“Mom worries about you. She thinks you still have a broken heart.”
I laughed, but that thought bothered me. “My heart is made of stone,” I said and pounded my chest, smiling in an attempt to lighten the mood. “Tell her she shouldn’t worry. I’m fine.”
“You have to get over Maureen, Drake. You need to find someone serious. No more fuck buddies, man. Find a woman you could love.”
I didn’t say anything in the hopes he’d stop with the advice. No luck.
"It’s been five years and you still haven’t had a steady woman. You only ever have fuck buddies and none of us has met a single one of them. That’s not healthy.”
“Hey, I’m living the dream,” I said, a little too angrily. “Sex with no strings. No emotion. Look, I’m not planning on getting married again, so let it drop, OK?”
Ken watched silently while I set up my bass guitar. I felt his disapproval, and finally met his gaze.
He shook his head. “Let's get the keyboard." Ken led me to the back of the bar and the door to the basement. We kept some equipment stored there, and so we went down to the room beside the wine cellar and carried up the keyboard. We spent the next quarter of an hour setting up, waiting for the other guys to arrive.
Thankfully, Ken dropped the subject of my personal life.
Once the other guys arrived, and we did a sound check, Colin took the mic at the front of the stage to announce us, not that the usual crowd wasn't already familiar with us and our music.
"And now, back by popular demand and with a new selection of Brit Invasion tunes, please give a round of applause for our own Ken O'Riley's Brit Invasion cover band Mersey."
Colin turned to us and bowed and we all bowed back, me standing to the left of the stage, Ken on drums, Johnny on keyboards and Cliff on lead to my right. We started with a series of Beatle's oldies, No Reply, And I Love Her, and then In My Life. Cliff took the lead on vocals since he was the closest in sound to John Lennon, but I did background vocals. As we played, I watched the patrons. They stopped talking and turned to listen, responding to the song and the Sixties sound. It was going to be a good crowd.
We'd added in a few new songs, most from the Stones, and playing at O'Riley's gave us a chance to perfect them. We'd performed once already on Wednesday at Mickey's, a small club in Chelsea, and had practiced the previous Sunday at O'Riley's during the day, so we weren’t quite as tight as we would be with our usual playlist.
I took lead vocals on four new covers, Heart of Stone, Play With Fire, Under My Thumb and Paint It Black, all by The Rolling Stones. My voice was a bit lower in register and I more easily mimicked Jagger's saucy voice. I’d done a lot of role playing with my subs over the years and was more relaxed about performance. Plus, I enjoyed putting myself in Jagger’s petulant bad-boy shoes.
I liked all four new songs, and enjoyed playing my Gibson bass – my father's old instrument. Cliff and Ken provided background vocals on Heart of Stone. The crowd really seemed into it, and gave us a rousing round of applause when we finished. We moved right into Play With Fire, and then Under My Thumb without stopping. I loved playing the bass line in Under my Thumb and because the bass was so important, it was one of my favorite new covers.
Our final song of the set was Paint It Black, also by the Stones. It was hard driving and had a great rhythm. We still needed work to tighten up a bit but luckily, the Stones were always a bit loose and so our lack of practice didn’t really hurt too much.
Our sound was right.
We finished the set to a roar of applause and bowed before leaving the stage to go to the bar for a break. Our second set would be mostly The Yardbirds and The Animals – our usual repertoire.
I leaned against the bar and took the glass of water Colin poured for the four of us, and then the shots of tequila he also provided.
We passed around the salt shaker, shot back the tequila and bit the limes.
"Good set," Colin said after refilling the shot glasses. Then, he turned to me and pointed to the back of the lounge. "Your lady friend’s here."
I frowned and turned to look where he pointed, thinking that maybe Lara had shown up. She occasionally came to our gigs to listen to us play, but it wasn't Lara.
It was Allie.
Allie showing up at O'Riley's was totally unacceptable.
For a moment, I saw her the way the guys would -- tall, athletic and with pretty features. She was beautiful. As if to please me and ward off my reprimand, she wore the black leather dress I liked and made her wear to dungeon parties. Her platinum blonde hair fell around her shoulders like satin and her makeup was perfect. Any man in the bar would have been pleased to have her at their beck and call.