Free For the Love of Music (Sixty Minute Romance) by Naomi Davies

waking
up in the night thinking that I’m back in a hut in Afghanistan with my leg
blown away."
    Anne dropped her head
wishing she hadn’t asked.
    “Don’t worry about it. It
meant that I could finish this CD for you. It’s a bit personal so I hope you
can cope with it.”
    Anne took a deep breath.
The highs and lows of Ed’s life were hard for her to take in her stride.
    “You write your own music?
You never told me that you could do that!” This was something of a revelation
to Anne. She had never been able to write her own music. She had to have it in
front of her and then she could play. Writing songs and music was on another
level completely.
    “Well I haven’t written
any since… well let’s just say I haven’t written any for a few years. I hope
you like it. I wrote it all for you.” Ed was beginning to wonder if it was a
bit too soon for this but Anne was all over the CD and went straight to her stereo
to  put it on. The first piece was an instrumental based on a simple bass and
guitar loop. The second track was an upbeat number with a full band sound.
    “How do you make these
tracks?” Asked Anne.
    “I do it on my computer
with special music software. It has been my main occupation for the last month.
 Anyway, you can listen to the rest later. Shall we go out?”
    “I think listening to your
music is about the best thing I would want to do today. Why don’t’ we finish
the CD and then go out?” Anne loved the music.
    Ed was getting a little
agitated and red faced.
    “There’s a song on there I
should have left off. I’ll get you another copy without it on and drop it in to
you.” Ed pushed the eject button and snapped the CD in half without any further
discussion.
    “Ed!” Anne was exasperated
with him.
    “I was enjoying that. And
you can write songs with words as well? Does that mean that you can sing?” Anne
was very impressed with this new information about Ed. But she was not happy to
see the CD broken into two pieces.
    “I always used to write my
own stuff. Meeting you has got me back into it. It’s a bit personal but that is
the effect you have on me.”
    “Well thank you, I guess.
But I’ll have the full copy of that CD please, without any edits, thank you
very much. I will know if you have missed a song off. How many songs are there
on the CD? “
    “There was only one song.
All the rest is instrumental.” Ed was beaten.
    “I look forward to hearing
it.” Anne was experiencing Ed’s mood swings first hand. She decided to try and
tolerate them today.
    “Where do you want to go for
the day Anne?”
    “Where did you have in
mind? I don’t mind what we do, but no food. I’m still stuffed from our meal
yesterday.
    “I have theatre tickets
for an amateur dramatic society performance in Datchet this evening. My sister
is in it.” Said a well prepared Ed.
    “That sounds like fun, do
we need to dress up?”
    “I never dress up, other
than last night and you look great already. So we have about three hours to
visit the Queen at Windsor. If she is out we’ll go on the river and ride up and
down the Thames for a while.”
    “Sounds good to me.” Anne
picked up her bag and they went out to Ed’s car. The day was great fun for both
of them. They went on a river steam boat cruise, that took them up the Thames
to a lock and back again.
    “I really like spending
time with you Anne. I was near despair before you turned up on stage with your
band. You have made me enjoy my music as I used to and you haven’t rejected me
as a person.”
    “Ed. I’m not as good as
you say I am. I rejected you completely at first. If I could have thought of a
way to avoid you I would have. But you are so pushy and we spent such good
times together playing music, that I ended up liking you.”
    “Oh Wow, you still like me!
That’s good.” Ed gave her a small hug and Anne nearly fell over with surprise.
She hugged him back and nearly knocked him over in return.
    “You know that I more