Then I scroll down and start reading aloud.
Hi Laura,
My name’s Tara Kelleher and I’m writing to you on behalf of Tadhg Hennessy.We’d like to talk with you about a piece of music entitled ‘our song’, an unfinished composition you wrote together in the early ’00s.We would like to meet with you to discuss how to proceed.
Tadhg is currently in Dublin, and ideally we would set up a meeting and resolve this as soon as possible.If this is amenable to you, please contact me at this email address or at the number below.
I hope to hear from you soon.
‘And that’s it.’I put down my phone and take a swig of wine.‘It’s not even from him.Not directly.’I can’t bring myself to admit how hurt that makes me feel.
‘Tadhg probably hasn’t written his own emails since 2010!’says Katie.‘I don’t think this is the most important issue here.’
‘The important issue,’ says Jeanne, ‘is that Tadhg Hennessy is interested in a song you co-wrote.’
‘It’s not that big a deal,’ I say.
They look at me with identically sceptical expressions on their faces.
‘I mean, I doknowhim!’I say.‘Or I did.It’s not like getting praise from Beyoncé.’
‘So what are you going to do?’says Katie.
‘She’s going to meet him,’ says Jeanne.‘Aren’t you?’
‘I don’t know,’ I say.‘I mean, he can’t even mail me himself.’
‘What do you mean, you don’t know?’Jeanne looks appalled.‘I mean, obviously I never met him, but from what you and Katie have told me he wasn’t a total monster.’
‘He wasn’t,’ I say.‘It’s just … me and him.It endedreallybadly.We stopped speaking and that was it.’
I didn’t see his face again until someone in work sent me the ‘Winter Without You’ video.The story of Tadhg Hennessy’s meteoric rise is famous by now.‘Winter Without You’ was his first single, released on his own no-budget indie label back in 2004.It got a smattering of plays on Phantom FM, but when YouTube took off a few years later, an artist friend of his made a video for it and that video went viral.A colleague at theagency where I was working at the time sent the link to our entire team with the subject line ‘Best thing I’ve heard all year’.I remember how I felt after I clicked on the link and realised who I was looking at.I remember making myself sit through the entire thing and reading the ecstatic comments beneath it.I remember realising that Tadhg was now achieving what we’d once dreamed about doing together.My stomach churns at the memory, and it’s not just the alcohol and toasties.
‘But Lol,’ says Katie gently, ‘that was alongtime ago.’
I look at her.She was there for all of it.It’s easy to forget that now, because I made the big break with Tadhg all about me, but he and Katie had been proper friends.In that last year of college we’d been a little gang, the band and Katie.
‘What are you saying?’I say.
‘I’m saying – and remember I’m not totally sober – that this could be a good thing,’ says Katie.‘Especially right now.’
‘Really?’I roll my eyes.“‘Hi Tadhg, I see you’re a megastar now.How am I doing?Oh, I just got laid off from my copywriting job.’”
‘Everyone’s been laid off at some stage,’ says Katie.‘It’s nothing to be ashamed of.And what I meant was, well, maybe this is fate.’
‘Fate,’ I say flatly.
‘You lose your job and then, shazam, Tadhg asks you if you want to meet up and talk about a song you wrote together!’says Katie.‘How is that not a present from the universe?’
‘First of all, we didn’t write that song together, whatever he’sclaiming now,’ I say.‘Iwrote it.He just sang it.And second of all, you’re assuming I want to hang out with him.’
‘Well, don’t you?’says Jeanne.
Of course I do, even though I know he might not be the Tadhg I remember anymore.I don’t say so, though.I take another gulp of wine instead.
‘He must think the song is good, Lol,’ says Katie.
‘He probably just wants to make sure I didn’t, like, record it on a Dictaphone or something back in 2003.’I feel a surge of righteous anger.‘God, I bet that’s it.He wants to steal my song and he’s making sure I can’t sue him when he releases it on his next album.And I didn’t record it so he’d win.He was the one who recorded our band practices, with his stupid minidisc recorder.’
