Standing in front of you |ON HOLD|

The 'date'

Come on Olly, you can do this, it's just a few drinks, nothing heavy. Then at the end of the night you can give him the we're-better-off-as-friends speech and say goodbye. She forced a smile behind her mask and together they headed out to his car.

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Three hours later.......

"Sweeeeet Caroline!!" Olivia hogged the microphone and sung as loudly and badly as she could, swaying from side to side with Curtis next to her.

She was steaming drunk and was going to have one hell of a hangover tomorrow - not that she was aware of that right now.

The poor guy who was running the illegal karaoke session in a pub that shouldn't be holding events like this in a lockdown, was waiting to wrap up for the night but Olly had been launching from one song to the next, often duetting with Curtis.

Karaoke was something that she'd found they'd both got in common. It was something that Seb wouldn't do, her kind, funny, sometimes dorky best friend was actually a bit shy and karaoke wasn't his 'thing'.

Since she'd been out, downing shots with Curtis, she'd loosened up and found herself enjoying his company more and more. Seb was straying further and further from her mind and Curtis was starting to become more and more attractive. It was a case of the good old fashioned of beer goggles, only these were Jägermeister goggles - a favourite tipple of herself and Seb and now Curtis too. They were going to need a taxi home, there was no way that either of them could drive back to her hotel.

"Come oooonnnn!" Curtis linked his arm with hers to pull her away from the karaoke machine, much to the relief of the bloke whose kit it was.

Olly tried to resist and pulled back the other way, she wasn't done yet, there was one more song that she wanted to sing, "noooooo!! Offff!!"

The poor guy who was desperate to pack up and head home in case the police turned up, was now giving Curtis a pleading look as his date managed to wrench herself free from him and stumbled a little before grabbing the microphone back off of its stand.

What she did next seemed to stun everyone, the whole pub fell quiet, all eyes on her as she started to sing without any music or words from the karaoke machine. And her voice.....

"We found each other
I helped you out of a broken place
You gave me comfort
But falling for you was my mistake."

Where she'd been singing badly before, at times flat and always off key, this time she sounded like a completely different person.

"I put you on top, I put you on top
I claimed you so proud and openly
And when times were rough, when times were rough
I made sure I held you close to me."

She sounded as though she'd been singing this song for years, as though her voice had been trained and tuned to sing it to perfection.

It was as she launched into the chorus that her voice began to wobble slightly. Her song of unrequited love was secretly dedicated to one man and one man only. It was a track that she went to time and again, when things had been either tough for him and she'd struggled with seeing him at his lowest ebb or times had been tough for her when her love for him had been one of the worst physical pains that she'd ever endured.

"So call out my name (call out my name)
Call out my name when I kiss you so gently
I want you to stay (I want you to stay)
I want you to stay, even though you don't want me
Boy, why can't you wait? (Why can't you wait, baby?)
Boy, why can't you wait 'til I fall out of love?
Won't you call out my name? (Call out my name)
Boy, call out my name, and I'll be on my way and
I'll be on my...."