[[[all of your flaws]]] [[[part i]]]

49.

I felt so bad for him. He'd still yet to find anyone to join his band and no where seemed to be interested in a solo male singer when there was already so many out there. He'd been putting in so much time and effort and not getting anything back. I could see him getting nervous about the record company being on his back. We'd redesigned his flyers and went out posting them late one night.

'You must know people who play instruments?'

'Loads. But none of them are free to risk joining a band with me.'

'Its hardly a risk.' I told him as we went from house to house, hand in hand.

'My brother could drum.' I mused. I could hardly go knocking on my parents door asking for Chris to come help my new boyfriend. He flashed me a sad smile. 'I know what you're gonna say.' I sighed. He'd mentioned it a few times. Get in contact with my parents. I knew I should. But I didn't think I could face the rejection just yet.

Mostly out of boredom and curiosity, I started ringing pubs all around London asking if they needed any performers. If there were any last minute cancellations or open mic nights. Most of them, as Dan had said, weren't bothered. But one or two were interested and asked me to send over some songs and a photo. I did just that, opening his laptop and copying one of the finished songs onto a disk. I didn't tell him what I was doing.

A week later I got a call back.

I rang him excitedly, not being able to hold on to the news until he got home.

'You need to be in Brixton at 8pm, you're on at 9pm and you need to take your keyboard and any backing tracks.'

'Lily, how did you...?'

'Well instead of sitting on my arse all day I figured I should help you out and get some gigs set up.'

'I can't believe...'

'You've got two next week aswell. And I'm talking to some photographer guy who's interested in some shots of you.' Though I couldn't see him, I knew he was smiling ear to ear. The kind of smile that made the lines form around his eyes and his dimples show.