Page 68 of Ex in the City
I breathe in the subtly fragrant air of the hotel lobby. Okay, this part of the lifestyle I havedefinitelymissed.
It’s all sparkling chandeliers and polished marble floors – and every member of staff looks fit to serve the royal family. A pianist plays a soothing melody on a grand piano over by the bar, which only adds to the boujee atmosphere.
Mitch is over at the check-in desk where a seriously well-dressed member of staff is helping him check us in. Eventually he returns with the key cards – practically a deck of them – for the band, the crew and then, well, me.
‘Here you go, Dylan,’ Mitch tells him as he hands him a couple of cards. ‘This one is yours, this one is for Nicole. Then, Mikey, this is for you…’
Eventually everyone has a key for their room – not that it seems like most of them are planning on going to them just yet.
‘Okay, boys, the hotel is going to arrange your transport to the club,’ Mitch announces. ‘I want the closest thing you canmanage to best behaviour, yeah? Especially you, Dylan, I know what you were like.’
Dylan gets a few cheers and claps from the others – those who were there, or read a newspaper at the time. I just sigh. I remember what he was like too.
‘Yes, lads, let’s go,’ Mikey says, clapping his hands together. ‘Lads and Nicole – sorry, Nicole.’
I laugh it off. I always did feel more like one of the boys.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ I reassure him. ‘I think I’m going to get an early night anyway.’
‘What? Really?’ Mikey replies in disbelief, because going to bed early on tour is just not the done thing at all.
‘Yeah, I’m tired, and I have work to do – someone needs to make sure there’s good press from tonight,’ I say with a smile.
Dylan hands me the key card he’s been holding.
‘Here’s your key card,’ he says. ‘If you’re sure?’
‘I’m sure,’ I reply confidently.
After a round of goodbyes, I make my way to the lift. It’s true, that I should do some work, but the thought of watching them get swarmed by eager fans while I get pushed to the sidelines isn’t the night I’m after. I know, this is why we’re here, this is what I signed up for but, still, there are parts of the ‘good old days’ that I’m pretty sure I’ve grown out of.
As the lift doors slide open to my floor, I let out a long yawn – which proves to me that my decision to not go out partying was the right one. I step into the corridor and locate the door to my room, fumbling with my key card, eventually letting myself inside.
‘Wow,’ I say to myself – and you know something is really good (or really bad) when you find yourself talking out loudto yourself.
This isn’t just a room; it’s a lavish penthouse suite – one with multiple rooms.
The first thing that strikes me is the sheer opulence. The first room is a huge open-plan living space, kitted out with plush sofas, fancy furniture and striking contemporary artwork. A gleaming modern kitchen area with stainless-steel appliances and polished granite countertops sits at one side of the room – with floor-to-ceiling windows at the other. Oh, and everything you could possibly want in between, like a piano and a cinema screen.
Back in the day, this is exactly the kind of space we would always get, for at least a few nights of the tour, so that we could have huge parties. They would always be these big, beautiful rooms… and then the boys would destroy them. There is no chance of me doing that, not unless I have some sort of clumsy accident, which now that I think about it wouldn’t be unlike me, so I’m not going to tempt fate with that one.
Venturing deeper into the suite, I discover that there are two bedrooms, but it’s the larger bedroom with a super-king-sized bed that calls my name. The brilliant white sheets look so inviting, I can’t wait to climb in – after removing my make-up not once, but twice, lest I leave grubby brown and black marks on the pillows. The en-suite bathroom is a dream of white marble and shiny gold fixings, and the bath looks so deliciously deep – it would be rude not to.
I head back into the bedroom and then step out onto the balcony, despite the chilly air that immediately nips at my skin, to take in the city. The Leeds skyline stretches before me and while it brings back so many memories, from when I lived here, I can’t help but feel a little freaked out by how much it has changed.
Leeds was so different ten years ago, with only a handful of iconic landmarks dotted around the otherwise seemingly flat skyline. But now, towering skyscrapers have sprung up all over, totally transforming the cityscape. Somehow it just looks likethe future – even though compared to somewhere like London it is still tiny – but that’s probably just because I can’t get my head around how somewhere that was once so familiar has been totally transformed.
Just about being able to pick out my old haunts – my flat, my office, the various venues I used to always be dashing to – allows me to look back in time, and I can’t help but wonder, if I really could turn back the clock, and make different choices, and carve out a different path for myself – would I do it? I suppose everyone thinks that, don’t they, but the likelihood is that I would just find a different way to mess it all up.
It’s almost not worth thinking about, because it’s never going to happen, but I don’t suppose that will halt my imagination, especially not when I’m here, literally looking out over my past, all on my own.
I hover for as long as I can stand the cold air before deciding to head inside for a bath. Oh, it’s going to feel all the more glorious, now that I’m a bit chilly.
I’m only back inside about five minutes when I hear a knock at the door.
‘Room service,’ a voice calls out as I approach it.
I definitely didn’t order any room service but, now that I’ve remembered it’s a thing, I’m definitely going to do it.
