Her Song

3 - And Another Thing

**Van**

Rich was going to owe me big time.

Three days. Three fucking days I'd been home before he'd decided to start partying like I wasn't even there. I'd fought off three drunken wannabe groupies before I'd grabbed my coat and escaped.

A quick call to Gray had left me with a plan to meet him and Ace for a couple of drinks at Research. A hip new bar was not my ideal location for a quiet drink but we were starting to be recognised more and more often. When Lucy's friend Tony had opened the bar he'd done it with every intention of getting together there with his friends, some of whom were exceptionally well known, so he'd invested in the best security staff and a clever design for a VIP room that kept a VIP safe from annoyance but left you feeling part of the crowd. Not that I thought of myself as a VIP. Luckily the overall bar design also provided plenty of spots where you could hide in plain sight.

You'd think after all the months recording and on the road that I'd have been sick of the sight of Gray, Josh and Ace. Strangely enough I wasn't. We clicked. Like brothers. Hell, better than brothers if my relationship with Rich was anything to go by. I'd wondered at first, it wasn't like I was the first singer they'd had parachuted into their band, they'd been burnt before. Fuck. They'd been humiliated before. There was no way I'd have even entertained the idea if Troy hadn't essentially ordered me to listen to the recordings they'd done with Lucy and blown any objections I'd had about leaving him without a guitar tech out of the water by bringing in the best back up plan in the business. My old man, the man who'd gotten me the job with Afterburn in the first place.

Plus, Lucy had decided that she was going to manage the band, so I wouldn't be dealing with some corporate asshole. It was true when I said to Rich that I thought of Lucy as a little sister. I'd have done almost anything for that girl but joining the band now known as Polarstar, Bitter End hadn't lasted long as a name, had been a big ask but when I heard what they'd been working on I knew, I just knew, that I'd fit. Lucy and I had messed around with guitars in the past and my style fit with hers. I could hear my voice singing in place of hers when I heard the demos she'd done with the guys. The sound was heavier than what Lucy and I usually came up with and was far more my personal style preference. It almost felt as though those songs had been written for me, or that I'd already worked on them. So I said yes.

It wasn't the first time I'd said yes to her. Once or twice in the past I'd let her try to set me up with girls she'd worked with. I'd never been that interested and when I'd seen the girls she'd tried to set me up with I'd had to force down a laugh. Those girls were never going to be interested in me, they were sleek and shiny and groomed to within an inch of their lives but I'd played along. Why? Because it made Lucy happy and a happy Lucy made me smile.

Lucy's matchmaking schemes to set me up with her friends had never worked well but the girl had done good with setting me up with a band.

The cold wind was blowing away my bad mood so although my frozen hands were dug deep in my jacket pockets I was almost smiling as I turned the corner and saw the hanging sign for Research in the distance. It was a fucking lion holding a test tube. It was ridiculous and cool all in one and probably one of the stupidest things I'd ever seen, but it worked. Tony had told me that it had been created from found objects in homage to a shortened version of his surname and also his zodiac sign. That was the word he'd used, homage. I'd maintained a straight face and given him all the positive feedback he needed. Why? The guy had just offered me free run of his bar and that was not an offer I was ever going to refuse or give him cause to take back.

I was so focused on the beer that was waiting for me and getting out of the wind that I almost missed the girl crying in the street as I passed her by.