It’s okay, though. Fish once told me having a nickname in his extended family is “a sign of acceptance and love—especially when the nickname is just a tiny bit mean.”
The crowd standing around the cake begins singing “Happy Birthday” to Violet and me. And as they do, I take Fish’s offered hand. I still can’t believe the journey we’ve been on these past two years, both personally and professionally—although those two things are really one and the same when it comes to us, simply because making music together is like another form of making love.
Thank God for my boyfriend. Thanks to Fish, “Blindsided” ultimately sounded like me when it was released two years ago. And even without its prior pop slickness, the song still managed to peak at number eight on the charts. Would it have reached number one if we’d left it alone, as originally produced by Zeke? Maybe. Especially with that music video, which, as Reed predicted, went totally viral. But I don’t care about what might have been. I’m proud of what was. Because what I’ve realized is this: I’d rather hit number eight, or eighty, or eighty-thousand, sounding like me, than number one, sounding like someone else.
Luckily, I didn’t have to choose between my artistic vision and commercial success with my beloved album. Thanks to Fish’s masterful producing and co-writing, the album wound up sounding authentically like me, to the extreme, and also spun out three top twenty hits, including our number one smash duet, “Smitten.” In the end, much to my shock, that sweet and simple love song with Fish about the pure joy of being in love and smitten, did even better than my duet with Laila. Although, of course, my song with Laila was a success, too. It peaked at ten on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and fifteen on the alternative chart, and was featured in a whole lot of movies and commercials. So, that song was nothing to sneeze at, either, even though “Smitten” was far and away the biggest hit on the album.
As the crowd continues singing, I let my gaze drift from my beloved Matthew to the faces around me. To the people I love the most. My mother isn’t here today. Not because she doesn’t love me or is staging some sort of protest. Mom never attends gatherings hosted or attended by Georgina or Georgina’s father, Marco, thanks to the bitterness of her divorce from the latter. In light of that, Fish and I are going to my mom’s place for dinner tomorrow night, which will be wonderful.
When I eventually introduced Mom to Fish, early on, she already adored him, thanks to those viral videos of him singing to me at Madison Square Garden. And when she got to know him as a person, she adored him even more. Even after I dropped the bomb that I was already living with Fish at his cute little bungalow on the beach, Mom didn’t bat an eyelash, despite her often-stated aversion to “young people shacking up these days.”
I said to my mother back then, “I know you don’t approve of me living with my boyfriend, but—” And Mom cut me off to say, “Oh, honey. You’ve got an album to create together, on a short timeline! And it’s obvious you two are a match made in heaven. Of course, you’re living together. It makes perfect sense!”
I couldn’t believe it. Ya think you know someone . . .
Speaking of mothers, even though my biological one isn’t here to celebrate today, I’m not motherless at this party. I’ve got my two adopted moms in attendance: Fish’s sweet mother, Lorna, who’s treated me like a daughter since the day I met her. And, of course, my beloved Momma Lou. Louise Morgan. From the moment I met that delightful woman in Seattle, I absolutely loved her. From minute one, she made me feel every bit as much like a daughter-in-law to her as Violet and Maddy and the others.
From Mrs. Morgan, I let my gaze drift to my adopted big sister, Kat. She’s singing next to her husband, Josh, who’s holding their baby, Arabella, while Kat wrangles their two older kids.
From there, Keane and Maddy are standing next in line. And then there’s Colin, who’s holding the hand of Keane and Maddy’s firecracker, Billie. For some reason, Billie is obsessed with her Uncle Colin, every bit as much as her Uncle Zander, which is saying a lot. Billie follows Colin around, batting her eyelashes at