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“Funny, I asked myself the same question when I first met Jamie, I’m nothing special.”
She looked at me with disbelief. “How did you two meet?”
Immediately my guard went up. I liked Lottie, but when I remembered the reaction of the fans to Jamie and Paddy at my New Year's event, it silenced me.
“It was just… ordinary. That’s the best part of being with me, for him. We’re just two ordinary people in love.”
“Yeah, ordinary and Jamie Fontaine in the same sentence is an oxymoron. Are you a model or something?” she eyed my well-fed figure and revised her view. “An actress?” she corrected. “I’m sorry, but I don’t recognize you.”
“Nothing that fancy,” I replied vaguely, careful not to say where I worked for now in the event she leaped over to Dublin on her next vacation.
“Can I see that?” she said, eyeing the promise ring Jamie had given me and nodding toward it. “It looks like it cost a year's salary. Did he give you that?”
Instead of answering, I picked up my wine and drained the glass. “Another?” I asked, pouring the last of the wine in the bottle between the two glasses.
“You still haven’t told me about you,” I reminded her.
“I’m a nurse.”
“You said that part, already. That’s a very honorable job,” I replied, surprised, I’d certainly have put her in a customer facing role in a service industry, but I’d expected retail or hospitality.
“Doesn’t feel that honorable when I’m up to my elbows in shit most days, but it’s a privilege to care for kids at a vulnerable time. They have to show so much trust in us.”
“That they do, thank you for what you do.”
“It can feel miserable… you know, when we lose one of our patients, but thanks to DistRoyed and bands like them, music is a great escapism from the downside of my work.”
“I’m sure Jamie and the rest of the band would love to hear that, and I agree, listening to music lightens my mood whenever I feel depressed.”
“I can see why he likes you,” she said, waving her glass in my direction before taking a sip, like she was my boyfriend’s mother. “You’re very level-headed.”
“One of us has to be,” I said with a chuckle when I thought about all the outrageous incidents I’d read about Jamie in the past. I drank the rest of my wine again. The two glasses in quick succession had brought a glow to my cheeks and made me feel slightly tipsy. “We should get back, the warm-up band will have started by now.” I pulled out two twenty euro notes and placed them inside the bill folder.
As we rose to our feet, Lottie grabbed our glasses and the bottle and took them back to the bar. It was strange because it was something I would have done had she not already picked them up. I reminded myself she was used to clearing up after people. Lightening the load of work for others was part of who she was as a person.
When we’d made our way back, Lottie tugged on her lanyard and inspected her backstage pass, waving it at the doorman, and linked her arm through mine. As security waved us through the barrier she giggled, delighted at being treated like one of the crew.
Chapter 14
The warm-up band on stage sounded deafening inside the arena, and being Jamie’s girlfriend made me see the gig in a much different light to any concert I’d been to before.
The lesser known musicians did their job, and the energy generated by the thousands of fans around the auditorium was palpable. As they left the stage, the stagehands moved Paddy's drum kit into position on its wheeled platform. Seeing the name DistRoyed on the bass drum skin made my heart pump faster. A playlist of non DistRoyed songs belted out over the sound system kept the atmosphere going and the vast crowd entertained.
“In case I get carried away when the music starts, I'll never be able to thank you enough.”
“I appreciate your apology, but can I ask you to enjoy this experience and keep our meeting to yourself? If you do that, I won’t tell anyone, I found you naked in Jamie’s bed.”
“Daisy, I swear I won’t. My family would disown me if they found out what I’d done… and I could lose my—,”
Lottie stopped speaking suddenly when the background music cut off and a dark veil fell over the auditorium. In a split second the crowd fell silent, yet amidst the quiet there was still an electrical buzz of anticipation. The stage came to life with a burst of light, and Paddy instantly gave the band a quick count on his drumsticks. Hogs began strumming a steady low two-chord pulse on his bass until Ticker’s explosive, frenzied lead guitar riff brought their music to life. Jamie ran on stage, grabbed the mic and immediately launched into a deafening rendition of an upbeat number he knew was one of my favorite songs.
Immediately Lottie sprang up out of her seat, bobbed up and down with her arms raised high in the air. She stood screaming hysterically for the entire length of the song. I’ll admit sometimes in the past when I’d watched DistRoyed I had reacted the same way, but in that moment, I quietly reconsidered my decision to have her seated next to me. The girl made way more noise than the band.
It took a few songs to tune her out and focus solely upon the performance, honing my attention on my man. The X rated way he swayed sensually from hip to hip when he sang it made me feel horny. Hypnotized by his pendulous rhythm, it took a while before I caught a breath and scrolled out my focus to the rest of him. Sweat beads glistened on his face from the relentless glare of the lights. His hair was damp, but the look on his face was pure ecstasy when he sang.
Dragging my eyes away from him, I looked out to the crowd. From the reaction of all the females present at the gig, my rock star boyfriend was without doubt as hot as the blistering flames of hell.
Song six of the set was the ballad he’d written about me; “Daisy Restrained”. When a bright emerald green hue instantly filled the backstage, the sudden change in the visual changed the excited atmosphere, quietening their mood.
