Page 8 of Wild Tonic
“Cool. I can’t wait.” Alik put the guitar to one side and reached into his jacket for a sheet of paper. “Check this place out. Parker emailed me the details this morning. One of the recording rooms is an absolute dream. You should see the guitars they’ve got there: Fender, Rickenbacker…”
Nate grabbed the details from him. As he read through, he was almost salivating over the guitar set-up. He glanced over at his beloved Les Paul and Gretsch collection feeling a pang of guilt for even thinking of switching allegiances. “Where is this place? I guess Parker couldn’t get Newcomen Farm or the Lighthouse?”
“We just missed out on the Lighthouse. It’s a full on residential studio called The Blacker Lodge. The best part is, it’s only just up the road off the M4, which means much less travel and hassle. We can load our stuff into the van like we did for the tour and head off.”
“When do we go?”
“One day next week. I need to check in with the others.”
“I can’t wait.” Nate picked up his guitar again. “Check this out.”
They jammed for over two hours, riffing off each other, playing around with sounds as much as they could with two acoustics and scribbling down snatches of lyrics.
“Whatever you do, don’t lose these between now and next week,” warned Alik. “There could be a Brit award winning single in there.”
They both laughed. The notion that Blood Stone Riot would be able to get anywhere near the Brits was ridiculous. It didn’t mean they couldn’t dream though.
“You got any beers?” asked Alik as he settled back on the sofa.
Nate checked the clock. There was still plenty of time before he had to go and meet Clem. “Sure. I can only have one or two though, mate, I’ve got a hot date tonight.”
“A date? You sly dog, that didn’t take you long. Who’s the lucky lady?” Alik called after Nate as he went to the kitchen and grabbed a couple of bottles from the fridge.
“Actually, there was something I was going to ask you. Do you remember a show calledPretty Rich Things? I can’t think why I know the name.”
Alik’s hand froze in mid-air as he reached for the beer Nate held out to him. “Are you kidding me?”
“No, why?”
“I’ve got three words for you, Nate.” Alik paused. “Edie Spencer-Newman.”
The name hit Nate right in the gut. Suddenly it all clicked into place. That was the reason he’d recognised the name of Clem’s show.
Edie Spencer-Newman had been in it.
Edie was a former flame of Alik’s who had an affair with the band’s late bassist, Billy Walker. She’d gotten pregnant with Billy’s child, all the while stringing Alik along and making him think the child was his. And that was just some of the things she’d done.
A slight feeling of uneasiness washed over Nate. From what he’d seen, Clem was unlikely to be anything like Edie. Although a chance meeting at a wedding, marathon messaging sessions and a quick drink meant he hardly knew her really. Even the small bit of internet stalking he’d done had shown her off to be hard working and fun to be around. He hadn’t been able to find anything negative at all.
“Clem’s nothing like Edie,” he heard himself say. He had no idea if she was or not.
“Really? On the face of it, there are definitely some similarities.” Alik ticked things off on his fingers as he spoke. “Reality show? Check. Rich friends? Check. Taking advantage of your success? Check. She’s got to be bad news.”
“How do you know any of that? All I said was that she’s on a TV show and you’ve made about a hundred assumptions based on that.”
The two of them fell silent and Nate took a sip of beer, unsure of how he felt. He’d been buzzed the past few days, the excitement of a potential new relationship after all the crap he’d been through giving him a long missing spark. Now Alik was pouring shade on it before it even had the chance to become anything.
It was the first time in a long while that they had differing opinions over something.
It was the first time it been over a woman.
“You wanna tell me why she’s different?” Alik spoke first. “Try and convince me why she’s not going to be like Edie.”
“Seems like you’ve made your mind up already, no matter what I say.”
Alik let out a hard breath. Nate didn’t want to start an argument and fell silent.
This wasn’t like Alik at all. It wasn’t like his best friend to not back him up over something like this. He’d not said a word when Nate hooked up with Rach on tour, even though technically he had still been with Poppy.
