A Healing Love
Copyright© 2025 by Marc Nobbs
Chapter 28: A Unique Performance
Coming of Age Sex Story: Chapter 28: A Unique Performance - Paul Robertson's journey continues as his past and present collide at a star-studded movie premiere, where a connection that once terrified him reignites with passion that threatens to consume them both. Fighting to forge a new future for himself and stop drifting, Paul must finally become the man he’s always been afraid to be. A beautiful, bittersweet exploration of grief, social responsibility, the healing power of love, and learning that sometimes loving someone means letting them go.
Caution: This Coming of Age Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Consensual Romantic Heterosexual Fiction
“Hey, everyone. Chloë here. I’m just about to get on the plane to Los Angeles to attend the Nominees Luncheon for the Oscars, where I promise to take loads of photos with as many of the other nominees as I can to share with you. I’ll try to get some video messages, too. But before I go, I need to tell you about a last-minute show my good friend, the amazingly talented Kayla Valentine, is putting on at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire this Saturday. She’s an incredible performer, and if you haven’t seen her, you really need to get down there on Saturday evening and experience her show for yourself. I promise you will not be disappointed.”
“How many times have you watched that now?” I asked.
Carly looked up from her phone, where she’d been watching Chloë’s video on Instagram again. It was Friday evening, and she was sitting at the kitchen table waiting for me so we could meet Alannah and the others in her string quartet at their rehearsal.
After our meeting on Wednesday had finished, Imogen and Vanessa had started to cook, and at the same time, the budding lawyer in me decided we really should document our decision, so I drafted a Memorandum of Understanding for Chloë, Mark, and me to sign. It wasn’t in any way binding and left plenty of room for us to vary it before we signed a more formal Partnership Agreement, but it did set out what we’d agreed already, and I thought it was important to have one. The next day, I scanned the signed copy and sent it to Marie with instructions for her to set up our new company so we could get started.
That was two new subsidiary companies she was setting up for me.
“Lost count,” Carly said. “I just can’t believe she did that for me. Luke sent me a text earlier to say we’ve almost sold out. Chloë posted this yesterday morning, and according to Luke, calls to the box office and website hits went through the roof for the next few hours. She’s basically sold out the show for me.”
“Chloë’s fans are loyal to a fault, but all she did was tell them about the concert.” I leaned down to peck her on the lips. “The show sold out because people want to come and see you. You’ve been number one for three weeks, and it looks like you will still be number one on Sunday to make it four. You know that’s amazing, right? I think the longest a song was at number one last year was five weeks or something. Both your albums are climbing the charts, and that fan footage concert video that Eric did for you has had over a million views.”
“I know, but...”
“But nothing. If Chloë had said, ‘My friend, Paul Robertson is doing a show,’ people would have rightly said, ‘Who?’ not rushed out to buy tickets.”
She looked up at me, her big blue eyes wide. “I guess.”
“People are coming to see you, not Chloë. Come on, ready to go?”
She nodded, switched off her phone and stood up. “Yeah, let’s go.”
It had been nearly two weeks since the snowstorm the night Carly and I had gone for dinner at Will’s, and since then, the temperatures had increased by a few degrees, so while it was still very cold, there’d been no more snow.
Instead, it had rained.
A lot.
In fact, it felt like it had rained nonstop for over a week now.
It was still raining this evening. I was tempted to take the car, but the campus car park was a good five-minute walk from the Arts Centre, so we’d end up getting wet either way. In the end, Carly made the decision for me, standing by the passenger door and waiting for me to unlock it.
Which, obviously, I did straight away because she was already starting to look bedraggled.
We didn’t get to the Art Centre any quicker than if we’d walked, but I think we probably did get there a little drier.
Alannah knew we were coming and had sent me a text message with the code to get into the building through the ‘stage door’ on the lower floor along the main road through campus, so we wasted no time getting inside out of the rain.
The door opened onto a short corridor at the end of which was a large open space—probably about a third of the size of the whole building.
“This must be where the orchestra rehearses,” Carly said. “I’m sure you could fit an orchestra in here.”
There were multiple doors in each of the room’s four walls—six along one wall, five along another, four along the third wall, and two on the last wall.
“I wonder which room she’s in,” I said.
“Well, there’s only four of them, so it’ll be one of the smaller rooms,” Carly replied.
As we stood wondering what to do, one of the six doors in the wall to our right opened, and a young woman with the distinctive look of people from the Far East came out. She paid us no mind as she walked past us towards the far left of the room. At first. But then she stopped, looked at us, and then her face lit up with recognition.
