Sleepless Dreams

Chapter Two

Emily pay's the cabbie and walks to the entrance of Soho House. She quickly walks up the stairs to the reception. She explains to the receptionist who she is and who she is meeting. The young man, asks her to sign in and points over to the lift and says the band are in the small drawing room on the second floor. This is often hired out for interviews or meetings. It's a quiet area with cosy sofas and armchairs together with low level tables all in a Georgian style room.
Emily gets out of the lift and walks over to the door. She hestitates, should she knock or go straight in? She decides to knock.
"Come in!" A familiar voice calls out.
"That sounds like Gary Barlow" Emily thinks to herself. She knew his voice now from her research that morning.
She enters the room.
"Hello, I'm Gary" and he leans forward and gives Emily a hug. Emily hugs him back, feeling a little perplexed.
Next. "Hi, nice to meet you Emily" Jason gets up and walks over to shake her hand. Oh, he knows my name? Emily is a bit surprised, other bands are not usually that bothered about remembering names or being so polite.
She smiles, " Hello - Jason, isn't it? He smiles broadly and nods.
Next Mark comes bounding over, "Hi. Did you find the place ok? Do you want anything to drink? There's tea, coffee or some of Jason's herbal tea, if you prefer" He says the last bit while pulling a face at Jason. Who justs rolls his eyes at his friend and smiles.
"Thank you, can I just have some water please?". Emily is slightly overwhelmed by their attentiveness.
Emily scans the room, as she realises, that one of the band hasn't said a word yet. She sees Howard sat over by the window on one of the sofas. He looks tired but also she notices he is staring at her in a strange way. He looks kind of shocked for some reason.
Emily decides to say hello to him as she read in her research that Howard can be a bit shy.
"Hello Howard, pleased to meet you." She stands looking at him waiting for a response. After what seems like an age he eventually says,
"Hi, have we met somewhere before?"

Earlier, the guys sat chatting while waiting for the second journalist to arrive. They'd ordered something to eat and more tea and coffee as they'd been there since mid-morning and wouldn't have time to have a break for lunch. Howard was chatting to their manager Tom, when the room service phone rang. It was reception to say the next interviewer had arrived and was on her way up. Lara, their p.a. checked her notes to see how long the interview was to take and roughly how long the photo-shoot would take.
"You should be finished by four, guys," she confirmed to the band.

Howard was relieved, as he was still feeling tired. Plus, he hoped the journo wouldn't be too snotty about them. He knew they weren't thought of as being very cool, back in the day, but now, a lot of the credible music mags were pushing to interview them. So he hoped the interviewer wouldn't be too cynical about them and their music.
The previous interview was with a popular celeb-based magazine and were very enthusiastic, but they had a different readership. It had been a fun interview with the girl reporter being very flirty. It reminded him of the old Smashs Hits interviews.
The photo's had been ok too as they had only wanted a couple of group shots.
The music mag had asked them to do a longer photo shoot on the roof terrace. Howard wasn't looking forward to it.
It would be a long and tedious afternoon, with the photographer making them stand this way and that. Plus the hair and make-up people fussing round to make sure they looked their best. He really found it a pain to be honest. The others were of the same opinion, but it had to be done and the results were usually good, fortunately.

There was a knock on the door. Gary called out to come in. The door opened and a blonde haired young woman walked in.
Gary, Jason and Mark all stood up and went over to greet the young woman. Lara had told them earlier her name was Emily Merchant. Howard just sat staring. He was trying to work out why she looked so familiar. Then he realised, with a shock - that gave him a shiver - she looked like the girl in his dream!
"No, it couldn't be, it's too weird" he thought to himself.
Suddenly he realised she was speaking to him and the others were also looking at him expectantly,
"Hi, have we met somewhere before?" Howard asked. It was the only explanation. Maybe she'd been to one of his dj gigs?
"Er, no, I don't think so," Emily smiled in a slightly puzzled way.
Jason started laughing "Howard, that is the chessiest chat-up line I've heard in ages!"
The others joined in and Howard smiled to cover his confusion.
"It's ok, I'm flattered" Emily replied to Howard, ignoring the others for a moment as they seemed to think it still quite hilarious.
Actually she was flattered. Although Howard looked like he'd had a late night. He was stunningly attractive, with the most amazing blue eyes. She'd felt a little flutter when he'd looked at her just then.
She thought they all looked even better in person. Which surprised her as often good-looks were the result of computer re-touching, by the picture editors'
Howard carried on looking at her. He looked really confused.
Then he gave her a big smile and said "You must have a double around town then"
Emily, caught her breathe. His smile was gorgeous, it really lit up his face.
She just nodded and smiled back at Howard.
To distract herself, she quickly got back to business
"Shall we all sit down to start the interview? I expect you are very busy at the moment, promoting the album." Emily asked them.
She took a deep breath, then walked over to the vacant armchair by the window. Mark came over and handed her the glass of water she's asked for moments earlier. She thanked him and took a large gulp from it and tried to clear her mind and concentrate on the interview ahead.
They all settled back down into their seats, with Tom and Lara sat at the back of the room, discreetly keeping an eye on things.
Then they all looked at Emily, waiting for the first question.