Dream On Page 17

  "But where are you going?"

  "Janice and I are having the day off," Max said, and turned, looking very pleased with himself, to Janice. "I thought we'd pick up Harley from your mother's, and take him to that Fun Zone place you told me he likes. What do you think?"

  Janice felt the smile spread all over her face. "I think we'd both love that, very much!"

  "Good!" he said. "Right, well, we'll hang on until Kim gets here, and then we'll be on our way!" He walked off, rubbing his hands together again, into the office.

  "You lucky pig!" said Lisa. "I wish it was me who the boss fancied!"

  Janice was blushing so hard she had to press her hot cheek against the cold of the window pane.

  Later, when Harley was exhausted from climbing over obstacle courses and crawling around in the ball pool with several other children who'd become his instant best friends, Max took them both out for pizza and ice cream. When he was paying the bill, Harley stared at Janice as she zipped up his jacket.

  "Is Max my new uncle?" he said, rather solemnly. "Keanu at school, his daddy went away and then he got a new uncle, and he shouts at him and shuts him in his room."

  Janice shut her eyes. Poor little Keanu.

  "No, Max is just Mummy's boss and friend, you know that," she said, feeling herself going pink yet again. "Do you like him?"

  "Yes!" said Harley. "I like him. I wouldn't mind if he was my new uncle." Then he went solemn again. "But I want to see Daddy."

  "I know," she sighed. "Shall I see if he wants to come round for his Sunday lunch tomorrow?"

  "Yes!" said Harley. "And Max too!"

  Janice laughed. "Maybe not," she said, though a picture of such an event flitted through her mind; that would make Dave sit up and take notice. Or perhaps it wouldn't. Oh, who cared?

  After Max had dropped them off, at around five o'clock, she settled a very tired Harley onto the sofa, and went into the kitchen to phone Dave.

  "Hello!" He sounded genuinely pleased to hear from her.

  "Hi! I got your text - congratulations! What was it like then, at the final audition?"

  "It was brilliant. Bloody nerve wracking, though. I still can't believe we all got through."

  "It's amazing, isn't it? Even Melodie!"

  Dave laughed. "Even Melodie! The A&R man fancied her. Well, she reckoned he did, anyway."

  "So what now?"

  "We wait. If we get through to the live shows - "

  "Like on The X Factor?"

  "No, not like on The X Factor! It's nothing like that, it's a serious show! What happens is, if you get chosen for the last fifteen, they ring you. Next Friday, between six and seven in the evening."

  Janice was silent for a moment. Next Friday was her birthday. She wondered if Dave would remember.

  "So you'll be spending that evening with the lads then, I suppose, will you?" And Ariel.

  "Uh-huh. We'll all be sitting in The Romany, white knuckles gripping large whiskies, I should think!"

  "Great." She swallowed hard. He'd forgotten, then. "You haven't forgotten Harley's birthday? The twenty-ninth?" Maybe the mention of that would jog his memory -

  "Course I haven't. We'll have to get together, talk about what to get him."

  Okay, so it didn't. "Mm. Well, that was one of the reasons I rang you up. I wondered if you'd like to come round for Sunday lunch tomorrow."

  Silence.

  "Jan, I'm ever so sorry, I can't. I'm busy. We've got a gig over at St Neots tonight, we're just loading up the van now - and we've got another one tomorrow lunch time at The Bandstand."

  "I see." Same old Dave. Same as it ever was. She felt herself begin to shake with anger. "That's okay. Harley hasn't seen you for nearly two weeks, but that's okay."

  She heard him light a cigarette.

  "Look, I'm not usually this bad, you know what it's been like, with the auditions and everything - "

  "I know!" she said. "I can bring Harley to see you at The Bandstand, tomorrow lunch time! He'd love that!"

  Dave inhaled loudly.

  "No." Pause. "Look, this is crap of me. I was lying. I haven't really got a gig tomorrow lunch time. It's just that - well, I've arranged to go out for lunch myself. In a posh restaurant. Me and Ariel, Melodie and Boz. Sort of, like, to celebrate the success of the audition."

