Chapter Eleven: Is it because he’s a Leo?

Doing the job that I do and having friends who travel a lot, I’ve been to a lot of places – some nice, some shitholes, some interesting places, but this town… This town is weird. I can’t make my mind up if it’s weird and wonderful, or just plain weird. I’m wondering this as we walk through the door of Groovy Baby, and as I catch my elbow on a sculpture of a giant baby smoking a joint, I realise it’s just plain weird.

‘Can I help you?’ asks a lady who looks and dresses exactly like Eddie from Absolutely Fabulous.

‘Yes, how much for the baby?’ Troy asks.

I shoot him a look which hopefully tells him that while I did find that funny, we’re sort of pushed for time.

‘Actually, I’m just looking for a friend. He came here to buy…’ I pause for a moment because it just sounds so dodgy, ‘…pleasure beads.’

‘Dylan!’ she shrieks. ‘What a soul!’

‘Oh, yes. Troy, aren’t I always saying that about our Dylan?’

‘Yeah,’ he chuckles, ‘it sounds a bit like that.’

I subtly give him that evil glare again before turning back to the Eddie lookalike.

‘Anyway, do you know where he went?’

‘Yes, but it’s not my place to say.’

‘It really is,’ Troy interrupts. ‘You’re the only person who knows where he has gone.’

‘I don’t want to cause him any trouble,’ she insists, biting her lip.

‘You won’t be, we’re his friends,’ Troy assures her in that soothing voice of his that has been making me melt for the past few hours.

‘He met Lola and seemed quite taken,’ she says uncomfortably. ‘They’re staying at the same hotel so they went back there.’

I don’t know why she found it so hard to tell me that, if only she knew I’d been chasing him from woman to woman all night long.

A customer walks up to the till with a pair of feather earrings, so the Eddie lookalike goes to serve her. We hang around for a few seconds to say thank you.

‘Bloody hell,’ I whisper to Troy. ‘The easiest way to find Dylan would have been to book a room and wait, he’s shagging his way through the hotel.’

Troy laughs and kisses me on the cheek.

‘Oh, are you not Dylan’s girlfriend?’ the shopkeeper asks me after she is finished with her customer.

‘Nope, I’m not.’ So that’s why she didn’t want to tell me that he’d gone off with this Lola chick.

‘Is it because he’s a Leo?’

‘No.’ I smile. ‘It’s because he’s an arsehole. Thank you for all your help.’

We leave the shop quickly, and I’m careful not to knock the giant baby like I did on my way in.

‘You know how some people have a little black book?’ Troy asks me as we wait for a taxi.

‘Mr Reeves,’ I say, faking shock. ‘Do you have a little black book?’

‘I don’t have time for a little black book. But other people do, right?’

‘Right.’

‘Is Dylan’s little black book just the actual phone book?’

I laugh. ‘Brilliant. Have you been working on that one for long?’

‘Since the prostitute,’ he replies proudly.

Our taxi pulls up, so we hop in and head back to the hotel. I’m having so much fun with Troy, I almost don’t want to find Dylan. It doesn’t even cross my mind to stop looking and hang out with Troy though, because whichever way I look at it, Dylan needs to be at that charity show tonight. He owes it to himself, his bandmates, his tour manager, his fans and the charity to be there. I know he would never intentionally let anyone down, he just gets too drunk, starts thinking with Little Dylan, and loses track of time.