking! She hops and positions herself on top of me. “I see where this is going.” I take my boxers off. I let her lead…
this time
. Her hands and mouth are all over my upper body. But there’s nothing tender about this; she’s scratching and biting me. Not that I’m not enjoying it because I am, but it seems so out of character. Are we having angry sex? I catch her face and get her to look at me. “Luce, are you alright?” No response. I kiss her gently, my poor Lucita. “I’ll take care of –” Again to talking, I surrender. She’ll talk when she’s ready.

I pull her head back; if it
’s angry that she wants then angry she will get.  I quickly roll and put her on her back. I trail my tongue from her neck to down her breasts, her full, luscious breasts, and take one in my mouth – vanilla and cocoa butter. I taste the second one. Lucia is moaning something but my brain is now completely shut off. I need to be inside her. As if she is listening my thoughts, she brings me even closer and spreads her legs even wider.

“
Marcus…” she clearly moans this time.

“
I’m here, Luce,” I say, putting a rubber on as fast as I possibly can before entering her. God, I’m in heaven. I really need to get used to this feeling, this addictive warmth and heat I feel every time I’m inside her. I know that at some point I may also have to give it up, but not right now.

Lucia closes her eyes when I start moving. Her hands are running, scratching along my torso to my hair and she brings
me down for a kiss: one of those steamy Lucia’s kisses that nearly makes me come and she knows it, that wicked sexy…

“
Luce, what are you doing to me?” I completely lose control.

“
Marcus…Marcus...Mar…” she screams, her body clenching to mine.

“
Luce!” I scream back, doing a couple of thrusts before lowering my face down to hers for a kiss. “Luce!” I scream again, trembling, feeling my release all through my body.

I quietly lie on top of her, my head resting between her neck and shoulder, our bodies still locked together.
“You’re incredible…so incredible,” I whisper in her ear. She kisses my sweaty forehead and starts to move me inside her again. Once again, I surrender. When was I ever able to resist her?

Where is she? I sit up on my bed. “Luce?” I’m looking at the bathroom door. No response. I check the time. It’s 4.00 a.m. Maybe she’s not feeling better; I should check up on her. I get up and knock on the door. Still no response. I open the door. “Luce, are you in there?” The light is on but there is no one. I notice my reflection in the mirror. I have scratches on my back and chest. They’re itching me. She did a real number on me. Three times. I put a shirt on before leaving my room. Maybe she’s in the kitchen, stress-baking again. Nella and John should be so lucky.

I find her in the living room, sitting on one of the sofa. I think she
’s reading a book. But why this late or early in the morning? Also, she’s fully clothed and has French bread. The last time I saw her her hair was all over her face and she was sound asleep.

“
Honey, what are you doing?” I ask her.

“
John was nice enough to tell me where he keeps his photo albums.” Lucia’s so calm, it’s almost spooky. She’s not even raising her head. “Marcus, you’ve been in need of a haircut for more than a decade.”

“
Lucia, you’re freaking me out,” I tells and get closer. She finally looks up. There are those sad eyes again. Poor honey. I lean down in front of her. “Let’s go back to bed,” I say.

“
Mary hasn’t changed at all since The RAM,” she says, looking at me. She points out a picture of Mary and me. “I particularly like this one. You didn’t cheap out on the engagement ring, I’ve got to give you that. But nothing was too good for your
muse
, right?”

Fuck! How didn
’t I see this one coming? “Luce. This is –”

“
Every song she has ever sung, you wrote. Wow, you must have been one hell of a couple,” she adds so calmly. No scene, no screaming, just plain sadness.

“
I was going to tell you about it, about her. That was years ago and –” I stop when I notice her overnight bag by the door. “You packed? Luce, did you come here to break up with me?”

“
Why? Are we even a couple, Marcus? Because, to tell you the truth, until two days ago I didn’t know what the heck we were.”

Two days? Beesly! This was never about her dad.

“I don’t know, Luce. This is new. Mary and I… It’s complicated. A lot of history.” I know I sound like daft prick and she knows it too.

“
You’re right. So let’s cut our losses then. I don’t do complicated. I prefer kicking my close friends out of my recording sessions to accommodate your jealousy. But that’s just me.” she gets up and put the albums back.

It can
’t just end like this. I grab her arm and kiss her hand. “Let’s just go back to bed, Luce. You’ve been waiting for me to come out and talk. We’ll talk…in the morning.”

“
About what? About the complications? The fact that you were engaged? The on-and-off relationship? Where do I fit in it?” She kisses me. “Obviously, I don’t. Otherwise you would have told me because we’ve pretty much shared everything else but that…but her.” She puts her shoes on and heads towards the door.

I really want to say something or apologize but nothing is coming out. I
’m just looking at her leaving me. “Don’t go…”
Don’t go?
Well done, mate!

“
Why?”

“
Don’t want you to. Luce, you just can’t…okay.”

“
How fast, Marcus?” she asks.

“
Don’t go there,” I warn her. Nothing good would come out of this.