  Janice felt the anger rise up in her throat. "Well, why didn't you just say so? Of course, all your buddies take precedence over Harley, don't they? How stupid of me not to remember! Why didn't you just say you were going out with them - oh, and Ariel, of course?"

  "I dunno. I didn't want to upset you, I suppose."

  "Don't flatter yourself! You haven't upset me. I'm angry, for Harley, not upset for me."

  "I'll cancel it."

  "No, no, don't bother." She sighed. "I can see that coming here isn't a very thrilling option, in comparison."

  Silence.

  "How about I come round on Monday night, straight from work?" Dave said.

  "Fine," she said, and was about to add if you can tear yourself away from Alison Swan, but realised that saying that would make her sound as if she felt something she didn't. As if she was upset. And she wasn't, not really. Not about Ariel, so much, anyway.

  When she got off the phone, though, she thought about what Harley had said.

  So Dave wasn't available. But someone else might be. She rang Max, instead.

  "I'd love to, Janice," he said, "but I can't leave Lisa and Kim to run the place two days running."

  "Oh." Her disappointment equalled that of Dave turning her down, to her surprise. "Of course. Oh well, never mind."

  "I'll tell you what, though. I'm pretty good at thinking of better ideas, aren't I?"

  She smiled. "Like today."

  "Exactly! Look, can you get a sitter for Harley for tomorrow night?"

  "Why?"

  "I'd like to take you somewhere."

  Janice thought for a moment. "Yes. Yes, I can get Mum to pick him up and take him to hers. He can stay over and she can take him to school in the morning; then I won't have to worry about getting back early."

  "Wonderful! I'll pick you up at seven, then."

  Janice laughed. "Okay - but where are we going? What do I wear?"

  "Oh, just whatever you'd normally wear to go out. Not silver lamé and diamonds, unless that's your normal look. Do you like jazz? Blues type jazz, I mean, not the trad stuff."

  "You mean like Miles Davis?"

  "Sort of! Yes, that type of thing."

  "Yes - yes, I think so."

  "Good! I'll see you at seven, then." He coughed. "I'm really looking forward to it, by the way."

  She smiled. "Yes. Me too."

  He took her to a Jazz Club in a back room of a hotel near Ely, and she had a wonderful time. She loved the atmosphere (though, really, it should have been all smoky, she thought, even though she didn't like cigarette smoke anymore), she loved the cool, sexy music, and the novelty of being introduced to all the people Max knew. She felt sexy, too, in the LBD she'd bought a few Christmases ago, and hardly worn; it fitted better than it had then. She'd been vaguely aware that she'd lost a bit of weight over the past few months, what with all she'd been through, and she was delighted to find that the dress looked completely different now that it was slightly too big for her instead of slightly too small. Few things cheered a girl more than losing weight, she thought to herself, as she admired her appearance in the loo half way through the evening. Especially losing weight, and knowing your hair was growing, and being out on a date with a lovely man. Was it a date? She wasn't sure. Maybe he was just being nice, because he knew how unhappy she'd been.

  When she went back into the room, though, Max put his arm around her and introduced her to someone else, so perhaps it was a date, yes. As she watched him talking and laughing with people, confident and popular and amusing, she realised he'd become more attractive to her; he was a grown up, she decided, not an overgrown teenager like Dave. She adored the jazz club, and wondered if mayb
e she'd grown out of the rock and biker scene, now; she liked this sort of music even better than she liked Whitesnake and Bon Jovi. Or perhaps she'd never been that keen on all that, really; perhaps she'd just thought she was, because she loved Dave.

  When they left the hotel and drove home, she discovered it was a date, for certain; Max asked her if she'd like to come back to his and have another glass of wine, as they'd had such a good time, and as she didn't have to get back for anything.

  Was 'another glass of wine' as much of a euphemism as 'a cup of coffee', when the offer came at the end of a date?

  Of course it was, and of course she said yes.

  She never drank the glass of wine, though, because as soon as they sat down on the sofa she realised she was dying for him to kiss her and it was only when he started doing so that she wondered how on earth she'd ever thought she didn't fancy him.

  Somehow, in the process of that kiss, which lasted about a quarter of an hour, her dress had got all sort of rucked up, and his shirt had become unbuttoned.

