Page 44 of Enjoying the Band in Lockdown

“Yeah.”

“This album is going to be epic. Everyone’s putting their heart out there.” I paused, but the pencil didn’t break the flow of shading. “What would it take for you to put a song in the mix?”

“I don’t know.”

“You and I aren’t gonna be like the others. You’ve become like my safe place where I don’t have to be on show or sexy or perfect.”

“Really?” he scoffed.

“I’d like to be that for you. How about you tell me again about Seri? But this time with a song.”

And he did.

Using his beautiful, soft charcoal pencils, he wrote a song.

Trent the tall, dark and silent, brooding man wrote the most beautifully haunting lyrics I had read. Up there with Bon Jovi’s Always, Queen’s Light of My Life and Nirvana’s anything. The lyrics could have been written for any of those rock ballads. I could almost hear arenas holding out their phones, alight and swaying as thousands sang in one voice.

“That’s beautiful.” I could have gushed, but that wasn’t us.

“Yeah, but now I need to get it past the mob in there.”

“I don’t think you’re going to have any trouble,” I threw back. “It’s beautiful and either they realize it, or I reckon you could sell it to another band who’ll build an entire album around it.”

“Sydney, they’ve built the album around your song, Dirty Blonde.” Trent was about thirty seconds away from throwing his song into the warm embers from the pizza oven. That couldn’t happen, not on my watch.

“That’s only because they haven’t heard this one.”

My confidence in his song was more about my belief in the man and my love of music as a fan, but still being right was a huge relief.

The moment Trent smoothed down the paper on the table and announced he had been working on an idea, Xavier got out his phone and took photos. Then Xav read it. Not once, not even twice. I watched as Xavier’s head nodded to an imaginary beat, his lips mouthing the words already engraved on my heart.

“There’s no way you’re burning this one.” Xav said to Trent before nodding towards Devon, “See whether you can do this justice.”

Devon didn’t think twice, snatching the sheet and reading it on his way back to the keyboard. Within minutes, chords started coming together. Then Chase and Jax joined in.

We forgot dinner.

I had the best seat in the house, watching the magic happen and recording every moment on my phone. Three hours, only stopping when they got stuck on the opening stanza.

“Time to get yourself ready for date night!” Trent joked, pushing Xav towards me. “You can thank me for getting you both in the mood.”

“I’m always in the mood for my man, but I think your song is gonna put a generation in the mood.”

I discarded the dress from the past two nights. Date night with Xavier deserved something special. I only had a duffel bag of clothes to choose from, but he loved the red and burgundy dress. I’d washed it with my white bra and panties earlier in the day and now they matched it with soft mottled pinks.

Perfect.

Yes, this was still a competition and we’d be on the clock, but this whole experience started with Xavier noticing me from a crowd of women.

Earlier, he’d asked me to meet him downstairs and since he’d made no sign to turn our bedroom into a romantic destination, I hoped we’d go back to the bus. Where we’d begun. Proving I could still blush, I tried to focus on applying the last of my precious Moroccan oil to my hair. Styling it in soft waves, loose down my back. Almost reminiscent of Trent’s Seri.

Running out of time and more nervous than expected, I finished the final touches to my makeup and headed downstairs. My high heels offering muted clicks on the wooden floorboards. As they heard me get to the stairs, the guys fell silent.

Step, breathe. Step, breathe. This was Xavier. My heart beat faster and louder than my steps.

This was Xavier.

He was waiting for me at the bottom of the staircase, a single pink rose in his outstretched hand. Where had he gotten it from? Yes, there was a florist in town but it had been closed since before we arrived.

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