“
Last year? A nice New Year shag? Valentine’s Day blues?” she asks again.

“
Does it matter?”

She looks at me straight in the eyes and I spinelessly look away.

“Marcus…no… Not the same week. What was it? A quickie before hopping on a plane to come here?”

“
Luce, it doesn’t matter.”

“
It matters to me!” she says, losing her cool for the first time. “And you knew it would… We’re not a couple… You and Mary are.”

“
That’s not true!”

“
But that’s not exactly wrong,” she bites back.

How the bloody hell did we get here? A few hours ago we were in my bed having
…wild, passionate, earth-shattering…break-up sex. I let her pass.

“
I’ll see you back at the studio,” she says before leaving.

I’ve spent the past couple of days staring at my mobile and have almost rung her a thousand times. I even drove in front of her building several times. But what good would have come out of all this? Maybe she would have shown up to work today. We have been waiting for her for the past hour. Matt is back from New York and after three days away from Noël-Sarrow, we are all more than ready to finish Second Coming – except Lucia. Beesly keeps saying that she should be here soon; she had an important appointment today. What could be more important than this?

“
Hello, everyone! I’m sorry for being late,” she saying entering the small meeting room. She’s wearing her thin, green glasses. “The doctor said that until my eye is better I have to wear them,” she adds with a smile and sits next to Beesly.

“
And you look so cute with them on,” Beesly tells her.

Lucia smiles back. Her hair is another big change; she traded her curls for small, sleek cornrows with silver beads.

“What?” she asks me, noticing my look.

“
Nothing. Your hair looks…different,” I carefully say. She looks beautiful as usual. Even more so today.

“
Thanks. Beesly’s hair stylist experimented on me. I wake up with my hair already done. What a time saver!”

“
You look very ethnic and sexy-smart, Lucita,” Tonio says across the table. Lucia blushes and grins.

I
’m still waiting for this meeting to start. We have less than three weeks left and three songs to record before the big presentation. Everybody – Lee, Tonio, Beesly and even the always-vocal Matt – were strangely quiet before Lucia’s arrival.

“
So, shall we start? We have a lot to cover and hopefully we can come up with the three last songs.”

“
Done, done and done, Marcus!” She opens a file and slides a few sheets my way. She seems very excited.

“
What do you mean by ‘done’?” I ask. We’re the creative team. She can’t just make all the decisions. Or can she? I turn to Matt and he seems to be eating her words.

“
Check it out,” she says.

I read the sheets she gave me. Not only have the songs a
lready been cleared by legal, but the arrangements with the G Band have been decided as well. I don’t even know if my input is needed. These are very good ones. I shoot her a quick gaze. There is no hint of resentment or anger, just anticipation and eagerness. She’s waiting for my approval!

“
So…”

“
You did good, Luce,” I tell her with a reassuring smile.

“
Thanks! Their choices really.” She points at Beesly and Matt, “I just pulled a few favors in here and there, and got Tito and the guys to help me with this.”

But not me.

“Lucita is going to play the guitar or violin in all of those songs with us,” Tonio adds.

Oh really? We don
’t talk for a couple of days and she goes back to her old Lucita ways. “That’s…nice,” I tell Tonio, avoiding Lucia.

“
That’s bloody brilliant!” Matt says. “The G Band featuring Lucita on our album!”

“
Right, well; looks like I’ll be going home sooner than expected. That’s fantastic,” I tell them all. “Just…fantastic,” I say again, looking at Lucia. A very chatty and happy looking Lucia.

Callia has been singing and dancing to the beat of the twenty songs for the past ninety minutes. Lloyd has been grinning the whole time. Matt is just plain smirking like he wrote the bloody thing himself. Beesly is holding Lucia’s hands and crying a little. The entire G Band keeps patting themselves on the back – literally. And Lucia; she keeps staring at me with real disbelief, mouthing, “We did it.” Yes we did. And the album sounds incredible; my best work to date. And this includes all of the albums I have produced for Mary. I still haven’t spoken to her.

“
This is incredible!” Lloyd finally says after the twentieth song ends.

“
Congratulation to both of you!” Callia adds.

“
And so much ahead of schedule!” Lloyd says. Two weeks to be exact, or six if we go with the original date. “We can now start talking about marketing, singles, tour…” Which means that Lucia’s and my jobs are officially finished. Time for me to go back home. To go back to London, where my life is. It has been a hell of a ride. One thing is certain, I’ll never work with or for Matt again. He’s one of my best mates and I love him but…never again.

“
Well, this is my cue to leave.” Lucia gets and walks toward the G Band, “I’ll see you later,
ombre
.”

“
Sure, Lucita,” Tonio says.

I
’ve been working with a very calm and friendly Lucita all week. After last Monday, I really thought that I would have to go through another round of the silent treatment, but it wasn’t the case at all. It was business as usual, like the past two months didn’t happen. Like
we
didn’t happen at all. And this shouldn’t bother me. After all, she looks happy. And gorgeous. And sexy. This shouldn’t bother me at all.