Mai
Donald Granger. Manager.
She'd looked at it a million times over the last few days. Donnie’s words ringing in her head.
‘I can understand why you walked away from the band. I can’t understand why you walked away from him.’
She hadn’t been able to sleep, lying awake thinking about Ford.
Why had she walked away from him?
When she was twenty-two, it seemed so logical to leave everything behind, including him. Now, at thirty-eight, the decisions she’d made in her youth didn’t seem so sensible.
Taking the card, she crumpled it up and threw it away. No good could come of raking up the past. However much she thought about Ford, he didn’t think the same about her; he’d moved on very publicly, so contacting Donnie was pointless.
Mai looked in the mirror, examining her outfit for Clara and Taylor’s baby shower. Her pink glasses perched on her nose as usual; what wasn’t usual was her carefully applied makeup.
While her eyeliner wasn’t quite at the raccoon proportions of Sie, it was way more than she usually wore. Tilting her head around, she realised how much she liked the look she'd avoided for so long, just because it reminded her of the girl she no longer was.
The deep pink dress she wore was fitted through the bodice and flared out at the waist into a full skirt, making her look a little bit like a cupcake.
She giggled. Sie would have hated this outfit.
Once Mai was satisfied with her looks, she grabbed her guitar case and headed for the door. Clara and Taylor asked for no gifts for the shower, and after being at the Midnight Thunder concert, the music hummed in her blood. So she offered to sing some songs at the baby shower.
It was funny, she now missed performing—the thing that caused her so many panic attacks—and she was excited at the thought of playing in front of her friends when a few years ago, it was something she would never have done.
Mai was going to perform as the guests arrived, which suited her fine. It wasn’t a time when all the eyes would be on her, but it would satisfy her itchy fingers that told her it was time for her to play again.
“What are you playing for us?” Clara had linked arms with Mai when she arrived and was towing her towards the spot set up for her.
“A bit of a mix,” Mai said.
“Do you know any Midnight Thunder? I love Summer Days. It’s my favourite song.”
Mai smiled ruefully. “I know all of their older music well. I’m not as good with the newer albums.”
Clara squeezed her arm. “That’s okay. I love the old stuff. When the girl was with them.”
At the mention of her younger self, Mai’s heart skipped a beat, and she resisted the urge to let her hair fall over her face to try to hide, like she'd spent so long doing.
Instead, she managed a small smile. “Me too.”
Clara was oblivious to Mai’s inner turmoil and pointed at a high stool in front of a microphone. “We’ve set you up over there. Thank you so much for doing this. I’m so excited to hear you sing. Why did you never tell us you were talented?”
“You haven’t heard me play or sing yet. I might be terrible.” Mai laughed.
“No. You wouldn’t have offered if you were terrible,” Clara said confidently.
“I won’t lie. I’m not too bad. I played a lot when I was younger. Then medical school happened, and life got busy. Now I’m a consultant, I’ve had a little more time to take it back up again, and I realised how much I’ve missed it.”
Mai set her guitar case down on the ground and opened it. Pulling her instrument out, she slipped the strap over her shoulder and hopped up on the stool.
Tuning the guitar, she strummed a few chords before she began playing an acoustic version of Summer Days, which sounded eerily similar to the one Ford played at the concert.
It felt strange singing Ford’s part. She knew her voice was good, but it lacked the edge Ford's possessed that took his singing from good to outstanding.
She was so lost in the music and remembering all the times she performed it on stage with Midnight Thunder that she forgot she was in Clara’s garden with her friend standing in front of her. When she finished the last chorus and opened her eyes, Clara was staring at her.
Mai shifted uncomfortably around on the seat. “Sorry. I got a bit carried away.”
Clara didn’t say anything. Instead, she blinked.
“Clara, are you alright?” Mai asked.
Her friend blinked again before finally snapping out of her shock. “Why are you doing medicine when you’re that talented?”
Mai laughed. “I prefer medicine. I was in a band for a while. I found performing too stressful.”
“More stressful than resuscitating a baby?” Clara’s voice was incredulous.
“Bizarrely enough, yes.” Mai shrugged.
In medicine, she'd studied, and she knew she was good at her job. She had accepted that she couldn’t save every child, but she would make sure she didn’t lose them without a hard fight.
When she was on stage, she felt out of control, and the pressure of thousands of eyes broke her.
Taylor strolled over to them and wrapped his arms around his wife, resting his palms on her stomach.
“Oy, hands off the gut,” Clara chided, tapping his fingers.
“Clara, how many times do we need to go over this. It’s not a gut. It’s our child.” He winked at Mai over his wife’s head and grinned. This was clearly a conversation they’d had before.
“You’re not the one smuggling a basketball up their shirt,” Clara grumbled.
Mai was still a little tongue-tied around Taylor. He was a lovely guy. It was just tough when you had watched all the Superman movies and seen him in the suit and, at times, his birthday suit, to look him in the eye without blushing.
Clara grumbled some more before relaxing into his embrace, letting him keep his hands on her stomach.
