No one made a sound. No one took a sip of their glass. No one made a single movement. And there definitely weren’t anyone daring to even blink or take their eyes off the two people still embracing each other as tightly as possible.


I really have no idea for how long we sat and stared at the two of them like that. I honestly don’t know. But at some point Eleanor pulled away from the hug and looked Louis straight in to his eyes. It was the most beautiful sight. She mumbled something to him that very much looked like “I love you”, and kissed his still slightly trembling lower lip.


It took a little while for the atmosphere to change back to normal. It felt like we’d all been in some kind of bubble for those much too short minutes that Louis’ speech lasted. And now we apparently had to get back to the reality and be present in this room where we were celebrating two people, who were at this point nothing but a mess.

The first real sounds that were made were the slow and hesitating applauding that spread out. Everybody slowly began to stand up from their chairs and clap their hands together faster and faster. Louis and Eleanor both began smiling slightly through their tears as they looked upon each other, forehead against forehead.
At some point, when the applause was at its highest, the pulled away from each other and turned towards the rest of us with wide smiles as they desperately tried to wipe their cheeks dry. The change of the mood in the room both felt relieving and a bit weird. The atmosphere had been so delicate, so incredibly special, and the fact that it was all caused by Louis’ speech, made it all even a hundred times more special.
But we all knew that we eventually would have to let go of this atmosphere. The atmosphere would become a memory. Louis’ speech would become a memory. I don’t know if any of us were ready for that, but as the chatting started spreading out again when people had sat back down on their chairs.

“Oh God,” I sighed while trying to wipe my eyes and not smear the heavy amount of makeup out all over the place.

“That was so beautiful,” Em nodded. “Did any of you know about this?” she then asked looking around at the boys.

“No, not at all,” Liam shook his head. “I mean, he did tell us that he had trouble writing the speech, but I had no idea that it would turn out so… real.”

He and all the others looked so cute at this point, their cheeks had red stains on them and their eyelashes were still a tiny bit wet from having cried a little bit. I loved how they’d felt every word that their best friend had said, as much as he’d felt it himself. Those guys really loved each other.

“Here, let me help you,” Niall offered to me when I let out a frustrated groan at the trouble I had correcting my eye makeup. He turned my face towards him and ran his thumb over the spots where I had gotten a black stain. I looked at him, he looked so cute and concentrated it made it difficult for me to stop smiling.

“Why are you smiling?” he asked now smiling as well.

“You’re cute,” I foolishly told him and he laughed. “Thanks,” I added when he’d finished touching up my face.

“I need a cigarette,” Aida then suddenly said.

“I’ll join you!” I immediately agreed and the two of us went outside with our boyfriend’s jackets.


“God, I’ve never seen or heard him like that,” she said once we’d gotten outside and had pulled out our packets of Marlboro Lights from our black purses.

“Me neither,” I said before lidding up the one in my mouth. “I’ve never actually heard any speech that was as good as that one.”

“It was sick. He’s a prick,” Aida joked making me laugh.

“Who’s a prick?” Harry asked from the door.

“Louis,” I answered with no hesitation making him laugh as well.

“Oh him. Yeah, he’s an asshole,” he agreed which only made us keep on the laughs. It felt good to use your face muscles this way and not by crying like big babies.


The feel of a buzz from my phone in the purse in my hand snapped me out of the laugh and I instead pulled it out to see that it was an unknown number calling me.

“Hello?” I said in to the phone and Aida’s and Harry’s conversation quieted down so that I could hear what the man in the other end was saying.

“Is this Maja Lings?” he asked.

“Yes, it is. What is it about?” I asked.

“Hello, this is Isaac O’Brian from L’Autre Pied. I’m calling you about the job as our house pianist here at the restaurant. You applied for the job a few weeks ago, am I right?”

“Yes,” I said feeling the speed of my pulse race a bit faster. “That’s correct.”

“We’ve agreed to hire you, the first month on trial and then we can discuss permanent employment for the spring season.

“Really?” I exclaimed shrilly making my two friends turn their heads towards me in surprise.

“Yes. At first you will have to work three days a week, Monday to Wednesday, in the lunch hours from eleven to four o’clock. The employment will begin from the January 1st. The salary will be 250 pounds a week to begin with, but it will be raised to 400, if we hire you permanently…”

“Wow, seriously?!” I yelled before thinking that the poor man might have more to say.

“Yes,” he said as if he hadn’t heard me screaming in to the phone the second before. “We want the style to be jazz standards or jazz arrangements of other songs. Your program of songs must be different each week and we expect reasonably fault free playing. We’d rather have you playing very simple arrangements, instead of disturbing mistakes all afternoon.”

