I Knew the Moment I Met You

Maddison knew she was in over her head. It had all seemed so easy, so doable, until more and more people found out and as the group sat down for a coffee and a chat before they started the rest of their Christmas Eve day, Maddison could see how glaringly unprepared they were for the questions that were about to hit them.

Laura was suspicious from the start, her eyes flickering from Maddison to John and back again as though she was trying to do an equation that didn’t quite add up: why was this couple together?

John seemed obvious to it all, not able to see all the stress and tension that was running through the girl sat beside him as Maddison tried to focus on being call and breathing whilst he smiled away laughing at one of her mother’s stories.

“...and she’s never eaten peas since" Maria finished as John and Eddison burst out laughing, whilst Doug flicked through the TV. Now that her Mum was finished this was the in Laura needed.

“So where did you two meet then?” Laura asked, raising a perfectly manicured eyebrow at her sister as Maddison's breath caught in her throat. This was something so simple and obvious that they hasn’t thought of at all. Everyone, except for Doug who was still trying to find a channel that he deemed acceptable.

Maddison stared at John, her eyes wide, mouth slightly open as she struggled to find the words to a lie, any lie that would be believable and would get them out of this mess.

“Through work’ John said causing Maddison to nearly choke, where the hell was he going with this?

“What, Maddison found you a job?” Laura asked confused “Isn’t that a bit unprofessional?”

“No, she didn’t find me a job, my band was playing a show in Phoenix in the summer and we needed a sound engineer so we were phoning around different agencies trying to find someone and Mads did, so we have her company some free tickets and she came down and we just seemed to hit it off” John smiled, taking Maddison hand in his as she stared at the picture frame behind her mother’s head, not daring to look anyone in the eye in case they were able to see she was lying.

“Your in a band, John? What do you play?” Eddie asked, a smile flicking on his face, if her Dad was anything he was a man who loved music.

“I play quite a few instruments but in the band I’m the singer and I write the songs” he shrugged modestly, letting go of Maddison's hand to grab his mug from the table, taking a large sip of what must now have been less than lukewarm coffee.

“What kind of music do you guys play? You aren’t hip hop are you?” her Dad asked easily causing John to burst into laughter.

“Definitely not hip hop, though we did once cover a song and that wasn’t our finest moments. I dont know how to describe it – rock I guess” John tried to explain, scratching the back of his head in discomfort, clearly uncomfortable.

“What do you say, Dee?” Eddie asked turning to look at Maddie with a small smile “What did you think of Johnny’s band?” he asked as Maddison began to fluster, her fingers drumming on her knee before John took her hand in his again, giving it a small squeeze as though to remind her that they were in this together.

“They were okay” Maddison shrugged as John chuckled, slinging his arm around her should as Maddison's shoulder as his left hand still toyed with her left hand, his fingers running over her knuckles as he rolled her eyes.

“She’s definitely straight to the point, holds no punches. Mads is now our biggest critic" John joked as Maddison blushed realising she didn't sound supportive to John, not playing a great fake girlfriend, she needed to step up her game.

“Well, I would love to hear you guys" Eddison decided, turning to his side to grab his tablet, pressing a few buttons before handing it to John “Play us one of your songs Johnny" he asked, as John shrugged, tthis hand unwinding from Maddison’s to tap away on the tablet before he passed it back across, music beginning to slowly fill the room .

”Here's to now and to nothing else, in a crowd all by yourself. To the lows and every highs, the hellos and the goodbyes. In this moment, I could die with you. Never felt like this before: dizzy, drunk, and beautiful. In this moment, I let go with you.”

As the music played around the room, Maddison had to admit that she enjoyed it. The beat was catchy and John’s voice ran through her ears like caramel, it was definitely someone she would listen to on a normal basis, though she wouldn’t admit that at this moment in time.

John fidgeted next to her, his fingers toying with her own a though he was trying to pay attention to anything but the song that was playing out loud. Maddison looked down at their interlocked hands, his left hand toying with her own and wished there was some way she could comfort him.

“Johnny, I like it” Eddison smiled, nodding his head to the beat as John let out a small half smile , turning to look at the older man “What’s it called?”

“Dont Come Down" John responded, giving Maddison’s hand a squeeze, “It’s the first song off our latest album” he added, as Eddison nodded, grabbing a pen and paper scribbling down the boys words.

“If you’ve been together over ten years I bet you are doing well” Eddison added as John blushed, shrugging again, chomping away at a gingerbread man.

“We are doing okay, our fans are incredible so we try to do as much for them as possible. We’ve just done our last European tour for the new album and will be prepping for our Australian tour that’s due to take place in the next couple of months. I'm not going to lie, it has given me some great opportunities” John explained, he had been in this situation numerous times and usually the parent of the girl he was dating, or fake dating, were never usually happy to hear that he didn’t have a stable job.