  "Do you want to go to bed?" he asked, when they came up for air. "With me, I mean."

  "What do you think?" she said, and kissed him again. "But would you think me frightully brazen if I suggested we go now, this minute?"

  Much, much later, when he fell asleep, she looked at him and, suddenly flooded with a feeling of affection for him so great that it brought tears to her eyes, realised that she had fallen in love with him. How had that happened? One minute he was just Max, her boss and friend, and the next moment she wanted to crawl all over him and do all sorts of wanton things with him.

  Or had she started to fall in love with him that day he'd been so kind to her when she was upset about Dave?

  Talking of whom, wasn't he the one she was supposed to be in love with?

  Um, Dave who?

  I hope Max is falling in love with me as well, she thought, or it's going to make things really difficult at work. And then she fell asleep, too.

  In the morning, he woke her up with a cup of coffee.

  "I've just phoned Lisa," he said, "and offered her double time if she'll open up. Kim's going in, too."

  "It's her day off!" Janice said, blinking, and struggling into a sitting position.

  "I know," he said, grinning. "I had to offer her time and a half. See how much you're costing me?"

  "Was I worth it?" she asked, a tad coyly, surprising herself. She didn't usually say things like that - wanton things.

  "Oh yes," he said, put down the coffee, and crawled back under the covers beside her. "Every penny." She pulled off his t-shirt and cuddled up to his lovely big, warm chest.

  "D'you know what?" he said.

  "What?"

  "I've been a bit nuts about you for ages. Well, since I employed you, if I'm honest."

  She sat up and laughed. "Really?"

  "Really!" He reached up and curled a strand of her hair round his finger. "Please will you be my girlfriend? Hold my hand and kiss me in the playground and all that?"

  That made her laugh again. "Oh yes! Yes please!" she said. "I was hoping you'd - well, I'm glad, I didn't want this to be just a casual thing - "

  "That's good," he said, "because I don't feel casual about you at all. In fact, I'm sort of in love with you, and I couldn't have stood to see you every day if you didn't feel the same way, d'you know what I mean?"

  "I know just what you mean," she said, put her arms around him, and kissed him, and kissed him and kissed him, while the coffee grew cold on the bedside table.

  Then he said, "What about Dave?"

  She said, "What about Dave?"

  A couple of hours later he said to her, "Is there anything you want to do today?"

  "Just this," she said. "I just want to stay in bed with you all day, is that okay?"

  "Can't think of anything I'd like more," he said. "But - I need to ask you - sweetheart, are we together now? I mean, properly; I don't want to rush you, but - "

  "Of course we are." She stroked his arm. "It's wonderful this, isn't it? Suddenly finding you're in love with someone you already know and like."

  "Isn't it?" he said. "Doesn't it make everything so much easier, eh?" He propped himself up on one arm and ran his hand down the length of her body. "Right," he said, "you've met my family, which is Sam, and I introduced you to some of my friends last night, so there's not much left, apart from my fellow struggling winos at my alky group, and my sister in North Yorkshire. I know Harley thinks I'm some sort of cross between Father Christmas and Ronald McDonald, so that's okay - but do we get to tell the good news to your mum, soon, too? And Evelyn?"

  "Oh - yes, of course, but Gran probably won't understand." She would have been so happy for her, too.

  "You'll have to take me to visit her some time."

  "Yes. But not today."

  "No. Not today." He kissed her. "I want to know everything about you, that's all."

  She smiled. "There's not much to know. You've seen me at my worst, all greasy in the café, depressed and crying about Dave."

  "You've no idea how much I wanted to whisk you into my arms and take you away from it all, that day," he said.

  "Really? Did you?" She laughed.

  "Yes. But I knew you didn't see me in that way, and I didn't want to put you off."

  Snuggling back up against his chest, Janice wondered why on earth she hadn't seen Max in 'that way' before.

  Maybe her heart had just been waiting until the time was right.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Raw Talent ~ The Results

  Ed Campion, producer of Inspire TV's forthcoming show, Raw Talent, sat in his office with A&R man Glenn Hunter, Serendipity Festival organiser Shelly Mayes, programme researcher Rachel Mackie, and studio runner Zack, who had been asked in to give the streetwise eighteen year old's point of view.

