Seb looked at Olly questioningly as they met in the lobby while she waited for Curtis. He'd been given a loan car while he was at the factory and so had driven back separately from her.
"What?" She asked, meeting his gaze while her stomach churned inside.
"Is there a reason you didn't tell me you'd got a date when you picked me up from the airport?"
"I wasn't even sure I was going to go," she admitted before adding, "if I'm honest I'm still not."
He leant back against a white, square pillar, shoving a hand into his jeans pocket, "you don't have to hide from me the fact you've got a date with someone. Just because I've lost Heidi and I'm not ready to be with anyone, it doesn't mean that you have keep it from me. I won't break if you start seeing someone. You should go, if anyone deserves to have some happiness and fun, it's you and you're dressed for it now so you might as well go."
She looked down at her rather short, long sleeved, button down, emerald green dress. Urgh, that's not what I want to hear Seb. I want to go out with you, not Curtis. I want you to tell me that you don't want me to see someone else, that you want me all to yourself and that you'll be taking me out instead.
"Relax, you look great." He noticed the way she was looking at her dress, as if she was having a small crisis of confidence in herself.
Great. He thinks I look great. Not sexy or pretty or stunning....just great. Great. "Thanks," she uttered quietly as the feeling of dread at seeing Curtis intensified.
Seeing Curtis entering through the automatic doors, Seb stood upright and gave her a gentle nudge with his elbow, "go and enjoy yourself. Life's too short. And next time, tell me when you've got a date, don't hide it because you think I'll break. I want you to be happy, I want you to have relationships with other people, don't stay single just because of me."
She forced a smile behind her mask while inside she felt herself die a little because Curtis wasn't Seb and he never would be. I want to stay single because I'm waiting for you, because you're the only one I want. No one will compare to you.
He placed a hand on her back, giving her a gentle push towards Curtis, like a father encouraging his child to go into the school playground and make friends on her first day, "go on, have fun and tell me all about it in the morning."
She looked up at him for a moment, her eyes silently pleading him to take Curtis's place. As expected though, her silent pleas went completely unnoticed.
"All ready?" Curtis joined her side, nodding his head in greeting to Seb, "hi Seb, I promise I'll take good care of her tonight."
"Just enjoy yourselves. See you tomorrow," he waved a hand before turning and walking away in the direction of the lifts, leaving Olly watching him with a bereft expression hidden beneath her mask as the man she loved walked away from her, completely oblivious to her feelings for him.
"Olivia, you look amazing," Curtis was quite taken aback by her beauty. With her figure subtly showcased in her dress, she really did have the figure of his fantasy woman, Kylie Minogue, and the legs too. He could well imagine how she'd look in a pair of Kylie's famous gold hot pants. When her luminous green eyes rose to meet his, he was nearly rendered speechless. How the hell this woman was single he had no idea, he wouldn't have even been surprised if she was seeing Seb, no one could blame the German if he'd fallen for her.
"Thank you," she felt strangely shy and a little awkward, quite unlike her.
"Let's go, shall we?" He placed a hand on her back, his fingers splayed out, making his hand look enormous on her.
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.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
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...."
Curtis was stunned, his mouth was hanging open. She was singing as though she'd been born to it, singing with so much conviction and emotion. He couldn't take his eyes off of her, with the lights shining down on her, to him she looked like a star and he was drunkenly and wholly captivated. It was like she was suddenly his sexual fantasy come true, his very own Kylie Minogue.
"I said I didn't feel nothing baby, but I lied
I almost cut a piece of myself for your life
Guess I was just another pit stop
'Til you made up your mind
You just wasted my time," she carried, now lost in her own thoughts and dreams, her heart literally screaming out for Seb as if he was here and could hear her. But he'd never heard her sing like this, he had absolutely no idea of how well she could actually sing, it was another thing that she kept hidden from him. "You're on top, I put you on top
I claimed you so proud and openly, babe
And when times were rough, when times were rough
I made sure I held you close to me."
Suddenly her night had gone from one filled with shots, laughter, bad jokes and even worse singing to one that would become an outpouring of her love for Seb if she wasn't careful.
"So call out my name (call out my name, baby)
So 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? (Boy, why can't you wait 'til I)
Boy, why can't you wait 'til I fall out of love?
