Page 39 of Happiness Under a Summer Skye

The meeting was preying on her mind for most of the day and cabin fever had pretty much set in. She had informed her parents and had messaged Meghan to let her know that the call would be happening in case she’d known anything about it. Meghan was still out ticking locations off her bucket list but replied quickly, to Angelia’s surprise.

Meghan

I wonder what that could be about. Den hasn’t said anything. Want me to head back? M xx

Angelia hit the reply button.

Angel

No, don’t be silly. I’m sure it’s nothing serious. Just go and enjoy yourself. I’ll update you when I know.

Angelia ended the message with a smiling face emoji. A rapid response came from Meghan.

Meghan

If you’re sure. Are you happy for me to stay out this evening? I’ve met some Norwegian girls and they’ve invited me to go for drinks with them. They say there’s room in their hostel if I want to stay over. Obviously, I’ll come home if you’d prefer.

Angelia couldn’t help feeling a little relieved to have a night off from being watched and her every move noted and reported back to their management.

Angel

No, Meg, I don’t mind at all. It sounds like fun so you should definitely stay out. I will message you after the call.

After that conversation, Angelia could tell she was driving her parents mad with her foot tapping, nail biting and sighing because her dad pulled out a deck of cards and demanded they sit and play poker for a while to give her something else to focus on.

Angelia couldn’t concentrate and lost every single game, which was a first. She resorted to pacing again until her mum snapped, ‘For goodness’ sake, Angelia, you’re going to wear a bald patch on my lovely Persian rug!’

At that, Angelia flopped onto the sofa and called Scrappy up to sit on her lap. Cuddling him usually had a calming effect on her. She flicked through the channels on the TV but could find nothing to hold her attention. She went through every possible scenario in her mind that could occur on the call but for some reason each one came around to her losing her role as the front person of the band. She couldn’t blame them if they did want to find another vocalist though. What use was a singer who couldn’t actually sing? She wondered if they would resort to a similar method of finding her replacement as they’d used to find her. She tried to imagine watching the show from home, knowing how painful that would be. Surely, they wouldn’t put her through that, would they? Maybe they were going to demote her to backing singer and Anouk was going to step up. She was quite shy in front of the microphone but confidence could grow, and she could definitely sing. She had a gravelly quality to her sound, probably more fitting, if she was honest.

An hour prior to the call, Angelia went up to her room followed, as always, by Scrappy, and she paced there instead as she chewed on the skin around her thumbnail. As if he was as frustrated by this as everyone else, Scrappy whined every few minutes and Angelia translated this to mean, ‘For woofness’ sake, give up already.’

She sat on her bed beside him. ‘Sorry, my wee pal. I’m just nervous,’ she told him with a scratch under his chin. ‘What would I do without you, eh?’ He wagged his tail and jumped up to try and lick her face.

To kill a little time, she applied some makeup and tidied her hair, knowing she would have her camera on. She didn’t want the band to see her looking pale and it made her feel more presentable. She wondered how it would feel seeing them all again after what felt like a long time, even though realistically it hadn’t been that long. And she wondered if Josh would be there or if he would make excuses to be absent. When it was almost time for the Zoom call, she sat at the desk in her room and checked the microphone and camera on her laptop.

Then, as the band and Den appeared, one by one, on the screen before her, her heart thumped at her chest and her palms grew clammy. Josh’s face appeared and he looked jittery. He didn’t seem to want to look at anyone and that made her sad. She just wanted to go to bed, cuddle up with Scrappy and catch up on sleep; maybe forget the world and recent goings on for a little while too.

‘Hey, everyone. It’s good to see you,’ Heath said, smiling into his camera. ‘I hope you’re all enjoying the much-needed, and long overdue, break. Thanks for making time to join the call.’ If Angelia didn’t know better, she’d be forgiven for thinking he looked nervous. He was chewing his lip and kept glancing off to the side where, she presumed, his pregnant wife Agda was sitting with their wee son.

‘Before you start, Heath, can I say something?’ Josh interjected. He too had been very fidgety since he’d appeared on camera, and Angelia wondered what he could possibly want to say that couldn’t wait and that justified his interrupting Heath.

Heath sighed. ‘Sure, go on.’ He hadn’t hidden his annoyance; his flared nostrils were a dead giveaway, that and the fact his lips were pressed together as if he was trying to stop himself from saying something he might regret.

Josh grinned into his camera. ‘Cheers, bro. So… I’m excited to tell you all… I’m getting married!’ he blurted, and Angelia’s heart plummeted to the floor. ‘I asked, and Nancy said “yes”! So, we’ve set a date for a spring wedding next year. Obviously, you’re all invited even with… well, you know…’

Even with what? Angelia thought absently. And no, she didn’t know. Although she couldn’t ask because she was fighting tears. A hard lump of emotion had lodged in her throat, and she had to force a smile and join in the applause that Den had instigated. If Josh considered her such a good friend, why was she finding out like this? And why had he been so absent from her life lately when she needed him the most?

‘Ooh, I love a good wedding, me!’ Den said in his broad Leeds accent, beaming, his skin a little more orange than normal in the run up to his annual holiday, and the fact he was in California, of course. The band had agreed, long ago, that their manager was addicted to tanning, whether fake or otherwise.

Heath, however, was silent and Angelia felt sure he was looking through his camera and directly into her mind. He closed his eyes briefly and she thought she saw an infinitesimal shake of his head. Evidently, he didn’t approve of Josh’s delivery of his news. She recalled the conversation she had overheard between Heath and Josh at her London apartment, and how after hearing Josh had feelings for her, Heath had informed Josh that he needed to get his head straight about her and not mess her around. She had been grateful that Heath had cared enough to stand up for her. And clearly now Josh had ‘got his head straight’ on what he wanted; it wasn’t Angelia, after all. She supposed she should be relieved.

Eventually Heath cleared his throat and said, ‘Congratulations, Josh and Nancy. Although what she sees in you, I’ll never know.’ Angelia sensed a barbed undercurrent of truth in his words.

‘You know you love me really,’ Josh said rather more jovially than if he too had noted the same bitterness. Luckily for him, he was oblivious. ‘Anyway,’ Josh added, ‘I just wanted to share my news. You can crack on with your thing now, H.’

Heath nodded. ‘Okay.’ He paused for a moment, and Angelia watched as he inhaled a long, deep breath and released it. ‘Now this hasn’t been an easy decision to make and I’m not sure how to tell you all other than to just…’ He shrugged. ‘Say it… So… I’m quitting the band.’

There were a couple of gasps and then a heavy, stunned silence descended on the call. Angelia felt the tears she had been fighting spill over and tried, surreptitiously, to swipe them quickly away. So, it was over after all; just not in the way she had anticipated.