Isabel, The Beauty Next Door Pt. 08

"Unfortunately, Mac, we've already exceeded our allotted amount of people," I say.

"Just a thought. So, we drop you off and then fly down to London and Spend a few days with Adele."

"Name dropper," I say.

Mac laughs. "Yeah, it still sticks in my throat when Miley rings, and I have to turn to whoever I'm talking to and take the call." I can only roll my eyes at my friends.

We reach Exeter airport and return to the lounge where I first met Mac. I sit waiting for something to happen when Mac comes over and sits next to me. We look at our girlfriends happily chatting away. Sam, as usual, has found the food.

Mac leans in. "When ya gonna put a ring on it?"

"It's in my wallet; I'm trying to think of the best way to do it," I answer absentmindedly.

Mac laughs, and I look at him. He looks at me like he's had an epiphany. "How would you like to do it in front of a hundred thousand people?"

I smile at the idea. "Isabel would never forgive me. She hates being looked at."

"Okay...." Mac says, thinking. "How about if we get her onstage before voluntarily?"

"That's different....that could work," I say.

"Leave it to me; just be ready to act." Mac pats me on the back. I look over at Sam, standing next to Hannah. Sam is eyeing me like she knows something is happening. I smile at her and wonder what her reaction will be when I pop the question in front of her.

My thoughts are disrupted by the pilot coming in and introducing himself to Mac. They shake hands, and Mac turns to us. "Are we all ready to go?"

Without a word, we all walk towards the double doors the pilot came in. Isabel takes my hand as we walk down a ramp onto the tarmac. There's a helicopter waiting, and it doesn't take long for us to climb in and belt up. The rotors start to rotate, and there's a roar as the engines kick in.

I sit between Isabel and Sam, and both hold onto my hands as we lift off. Opposite me are Mac, Emma, and Hannah. Mac sees my predicament and grins at me, pointing to my hands. I nod; Sam sees this exchange and puts her head on my shoulder for extra effect.

It's a short ride to the Glastonbury site, and the pilot makes a loop of the outer perimeter before landing. We look down at a sea of tents and people. I've never seen so many people in one place, and I squeeze Izzy's hand, and she nods in acknowledgment.

As we land, there are a couple of people waiting for Mac. We wait for the pilot to stop the rotors before getting out and heading to a tent. There, Mac is given a quick rundown of what will happen, and then we are left sitting on sofas in the hospitality tent. A couple of people walk up and shake Mac's hand. I recognize some but don't know who they are.

The buzz in the tent takes me by surprise. I can feel the sound of music and the crowd combined in my chest. Sam doesn't know what to do with herself. She is overwhelmed with indecision as she sits close holding Hannah's hand. Occasionally, she will pull on Hannah's hand and try to stand and then say something to Hannah. Hannah turns and says something back that seems to keep Sam in check.

Mac signs a couple of girls' autographs and takes a picture with them before they leave happy. He walks over, "Hey, James." He says. Emma walks up beside him, smiling. "I would like to sing Emma with a harmony. Would you, Isabel, Sam, and Hannah sing backing for me?"

"What," Isabel says in a panic.

"Yesssss," Sam says. "Shit, Isabel, you got to. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing."

"I don't know," she turns to me, knowing I won't want to do it.

"I guess," I say. Isabel's eyes double. "Oh, go on, Iz, we will be stood at the back." Then I turn back to Mac. "What will we have to do?"

"You know the song, right?" We all nod. "Well, when we get to the chorus, you all join in, and then after the second chorus, just repeat what I sing." Have you heard the song with just me and Marley's voice?" Again, we nod. "We are copying that. You lot are Marley Cyrus," we all smile.

"So will you do it, Izz?" Sam asks, giving her full puppy eyes.

"Oh shit....okay," Isabel says, smiling nervously.

A guy with headphones walks up and says something to Mac, and they walk off together. I look at Emma. "He needs to check they've connected his gear correctly," she shouts. "I can't believe we are going on stage with Mac. This will be my first time," she says, looking excited. "Well, except for a school concert," she adds.

We stand around, getting nervous for half an hour before we go on. I'm unaware of anyone around us, and the butterflies in my stomach are now swarming.

I feel Isabel's hand squeezing mine. "Are you okay, Iz?" I say, trying to take my mind off what I am about to do.

