Get Ready For It - A Gary Barlow FF

Chapter 45

I'm just finishing off some emails in the studio when my phone pings on the mixing table beside me;

Sender: Sophie xxx

16:27

'Hey baby, hope you've had a good day in the studio. Are you still okay to collect me at 5? X'

I smile like a little boy at her cuteness. I quickly sign off the email I was writing, close down the laptop and then scribble out my reply to Sophie;

Recipient: Sophie xxx

16:29

'Hi, baby. Of course, I am still collecting you. Silly question :-P Out the front at 5, right? G xx'

Sending the message, I place my phone back down on the mixing table and lean back in my chair. I take a moment to have a look around the studio that is covered in instruments, guitar pedals, plaques, various awards and trophies that I've won over the years. It never fails to make me smile at just how lucky I have been to have been able to continue doing this for as long as I have been. These awards and recognition pieces continue to make me even more hungry for more and it keeps me motivated and my feet firmly planted on the ground.

Sophie has the same effect on me. Previous girlfriends were always saying that they were supporting me, but I always felt that they were just there because of who I am and what I have achieved; I'm well known, more than financially stable and I have a few houses and some very famous friends. This does not seem to bother Sophie. I think that for the first time in my life, I have found someone who is not really bothered with what I do for a living, and to be perfectly honest, I could not find it any more attractive and appealing in a woman. Nothing worse than when a girl hangs on your every word and then when it comes to your music, they have to pretend to know what you just said about 5 minutes ago.

The sound of my phone pinging with a new message alert gets my attention once more. Managing to peel my eyes away from a collage of photos from our Pops Tour in 1994, I reach over and grab my phone and open the message;

Sender: Sophie xxx

16:32

'Thanks, babe. Yep, 5 outside the office is perfect. Can't wait to see you!! xx'

My heart melts at that message just now. She is the most amazing and adorable woman on the planet and I am the lucky bastard who gets to have the privilege of being her boyfriend. Waking up next to her every morning, getting to hold her in my arms when I fall asleep (almost) every night - I can't help it when my work pulls me away for a few days at a time - and getting to see her smile at me every day literally makes my heart swell and almost burst each and every time any of those things happen.

I decide that I would have one more cup of tea before I head to collect Sophie from work. The office is only 5 minutes down the road, so I have plenty of time. Lifting my bum up from the swivel chair in the studio, I give my body a quick stretch before heading out the door and locking it behind me as I do so. I never lock the studio when I'm in the house, but it's just a precaution thing that I've always done whenever I leave the house. It's not about the money it cost me to have all of this equipment, it's the memories that been made by using this equipment in the studio that matter the most to me.

*****

About 20 minutes later I am pulled up on the curb outside the office block of Sophie's law firm. I undo my seat belt after I have parked up the car and slide my phone from my jeans pocket to send Sophie a little text;