“Oh. O-okay,” I stuttered. Wow, he sounded like a tough boss.

“Good, is it a deal then?”

“Uhm. Yes.”

“So I’ll see you on Monday the 5th of January at 11 o’clock at L’Autre Pied?”

“Yes.” I ended the call and immediately got bombarded with questions from both Aida and Harry who’d been listening to the conversation, not exactly knowing what it was all about.

“Who was that?” Harry asked.

“Uhm… It was a man called Isaac O’Brian…” I began but he suddenly cut me off.

“Isaac O’Brian? The owner of L’Autre Pied?” he asked excitedly.

“Yes?” I answered frowning slightly at his reaction. “Do you know him?”

“Yeah, I come there often, the food is insanely good,” he nodded. “The question is, why you know him?”

“Well, he just gave me the job as their house pianist, three days a week,” I said suddenly feeling proud at how fancy my new job sounded, even though I still felt quite anxious and terrified at the thought of it.

“Wow, seriously?!” Aida squealed and I nodded smiling. “Will you get paid a lot?”

“Yes, 250 pounds a week to begin with and if they hire me permanently, I will get 400 pounds a week,” I said.

“Oh my God, gurl, that is so amazing!” she said pulling me violently in for a hug, breaking my nose halfway by pressing my face against her chest.

“Which days a week and what times?” Harry asked.

“Monday to Wednesday from eleven to four o’clock,” I answered when I’d gotten a chance to catch my breath after Aida’s suffocating embrace. “They already have a pianist for the rest of the evening hours.”

“Yeah, I know him, it’s Ray, who’s playing tonight. I was the one who hired him for this wedding,” he told me and the knot that had been threatening to form in my stomach was now full-on growing like a monster.

“What? I-is he playing at L’Autre Pied?” I asked with wide eyes.

“L’Autre Pied…” Aida mumbled correcting my poor French pronunciation. She had had French in school and knew how to say those fucked up words.

“Yes, he has the evening hours, that’s where I know him from,” Harry answered casually.

“Oh God…” I sighed. I felt like I wanted to cry.

“What is wrong with that?” Harry asked, obviously confused, but I could tell by the expression on Aida’s face that she knew exactly what my concern was about.

“What do you mean, what is wrong, he’s an insane jazz pianist!” I exclaimed as I began take deeper and deeper heaves off my already burned out cigarette. “Fuck…” I mumbled as I pulled out a new one.

“Oh, relax, you’re a great piano player as well,” Harry tried to cheer me up.

“Fuck no, I’m not. Not compared to him.”

“Well, they’ve heard you play, haven’t they?”

“Yes, but still… I don’t know what they were thinking…” This was a big fucking mistake.

“Then they must’ve hired you for a reason,” Aida suddenly agreed and I looked over at her.
“Stop being insecure, I know – and somewhere deep inside you know that as well – that you are a great piano player. Take it as the compliment that it surely is, instead of seeing it as an opportunity to test your talent or something. So snap it off.”

Damn. Sorry, girl, I thought to myself, but I didn’t say anything. Cause she was so right. My insecurity was always just a waste of time and it didn’t help one bit on my already fucking fragile mind.

“Okay,” I just resigned making all of us laugh.

“Good. Now, let’s go inside and rape Ray, when he’s finished after the dessert, maybe we can get a few advises out of him,” she said making her boyfriend look rather terrified by the choice of her words. I on the other hand just kept laughing.

“Sounds like a plan,” I giggled.


When we got back inside, it was just about time for the dessert to be served, so we quickly sat down to eat the insanely delicious orange soufflé with dark chocolate mousse. It seemed as though people had almost recovered from the huge amount of feelings that had been going through and wrecking every single of our worn-out souls, so now people had started laughing again, the noise in the room had enhanced and the piano player had gone back to playing some cheerful classic jazz standards, such as Autumn Leaves and So What.

My own mood had been brightened up by the thought of some sort of economic security from a somewhat permanent job for at least the next couple of weeks, it really had been a huge worry for all of us girls, right since the day we’d all chosen to quit our normal full time jobs.
Aida didn’t waste a second telling everybody at the table about my new fancy, but probably really hard, job as soon as we’d got back inside.

“Really?” Em exclaimed when she heard it and I nodded. “That’s so great!”

“Congratulations!” Lou said and gave me a hug as well.

“Thank you,” I blushed from all of their compliments, hugs and kisses – from Niall, but also Em who always did that whenever she would get overly excited on other people’s behalf. Aida also used to do that, but I supposed that she wasn’t interested in messing up her perfect dark purple lipstick, or leaving stains on my cheeks that would look like bruises or something.


