Chapter 25
ED
Now
The photos of the supposed adult Evie Del Rio (aka Genie McNamara) are all over the press and social media.
I spend far too long doomscrolling #thegirlinthesong hashtag on my iPad, desperately looking for further stories or photos of Evie when I’m not at the gym or rehearsing.
I’m not getting any further to finding out the truth.
Each article is full of supposition, each theory and story wilder and more absurd than the last.
I run my hand through my hair, reminding me that I need to get my hair cut soon.
I can’t get away with leaving it too long anymore as it just looks aging and despite my lifestyle, I like to pride myself that I look younger than I am without any surgical tweaks.
Only last week there was a brutal article in The Daily Mail comparing members of the public who were the same age as certain celebrities.
There was one poor bloke called Trevor, a postman from the East End who was the same age as me who didn’t come off too well compared to me and they’d obviously chosen the worst possible photo of Trevor.
Our photos were side to side, pointing out what Trevor needed to do to look younger.
Trevor had a florid complexion and stringy, long hair slicked back in a greasy ponytail.
They had listed a handful of ‘tweakments’ that would benefit Trevor.
Who bloody commissioned such banal rubbish in our press I thought, but the public lapped it up in their droves.
I abandon my iPad and make myself a coffee and open the patio doors from the sitting room that leads on to the balcony, taking in the breathtaking views of the river.
I have a lot to be thankful I thought. And that’s when it came to me, I would start doing a few TikTok posts myself and then I would have total control over what I posted rather than all these blatant lies and inaccurate rubbish that social media continually churned out.
Toby wouldn’t mind. Any publicity was good publicity in his eyes.
I grab my phone and start talking to the camera.
The first couple of videos are complete nonsense, by the third one I’m on a roll.
I talk about the tour on how we were all looking forward to being back on the road again to reconnect with our fans.
I give an idea of what our British audiences can look forward to from our gigs and hint about the possibility of some surprise guests.
We haven’t even sorted out all our support acts, but it is some sort of content, nevertheless.
I post the first video on TikTok, and the likes and comments start flooding in.
It is now time to address #thegirlinthesong furore which had all started from my appearance on the Netflix documentary.
‘As you are all aware since appearing on Musical Muses: The Girl in the Song documentary on Netlix, I have been tirelessly searching for my ex-girlfriend Evie Del Rio.
Primarily I initially wanted to find her was for us to possibly reconnect but also to find out why she left without saying goodbye to me and her other close friends.
Now after so much speculation and seeing old photos that have recently resurfaced there is a third reason why I need to find Evie and that is to see if the rumours are true about her leaving because she was pregnant.
I need to know the real truth; whatever it may be.
I finish up the video by thanking all our fans for their interest in our music and forthcoming reunion tour before speaking directly into the camera as if I was talking to Evie.
Please Evie, if you happen to see this video, please get in touch. I’m here if you want to talk.
Tomorrow I’ll be doing a run through of all the songs on our debut album Past Times and the meanings behind them. Until then, thanks for watching.
I upload the video and post it, remembering to use #thegirlinthesong. I doubted Evie would ever see my ramblings. But it was worth a shot. Minutes later my post is full of comments. Most of them complimentary.