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Liam cleared his throat. ‘All right.’
He played again and Sophie sang, better this time.
Liam’s acceptance was enough to give her the confidence boost she needed to sing her best. She just hoped that her confidence stuck around for long enough to reach the day of the concert.
When she’d finished, Liam said, ‘That was awesome, Soph. When you relax and nail it, you really are amazing.’
‘Thank you.’ She sat back on the stool next to him, making sure that there was a little more space between them this time. She desperately needed to calm the butterfly acrobatics that were going on in her stomach.
Liam went on to point out some areas that they would need to fine-tune and a couple of places where he wanted to mix up the dynamics.
‘I was also wondering whether you’d like to sing this,’ he said, pulling out some more sheet music from behind ‘O Holy Night’.
Sophie took it from him and looked through it. ‘“White Christmas”?’ It was a song from one of her favourite Christmas films. She’d watched it repeatedly with her father when she was little and they used to sing ‘Snow’ together, putting on all the individual voices. It brought a smile to her face.
Liam nodded. ‘It’s my favourite Christmas song and I think you could sing it really well. We could finish the concert with it. You could sing the first verse and then in the second verse the choir and the audience could join in. What do you think?’
‘I don’t know,’ Sophie said, biting her bottom lip. ‘The concert is less than two weeks away. Two or three rehearsals might not be enough to get both songs ready.’ The familiar feeling of fear crept into her mind – and her gag reflex – again.
‘I think you’d do a great job,’ he said.
It wasn’t much of a reason, but it annoyed Sophie by how much she wavered just because of his confidence in her.
‘Can we try it at least?’
Sophie pulled a face. It was a bit of an ask and she would usually shy away from such a public responsibility. For some reason, though, she’d let herself get in too deep and she’d have to go with it now. There were too many people she might let down.
Liam said, ‘You’ll be fine. Ready?’
‘As I’ll ever be.’ She stood and felt that familiar feeling of her throat tightening and her heart beating faster. It was any wonder she remembered how to breathe once the panic set in. How would she ever get through a real-life concert?
Liam played once again, and Sophie sang. It might have been a first attempt, but it was pretty much perfect. Of course it was. She’d been singing along to it for decades. She knew the words by heart, and the nuance of Bing Crosby was in her muscle memory. Singing ‘White Christmas’ was like pulling on a worn, old but cherished Christmas jumper. When she finished, they remained silent as the final reverberation from the grand piano strings echoed away into nothing.
‘Do you have any idea how good you are?’ Liam asked.
Sophie blushed and folded her arms.
‘We’re going to have to work on your confidence. You come alive when you sing and hide away when you’ve finished as if the audience is going to judge you harshly.’
‘That’s what an audience does, though,’ she said. ‘They judge you.’
‘They won’t be judging you harshly, though, Soph.’
The way he said her name, so casual, so familiar. It made her breath catch.
‘They’ll be overwhelmed by how wonderful you are.’
She smiled and unfolded her arms.
‘That’s better,’ he said, turning back to the piano. ‘Shall we try it again? This time I want you to really focus on your intonation.’
‘OK.’ She nodded and began to sing.
‘Posture,’ Liam prompted, and she stood like he’d shown her before.
The afternoon flew by in Liam’s company and before long the sun was setting and the music room grew dark. Liam got up and turned on the lamp that sat on the sideboard.
‘Thank you for this afternoon,’ Sophie said. ‘I’m feeling much better about the whole thing and we’ve still got a couple of weeks’ practice.’
