Chapter Twenty
‘I still don’t understand why you need me there.
’ Jonah flops onto the seat by the window of the tram I’ve had to practically manhandle him onto, and I sit next to him, taking a deep breath to calm my nerves.
People are creatures of habit, so I decide the best way to try to catch Kit at the piano bar is to return on another Friday night.
‘For moral support?’
‘And Thea and Rhys can’t provide that?’
I smirk. ‘Thea, yes. Rhys, not a chance. He’ll be too busy trying to hook up. Besides, what other plans did you have for a Friday night?’
Jonah shrugs, refusing to meet my eye, because we both know he’d have been sat in the flat, talking himself out of checking Freddie’s Instagram.
‘I could have had a look at the leaky tap in the bathroom.’ He catches my eye and we both splutter out a laugh, because there’s more chance of Freddie jumping out of his boastful Instagram pics and apologising to Jonah for being a steaming turd than Jonah developing DIY skills and fixing that tap.
We hop off the tram at Salford Quays and walk along the waterfront, where we meet Thea as arranged at one of the bars.
She’s sitting outside, enjoying the view and a glass of wine, and she looks stunning with her long, silky, espresso-coloured hair wafting in the breeze and her plump lips painted a glossy red.
She looks like a model in a perfume advert.
I tell her this as I sit down next to her while Jonah nips inside to the bar, and she laughs and says I’m sweet.
‘Is Rhys not here yet?’ Jonah joins us outside again, placing our drinks on the table.
‘As if.’ I take a sip of my cider and settle back in my wicker seat. ‘Rhys doesn’t believe in being on time. Ever. Not even for work most shifts. Sally’s given him so many warnings, I’ve lost count. Either he knows her deepest, darkest secrets so she can’t sack him or she’s got a crush on him.’
‘Isn’t Sally in her mid-sixties?’
Thea laughs at her brother’s naivety. ‘Have you met Audrey and Olive? They’re in their eighties and they fancy anything in trousers, old or young. You’re lucky you haven’t been eaten alive.’
Jonah shudders. ‘Audrey pinched my bum last week when I bent down to get the teabags out of the cupboard.’
‘You can’t blame her. You’re a very handsome boy.’ I reach across and try to pinch Jonah’s cheek, but he’s too quick and bats me away before my fingers make contact.
‘Someone talking about me?’ Rhys has sauntered along the waterfront, and he stops in front of us, lifting his sunglasses up onto his head so he can wink at me.
‘We weren’t talking about knobheads, so no.’ I grab my phone and check the time. ‘You’re not massively late. What’s going on?’
Rhys shrugs as he drops into the seat next to Jonah. ‘I want to help you find this Kip guy.’
‘Kit.’ I roll my eyes. ‘His name is Kit.’
Rhys shrugs again. ‘That’s what I said.’
We finish our drinks and then head over to Piano Quays.
There’s another open mic night on and someone is trying their best to belt out Whitney as we step inside.
Thea catches my eye and winces, but there could never be a performance as bad as Conrad’s shitshow last time I was here, so I feel pretty immune to the pitchy singing going on right now. Rhys, however, is not.
‘She sounds like a cat in a blender.’ He nudges me with his arm. ‘And I thought you were bad.’
‘I take it you’re going to get up there then?’ I nod towards the stage, where the Whitney wannabe is declaring her everlasting love to the audience.
‘Why not?’ Rhys shrugs and turns to Thea. ‘How about you? We could do a duet. Show these amateurs how it’s done.’
Thea gives a firm shake of her head. ‘Nope. I can’t sing.’
‘Sure you can.’ Rhys slings his arm around Thea. ‘You just open your mouth and say the words in a melodic way.’
Thea shakes her head again. ‘That’s the thing. I don’t have a melodic way.’
‘She’s not lying.’ Jonah smirks at his sister. ‘She sounds like she’s gargling with rusty nails.’
Instead of being offended by her brother’s assessment and possibly jabbing him in the nuts, Thea nods along. ‘It’s true. I have no singing ability whatsoever. They only let me join the school choir if I agreed to mime along to the words.’
‘It looks like it’s down to you and me to wow the crowd then.’ Rhys releases Thea and claps Jonah on the back. ‘Why don’t you be David Bowie to my Mick Jagger and we can dance in the street?’