"Shit, Jimmy, we are going to stand up in front of goodness knows how many people and harmonize with Mac to a song we have sung together lovingly so many times." She takes a breath.

"We will remember today for the rest of our lives," I say.

Sam comes over. "Jay. What the fuck have we agreed to?" She says. "For fucks sake. When you told me you were friends with Mac, I thought you meant business acquaintances."

"We just seem to get on, Munchkin," I say, putting my arm around her. "Since I won the competition to redesign his HQ, we haven't stopped talking. Isabel and I will spend the summer at Mac's family ranch in West Virginia."

"Lucky bugger. I wish I were coming," she says.

"I have a more important thing for you to do. You need to be available for my dad to access our new homes. He will get the home's interior and exterior up to scratch within the deadline. I will also need you to look at my ideas for what we will do with the inside," I say, distracting myself.

"When do you think we will be able to move in?"

"When we get back, October at the latest, as long as everything goes to plan. Luckily Edward knows a couple of the conservationist panel and can push the decisions through."

"Wow, not long, I can't w..."

"Jay," Mac shouts from the entrance to the tent. "Ready?" That gets everyone's attention, and we walk toward Mac like lambs to the slaughter. I feel Isabel's hand in mine and am surprised to receive a smile when I look into those beautiful eyes. As we walk out toward the pyramid stage, Mac stops us. "Right, I will go on and will do a couple of numbers before Emma. You all can stand in the wings and watch. When I introduce, you all, you can then come out and take your spots behind the mics I will have set up. Is everyone okay with that?" We all nod and follow him up the ramp to the back of the stage.

We all move down the stage side to find a good vantage point from which to watch the show. I see Mac walks over to a guy who has his guitar. They strap a radio transmitter to him and help him with his guitar. The guy then pats him on the shoulder and wishes him luck.

A short guy with little hair walks out onto the stage. "Glastonbury, are you ready for the next act?" He says, and the roar from the crowd takes me by surprise. "Before your main event, I have the privilege to introduce to you arguably one of the most accomplished musicians of our generation." I glance over at Mac and see his reaction. He obviously doesn't like the compliment, and he sees me looking and nods an acknowledgment. "For one night only......Mac," the guy says.

Again we are hit by a wall of sound from the audience as Mac takes to the stage. "Hello, Glastonbury," Mac says as he starts to pluck the guitar. I hear another roar as they hear the first notes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under The Bridge." "Tonight, I will play some of my favorite tracks; I hope you will enjoy them as much as me," he says. Mac glances across to where we are and smiles at Emma, standing beside Isabel and Sam.

"Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner

Sometimes I feel like my only friend," Mac starts to sing. The crowd is right there with him and is singing along.

He gets to the lines,

"She sees my good deeds, and she kisses me windy

Well, I never worry, now that is a lie,"

Mac walks over to an assortment of electronics I hadn't noticed and starts a drum sound. It's incredible to watch as Mac builds the music piece by piece. I would compare it to how I create a structure on the computer.

Mac lets it hang for what seems like an age, and then it all kicks in as he sings,

"I don't ever wanna feel

Like I did that day

Take me to the place I love

Take me all the way,"

I can't help dancing and singing with the audience and the girls beside me. I had seen many of Mac's performances online, but nothing prepares you for seeing him live.

I am lost in the first song when I detect a subtle change. The Glastonbury crowd notices straight away, and a roar goes up.

The moment Mac starts singing,

"I let it fall, my heart

And as it fell, you rose to claim it,"

The crowd joins in, not missing a beat. We are standing on the right-hand side of the stage and can see the audience on the other side jumping up and down--the joy on their faces illuminated by the June sunshine is intoxicating as we once again start to sing Set Fire in The Rain.

As the song winds down, I see Mac glance again toward us. The joy on his face, as the sweat runs down, makes me realize why he does this.

As the last notes get played, Mac laughs. "Thank you, now that I've warmed up a little," he says, wiping his brow. "I'd like to bring out some friends I've brought and have agreed to sing along with the next song with me." There are a couple of cheers, for I don't even think they know what. "So, without further ado, I introduce my Girlfriend, Emma, and My friends James and his girlfriend, Isabel. Last but no means least, My new friends Sam and her girlfriend, Hannah. As we all walk out, there are several wolf whistles, and I look to Isabel to see how she's handling the exposure. Sam is the only one to step up to the mic and shout Hello, Glastonbury. When she gets a roar back, the grin on her face is priceless, and we all laugh, taking the edge off our nerves.

