Chapter Twenty-Seven

Eddie

Mickki is riding our asses to make sure that our last show is flawless, he wants to go out with a bang. Today he has a wardrobe rehearsal. I mean, seriously, is that even a thing? It’s not hard for me to pull off ripped jeans, usually a T that has some eighties band on the front, and my lucky leather jacket. Since I left my lucky jacket at home, the band and I have flown home for the day, plus Mickki and I had a meeting today about our record company. I humour him anyway and come upstairs to find it. I didn’t take it with me on this tour, I didn’t really want its luck to run out. How crazy is that?

“Delilah!” I shout. “Where’s my lucky jacket?” I stand in my walk-in closet and scan the hangers for my jacket.

“Have you looked in Callie’s room? The last time I saw you wearing it, you were down there,” she says. Just the mention of Callie’s name hits me straight in the heart. I miss her so much it bloody hurts. Go figure, I never believed that you could physically hurt from a broken heart. Now I know you can and it sucks.

“Thanks.” Is all that I can force out of my mouth. Delilah places her hand on my shoulder, offering me comfort before she walks away. She has lectured me so many times about running to Callie, but I won’t, it has to be her coming to me. I promised myself that letting her go was what she needed and for once in my life I refuse to be selfish. I make my way down to Callie’s part of my house. Walking into her room, everything is the way we left it minus the smashed vodka bottle. Her magazines are still on the coffee table, and fresh flowers are in a vase, I know Delilah misses having her here. Her stupid floppy hat sitting on top of her book shelf. Hanging on the back of a chair is my jacket.

I hear Mickki bellowing from the pool house, telling me to get my ass back to the living room. I pull my jacket on and follow the sound of his whiney ass.

“We’re only here for twenty-four hours, and you’re sitting here dicking around. Jon is only available for an hour before he jets back to Paris.”

“I’m quite capable of picking out my own pair of jeans. I have a whole side of my wardrobe full of them, just pick a colour.”

“No Eddie, this has to be perfect. I have to have the right people in my circle now that I’m going off on my own, I won’t have your stupidity to hide behind anymore,” he says, looking awfully red in the face.

“Who fucking pissed in your cornflakes today…Fine. Jon, come measure my crotch and be careful, that’s not a third leg in my pants,” I say and Jon tries to hide his smile.

“Hmph.” Is all Mickki mutters and leaves the room. I stand on a stupid box set up in the middle of the room and Jon gets out his handy measuring tape and starts chatting away. I’m not in the mood for conversation so I throw in a few noises and that seems to appease him enough and he keeps talking. He asks me to step down and remove my jacket, as I slide it off a small metal USB falls from the pocket, Jon reaches down and hands it to me. I stare at it as I take it from his hand, it takes me a minute but I remember Callie’s kid gave me this when he was in hospital; I had totally forgotten about it. I slip it in my jeans pocket and ignore the fact that I can’t stop thinking about it being in there. Should I watch it and make sure it’s something she could handle hearing or just post it to her sisters’ house. But what if it gets lost or worse, if she gets it and relapses. The minute I think that, it’s decided I’m watching the USB.

“Hi Eddie. Yes, I know it’s you watching this. I figured you wouldn’t be able to help yourself. You would’ve told yourself that you wanted to see what was on here, just in case mum wasn’t ready to hear what I have to say. Good, keep watching, because the first part of this video is for you. I know my mum, and after I died she would’ve done something reckless, it’s what she does. She’s never relapsed since Amelia died, but I know my death would have hit her hard. So that’s why I know you’ve broken up. What I can’t work out though, is if it was her who broke it off because she didn’t want to drag you down with her, or if it was you because you didn’t want to drag her down with your addictions. Either way, you’re both as stubborn as each other. Aunty Sasha told me a lot about you. Now I need you to do something for me. I want you to win her back and before you come up with a million excuses why you can’t, just do it because you know mum’s worth it. She’s special and needs you more than you’ll ever know, and that is why I think you should marry her now. And before you have a heart attack, answer me these few questions and if, after that, you don’t want to marry her I’ll drop it, okay. Do you love her?” he says and stares at the screen. “Do you love her, say it out loud.”

“Yes,” I say stupidly to the screen while nodding my head.

“Close your eyes. Now image it’s ten years from now and you come home from work and open the door. Who do you see? Who’s the first person that you see in your mind?” Goddammit, the kid is good, I’ll give him that.

“Now, picture my mum dying…how does that make you feel?”

That pain in my heart resurfaces and I feel a little choked up.

“Now, if you love her, and picture her in your future, and can’t imagine a world without her, what are you waiting for? Life is short and we can’t waste any of it. Now, I have an idea on how to get her back, so listen carefully.”

I pause the video and run to her desk and rummage through the drawer for a pen and paper. Back at the laptop, I unpause and listen to his instructions. He knows about Alex, and also said if she was still around I could use her to my advantage. I would need my contact from ACE TV, and I can’t believe this kid knew about Lacey. Callie gets daily notifications from the app on her phone so she would see a headline, but that wouldn’t be enough for her and we would need something else and I should use him without asking her for a benefit concert or a gift to him, and the reporter would need to use that also. SO that is Part A of the plan. Part B is softening her up and he’s left a USB with his dad, along with instructions to wait for my call before taking it to Callie. That is Part B. Sasha is in on Part C because he said he’s run through his head who she’d call for help to get to me and he’s certain if I’m touring she’ll turn up to a concert, otherwise we could skip part C. Part D is up to me, he says, since his plans got her there. He also lectures me about not being a pussy, and I’m no pussy. I’m left shocked and staring at the screen when he says to not watch any further as the rest is for his mum, and that she should watch it after I propose and says she’ll need to see it. As much as I want to know what he has to say to her, I respect his wishes and shut it off. I bloody love this kid, he’s a pure genius. I wish I could have gotten to know him better. Could I really do this? I love Callie, but marriage has never been in the cards for me. I’ve never even considered, for a second, that anyone would even want to marry me. I’m way too damaged and high maintenance.

I call Mickki to my room, and the look of annoyance on his face doesn’t go unnoticed, I tell myself I will ask him about it later. I show him the video and that seems to shift his mood. I hit pause when Beau is done and as I stare at him and wait, I see a smile creep over his face.

“So what do ya think?” I say.

“Smart kid, he even had me wanting to marry her,” he says and my head whips around and I look him in the eyes. “Whoa killer, I don’t plan on stealing your lady, but the kid has a point.”

“Right, I thought it was crazy yet brilliant. If you mentioned marriage to me six months ago, I would have freaked out, gone on a binge, and screwed her sister. Now, the thought of marriage and settling down sounds inviting. I’m not a pussy, though.”

“Far from it bro, this is borderline crazy, but I think we can pull it off. You call that chick from ACE TV and then get on to Delilah, she has crazy good taste in jewellery.”

“I know, she buys herself jewellery every year for Christmas on me. Can you call Sasha, fill her in and see if she’ll get in contact with Callie’s ex-husband.”

“Already on it,” he says, pulling his phone from his pocket and leaving the room.

Not even an hour later, the plan is in place. Sasha called me once she got off the phone to Mickki to suggest that we get Lacey to add the last concert was in Beau’s honour. It would piss her off enough to come because she’d use it to confront me and wouldn’t miss it either since it was held on Beau’s behalf. Mickki has sent over plane tickets and back stage passes for Sasha to get to Callie somehow, and she said she would get it done. Lacey got in on the plan to set up a post tomorrow morning. Let’s just hope all goes to plan.