As she’d decided for me earlier, she and I walked straight up to Ray just as we’d been commanded in to another room to have coffee and drinks, as the band would set up their instruments and the round tables would be moved out of the way.
With a firm hold at my arm Aida almost had to pull me up to the big black piano where Ray was packing all his sheets together in a big folder.

“Hello!” she said cheerfully sounding really confident. “I’m Aida.” She reached out her hand for him to shake and so he did replying:

“I’m Ray.”

I could instantly tell by the look on his face that he was infatuated by her flawless and fierce appearance, even though he must’ve been at least in his late thirties.

“This is my friend, Maja,” she immediately said introducing me and I shook his hand as well.

“You were great tonight,” I said to him, not knowing what else to say.

“Oh thanks, it was nothing really. Just a few basic jazz standards and people seem to love it straight away,” he said humbly while continuing his organizing of all the papers.

I glanced over at Aida to seek some comfort, I didn’t exactly know how to lead the conversation towards my new job. She just nodded vigorously with her head in his direction, signaling for me to get my act together.

“Yeah, that’s what I wanted to ask you about…” I began after having decided just to jump straight in to it. He looked up from his moving hands and in to my eyes. “You’re playing at L’Autre Pied, right?”

“Yeah, how did you know? I don’t think I’ve seen you there?” he asked.

“No. Harry Styles told me,” I explained.

“Oh Harry! He’s great, I’m so glad he got me this job. Yeah, you’re friends of his, right?”

“Yes, but… I kind of wanted to talk to you about your restaurant job as house pianist,” I struggled to find the right words.

“Yes?” he asked curiously.

“You see…” I began shyly.

“She just got the job as pianist during the lunch hours,” Aida cut me off and I quickly sent her the death glare.

“Oh really? Congratulations!” he smiled at me.

“Thanks,” I smiled back. “But it’s because… I’m not that used to be playing all jazz, or for that many hours to be honest. And I’m kind of terrified.”

“Oh, so you wanted to hear if I could help you out in any way,” he immediately nodded.

“Well, more like if you had any advice or any tunes or something that you think would be good to use. Even though I’m not nearly as good as you though…”

“Aw, rubbish! I’m sure you’re great. Yeah, I have this book that I use,” he said pulling out a copy of The Real Book.

“Oh, I know that one!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, that really helps me a lot. I just play it from start to finish and then start over and pick a few of the easiest ones out,” he revealed. “You can have it.”

“Have your book?” I asked with big eyes. “Oh no, you don’t have to do that, I can just get my own.”

“No, my wife has a version of her own at home and I practically know all of the good ones. You can look at the ones that I’ve marked, they’re the ones that I always use at work.”

“Really? That’s so nice of you!” I exclaimed as I looked through the book that he’d just placed in my hands. “Does your wife play as well?”

“Yeah, she plays the contra bass.”

“That’s so cool!” Aida joined in.

“Yes, she’s really cool,” he repeated Aida’s words with a kind smile. “You can just play each tune, like ten times in a row and then make slight alterations, people won’t even notice it that much. I know Isaac can seem a bit intimidating at first about the disturbing noise of making a mistake, but don’t worry about that.”

“No?” I asked.

“No, I’ve played there for a few years during the spring season and God knows, I’ve had some bad days at that piano.”

“Really? So I don’t have to worry as much as I do?”

“You don’t have to worry at all. Just give it your best, I’m sure that that’s more than enough, since that old prude chose to hire you.”

I couldn’t help but crack up heavily at his joke, I think some of the laughter came from relief.

“Thank you so much, Ray,” I said to him and shook his hand again, followed by Aida.

“No problem. I’ll see you soon then?” he said and I nodded before saying goodbye and walking away with the worn-out version of The Real Book in my hands.

Aida sent me a knowing smile, like she always did whenever she would be right about something. Which was pretty much all the fucking time.


The other room was pretty much like an old style bar or something, with dark wooden furniture and some low rocky sounding music playing in the background. If it hadn’t been for all the nice looking people and fancy dresses and jewelry, I would’ve thought this was a place for the local drunks, only cleaner and a bit brighter.

“Girls, come have a drink!” Louis shouted from the bar and we immediately walked over to him and the rest of our group, who were already sipping off giant beer mugs and colorful drinks.
“What do you want?” he asked us charmingly waving his hand at the menu sign he was holding.

“Uh…” we said at the same time while reading the lines that were written with white on the black background of the card.

“I’ll just have a beer,” I answered.

“Scotch on the rocks,” Aida said and I stared at her.

“You drink that shit? Even after last time?” I asked her frowning slightly at the thought of how she’d been vomiting several times home in our apartment, when we’d attempted to empty a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

“A bit,” she admitted. “This is a good one.” She pointed at the card on the name of the scotch that I didn’t know.

