Page 126 of Doc Rock
“You’re so annoying.”
“And you love it. You love me.”His eyes rose to meet hers in the mirror, and she couldn’t stop staring at him, a grin tugging at the corner of her lips.
The last six months had been the best of her life. He’d moved into her house the night of the show in the Railway Tavern and hadn’t left since.
“I still can’t believe that Donnie agreed to this.”Mai shook her head and grabbed her lipstick, reapplying it after Ford kissed it off her when he first arrived in the bathroom.
Ford shrugged.“To be honest. I can’t either. I thought he was going to have a stroke when I suggested it.”
After their first pub concert, they went toseethe landlord of the Railway Tavern, who told them that the money they earned that night and the publicity—which led to an uptick in customers—meant he now had a year’s buffer of cash, rather than the few weeks he’d had before.
It made Ford think about all the small pubs they’d played in when they first started out, and what it did to a town if they lost their pub. He suggested that, after all their success and all the money they already possessed,it wasnow time to give a little bit back. He wanted Midnight Thunder to tour Australia, but he didn’t want to go to any arenas. He wanted to go to country pubs, play a few nights for no charge—except for a burger for each of the band members—with the pub selling their own tickets to the locals. No scalpers, no fans paying hundreds of dollars, just whatever the pub landlordfeltwas fair.
Once Donnie agreed to the plan, he ran with it, setting multiple people at his agency onto the task of finding the pubs for Midnight Thunder to play in.
Each landlord was contacted individually and offered a Midnight Thunder concert. A fair few hung up, thinking they were being pranked. Then either Ford, Joel or Scotty would head out on a trip to the pub, persuade them it wasn’t a prank and lay the offer out on the table.
Whiletherewas no way that Mai wanted to do an arena show with the band, she decided to do the pub shows. For the first few, she FaceTimed Gloria, who, true to her word, began to act like—she wouldn’t say another mother, as she only had one, and had lost her—an aunt, who loved her unconditionally. Encouragingher to do the show if she wanted to, but always reminding her that she didn’t have to do it, she had a choice.
And now Mai found that each of the pub shows she played, her stage fright was a little less than the time before. And every time she looked at Ford, the choice to stand and play became a little easier. She would follow him everywhere, even onto a stage.
Okay, nearly everywhere, she still wasn’t doing an arena show.
Now she wasn’t going to lie, living with Ford hadn’t been smooth sailing. She loved the man to the ends of the earth, but she hadn’t lived with another man since she’d left Ford, and things back then were very different compared to how she lived her life now.
She didn’t have much stuff and liked things ordered and put away in the places they belonged. Ford was more chaotic, having spent so long living a pampered life, where people were paid to pick up after him and sort everything out so hecouldconcentrate on his music.
It drove her scatty.
Then they had the‘underpants’problem. Where she was driven to frustration when she’d picked up the sixth-millionth pair of underpants off her bathroom floor, from right next to the wash basket. And pointed out, yet again, thatit waseasier to put them in the laundry than leave themcloseto the laundry basket.
Ford would apologise, claiming it wouldn’t happen again, until it did. He finally got the hint when he woke up with a pair of his own undies placed carefully on his head, and Mai standing beside the bed with a face like thunder.
Funnily enough, after that, Ford managed to use the laundry basket every time, and Mai hadn’t needed to shout at him again.
Mai was sad the day they moved out of her tiny first home and into a property with some land, and more importantly, a gate. But even she’d had to admit that having the press and thefans knowing exactly where they lived hadn’t been great, and they’d had to hire security to discourage them.
The door to the toilets banged open, making Mai jump and smudge her eyeliner.
“Dammit,”she swore, and grabbed a tissue to try and clean up the mess.
“Sorry, love. I didn’t mean to startle you.”A voice with a strong Aussie twang came from behind her.“Oy, mate. This is the ladies. You can’t be in here. Is he bothering you, love?”Concern flooded the other woman’s tone.
“I told him that,”Mai said as she dealt with the smudge.
“Is he bothering you?”The other woman asked again.
Mai turned to face her and smiled at the glare the lady gave Ford.“No. He’s actually my husband.”
“Oh, shit. That’s okay, you had me worried. How did you guysgetin here? The pub’s closed for a Midnight Thunder concert tonight.”
“Not a music fan?”Ford asked sardonically.
“Not really. I’veheardof them, but couldn’t pick them out of a lineup, and don’tknowmuch of their music. Sorry to do this to you guys, but you’ll have to wait outside with the rest of the customers.”
Ford stepped forward with his hand out.“I’m Ford, and this is Sie.”
The other woman took his hand and shook it, but no recognition sparked in her eyes. She wasn’t kidding about not knowing anything about music.