“Did you hear Mai sing? She’s amazing.”
“No. I missed it. I’m looking forward to hearing you play. Thanks so much for doing this. It makes it so special to have a friend of Clara’s singing.” Taylor’s eyes twinkled, making Mai blush. He really was very handsome.
“I love playing. I’ve not done it in public for a long time, and I’ve missed it. So you guys are doing me a favour,” Mai said the words and realised she actually meant them. It felt fantastic to play for Clara.
“You're so talented. You could go professional.” Clara nodded enthusiastically.
“Being professional is about more than talent,” Mai said quietly.
“Hey guys,” Sadie called as she walked into the garden, waving energetically with one arm, the other slung around George, her husband, who clutched a giant teddy. Their two children were dashing in front of them.
“Oh my.” Clara’s eyes widened when she caught sight of the teddy bear. “We said no gifts,” she muttered to Taylor.
“Has Sadie ever listened to you?” Taylor leaned down and kissed her hair.
“Never.” Clara rolled her eyes and waved back at her friend.
“I’ll start to play now,” Mai said, then greeted Sadie. “Hey, Sadie.”
“Mai!” Sadie exclaimed happily. “It’s good to see you. I didn’t think you’d make it. We’ve only ever been able to persuade you to come to the pub quiz.”
Mai had spent so long keeping to herself that she still found it hard to say yes to invitations, even when the other doctors had been so welcoming to her since she arrived in town.
Lifting up her guitar, she shook it and said flatly, “I’m only here as the hired help.”
An outraged squeak escaped from Clara, and Sadie looked horrified.
Mai’s straight face broke. “Not really. I offered to play while everyone’s arriving.”
“I didn’t know you were a musician,” Sadie commented. “Oh, this is George.” She gestured to the man on her arm, who was trying to keep up with his wife and not drop the ridiculous teddy.
“Nice to meet you, Mai.” George jiggled the bear at her, then turned to Clara and Taylor. “I’m so sorry about this. The bear was Sadie’s idea.”
“Me?” Sadie kept a straight face for a second before cracking. “Yeah, I couldn’t resist it,” she chortled.
Gloria chose that moment to stroll out of the glass doors at the back of the house, her flowing kaftan wafting around her in the breeze, even as her perfectly bobbed silver hair didn’t move.
She sipped on the champagne clutched in her hand and waved with the other, some amber liquid sloshing over the rim. “Darlings.”
“Mom, it’s a baby shower, go easy on the champagne. Please don’t be a menace,” Taylor grumbled.
“Darling. I take great offence at that statement. This is my first glass,” Gloria drawled.
“What’s to take offence at? It’s true, your first glass always leads to the fifth one. I will never get over finding my mom and wife rolling drunk, talking about things that no man wants his mom to know.” Taylor shook his head at Gloria, but she didn’t look embarrassed at all and only chuckled.
Clara blushed and leaned into his chest, tilting her head up to him. “Sorry about that. On the bright side, I can’t drink with your reprobate mum while I’m pregnant.”
“That is a small mercy.” Taylor shook his head again and rolled his eyes.
A few more people wandered around the side of the house, and Mai figured she should extract herself from the conversation and start playing.
She asked Clara, “How long did you want me to play for?”
The other woman shrugged. “As long as you like. Until you get bored.”
Mai laughed as she sat back on her stool. “Don’t say that. You underestimate how much I love music.”
Clara laughed. “Alright. Let’s call it thirty minutes.”
“Sounds good.”
Perched on her stool, she began to play. Closing her eyes, she got lost in the music.
“Mai.”
Her eyes snapped open when someone hissed her name, and she grinned at Hel, who stood in front of her with Frost.
It always surprised her every time she saw him, what a giant he was. He was easily six-foot-three and built like a tank.
Hel danced on the spot, holding her left hand up, which sported a stunning ring with a large ruby surrounded by diamonds.
“He said yes.” Hel danced some more.
Frost’s arm was slung around her shoulders, and he pulled her tightly against his body, kissing the top of her head. “Was there ever any doubt?”
“No. Well, I was pretty sure.” Hel grinned, then blurted, “I was shitting a brick. I don’t know how men do it.”
Mai smiled and leaned away from the microphone she sang into. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks for covering for me so I could do it.” Hel looked so happy. It made Mai’s heart soar for her friend and break a little for herself.
“No problems.” Mai managed to keep smiling, even as her mind flashed to Donnie recognising her at the concert and, more importantly, Ford not recognising her.
But that wasn’t Hel’s fault; she had no one but herself to blame for the mess her life was.
“You sound amazing!” Hel said. “I’ll leave you alone. We’ll talk when you finish playing.”
Mai wrenched her mind away from Ford, where it was spending too much time. “Thanks,” she said to her friend before launching into the chorus.
Hel and Frost listened to her for a few more minutes before they strolled off together, caught up in their own bubble of each other.
She played until she figured all of the guests had arrived. Mai decided to finish on Summer Days, the Midnight Thunder song Clara loved so much.
She sang it with her heart and soul.