“Okay,” I said not very convinced by her knowledge in different types of alcohol. “Can I have a sip?” I asked when she’d gotten the big wide glass handed from Louis a few seconds later.
“Sure,” she said and I took a sip.

It wasn’t as bad as I remember, but it still just burned all the way down my fucking throat, it was still disgusting in my opinion.

“Please remove that frown, I look fucking fabulous with this,” she hissed at me and I almost choked from laughter at her honesty.

“Sure,” I said to her before walking over to Niall who was trying to explain to Em the rules in rugby, I think, before he exclaimed to me:

“Hey, a beer drinker! That’s my girl, cheers!” and slammed his mug against mine.

“Cheers,” I smiled to both of them.


From that first cheers, it seemed as though they kept coming over and over again. Everybody drank drink upon drink, beer upon beer, shot upon shot, this was when the party really was getting started. Louis and Eleanor had gradually begun to put away their very polite and adult appearance and show their real childish and irresponsible personalities. Louis’ jokes were becoming more and more insidious, Eleanor’s smile was becoming wider and wider and it seemed like there wasn’t a time where the sound of her beautiful sincere laugh wasn’t finding its way to my ear. The kisses that Louis gave her became more and more frequent, despite the fact that the entire evening had been about nothing but the two of them, I guess they still hadn’t gotten enough of each other yet.

Aida was downing her third glass of scotch and in the middle of a deep conversation with Tom about Nirvana and Kurt Cubain, when the wedding arranger told us all that the band was ready for some dancers in the other room where the band had just begun playing what sounded like September by Earth, Wind and Fire.

“Hell yeah!” I shouted and went inside, walking towards the music that became louder and louder as I came closer to the big open door. Inside they’d moved all the tables away, there were only chairs left at the wall, where you could rest your feet if necessary.
I laughed when I saw that Eleanor’s parents were already out on the dance floor in front of the small stage, where the band was playing.

“That band is quite sick,” I heard Harry’s voice from next to me. Through my halfway drunken state, I hadn’t noticed anyone following me in here, so I got a bit frightened at the sudden sound of his voice.

“Really,” I agreed as I watched how the bass player did some slap bass that just sounded incredibly cool and funky, along with the fast pitching guitar, the chords from the piano and the funky rhythms from the drums.

“Come on, let’s dance!” a drunk Harry said and pulled me out towards Niall and Em who were both already doing some crazy moves next to Eleanor’s parents. We joined them and quickly ended up doing the exact same, I don’t think my apps ever got a chance to relax one bit from the heavy laughter that just overtook my entire being over and over again. That Liam – who joined the four of us a minute later – turned out to be the funniest dancer of them all, didn’t help me much.


During the next couple of funky songs from the 80’s, the rest of our group couldn’t help but add to the craziness happening out there. Louis had managed to pull Aida out of her drunken Nirvana-state and get her in to this room where she and Em were now giving everybody a taste of their sick ass swirling dance moves. Something that those two were the only ones that knew how to do.
To everybody’s surprise, also Tom and Lou now appeared dancing with the rest of our big circle. I guess my suspicious thoughts about Lou being really drunk, were true then. The way she waved her silver colored long hair from side to side told me that she’d been having more than just one drink.

It didn’t take me long to kick off my high heeled black sandals and dance around the room barefoot, it was just much easier that way. The room was dark, apart from the colorful disco lights swirling around me and the others. When I reluctantly left the dance floor a while later, it was only because I was about to sweat all of my makeup off, so I went outside after Niall to get a cigarette.

He handed me one and turned the flame from his lighter towards me so that I could light it up. As he stood there in his white button up shirt, a black butterfly and with a couple of snowflakes falling lazily in his perfectly messy hair while exhaling the smoke from the cigarette, he looked more handsome than ever.

“God, you look hot,” I heard myself sigh at his frame before I got a chance to stop myself. I instantly covered my mouth with my hand and giggled at my own foolishness with closed eyes, in order not to get too humiliated by the grin that he probably had on his face right now. “Sorry,” I laughed innocently. Man, I was drunk.

“Don’t be,” he voice said, suddenly only inches away from me, I could feel his breath on my nose. And when I opened my eyes he was standing right in front of me.

I watched him as he took a deep heave of his cigarette as he leaned in towards me even closer. The second his mouth met my slightly parted lips he exhaled the smoke in to my mouth, which I instinctively inhaled quickly, because of the deep breath that I had to take every time he kissed me.

Fuck, he could even make cigarette smoke taste and feel a thousand times better.

Notes