Bristol

Pete smiled and laughed to himself. It was interesting talking to Tabbi about her home and her family. Even if she'd been the kind of artist who you saw in the magazines and on TV all the time, those were things you didn't really ever hear musicians talk about openly. No matter who you were, you had to have an image, an act, a facade that suited your music and pleased your fans. He knew Tabbi had one too; he'd seen the pictures on her site of her on stage and posing for marketing pictures, usually with a quixotic smile, eyes tilted to the sides, or else in a classic pose with a guitar digging into the strings, pouting slightly with her head turned away and lit from behind so you couldn't really see her features. All pretty standard stuff that he knew she'd probably had very little say in.

Happily, on this occassion, the real person behind all that was starting to seem rather more interesting and likeable than the poster image.

The assistant turned up with the two pasties, set them down and left. Pete identified which one was Tabbi's; which was also the larger of the two by some considerable measure.

"OK well, I hope it's good." he said, picking up his cutlery and cutting his open to let it cool a bit. "What's it like working with family then? You find it's easier to get things moving?"

Tabbi's eyes snapped to the plates as they were put on the table, her saliva glands suddenly going into overdrive at the imminence of food. The smell was incredible, and the size of it was a welcome sight, justified entirely by her hunger. Grabbing for a knife and fork she wasted no time it cutting it up.

At his question she looked up and frowned a little. "Well I did't get signed up just because he's my uncle if that's what you mean."

"No not at all!" Pete intervened, "I just meant...well, family are usually easier to get hold of. You know how they work, they know how you work, hopefully you get along. And at least you know they actually care about your interests. Right?"

"Uh, yeah I guess." she said, "Lance is a little intense, it gets kinda heavy sometimes. I mean who wants to be around family all the time? It's like you said, sometimes you need a healthy distance."

"Yeah, I hear that I suppose. What about when you're on the road though, that must be a chance to get away? And especially here when you're in another country right?"

"You'd think, right?!" she said, shoveling a large pile of meat and pasty into her mouth, and closing her eyes for the moment at the taste, the warmth, the sheer goodness of getting some food at last. "Oh yeah, that's good eatin'. Definitely a good call Pete."

She scooped up some more food, before remembering his question. "What were we saying? Oh yeah, my family. Well my brother and his girlfriend came along too. He's, like, a monkey on my back the whole time. Pretends like he's my biggest fan but it's just an excuse to be 'big brother' and crowd my space."

She made quick progress through the delicious pasty, leaning back as her grateful stomach began to fill.

"You got brothers or sisters in the area?"

"You don't say." Pete snorted in amusement at Tabbi's description of her big brother. "That must be hard. I have a little sister myself...I like to think I don't weigh down on her too much. We get on, but she's like fifteen, and it's a difficult age group for me to be around. Happily she doesn't take too much interest in my music, but she's super excited about coming to see the show tonight."

He took a bite then realised that warranted a further explanation.

"Oh yeah," he added, "the production company gave me a few free tickets for the first night, so I gave 'em to my sister to invite some of her friends. She might come looking for us after the show's finished."

Talking about sibling suddenly humanised Tabbi a whole lot. He realised that up until that point he's kind of seen her as some mythologised legend from the internet. Now, sitting across from him and without a guitar in her hands, she wasn't Tabbi the internet guitar hero, she was just Tabbi, someone's little sister and someone he was having a pleasant lunch with.