Babe, call out my name (say call out my name, baby)
Boy, call out my name, and I'll be on my way, boy
I'll be on my...."
Curtis was spellbound and unfortunately for Olly he was falling for her.
"On my way, all the way
On my way, all the way, ooh
On my way, on my way, on my way
On my way, on my way, on my way
(On my)" her voice was trembling through the last few words, a single tear rolling down her cheek as she searched her stunned audience for a particular face, a particular pair of beautiful blue eyes belonging to the most beautiful soul that she knew.
But Seb wasn't there. He wasn't there to hear her sing, to see the way in which she'd captivated the whole pub, to hear the words that were only meant for him.
Finding a familiar face and a familiar pair of blue-grey eyes and suddenly becoming aware that the place had gone so quiet that she'd be able to hear a pin drop, she lurched towards Curtis and flung her arms around him.
He took this to mean one thing and one thing only and quickly dragged her away from the microphone, making her drop it to the floor with a loud thud and ear splitting whistle through the speakers.
As they got out into the cold night air he spotted a taxi in the car park and started to run, still clutching Olly's hand in his and pulling her along with him. He ignored the protests of the driver who said his car was booked for someone else and instead waved a small wad of cash in the air, promising to make it worth his while. He just wanted to get Olly back to his, almost certain that his luck was in and that she wanted him as much as he did her. In his own drunken mind her song had been aimed at himself, it had been her way of conveying her feelings, her own message to him - even if the lyrics had been a bit sad. The conclusion he drew from her song was that she was lonely, that she needed more than a best friend. He was right but he was also so wrong.
During the ride home he kept an arm around her, pulling her possessively into his side on the backseat even though there was no one here to steal her away from him.
She was silent, her head lulling onto his shoulder every so often as she dozed in her inebriated state. In her mind the warm body she was snuggled up to was Seb, the lips she kept feeling kissing her head were his as was the shoulder she was using as a pillow. Every time she closed her eyes all she could see was him. Her love and infatuation for him was like a disease, a painful and sometimes debilitating disease for which there was only one cure - his love.
She was so tired that she could barely walk once they got out of the taxi. Holding her bag in one hand, Curtis slipped an arm around her and tried his best to get her up the path towards his front door.
If Olivia had been sober then she wouldn't have had a clue as to where she was but as she was drunk nothing was really registering in her brain, she'd already forgotten how she'd even got here.
He fumbled to get his door keys from the pocket of his jeans, having to relinquish his hold on her and let the wall do the job instead. Luckily she stayed upright and leant back against it, her eyes half closed in exhaustion, her face a mess of mascara under her eyes and streaked down her cheeks.
With the door open, he chucked her bag onto the nearest armchair and then helped her through the door.
As he kicked it shut behind him she flung her arms over his shoulders, linking her hands at the back of his neck and pressing her body against his.
On her part it was just an effort to stay upright but on his... He took it as a sign of consent, that she was giving him all the signals - the song, coming back with him to his home, the snuggling up to him on the backseat, letting him press kisses to her head as she dozed, the way she was holding on to him right now, pressing herself against him. He went for it and claimed her lips in a kiss that at first was all him as she failed to respond.
Her mind reared it's ugly head again, providing her with an image of Seb kissing her with so much greed and want. Blessed with the feeling of his plump lips moving seductively against her own she reacted, kissing him back with the same messy fervour, feeling his hands starting to release the buttons at the front of her dress. She wanted to say his name, to tell him how much she'd always wanted this but was afraid to make a move because she didn't want to come across as being disrespectful.
Her body was set alight by the touch of his fingers on her newly exposed flesh and she clung on to him as her legs began to feel weak.
"Fuck Olly you're so fucking fit."
All the images, emotions and sensations that were firing off in her brain like out of control fireworks disappeared in a puff of smoke and her whole body tensed up. This wasn't Seb, that wasn't the voice of the man she loved.
Then she felt sick. The watery mouth, the swirling stomach and that awful feeling of what was coming hit her out of nowhere and she pushed Curtis away who let out a yelp of surprise as he staggered back, only just getting out of the way as she spectacularly vomited on his oak effect laminate flooring.
Just like that, the date was over.