Mac walks over to Emma, kisses her to the crowd's pleasure, and whistles. Mac touches my shoulder and asks me if I'm alright. This is his way of checking I still want to go through with this. I nod and wink at him, and he smiles at me, knowing what's to come.

"Now, before we start," Mac says when he returns to the mic. "I believe my friend James wants to say something."

Now I have thought long and hard about what words I wanted to say at this moment. Granted, in my head, I wasn't standing in front of a hundred thousand people, but how many times in life would I get the chance like this to tell the world that I love Isabel Richards?

"Thanks' Mac," I say, way more confident than I thought possible. Then I turn and look into a pair of loving eyes and one hundred thousand people disappear. "These last four years, I have been dating the most incredible person. Today I want the world to know that Isabel, I love you so much." I turn her towards me, change hands, and get down on one knee. I hear Sam and Hannah scream in the distance but my focus is only on one person. "Isabel, will you make me the happiest man alive and agree to become my wife?"

I don't think Isabel knew what was happening until I uttered those last words. The moment the penny drops, both her hands go up and cover her mouth. Tears well up, and she starts to nod. I pull her left hand down and remove the promise ring. Then I slide our engagement ring on and rise. Our lips meet as Isabel throws her arms around me, and the roar that goes up is deafening.

Only now am I aware of Sam and Hannah joining our hug, screaming, shouting, and jumping around. "She said yes," they scream.

It takes a while to settle down; as I pull away, I see Isabel look at her ring for the first time. The pure joy that spreads across her face lets me know I made the right choice.

The moment changes as Mac starts to play the keyboard. The crowd screams as the first live performance of Emma on British soil starts. Mac starts to sing, and I listen to a very familiar song. I feel Isabel's hand slide into my left hand, and then surprisingly, Emma takes my right. I smile at her, and she returns it and mouths, "Well done."

Then we realize Mac is approaching the chorus. The moment we open our mouths, the crowd joins in, and I don't think we can be heard. I don't mind, as the song goes through the second verse. The crowd seems to stop singing to listen to Mac's voice and join in with us. Then comes the trickier part. I begin to think we should have practiced at least once, but as Mac sings the line, we all automatically follow, and even if I do say so myself, we sound bloody good.

Mac does a six-and-a-half-minute version, and it seems too soon as he starts to wind down and our moment in the spotlight comes to an end. Once the girls are off the stage, they all scream and jump up and down excitedly.

Then my attention was taken by the crowd. Mac had commented that he didn't know what to sing when he compiled his setlist. The crowd had different ideas and started to sing Bohemian Rhapsody.

Mac laughs, "Making your own requests now, are we?" Then he starts to play the Queen classic, and the crowd once again cheers, and when Mac starts to sing, his voice is almost drowned out by the audience.

A tap on the shoulder takes my attention, and as I turn, Isabel wraps her arms around her neck. "You," is all she can say before our lips join, and a hundred thousand people once again disappear. The concert fades into the background as we continue to show our love for each other.

I can't tell you what Mac played next or the song after that, but I instantly look toward the stage as he starts playing the next. The crowd claps in unison as he plays a simple rift on the guitar. I know this, but I can't quite place it. He continues to play the same rift making it longer as he looks out, soaking up the atmosphere. I can see him absorbing the energy from the crowd and feeling every second of this one-time experience.

Then it clicks as he starts to sing,

"We clawed, we chained, our hearts in vain

We jumped, never asking why,".....

"Wrecking ball," I say out loud. Isabel and I look at each other, smile, and start to move together. As the chorus comes in, we part, and both point at Sam, singing to the heavier version that Mac is playing. "She came in like a wrecking ball." Sam can't hide her joy. It's hard to be heard over the noise. It's an old joke between Sam and me, but she just laughs as Isabel, and I belt out the track.

