Page 17 of One Day at a Time

Tonight was no different. ‘Pretty good. Actually, better than good, Maddie. The bar was sold out again every night this week and the boss has heard that there are a couple of scouts who are interested and might be coming down to see me. Or he might just be bullshitting me so that I’ll continue to work here in return for a tiny hotel room and crap wages.’

Even as he said it, Maddie could hear the happiness in his voice and she knew he was joking.

‘You are just living your best life out there,’ she said, laughing with him.

‘You know, I still can’t believe I’m here. It’s like my whole life I’ve dreamt of this, being the guy that just sings his heart out for a living, and now it’s happening. I mean, it’s a shite earner and I’m borderline impoverished, but I love it, Maddie. I don’t want it to end.’

‘Maybe it won’t. Maybe you’ll get discovered and become aninternational superstar, and then I’ll admit to knowing you and sell a story about snogging you on your couch.’ They both knew there had been so much more than snogging, but there had been an agreement to de-escalate back down to the friend zone and they were happily sticking to it. It had just been a moment in time that they’d both needed, but that’s all it was and they were good with that.

He clearly liked the sound of that idea. ‘If I become an international superstar, I’ll tell the world about you myself. It’ll be the title of my first album. “The Things I Did With Maddie McShay On A Crappy Couch”.’

She was laughing hard now. ‘I think that’s a hit. I’ll look out for it on Spotify. Anyway, I need to go. Alyssa is here and we’re planning our London trip. You’re not the only one that’s taken to a jet-set lifestyle. This month I’ve been to… well, Glasgow. And Edinburgh. And now I’m going to London. So, okay, it’s not quite as glam as Nashville, but don’t gloat. Maybe next month I’ll go crazy and venture to Aberdeen or Inverness.’

‘Or Nashville?’ he asked. ‘You know, you could always come over…’

‘Okay, if I win the lottery, then Nashville is on the table. You go start writing that song.’

‘Oh, let me tell you…’ he began to warble, setting the words to an old-fashioned country tune, ‘a story about the things I did…’ He was getting louder now, deliberately singing off-key. ‘…With Maddie McShay on a?—’

She let out a mortified yelp. ‘I’m hanging up now,’ she told him, and cut the line dead before she had to listen to any more of it. She was still grinning, though, when she went into the kitchen and remained so lost in the amusement of it all that it took her a moment to realise that both Val and Alyssa were staring at her, eyebrows raised, smiles on their faces.

‘You heard all that, didn’t you?’ she said, with a tone of inevitability.

‘You shagged him on a couch?’ Alyssa teased, while Val clapped her hands to the side of her head.

‘My ears! Dear Lord, spare me from the talk of such things.’

‘No!’ Maddie replied, with vehemence to Alyssa’s question, before immediately buckling under pressure. ‘Okay, yes. Val, keep your ears covered.’ She went back to Alyssa. ‘But it was only a one-time thing and neither of us even think about it anymore.’

‘Alyssa, I don’t think she wants to discuss it,’ Val piped in sternly, rebuking her friend and drawing a line under it. Until she followed up with, ‘I think we’ll just need to wait until the album comes out to get all the details.’ That set the two of them off again in hoots of laughter.

Maddie shook her head as she took a seat at the table and opened the laptop that was lying there. ‘You two need help, you really do. Right, let’s focus on important stuff, Alyssa Canavan. London. When are we going?’

Maddie would be lying if she said she wasn’t intrigued about the possibility of working in London.

Two months ago, she’d have pretty much ruled it out, still too raw and consumed by grief to think about starting over again in a new city, especially one like London, where she knew no one other than Grant and Georgie, and had only visited once, on a school trip to see Buckingham Palace. But now that she was beginning to feel her old, indestructible, adventurous spirit come back and knock some of the sadness out of the way, there were definitely some aspects of it that were starting to appeal to her. When she’d worked in Edinburgh, it had been in an expensive, high-profile salon that had emphasised cutting-edge trends and pioneering creativity. It was a dramatic switch from that to the cut and blow-dries and occasional kids’ trims that she did at CopperCurls. Not that she was being patronising or dismissive. Jessie and the salon had saved her this last year. But perhaps it was time to challenge herself again and really push the boundaries to make a step up in her career. And London would definitely be a great way to do that.

Val clearly wasn’t going to be part of the booking process, though. ‘Right, I’ll leave you two to it. I’m away upstairs to bed to watchSilent Witness. If it terrifies the living daylights out of me, I’ll be back down to check all the doors and windows are locked and look up self-defence classes on the internet.’

‘Goodnight, Val,’ Alyssa said, as Val gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

‘G’night, ma love. And you too,’ Val said to Maddie, as she blew her a kiss across the table. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’

Maddie felt a wave of gratitude and warmth, until Val wandered out of the kitchen, humming the exact tune that Dylan had been singing earlier.

Giggling, she shook her head. ‘That woman should come with a health warning.’

Alyssa reached for the biscuit barrel in the middle of the table. ‘She definitely should. Right, are we doing this then?’

‘We’re doing this,’ Maddie agreed, full of resolve as she clicked on to Skyscanner. ‘Okay, what dates shall we go for?’

Alyssa pulled out her phone and they began comparing calendars, working out the times that were best for them both. A few minutes later, as Maddie clicked the button to confirm their flights, she felt a strange combination of peace and excitement.

She was finally getting her life back on track.

And she couldn’t wait to see where it would lead her.

9