“He said he'd come and find me at the end of the night,” Amy explains, getting slightly impatient. “You know, like Cinderella.”
“But he didn't?” Andrea clarifies. I bite my lip in an attempt not to laugh. Tina ignores them both; she's too well versed in the craziness of Amy to bother commenting.
“Well, clearly. Duh!”
For someone so intelligent, Amy doesn't have a clue when it comes to common sense. I wish I could say this was unusual, but there have been too many Sunday lunches like this for that to be true.
Alex's phone starts to ring, and he scrambles in his pocket, pressing the button to reject the call. “Sorry.” He says it to Tina. She has a strict no phone at the table policy.
Before she can say anything, it rings again. I see his mouth twitch as he rejects the call for the second time.
“Who is it?” I ask.
“It's only Stuart. I'll call him back later.”
When his phone buzzes with a text alert, I hear Tina sigh. “Just answer it for God’s sake.”
“It's a text, Mum.”
“Then read it and turn the bloody thing off. I'm trying to eat my dinner here.”
The next minute, Alex is standing up. “He says it's urgent. I'll go outside and call him back, okay?”
He doesn't wait for an answer, just sidles out, and I look over at his mum. “Sorry.”
“Don't apologise for him, love. He's ugly enough to do that himself.”
“Don't let him hear you say that,” Andrea says. “You know how vain he is.”
“Oh God,” Amy giggles, “Do you remember the time he used that hair bleach? His hair was so orange he looked like one of the Weasleys.”
I smile even though I've heard the story before. Alex claims the whole incident scarred him for any future hair dye use. He also reckons it delayed him losing his virginity by at least a year.
He can be such a liar.
Having said that, I've seen the pictures. He did look like one of the Weasley twins.
When he comes back, there's a huge grin spread across Alex's face. He taps the phone against his chin a couple of times, then grabs hold of me, swinging me around before planting a huge kiss on my lips. “Guess what?”
“What?” I'm breathless from his sudden change in demeanour.
“Stuart got a call from Alfie. The Freaks' manager have offered us a gig supporting them on their next tour.”
I've heard of The Freaks. They're not massive, but big enough for their songs to be played on the radio. Even if I hadn't known of them, I'd realise from the look on Alex's face that this is big news.
“That's brilliant. When do you start?”
“Yeah, that's the catch. Their original support act has pulled out. The first concert is next month.”
“That doesn't give you a lot of time.”
“We’ll have to put the work in. We can use the same set as the festival. According to Stuart, Alfie said their record company was really interested in us. They want to see how we get on in the tour.”
He's so happy, I can't help but grin. Alex has been dreaming about this for ages, ever since I met him seven years ago. “You can do it, I know you can. How long is the tour for?”
“There're only twenty dates, but spread across three months.”
“That's not so bad.” At least he'll be home in between. Plus I can go and watch him at the local ones.