As the track winds down, Mac blends into the next track; again, it takes me a moment to get it, but then it twigs Maroon 5 and Girls Like You. Again, he puts a heavier slant on it. The music then shifts tact and goes through a couple of up-tempo numbers. The way he blends and mixes is incredible, and we dance away, but before long, the end of his set closes in, and Mac stands at the front of the stage, breathing heavily and staring out across the adulation of the crowd. "Wow," Mac says. "You lot have been incredible. I have time for one more, and tonight I want to finish where all this started. It seems like a lifetime away, back in Charlotte, North Carolina, when my now close friend Donna live-streamed me at a gig where my bandmates hadn't turned up. My opening song was this....."

Mac starts playing the opening rift to Metallica's One, and I feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as my friend Michael Carter bares his soul to the world. As the song moves on, I wrap my arms around Isabel, my fiancée, and we hold each other as I see a tear roll down the face of the man standing in front of a hundred thousand people. The audience is silent as the tones of this classic rock ballad drift over the site. I lean forward and look out over the infinite sea of faces. This is a moment when Glastonbury stands still.

As the song comes to an end, the sound from the crowd grows to a deafening level as Mac takes his bow and waves to the audience before walking off with a huge smile. Then one of the stagehands walks up to him and shouts something in his ear. Mac frowns, nods, and then says something to Emma. After receiving a kiss, he walks back onto the stage.

He laughs into the mic, almost embarrassed. "Looks like I have more time to fill," he says.

"When we were young," someone shouts. Then a round of applause went around, agreeing.

Mac starts to play the guitar, and the crown roars when they hear the familiar tune.

Then dead silence again as...."Everybody loves the things you do

From the way you talk....."

Isabel holds me as we watch the most amazing performance that we will ever witness. People in years to come will say that they were there when Mac performed One followed by When We Were Young on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury.

******

The helicopter is silent when we take off. Everyone is buzzing but stunned by what they just witnessed. Even Sam is lost for words.

"Mac, mate, that was incredible," I say, using my headset, breaking the silence. Mac smiles at me and nods, but I can see he's struggling with the compliment.

"I'm still buzzing," he says. "That was an experience of a lifetime."

"I think we can all claim that, even without this," Isabel beams, holding up her left hand. She turns and kisses me. "You realize we may never live that down or up to the expectation of being proposed to in that way?"

"You may be right, but it will be fun trying," I say with a cheeky smile, which earns me another kiss.

We land back in Exeter, and we all get out to say our goodbyes for the time being. Mac is going to London and will meet us back here to fly home next week. He will visit Adele and see if they can do something together.

The house is quiet when we get back. Rachel must be at her fiancée's place. Sam gets us to watch the Glastonbury coverage she recorded earlier.

Mac looks great when he walks out and we sit and watch him go through his first two songs. Then it's hide behind the cushions time as we are introduced.

"Christ, am I that big?" I say the moment I see myself lumber out onto the stage.

"Pretty much, TV does put weight on you though, and you have beefed out since the accident," Sam says.

Everyone's eyes are glued to the screen as I get down on one knee and ask my now fiancée to marry me.

Isabel squeezes my arm and I look to see tears in her eyes. I lean in and kiss her tenderly and am rewarded with her beautiful smile.

As Mac makes his final bow, Sam turns the recording off, and the BBC news is on. "Sam, can you turn it up?" I ask.

"This evening on The Pyramid stage at Glastonbury, a young man proposed to his girlfriend in front of an estimated one hundred and fifty thousand people. James Stokes, got on one knee and proposed to his long term girlfriend, Isabel Richards just before Mac played his song, Emma. His hour set has been quoted by organizers as a festival stopper, and one that will go down in Glastonbury history."

We all erupt with cheers and hugs as they celebrate the moment, and I don't get to hear the rest.

Finally, Isabel and I are released to head up to our room. The moment we close the door, Isabel has me pushed against the wall putting every ounce of love she has for me into that one kiss.

We spend most of the night making love to each over. We both lose track of time and the number of climaxes we achieved. It doesn't matter; all the focus is on our love. We finally dropped off, and when I opened my eyes, my beautiful fiancée was happily looking at her ring.

"It's beautiful," she says when she sees me watching her. Isabel leans over and kisses me. "Mr. Stewart has done a beautiful job, and my fiancée has impeccable taste."

"Surely you knew I have good taste before today. You should see who I've fallen in love with," I say. That was enough to get jumped on and kissed all over.