Chapter Eight - Blue Monday
The wedding had gone off without so much as a slight hitch, so much so that Kevin had to wonder if there were magical forces at work during the event, but while he'd never considered himself a superstitious man, he was smart enough not to say anything out loud.
The ceremony had been exquisite and refined and tasteful, and most importantly, Fatima's self-proclaimed footballer hooligan father hadn't gotten so drunk so early that he'd gone off the rails before most of his television show's filming had been done. They'd gotten plenty of footage, stuff with him having a talk with Fatima in her wedding dress, her walking down the aisle, celebrating with her bridesmaids, smashing cake into Kevin's face, and her first father/daughter dance as a married woman. But never once did anyone let Kevin forget that it was just as much an entertainment production as it was his actual wedding.
He even had to say 'I do' twice because someone had sneezed when he'd said it the first time and the boom mic had still picked it up on background.
Hollywood.
The reception had continued far on into the evening, and that was when Fatima's father's drunken nature had started to rear its ugly head, with the sort of loud buffoonery that made for excellent television but not so great wedding memories, and that had been their cue to duck out, so Fatima had led Kevin and the rest of the family out the back door and down to the limo that let them make their escape to the plane that was waiting to take them down to the Bahamas for the honeymoon.
There had been some rattled apologies from Fatima's father over the next few days, but mostly they'd all just gone to voice mail, as Kevin, Fatima and the whole rest of the family had been enjoying the sun and sand. Kevin had never been to the Bahamas before, and found the insanely vibrant colors of it almost psychedelic in nature. He'd been told he couldn't bring
any
musical instruments with him, but Fatima had relented and allowed him to bring an iPad with GarageBand installed on it, so he could jot down ideas and musical thoughts given the opportunity, although she'd also limited his screen time to an hour a day, making sure he wasn't going to spend the entire honeymoon buried in writing songs, which he had to admit would've likely happened without the guidance.
Instead, they'd had a lovely honeymoon, Kevin had written an entire album, Strazo had molted a layer of skin and all the girls had gotten a lovely tan. One particular surprise, however, was that Ashley had spent quite a bit of time on Zoom chats or FaceTime calls, spending a decent amount of time ensuring that when they came back to the states, there would be a replacement for her waiting. Ashley spent as much time as she could, however, having those conversations and doing that research out of the prying eyes of either Kevin or Fatima, who were enjoying the honeymoon too much to focus on what was going on.
Most impressively, neither Merlin nor Morgana had made a peep during the wedding or during the honeymoon. Oh, both of them had been
present
at the wedding - Merlin in a grand crimson suit and Morgana accompanying him in a deep scarlet dress - but neither had chosen to say anything at the reception, despite Kevin calling them out during his thank you speech (though not explicitly by
name
, as he figured there was no reason to make things more awkward than they already were). Kevin
had
been more than a little surprised to see the two of them
together
, like
together
together, acting like a traditional couple, holding hands, trading kisses in moments when they thought nobody was watching them, like a pair of teenagers out on a date with adults for the first time. Kevin had asked the wedding photographer to make sure and try and get some pictures of them, but word had come back that only one of the various pictures of "the couple in red" had apparently been a good one, but that it would be sent to Kevin and Fatima, as per their request.
Kevin hadn't seen any sign of either of them in the Bahamas their entire time there, either, much as he kept an eye out for them. He'd half expected to find Merlin dressed in cargo shorts and a giant loose-fitting shirt sipping something tropical on one of the beaches somewhere, but alas, the magus was nowhere to be found.
During the honeymoon, it seemed like Midas Day (or whatever was to become of the event now that it was being replaced?) was also placed on hold, with a day where it should have happened coming and going and so Kevin's wondering of what the follow up to Midas Day was going to be continued on, unfulfilled and like a pregnant pause in the rhythm of his life. But after the first hour or two of Kevin jumping at shadows and Miriam reassuring him that nothing was happening, Kevin had gotten back to enjoying tropical drinks and swimming in water too blue for the human eye to accept. He'd even brought the Ancestor's Gaze, the necklace given to him by the merfolk lord, as a sort of back up insurance, but it had turned out that he hadn't needed it.
Most of the time, Kevin and Fatima had kept it just the two of them in the main suite, with the other girls staying in a nearby suite, but it seemed like most nights they would rotate one of the other girls into the room with them, to help spice up the play.
But all things must end, and ten days later, they were wrapping up, getting packed and heading back towards the airport when it occurred to Kevin that Morgana's imposed deadline on Ashley was quickly approaching. He didn't want to interfere with the girl's process, but her window was closing. Still, best to let the girl stand or fall on her own two feet. The last time she'd mentioned something about it to him was the middle of the honeymoon, and that she was close to narrowing down her selection into something that would 'blow his mind.'
By the time they were working their way back through customs, however, Kevin had basically forgotten all about Ashley's boast, and his mind was instead starting to work on all the various song sketches he'd compiled during the trip and he had in mind a new project, one he was going to need to recruit a female vocalist for.
It was going to be a strange blend of tropical and psychedelic, with heavy shoegaze guitars layered over almost soothing rhythms, maybe played on steel drums. The Cocteau Twins meets Jimmy Buffet with maybe some Paramore meets Slowdive mixed into the whole wash. He'd need someone who could both control the tsunami of sound but also ride it like a surfer on a wave.
It would also be a chance to incorporate loads of types of instrumentation he'd never needed before. He was entirely certain that Kerry had never touched a set of steel drums in her life. While he was certain she could pick it up given enough time, there wouldn't be any hard feelings if he went and found someone who specifically had spent a lot of time learning the steel drums and hadn't been in much demand in Hollywood as of late.
He also wasn't sure there was an audience for that kind of project, but that was a problem for somebody else. Sometimes a person just needed to put a creative project into the world to see if there was an audience for it. Maybe the idea of shoegaze guitars and breezy Caribbean melodies was just something the world didn't know it was waiting for.
The drive back to the house was mostly pretty quiet, with everyone starting to acclimate back into their own lives again, lots of people attached to their cellphones, as he fully expected them to be. Natalie was scheduling deliveries to start back up, with food scheduled for just an hour or two away. She was also scheduled the classes she was teaching to start back up. Leah was informing her support staff she'd be checking into the office again tomorrow. Miriam had reminded the rest of Fatima's security team that they were back and that standard rotations were going to start up again. And Elizabeth was talking to people about what his schedule looked like for the next few weeks, now that he was back from his honeymoon.
Emily Rouchard's picture was 'in the can' as the expression went, and now it was just the strange, long waiting time before anyone outside of a handful of industry people got a chance to hear the score he'd done for the flick. He'd done his first pass for Robert Rodriguez's movie, but that meant he'd come back and add more beds, new scenes, new themes and adjust what was there based on both Robert and the studio's notes. Hopefully the studio didn't decide to blow a gasket, but Rodriguez was known to stick pretty close to his own vision, so with any luck, the revisions wouldn't be too excessive.
The cars pulled into the driveway, and as soon as the vehicles were parked, everyone was bailing out of them like they couldn't wait to get back in the house, leaving Kevin to unpack all the suitcases from the car until Jackson come out from the front the house, laughing himself silly. "They really didn't grab their own shit?
None
of them? Not even Miriam?"
