Page 122 of Never Too Late to Date

‘Even so.’

Next up was a rugby team’s worth of Irish lads strangling The Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take’, and Suzie couldn’t even look at Christian.

Their beers had gone in a flash, and Suzie lifted her hand to order some more.

Two Scandinavian girls made a good fist of Madonna’s ‘Like a Prayer’, and Christian gave them both the thumbs-up, which Suzie would have bet money was more for their attractiveness than for their vocal ability.

The crowd clapped and cheered every song regardless of the quality. Suzie cheered extra loud when Grace, Will and Sofia sang their hearts out to Sade’s ‘Smooth Operator’, and laughed all the way through Angeliki and Nick’s version of Cindi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’, with Nick singing soprano.

A barnstorming rendition of Wham!’s ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ by a group of tanked-up Brits had the whole place on its feet, and she and Christian were up and dancing with the rest.

As Suzie flopped back down onto her chair, she was convinced her ears were deceiving her. Floating out into the night air were the opening strains of what she could swear was the cherished song from her very distant past that she avoided at all costs.

Christian got to his feet and held out his hand.

‘Shall we?’

‘Seriously?’

‘Come on. Where’s your spirit of adventure?’

She couldn’t let him get away with that. Hand in hand they climbed the stairs to the stage, where the lyrics for ‘I Got You Babe’ flashed up on the big screen along with a picture of Sonny and Cher.

Charlie handed them both a microphone and stood back.

As the intro music swelled, Suzie couldn’t avoid looking into Christian’s eyes. The song was a duet, a love letter between two people. It was also the story of their youth.

She had the first line. ‘They say we’re young and we don’t know.’ The first couple of words stuck in her throat, but she harnessed all her professional training to sing out clear and true. Christian’s answering line was deep and strong. Together they travelled through the song, their voices rising and falling, neither needing to look at the screen, the words so familiar to both of them. The rest of the world fell away, and there was only now.

Suzie kept her eyes locked onto his for the duration of the song. It hit her as they neared the end and sang the words ‘I got you babe’ to each other. She loved him. Pure and simple. Who had she been kidding? She’d always loved him, and she loved him as much now as she’d ever done.

A tear escaped and ran down her cheek. She’d deliberately closed her heart to him to protect herself and her unborn child when she was barely more than a child herself. The part of her life before Greece was done and dusted, or so she’d thought. Now he’d blown everything wide open again, and the illusion of control had vanished with the daylight. What she was going to do with the knowledge that he’d always been there, lodged in her heart, and impossible to escape from, she had absolutely no idea.

The last notes of the melody faded into the night, and there was complete silence in the room. You could hear the proverbial pin drop. Then the stamping and cheering began, shocking Suzie to the core. She’d forgotten anyone else was there.

Christian seemed equally fazed by the whole thing. He took her hand, and they both bowed to the audience, who hadn’t stopped applauding. The shouts of ‘more’ and ‘encore’ were loud in her ears, but that was the last thing on her mind. He kept hold of her hand and led her out into the bar area, before indicating that he was going for a smoke.

‘Back in a minute. Wait for me.’

‘OK.’

Suzie sat down hard on a stool in the now almost deserted bar. The music had started up again next door, as the next victims were encouraged on stage. Kostas appeared from behind the bar and was joined by Giannis. They both had serious looks on their faces.

‘Is everything OK with you two?’

Kostas nodded.

‘That was amazing, Mama mou, really amazing. I didn’t get to hear you sing in Athens, but I was so proud of you in there.’

‘Thank you, darling.’

Giannis spoke next.

‘What we wanted to say … was that we’ve never seen you look at a man like that before in our lives, including Baba. And that we’re big boys now, if you wanted to take things further with Christian…’

‘Eew, Gianni.’ Kostas had his hands over his ears.

‘Stop being a baby, Kosta. If you wanted to take things further, we wouldn’t object. He’s a nice bloke, and if he makes you happy you should go for it.’