  "But I don't watch all that talent show shit!" he'd said, when Rachel was sent to find him in the kitchen.

  "Never mind that," Rachel said, taking his tea mug out of his hand and grabbing his arm. "I thought you were ambitious? This is a good way to get yourself noticed by Ed. And anyway, it's not 'talent show shit', and don't you dare refer to it as such. It's a ground breaking programme to find real new talent, away from the pop factory crap on the terrestrial stations, okay?"

  "Okay," said Zack, and grinned. "Do I get to snog Persil Non-Bio?"

  "Persil Non-Bio?"

  He laughed. "Ariel Swan. That's what me and the lighting guys call her. She's well fit!"

  Up in Ed's office, the panel had already discarded five acts from the remaining forty. Now, they had to vote on the rest, in order to select the lucky fifteen who would perform live on television, when Raw Talent started in three weeks' time.

  Ariel Swan, Melodie Joy Valentine and Thor were still in the running. So was Ariel's friend, Will Corrigan, but only just - since Rachel and Zack had declared him "like, sooo 2003".

  "Okay," said Ed. "Now, we watch them all again. This time, I want to get rid of another five. Then, we watch them once again, and again, and yet once more, if necessary." He stood up, hands on desk, and looked round at them all. "Imagine how thrilling the second half of the first show will be. The viewing public will have seen the last eighty be cut to forty, and they'll have decided on their favourites - but they'll have no idea who the final fifteen are until they come out on stage. Might soulful Danny Coldham or hearthrob Will Corrigan have got through? The melodic harmonies of Athena, or Thor the rockers? We want to make sure we give them talent they really want to vote for, not poor copies of whatever's currently hot on MTV; remember, this is how we're selling the show, and this is how we're getting the advertising revenue. So think carefully before you make your choices."

  The next cut saw the last of Will Corrigan, though Ariel Swan, Thor and Melodie Joy Valentine were still in with a chance.

  All three of them.

  Ariel Swan, Melodie Joy Valentine, and Thor.

  Two cuts later, when the fifteen were chosen for the li
ve shows, with a real shot at success, only one out of the three acts from Fennington St Mary remained.

  ***

  Dave felt flat and decidedly non-Vikingesque, the week after the auditions. On the previous Thursday and Friday Thor had remained in holiday spirit following their success, but the gig in St Neots on Saturday night received a rather pathetic turn-out - due to the weather, the rock chicks had exchanged leather mini skirts for pyjamas and cosying up at home, Ritchie had surmised. Monday morning saw Dave back to work again, trying to fit door frames in a biting wind, taking refuge with cups of coffee inside the half built house, whenever Phil would allow.

  "Make the most of it, mate," said Jim the bricklayer, stretching his arm wide as they looked out across the frost bitten, muddy landscape. "All this you survey could be a thing of the past if you become a reality TV star."

  "It's not like that," said Dave, "it's a credible talent show." God, he was fed up with trying to explain that to people.

  "You'll be in those magazines the Mrs reads, soon," said Phil Wiseman, "knocking off one of those Girls Aloud, or something!"

  Dave said nothing. The only person he wanted to be knocking off was Ariel, and something was changing, he could feel it in the wind. Since Raw Talent she was still there, physically; she still said all the right things - but only if he actually asked her, he'd noticed. Then, he had the distinct impression that she was saying them to keep him happy.

  He knew the signs, because he'd done the same thing to Janice.

  ***

  "Where do you want me to take you on Friday, birthday girl?" asked Max, as he loaded the dishwasher.

  "Anywhere!" Janice said, carefully assembling three Belly Buster breakfasts onto plates. "It doesn't have to be anywhere special!"

  "Tell you what," said Lisa, who was standing at the door, waiting to take the orders out to the waiting customers, "I'll get my lazy lump of a brother to come and help out, and you can both take the whole day off! What do you say to that?" She beamed at them both; both she and the part-timer, Kim, were delighted that Janice and Max had got together; Max had been gooey about her for ages, Lisa said; they'd both noticed. In fact, it had been Max who had announced, straight away, that he and Janice were now an item, just to save them speculating about it.