AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Twelve
Andrea
“What can I getcha?”
Andrea grinned as she took the order for drinks and pulled a pint in the busy bar, delighted that she had managed to persuade Charlie to come out and join her. When her old boss texted her after seeing that she was in town after her night out with JJ, he had demanded Andrea come and sing at the Uni’s popular open mic night.
She’d texted a few of the old college crew and told them her and Charlie would be going to “The Basement”, the nickname of the bar that was literally in the basement of the student centre. It was a cramped, small room with a stage and a smattering of tables but Andrea had loved working here throughout her course and even though they had long since graduated, there was nothing like coming back.
Hell, even Charlie had gotten into the spirit of it, collecting glasses and she even looked happy chatting with the old crew. Her old boss had decided that this would be an oldies night and banished any college-aged kid from the room the moment they had all poured into the basement.
The music was cranked up and soon Andrea was swept away in the familiarness and the camaraderie. She tended bar and danced and laughed when open mic night turned into really bad karaoke as the lads got stuck in and butchered a few tunes. It was easy to forget that Declan hadn’t answered her, that his calls had ceased and any communication with the band was done through other members of the band.
And she would be lying to herself if she hadn’t checked her phone a dozen times over the last few days, her heart racing every time her phone chimed. For a few days she had obsessively checked her brother’s social media, for the chance to spot what the band was up to but even Rhys had been very quiet online.
The only inclination that the band were doing anything productive was when Luna shared a video of her, dressed in just her bra and shorts, her blood-red hair pulled back off her face as she absolutely killed it performing Foo Fighter’sThe Pretender. When she finished she swung the camera around to give the audience a quick view of the rest of the band clapping.
All expect Declan...
Andi strode past a few of their friends gathered round as the lads tried to out car Charlie, offering up advice and suggestion for her when it comes to cars and livery and all that stuff. Charlie was giving as good as she got, telling them all about the fact that she was the one who had told her dad to have the cars in Irish green and cork red, betting the lads that she could get behind the wheel of any of their cars and win them in a race.
Andrea knew that Charlie needed the break, to just be surrounded with people who were not intimidated because she was now Charlotte Coyle, CEO of Rebel Racers and owner of Rebel PR, but remembered her as Charlie, who once built a soapbox car out of cardboard and old wheels and raced around the quad for charity. Who was not averse to childish drinking games, or a game of truth and dare.
Charlie had spent the night laughing and joking, smiling and she just seemed lighter than she had over the last couple of weeks. It had taken a lot of begging and pleading to get her here tonight and now, as she glanced at Charlie as she mock punched Shane in the arm, Andrea was glad they had come.
Shane Carter was a close friend of theirs from college, another Cork lad who had transferred to their course in the second year and of course, all the Irish kids stuck together. Both herself and Charlie were hoping to persuade Shane to come back and take up a position in their Cork office, managing the sports side of the business, considering Andi was an idiot when it came to sports and Charlie would have her hands full with Rebel Racers.
As if he sensed her watching him, Shane looked up and flashed her a dazzling smile. “Collins! Get your fine ass up and give us a tune.”
Andrea laughed as everyone started chanting her name and she rolled her eyes. She slid the glasses she had collected along the bar, smacking Shane at the back of the head like she would Rhys, and made her way up on the stage to the beat-up old piano.
It had been ages since she’d played it, so she gave herself a few practice tries before she got down and truly belted out a track. She started by playing DarudeSandstorm, then Robert Miles,Children,then a little bit of Eiffel 65 withBluethat had everyone cheering. She slowed down the tempo to follow up with a little barber's adagio for strings. She finished off her 90’s mix with a nod to one of Manchester’s own bands and playedWonderwallby Oasis.
When she finished, she ignored the cheers and the calls for one more tune and tapped the microphone to make sure if it was working before she held up her hand for the gang of misfits to simmer down before she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and started singing Dermot Kennedy’s Rome. Andrea loved the song, admittedly because it reminded her of Declan, the old Declan, who stayed up late to discuss lyrics and music.
All the pain of the last few weeks, Andrea poured it into the song, as if the music could wash away some of the hurt and anger. Her fingers danced on the keys effortlessly and Andrea knew that she should find more time to just be her, to do more of what she liked, what gave her a sense of peace.
Andrea finished up the song, opening her eyes and inclining her head as everyone clapped and cheered. Shane got up and put a pint on the piano, grinning as Andrea took more than a gulp from it before she spoke into the microphone.
“All right, ya bloody heathens, simmer down now.” That earned her another chortle of laughter. “It’s been good to be back here, in our second home, even if you all are a bunch of misfits.”
There was a good-humoured banter tossed back about blow-ins and foreigners that Andrea and Charlie were well used to, but when Andrea whistled, they all hushed down, well used to Andrea giving orders.
“We’ve had a shite few weeks, me and our newest boss bitch, who by the way is kicking ass and taking names and teaching all the boys that it’s girls who run the world.” Charlie lifted her pint with a grin and Andrea continued. “But after tonight, with you lot, it’s all grand and we can go back to conquering the world, one industry at a time.”
Andrea hesitated before she continued. “Going back where you grew up, seeing old friends and family, makes you nostalgic and stirs up old feelings...old memories. So, here is a song that reminds me of home, of the past, and all that jazz.”
Closing her eyes again, Andrea blew out a breath before she let her fingers glide over the piano, the melody of Adele’sHometownechoing in the extremely acoustic bar and she played until the song called for her to sing and Andrea sang, her mind wandering to weeks ago, when she had first arrived back in Cork and had just wandered around the city centre, music in her ears as she took in the subtle changes that had happened since she had been gone and how good it felt to be back where some of her best memories were...and some of her worst.
When Andrea finished, she gave herself a couple of seconds before she opened her eyes and turned to grin at her friends to see if they wanted another song. But the bar had gone deathly silent and she wondered what had happened in other to suddenly shut all of the loudmouths up.
She glanced at Charlie, who just looked over her shoulder and back, and Andrea, her eyes widening as she mouthed, Oh my god....
Andrea narrowed her gaze and looked in the direction that everyone was now staring at the stairs that led down into the bar. She wasn’t sure that a heart could survive the absolute shock that absorbed her, as well as everyone else in the bar.
This was not happening. She closed her eyes, thinking she had somehow conjured him here just by thinking about him, singing as if he could hear her and sure as if the universe was looking to mess with her head and especially mess with her heart.
The reason why Declan Walsh was not in any of the band’s posts or videos was because he was here, in Manchester, standing at the bottom of the basement stairs with his stupid handsome face and Andrea forgot how to breathe.
