‘I followed my love of fitness and became a personal trainer. My tech skills also meant I had learnt enough to help Mandy with the social media side of things. She wanted someone she could trust with her accounts.’
‘What about DJing?’
‘I’ve always loved music, so I thought I’d give it a try. Jose opened a few doors for me in the top clubs and it wasn’t too hard to get gigs, especially if you’re happy to take the warm-up shift. Mandy had me play at her launch events which really helped too; and then I ended up doing some support for Jose on their business projects as well. He’s been a good brother to me.’ He paused. ‘What music are you into? Put something on.’
I thought for a moment, not about what my favourite music actually was (anything by Taylor Swift), but what was the coolest thing to say right now.
‘I’ll put something on. Do you like British radio?’ I asked.
He shook his head.
Then an excruciating moment happened when I commanded, ‘Alexa, play Six Music.’
And Alexa said, ‘Now playing music to have sex to.’
I sprung out of my seat, towards the speaker, shouting urgently, ‘Alexa, stop! I said, play Six Music!’
Jimi burst into hysterical laughter as Alexa simply repeated, ‘Playing sex music.’
And I had to scream, ‘Alexa! Stop!’
I knew Alexa could play BBC Radio 6 Music, because she’d been doing it perfectly fine yesterday while I was working.
By now, tears were streaming down Jimi’s cheeks. ‘You’re so forward!’ he teased.
I died on my feet with embarrassment.
‘Alexa, stop! Please play “Everywhere”by Fleetwood—’ I kept getting the giggles and couldn’t finish the requestproperly and then got annoyed with Alexa again, as she said, ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t find “Everywhere”’ – all the while feeling horribly self-conscious about how my voice sounded as I veered between idiot and shouty person.
Finally, the intro to ‘Everywhere’ began and I breathed a sigh of relief, but it had missed the moment. I turned and realised Jimi was still laughing.
‘You should have left it on sex music,’ he spluttered. ‘I wanted to know what she was going to play!’
‘I told you I would never get a job in tech,’ I said. ‘Even Alexa hates me.’
Jimi stopped laughing now, stood up, and crossed the room to take one of my hands in both of his. But instead of making me feel embarrassed, it was a sweet, genuine gesture.
‘Oh Amber, how could anyone hate you?’ he asked. I felt an electric current run through me. ‘Come and sit back down. Tell me about your boyfriend. How did you meet?’
‘How do you know I have a boyfriend?’
‘I overheard you talking to Coco earlier.’
‘Really?’
‘I wasn’t spying on you, don’t worry. I just heard you mention it, that’s all. Is he a secret?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Well then – how did you meet?’
‘We met through work, when he was a producer of a documentary being made about this crazy stylist I was assisting for a while. We worked together for a bit, and then we got together. We lived in New York for three months, and now we’re back home.’
‘Is everything okay?’ He looked at me quizzically.
‘What else did you accidentally overhear?’
‘Nothing. Why?’