‘Hello, Alex san.’
The door opened and a pretty girl came into the room. He immediately wondered if he had slept with her and felt both aroused and ashamed.
‘You feel better?’ she said, pouring Alex some tea.
‘Er. Where am I?’ He tried to sit up, but his head hurt and he lay back down. ‘How do we know each other again?’
‘I am Maiko. We meet in club, Alex san.’
‘Last night?’
Maiko giggled. ‘The night before. You drink very much. You sleep on the street.’ She smiled, which made him feel a little more reassured.
‘But why am I here?’
‘I did not know where you stay,’ said the girl. ‘So you stay here. Yesterday, you sleep.’
Now Alex did sit up, clutching his head. ‘You mean I’ve been here two days?’
She nodded.
‘Oh Jesus,’ he breathed. That meant he had not only missed the Osaka show – he remembered that much – but a shitload of promotion.
He tried to work out the time, but evidently somewhere in the last thirty-six hours he’d lost his watch. He was just about to ask Maiko if she knew where it had gone when he heard a knock on the door and a loud English voice in the hallway. The bedroom door swung open and Alex was startled to see Jez standing there.
‘Do you know how long it’s taken me to find you?’ he yelled. ‘You selfish wanker!’
Jez launched into a tirade. Alan their tour manager was currently at the police station. An acoustic gig at one of Tokyo’s biggest record stores, scheduled for the night before, had had to be cancelled. Writs were being issued and their visas were in jeopardy.
‘The record company is going apeshit,’ said Jez, taking a sip of the green tea and then spitting it back into the cup. ‘Who knows how much fucking money the insurance is going to have to pay up because we were a no-show in Osaka.’
‘Well that’s what insurance is for,’ said Alex, annoyed by Jez’s self-righteousness.‘It’s not the end of the bloody world, is it? Anyway, I don’t know why you didn’t do it without me. You know all the guitar parts.’
‘Of course I could do it without you,’ said Jez haughtily. ‘But that’s not the point, is it? Those punters paid to see fucking Alex san from the beer ad, didn’t they?’
‘There are four of us in the band, Jez.’
‘Yeah, right, like anyone turns up to see Pete.’
Alex shook his head. Jez was such an egotistical prick.
‘So how did you find me?’ said Alex, standing up to pull on his jeans.
‘God, you are fucked up, aren’t you, Doyle?’ snorted Jez.‘I suppose you don’t remember phoning me at about four in the morning, crying your eyes out, telling me you loved me,’ he mocked. ‘Then you told me you were going to marry this Maiko chick and that I was invited to the wedding.’
‘So why did it take you so long?’
‘So long?’ shouted Jez. ‘Do you realise how many Maiko Takahashis there are in the Tokyo phone book? You’re lucky we managed to track the little slut down at all, otherwise you’d have been stuck here in Nipland for ever.’
‘Don’t talk about her like that,’ spat Alex angrily.‘She’s my friend.’
Jez bent down over him so close Alex could see the red veins on his eyeballs, and his lip curled upwards in a sneer.‘She’s your friend? You’re a fucking loser, Doyle,’ he said, jabbing a finger.‘I hope you’re happy that you’ve screwed up my whole tour.’
‘Your tour?’
‘Yes, my tour!’ shouted Jez, spittle flying in Alex’s face. ‘Who else do they put on the front pages? It ain’t Gav and it’s not you since you went all moody and fat. You’re a fucking waste of space, Doyle.’
With a contemptuous look, he stood up and stalked into the next room. Alex followed, turning to Maiko.