‘The next word out of your mouth better not be “sex”.’
Look whose mind was in the gutter now.‘Better than Iimagined.’
‘Good.’
‘It’s a hell of a song,’ I admitted.
‘Well, you get to choose the next one,’ he said.
I groaned. ‘Oh, come on, Nick. You want to go again?’
‘Did you really think I was a once-a-night man?’
His expression knocked the breath out of me. Right now, I was hoping he was an up-against-the-wall man. They were padded, after all.
I kept that thought to myself, and instead said: ‘Do I get to have a drink first?’
‘Nope.’
What was wrong with him? My seduction game was always better with a bit of lubrication. It was his own fun he was ruining.
‘Just one,’ I said, trying not to sound desperate.
‘I told you, this a dry bar.’
He was serious about that? ‘No wonder this place is empty.’
‘I’ll make you one concession,’ he said.
‘What’s that?’
‘We’ll go to a private booth.’
He had a chat with the barman, and a couple of minutes later, was ushering me into a side room with its own karaoke machine. The padded walls, I was just realising, were for soundproofing.
Once Nick had closed the door, I couldn’t hear the music from the main bar. It was just as well, because as we’d left someone had started singing ‘New York, New York’ in a key hitherto unknown to the human ear.
For a private room it was pretty big. The padded leather banquettes that lined the sides could have easily seated fifteen people.
Nick sat by the screen and started scrolling through the computer to find a song.
‘Do you want me to choose one for you?’
‘Are you serious? You want me to sing?’
‘Well, why else are we here?’ This time, the flirty note was absent. ‘You said you enjoyed it. You’ll enjoy it even more if you sing by yourself.’
‘You’re going to just sit there?’
‘I could stand if you prefer.’
He pressed a few buttons and suddenly the room was alive with the intro to ‘Love In An Elevator’.
Oh, very grown-up; he knew I hated lifts.
He handed me a microphone. ‘Thought you might like this one.’
‘Very funny,’ I muttered as he went to sit at the back of the room.
