Love Me Till Wednesday (Sapphire Stars #1)

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Noah had managed to persuade Adam Evans-Johnson to delay the house sale by a fortnight so Lisa didn’t need to worry about packing up her home while rehearsing for the Stars’ television reunion.

All they needed to do now was find a bass player. Pete had asked around and got five potentials lined up. So far, they’d auditioned four of them. No one had been remotely good enough.

Lisa grabbed another bottle of water out of the bag they’d brought to the rehearsal room. ‘Do you want anything?’ she called out to the others.

‘A trip to the pub?’ Ed suggested.

‘I thought you said this was going to be easy,’ Lisa said to Pete.

‘Looks like I was overoptimistic.’ He stood up and stretched his arms above his head. ‘Let’s hope Sean can still deliver the goods because I don’t want to waste another afternoon.’

‘Sean is the last one, isn’t he?’ Tez asked. ‘Cos I am knackered.’

‘How are you going to do a full set live if you’re knackered after this?’ Pete asked .

What had he just said? ‘Tour? Who said anything about touring?’ Lisa asked.

Pete looked surprised. ‘Of course, we’re going to tour. It’s the only way to earn money these days. Streaming pays peanuts. I thought you knew that.’

Going on the road was Lisa’s least favourite part of being a singer. Playing in front of large audiences was terrifying but exhilarating at the same. She didn’t mind that element of it. But getting from A to B was tedious. ‘I hope we can afford a decent tour bus this time.’

‘I liked the old one,’ Ed said. ‘It had a certain je ne sais quoi.’

‘You mean the aroma of sweaty feet and stale cigarette smoke.’ Lisa gagged at the thought. ‘Not to mention the cruddy seats.’

Their conversation was interrupted by a text from Sean. ‘He’s in Reception,’ Pete said.

‘I’ll fetch him,’ Tez offered.

Lisa remembered Sean from his original band. They’d met a few times at music industry dos back in the early 90s. He’d been the life and soul of the party with a dazzling smile. And Jonny had respected him as a bass player.

But the Sean who walked in with Tez looked a lot older than he actually was. He still had long jet-black hair, but now it looked unnatural against his sallow, wrinkled skin. His speech was slightly slurred as he said hello, like he’d just woken up. Lisa couldn’t smell alcohol on his breath, but she suspected he’d recently indulged in some form of mind-altering substance.

He slowly got his bass out of its case.

Pete tried to make conversation. ‘What have you been up to lately, mate?’

‘This and that. Mostly session stuff. Why are you replacing Jonny? ’

Lisa and Pete looked at one another. Sean had been at Jonny’s funeral.

‘He was killed in a car crash,’ Lisa said.

Sean looked momentarily puzzled. ‘I guess that’s as good a reason as any. What shall we start with?’

He should have known that from the text Pete had sent him a couple of days ago inviting him to meet them.

‘Love Me Till Wednesday,’ Ed said.

Sean nodded. ‘Oh yeah. I remember now.’

It wasn’t looking hopeful so far. Perhaps he’d surprise them.

But no. While technically he played every note, he managed to suck all the energy from the song. As Lisa sang the final bars, she decided to wrap it up quickly.

‘Lovely to catch up. Thanks for coming. We’ll give you a call later.’

Sean seemed relieved to end it, too, suddenly finding the energy to pack up in double quick time. ‘Cheers, guys. See you around.’ And with that, he was gone.

‘So what do we do now?’ Lisa asked.

‘The second guy was alright.’ Tez was trying to sound positive.

‘Yes, but would you want to be stuck on a tour bus with him for more than ten minutes?’ Pete hadn’t been a fan of bassist number two. ‘He’s a skilled player, but if he’d said one more word about the bigger, better bands he’d played with, I’d have thumped him.’

Tez looked exasperated. ‘We’re doing one slot on Andy’s chat show. Let’s worry about that to start with. If we say it’s just for that, we’re not stuck with him.’

Lisa noticed Ed and Pete exchange a glance. ‘But that means we’ll have to put with him for rehearsals as well. I’m not doing that.’ Ed said.

‘There’s one person who could do it.’ Pete looked at Lisa. ‘Jim.’