Off the Record Read Online Free PDF

me!’
    Holding up her hands in surrender, Alex gave in. ‘OK, it was Johnson Brand.’
    ‘Johnson Brand! Are you kidding me? The Johnson Brand? The guy who wrote about three million hit songs and is gorgeous to boot?’
    He’d been gorgeous then too, Alex remembered. She had fallen for him so quickly and deeply that she thought she would have done anything for him. But in the end, she had had to make a choice and lost him.
    ‘Mmm. That’s the one,’ she confirmed, no longer enjoying the game. What on earth had persuaded her to start this conversation? She hadn’t talked, or even thought about Johnson for so long. David and Kate had known about it, of course, and every time a new album came out one or other of them had bought it for her.
    ‘Did you know he’s just starting a tour of the UK?’
    Alex could have sworn her heart missed a beat. She’d always imagined Johnson so far removed from her life, the barrier of the Atlantic Ocean between them. The thought of him in the same country was shocking. ‘No. No, I didn’t. Isn’t he a bit old to be doing gigs these days?’
    ‘Of course he isn’t. Look at Clapton, Jagger, Bob Dylan. Even Elton John. They’re much older and they don’t show any signs of stopping. Johnson Brand is a man in his prime.’
    ‘Maggie,’ she responded wryly, ‘Johnson Brand is fast approaching middle age, just like me.’
    ‘You’re not so old. What are you now, forty-two, three?’
    ‘Bless you for that, but I’m well over fifty, and you know it.’
    ‘That’s not old. Middle age doesn’t start ’til you’re sixty these days.’
    ‘Really? You could have fooled me,’ Alex laughed.
    ‘Is he older or younger than you?’
    ‘Neither, we’ve got the same birthday. That’s how we met.’
    ‘Really? That’s sweet. So how did you meet?’
    Alex closed her eyes and let a wave of long buried memories come flooding back. She was amazed at how vivid the pictures in her mind were. She could see Johnson sitting with his friends at Pizza Joe’s, the remains of a huge pizza with all the toppings on the table in front of them. His golden hair curling round his collar, a few buttons on his casual shirt undone to reveal the first sprinkling of hair on his teenage chest. He was laughing. Alex had thought that she’d died and gone to heaven, he was so beautiful. She groaned.
    ‘Alex? Are you OK?’
    She opened her eyes and felt hot colour flood her cheeks as she looked at her friend. She’d slipped so deeply into her memories that she’d forgotten Maggie completely. For a brief moment there she had been eighteen again, and falling in love for the first time. She wanted to groan again with embarrassment, and perhaps with the pain of remembering such a sweet moment when she knew how her dreams would be shattered later. But Maggie was looking at her with curiosity and concern.
    ‘I … I’m fine,’ she stammered, sitting upright and resting her shaking hands on her knees. She looked down, noting the less than youthful outline of her body under the dull fabric of her sweatshirt and joggers. With a sigh she raised her head and gave Maggie a resigned smile.
    ‘We were celebrating our eighteenth birthdays at the same pizza restaurant. It was a huge place with long wooden tables and benches, a stage, and a dance floor. The pizzas were enormous and everyone ate with their fingers. I’d arrived in America that week and despite having the same language it was a huge culture shock. I’d never been to a restaurant that didn’t supply knives and forks before, and the pizzas were loaded with tons of stringy mozzarella, so you could never pick up a slice without remaining attached to the rest of it. I felt so clumsy and embarrassed and then, oh horror! The ultimate humiliation. Pizza Joe himself got up on the stage and called for all the birthday boys and girls to go up and join him.
    ‘My new friends were laughing, and I was ready to make a run for the ladies when I spotted this