“Oh, my god!” she said in a very distinctive and broad Yorkshire accent. “I don’t believe it! You’re Kayla Valentine, aren’t you? Lana said you’d be coming to see her, but I thought she was joking. Man, this is incredible!”
Carly smiled and nodded. “Yeah, it’s me. It’s real nice to meet you, er...?”
“Liya. I’m Liya. Hey, can I get a selfie with you? I want to send it to my old friends back home. They’ll never believe me that I met you without it. You know what they say, photos or it didn’t happen.”
Carly smiled again. “Sure.”
“Excellent.” She took her phone from her pocket, unlocked it and held it out to me. “Would you mind?”
Smiling, I took the phone from her and snapped off a couple of photos as the two girls posed.
“Thanks,” Liya said as she took the phone back from me. Then, as she looked at the photos I’d taken, she said, “Lana will be in room six. They’re always in room six.” She pointed to a door three along from the one she’d come out of. “Over there.” She looked up at us again, smiling broadly. “Thanks! This is so cool. Everyone back home is going to be so jealous.”
I looked at Carly and said, “Room six. Lead the way.”
She grinned, and we headed in the direction that Liya had indicated. The rooms were all numbered, and each one had a little sliding sign on it. The sign was green on the left half, with the word ‘Vacant’ written on it, and red on the right side, with the words ‘In Use.’
“Doesn’t that bother you?” I asked as we walked towards Room Six, the last one along on this wall.
Carly smiled and said, “Not really. It’s part of the job, you know?”
I nodded. “I remember Chloë saying something similar once.”
“It happens all the time back home, but I think that may be the first time since I’ve been in England.”
When we got to Room Six, I looked through the window in the door when we got to it and was about to knock when Alannah looked up and saw me. She smiled and gestured for us to enter. It looked like we’d caught them at exactly the right time, and they were in between pieces.
I entered first, and Alannah’s group mates looked towards the door as it opened. Carly followed me in, and three sets of eyes went wide, and three jaws fell.
One of the girls who played the violin looked at Alannah and said, “You weren’t joking? Were you?”
Alannah grinned. “I told you, I never joke about music. If you’d have been in The Union when Kayla did her concert after the exams, you’d have seen me on stage with her.”
“I missed the first song,” the guy who played the viola said. “Missed the first couple of songs, actually.” In response to the looks from the girls, he added. “Dodgy kebab for tea that night. I was ... indisposed.”
All three girls laughed loudly and heartily.
Once the laughter had died down, Lana said, “Kayla, you already know ... Well, you know who she is. But guys, this is my friend, Paul?”
“Paul?” said one of the girls. “Badminton Paul?”
Alannah nodded.
“Oh, right. I see now why you keep going to the gym to strengthen your knee.”
The violists giggled, and Alannah reached out with her bow and tapped the closest one on the knee. Then she looked towards Carly and me and said, “Guys, this is Maya, Ari, and Finn.” She pointed at each one in turn with her bow, from the one furthest away to Finn sitting next to her.
I raised my hand and said, “Hi.”
Carly smiled warmly and said, “Hey y’all. Real nice to meet you.”
“So, you wanted to ask us something?” Lana said.
“Yeah, I did.” She looked at me, and I waved my hand at the group to indicate that she should carry on. “So, y’all already know that I asked Alannah here to play her cello on one of the new versions of my song, right?”
“So that really is you?” Maya said. “It sounds amazing. The cello part really adds depth to the song.”
“I know, right?” said Carly. “And have y’all heard that the song has been nominated for some awards?”
“A BAFTA and an Oscar,” Finn said, nodding. “And it’ll win both because the other nominated songs aren’t anywhere near as good.”
“Well, we’ll see. I’m not counting any chickens,” Carly said. “But here’s the thing, right? The organisers of the British awards—what did you say they all were called again?”
“The BAFTAs,” said Finn. He hadn’t taken his eyes off Carly since she entered the room.
“The BAFTAs. Right. Well, the folks organising the ceremony want to have all five nominated songs performed on the night, and they have said they want a ‘unique’ performance of each one. Something that’s never been done with each song before.
“So, it’s like, I can’t do the version with the full orchestra. I can’t do the acoustic version with just my guitar, which would be my preference, and I can’t do the version with Ronnie, Roxie and the guys.”
“Blackfriars’ Nightmare,” Carly added. “I’ve met them. They’re cool.”
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