The Fall of the Fainthearts

Track Sixteen: An Unlikely Pair

Whilst Axel and Florence settled down, another love affair within the group seemed to be just beginning.

Vince: Hah, yeah... you could say that.

Dahlia: It was nothing serious... not at first.

Vince: We were just so happy, all the time. Nothing could stop us, we were on top of the world. We all let Axel get on with writing up some material for the next album and let our hair down. It was our turn to feel like rockstars for once.

We were getting invites to all sorts of cool shit. The best one was when Will Haig from The Haig Brothers invited us to his thirtieth birthday. That was such a good night.

Dahlia: At first we thought it was a prank, but Jade assured us he wanted us to come. Sure, it was his birthday, but it was good a time as any to network, and we were killing it in the charts. I think we might've just overtaken them for the number one spot at that point. He wanted to meet us.

Vince: His house was huge. You can't even call it a house, it was a mega-mansion. It looked like someone had carved it to perfection from the ground up, with huge pillars and painted ceilings and tile floors. He had private bars, a huge pool and he hired out one of the best DJ's of the time. Ah, I can't remember their name now, he kinda fell off. But at the time, he was cool.

Dahlia: I understood why Axel didn't fancy it, but he missed so much back in the day. We had the time of our lives.

Vince: I was sitting around the pool with Jade and a couple of others in the industry when Dahlia sauntered over.

Dahlia: Look, when you're in a band with someone and spend so much time with them doing the same thing over and over it's easy to get carried away. Your mind will play tricks on you and tell you there's a spark when really you're just looking for something interesting to shake things up.

Vince: She looked nervous, like something was on her mind. She put out her cigarette and lit another. I asked her if she was okay, and she said she'd prefer to talk to me alone.

Dahlia: I just asked him if he had a minute, it really didn't matter. It could wait. I was drunk and had an idea in my head that I couldn't shake, that was all it was.

Vince: We headed inside and she wouldn't tell me what she wanted to talk about for the longest time, she just kept stalling. We wandered around Will's house, just exploring because she said she 'felt like she was being watched'. I thought she'd just smoked a joint or two and was feeling paranoid so I humoured her.

I'm surprised we didn't get caught, we were being so nosey. But the party was in full swing and nobody was really paying attention to anybody that they weren't currently trying to hook up with, so we were in the clear to snoop. Eventually, we found this huge library.

Dahlia: I regretted pulling him to chat the moment I did it. I just felt so embarrassed and kept second guessing myself, so I had to draw it out long enough to where he would lose interest and go back to Jade and the others. I'd manage to convince myself that he had a thing for her now, anyway.

Vince: It was about three floors high, just spanning books and books and books. I hadn't realised Will was such an avid reader, but I suppose when you're that rich and famous you get bored of having everything that was unobtainable before and have to find regular things to keep you entertained. We hadn't reached that point yet, the novelty hadn't worn off.

Dahlia: He seemed so mesmerised by it... it was cute. I can admit that, it's okay to say that, right? I asked him, "Do you read?"

Vince: I told her no, but my mum always used to read books to me when I was a kid. Every night without fail, or I just couldn't fall asleep. I didn't do too well in school and I never found reading easy, so it used to frustrate me when I got older and I couldn't read by myself.

I struggled with words, but I thrived when it came to sheet music. So, when I was old enough, I started to write mum little compositions on my keyboard for her to listen to before bed, to return the favour. I suppose it worked out for me, in the end. But it didn't make my teachers very happy at the time.

Dahlia: Look, I was young. This is really embarrassing, do we have to talk about all this?

Vince: She totally melted when I told her that. I remember feeling so proud of myself when I saw how her eyes flickered from defensive and unsure to suddenly so certain. She crossed over to me, checked the door to the library was closed, and kissed me.

Dahlia: I did like him. I really did. We were on top of the world and we were on top of it together, of course we were going to bond in some way. I don't know whether it was right, but it was new and exciting and fun, so I chased that feeling.

Vince: We spent the rest of the night in that library.

Dahlia: Eventually Jade came to check on us and make sure I was okay. Of course, she asked us what we were doing in there. Vince was a self-confessed good liar - not a brilliant trait to admit to having - so he invented this spiel on the spot about being interested in a book he saw in passing while I buttoned my top back up behind a bookcase.

Vince: Do I still like her? Of course, we're mates, and it wasn't anything too serious. I mean, I have a wife now, kids... It just didn't work out that way in the end. Dahlia's lovely though, a real gem. I'm glad we met, I've got a lot of really good memories with her. I could... talk about her for hours. Sorry, what was the question again?

Dahlia: If it was supposed to work out, it would've. But we had a lot of fun. That night started a beautiful new path in our friendship. Obviously we have families now, we've moved on... but he's great. He's really, really great. A good egg, if I've ever met one.

Vince: Have you spoken to her about this yet? What did she say about me?