Evie | H.S |

121. Him

A/N: surprise 🤪
Ps. If everyone who reads a chapter voted, I'd be the happiest gal in the world. Don't be a ghost reader 👻

"What's the chord progression for that bridge bit again?"

Kid Harpoon looked up at me from his home studio desk. We were on FaceTime, both speaking into our respective display screens in a remote writing session. From the waist up I could see his colourful blue sweater, an electric keyboard and an assortment of rings on his fingers as he tried to feel out the song I'd been playing him from the acoustic guitar on my lap.

"Yeah, no, that's right" I laughed. "You got it mate, right the first time!"

"Finally" he groaned, tossing his head back. "This remote shit sucks arse...I've been in the studio with another artist all day and I'm telling you, in person is just so much easier...how did we do this during quarantine?"

"Doesn't help that it doesn't translate that well on guitar, sorry" I chuckled. I really needed to invest in a portable keyboard to bring with me on tour if all this writing was going to be remote.

"That's alright, man" he assured, scribbling away on a notepad in-front of himself. "We're cookin'...this is already sounding cool."

"Alright, sweet" I sighed, then looking at the time. "Are we cool to wrap up? I gotta take these rollers out..."

"Yeah, I'll get a mix over to you in a couple of days, if that's alright?"

I nodded with a smile. Part of my publishing deal meant working with a range of different producers and I was so glad that the first was Tom.

"And before I forget..." he continued, now typing on his computer keyboard and looking focussed. "...just emailed you that other one...if you wanna have a quick listen and give me any notes..."

Before he'd had a chance to finish his sentence, a little dinging bell sounded from my MacBook and a notification came through in the top right corner of the screen with an attachment with the days date as the file name.

"Did it come through?"

"Sure did" I told him, navigating to pull up the email. The attachment was a song we'd been working on that he'd adjusted the mix on.

"I won't stay for you to listen cause I gotta go deal with the Rugrats" he chuckled, referencing his kids who were now attempting to climb up into his lap. "But I'll be speaking to ya soon, Evie May."

"Yes! Go, go" I urged him with a laugh. "Thanks so much for today!"

It felt like I was working harder than I did during my tenure in corporate. Between photoshoots, soundchecks, press stuff and playing shows, I had to find time to keep up with my writing for the publishing stuff.

I was sat in the small dressing room backstage at Electric Ballroom. I hadn't been here since Harry's label show, and then I'd only been out in the crowd. I always had a seperate dressing room to my band which was fine but still so lonely. I was missing Rory's teasing banter, Sam's cool, calm collectiveness, Lee's wisdom and I'd even go as far to say that I missed Tommy's familiarity.

This was the second last show on the short UK run. I'd played Glasgow two nights earlier which was wild but tonight was going to be extra special because I had my friends coming along. They hadn't seen me play with a full band yet. I'd had a nervous/excited feeling in the pit of my stomach all day that was a better feeling than all the cocaine I could possibly do.

Tonight I was wearing something a little extra special. My usual two or three piece pinstriped suit had been replaced with a black, double breasted vest dress, sheer black stockings and a pair of heeled boots. Beneath the dress I wore a sheer silk leopard print blouse with a big, dramatic pussy bow tie at the neck in the same fabric - very Evie.