We ate lunch on the balcony and made mostly small talk about our families and the places we’d both lived in London. I’d opened a bottle of white wine and we were already getting through it. I still had the feeling Lily could get up and leave once it was over and never talk to me again despite her comment earlier. She was a super famous footballer, if not the face of the modern women’s game, and here she was sitting with me on my tiny balcony having some soup.
Lily dabbed the side of her mouth with her napkin before folding it and placing it on the table. “Did you study music?”
“Yeah. I went to school for it. I studied classical, and contemporary. It was at the Royal Academy of Music.”
“That’s so impressive. How many instruments do you play?”
“Um, let’s see.” I looked off to the side as I counted. “I suppose it depends what you count as separate instruments, but nine or ten, perhaps.”
“Ten! That’s incredible. Which ones?”
“Piano, guitar, double-bass – so also bass guitar – violin although not very well, drums, keyboard, decks – and yes I do consider them an instrument, and the harmonica, how many was that? Oh, also, the oboe, but I haven’t played that in years. I sing so you could count vocals as another. I also use a mixing desk while I’m producing and work with software. To be honest, I count anything as an instrument. Sound is all around us. All I do is harness it.”
“That’s incredible. You’re like a genius.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“Did you listen back to your sounds from Greece?”
“I did. They’re so good. I’ll show you in a bit, if you want?”
“Yes please.”
I sipped my wine, trying to focus on our conversation and not on the memories of when we had sex which kept popping into my head. Didn’t she think about it too? Lily had hardly said a word about our night together. It was starting to drive me a little mad but was probably only making me fancy her more.
“So you always wanted to be a musician?”
I nodded.
“When did you know?”
“When I was about four or five. It’s one of my earliest memories. I was watching MTV or some music video,banging the back of some pots and pans and singing along with a hairbrush. I remember pointing at the screen and telling my mum I was going to do that one day. I saw myself on telly singing my heart out to my own song.”
“What was the video?” Lily leaned forwards on the small table. She was so close to me I could see the flecks in her eyes.
“‘Head Over Feet’ by Alanis Morissette.”
Lily got out her phone and somehow managed to find and play it within seconds.
“You loved this at four or five?”
“I was an intense child.”
Lily laughed gently, her eyes teasing and sparkling. She increased the pitch of her voice and sang along for a bit. She managed to get a couple of notes correct.
I laughed. “You’re a natural.”
She tilted her head to the side. “I can just picture you as a little kid singing along and spinning in circles like Alanis.”
“I’ve never told anyone that before.”
Lily smiled, her eyes crinkling at the sides and lighting up her whole face. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
“Speaking of television, I saw you on TV.”
She leant back. “Did you?”
“You were brilliant. You spoke very well. My favourite part was when you said someone had a lot of touches in the box.”