‘Why don’t we do what we came here to do and look for Kit?’
Rhys gives me a withering look. ‘That’s quite hard to do when we don’t know what the bloke looks like.
So why don’t you look for Kit and we’ll get this party started?
’ Rhys claps Jonah on the back again before he strides off to put his name down to sing.
Jonah hesitates for a moment before he shrugs and follows Rhys, nudging his way through the sea of people.
Like last time, the place is heaving so finding Kit might prove tricky.
But I’m determined to give it a go, and I won’t find him by just standing around, so I set off through the crowd myself, with Thea close behind.
I’ve checked all the public spaces of the piano bar, scouring the tables and the clusters of people standing in front of the stage and the bar area, and I sent Rhys into the men’s toilets on a reconnaissance mission with Kit’s description.
But so far we’ve come up blank. I ask the bar staff if they’ve seen Kit tonight, but they all shrug or shake their head, none of them knowing who he is and the description is far too vague and could depict dozens of the guys in the bar.
‘What about the host?’ Thea points at the stage, where the host is announcing the next act of the evening. ‘She’s reading out their names, so maybe she’ll remember Kit?’
It’s a different host this time. Instead of River Storm, tonight’s compère is an actress I recognise from one of the soaps Mum watches, but if they both frequent the bar, maybe she’ll know him as well. It’s worth a shot.
I wait until the host steps off the stage as the next act starts to sing and head over, gathering up all my courage and talking myself out of chickening out as I stride over.
‘Excuse me?’ My voice comes out squeaky and I clear it before continuing. ‘I’m looking for someone. A man.’
The host grins and winks at me. ‘Aren’t we all?’
I laugh weakly and plough on. ‘I’m hoping he’s a regular and that you’d remember him. His name’s Kit?’
The host shakes her head. ‘Sorry, this is my first time here. Maybe Billy can help?’ She nods at the stage, towards the pianist. ‘He’s due a break in about twenty minutes, so hold fire and I’ll see if he’ll have a word.
’ She pats me on the arm and smiles, and I thank her before heading back to my friends and relaying the conversation I’ve just had.
‘Might as well have a drink while we wait then.’ Rhys is already backing up to head to the bar. ‘I’ll bring them over.’ He grins at Jonah. ‘And we should be up soon.’
Thea frowns at her brother as Rhys is swallowed up by the crowd. ‘Are you really getting up there with him?’
‘Why not?’ Jonah lifts a shoulder in a lazy shrug. ‘You might be super-smart with the fancy career, but entertaining is what I do.’
And entertaining he is. Rhys, too, I have to grudgingly admit.
The pair get up on the stage and have the time of their lives as they strut about and get everyone dancing.
The host enthuses over them as the song comes to an end before she announces a short break.
Nerves jangle in my stomach as I watch her stoop over Billy, her hand on his shoulder as she speaks to him, and I cross my fingers as they make their way over.
‘Billy, this is our damsel in distress.’ The host strides towards me, guiding the pianist along with her. ‘She’s looking for a man you might know. A regular, we think. What was the name again?’
‘Kit.’ I inwardly cringe. ‘I don’t know his last name.’
The jangly nerves are making me feel a bit sick, but I push the feeling away, because this could be it. The moment I find out who my meet-cute true love is.
‘Sorry.’ Billy shakes his head. ‘I’m no good with names. Or faces, to be honest. I just play the music.’
Disappointment churns in my stomach, mixing with the nerves. A dead end. No Kit. No meet-cute happily ever after.
‘What about the host from the other week?’ Rhys comes to my rescue, and I could kiss him. Of course!
‘River Storm? Are they around tonight?’ I look around us, as though the host from my previous dalliance at the piano bar will pop up and save the day. But Billy shakes his head again.
‘They’ve got a cabaret gig in London. Won’t be back here until the autumn.’
The autumn? I can’t wait that long!
‘We can come back again another time and see if Kit’s here.’ Thea drapes her arm around my shoulders and starts to lead me to the exit.
And if he isn’t? Do we keep coming, week after week, on the off chance that I’ll bump into him? I’d convinced myself that Kit was a contender to bring the meet-cute wish to an end, but perhaps he isn’t after all. And if he isn’t, that means I’m back to square one of this meet-cute thing.