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When they finished the sing-through, a couple of the sopranos on the front row turned to look at Sophie expectantly. In her mind, she’d stumbled back, sliding chairs to either side, and was running away. In reality, Liam was saying something, and she was ignoring him.
‘Sophie?’ It definitely sounded like it wasn’t the first time he’d said her name. People were looking in her direction. ‘You don’t need to come up to the front, but would you mind singing your verse so that everyone knows when to come in?’
Sophie nodded and a very tiny ‘Yes’ came out of her mouth, her voice cracking.
Liam moved to the piano while Greg gave Sophie an emphatic thumbs up. She swallowed several times during the introductory melody, her throat dry. She just knew her voice was going to break. After a deep breath in, she sang.
When she finished her verse, she looked up from the floor to see smiling faces and encouragement. She was relieved to hear the rest of the choir join in with her as they moved to the second verse. Everyone faced forward to follow Liam’s timing and the whole excruciating moment passed. Kate squeezed her knee. ‘You did it.’
It hadn’t been her best performance, but it certainly hadn’t been her worst either, and everyone else seemed to be worried about their own singing now, anyway. She smiled to herself, pleased and dare she say a little proud to have pulled it off. Liam caught her eye as she glanced up, and he smiled across the room at her. A nod of approval. Sadness at what had happened between them twisted in her stomach.
Now she was primed, it came as no surprise that Liam later asked her to perform the main solo to the group. She knew why he was doing it – he knew too well that she needed a confidence boost with her singing. He’d probably planned it before everything had gone wrong. Still, the element of surprise wasn’t ideal, and Sophie felt a little hurt that he hadn’t warned her.
She did her best, which was OK for today. Albert from the rotary club gave a standing ovation, and Greg probably would have joined him too if not for his gammy knee playing up again. Instead, he kind of wobbled up and down on his chair and bent down to rub his knee when he got a bit too excited.
‘We’re a week and a bit away from show day!’ Sophie announced at the end of rehearsal. Her voice might have sounded excited, but the truth was she felt a little nauseous at the thought of it being so soon. ‘Everything sounds wonderful. I have no doubt that we’ll put on a fantastic Christmas concert.’ Everyone applauded, and Albert let out a whoop. ‘Remember to sell as many tickets as you can to family and friends. You all deserve to be heard and we need to make as much money as possible for this year’s charity. Thanks, everyone!’ Another round of applause punctuated the end of her pep talk.
Sophie made her way back through the crowd and helped Kate put on her coat. She was acutely aware of Liam, who tidied up the music stand and then rolled the piano back into the music cupboard. Half of her wanted to run away and never speak to him again, bruised by embarrassment; the other half of her knew he deserved an apology, even if she couldn’t give him anything else. Most of her wanted to get out of there. Before she could decide what to do – or be given orders by Kate – Liam made his way over to them and interrupted their exit.
‘Have you got a minute, Soph?’ He reached for Sophie’s arm. She flinched at his touch like it had passed on a burn. Not that she found it unpleasant, just unexpected.
‘Kate and I were going to pop to the pub for a drink, actually.’ Sophie surprised herself at the assertive tone her voice took. Even Kate looked a little shocked.
‘It’s OK, Sophie,’ Kate said.
Sophie turned back to her friend and widened her eyes, pleading with her to understand what she was saying. She couldn’t talk to Liam alone yet. She wasn’t ready. Her body was still recovering from the wave of adrenaline that singing the solo had caused. That Liam had caused.
But Kate didn’t take the hint, or rather chose to ignore it. ‘I’m pretty tired, anyway. I’m sure you two need a little more time to rehearse the solo. Not that it wasn’t great.’ She winked.
Sophie protested immediately, ‘Actually—’
But Liam cut her off. ‘Thanks, Kate,’ he said, and Kate turned to leave, turning back to smile at Sophie.
Sophie watched her go, imaginary daggers flying through the air into Kate’s back. She would most definitely be having words in the morning. Big fat serious ones.
Sophie followed Liam back over towards the piano as everyone else began to disappear, and at last they were alone. She could feel the heat creeping up her neck, flushing her face, and she inhaled a sharp intake of breath.
‘Was everything OK with the songs tonight?’ she asked, desperate to fill the silence. She wanted to know she’d done an all right job.
‘You were great,’ Liam said, sitting at the piano. ‘Can we just do that ending again?’
She leant on the top of the piano. ‘I know I messed up.’ She wasn’t entirely sure that she was talking about the solo. She clarified, ‘You didn’t warn me about singing in front of everyone. I was nervous.’ She frowned.
‘I’m not sorry. You need to see how good you are and I don’t think you realise it just yet.’
‘I’m not sure tonight was the way to go about it. It felt like a bit of an ambush.’ She surprised herself with her honesty.
Liam had the decency to look guilty. He shuffled the sheet music on the piano more than he probably needed to. ‘I’m sorry.’ He sounded like he meant it.
Sophie regarded him silently for a moment. He looked up from underneath his curls, that lopsided smile that was so attractive to her making her chest flutter.
‘I know why you did it. I just wasn’t prepared, that’s all.’
‘No.’ Liam stood and came around the side of the piano, leaning on the opposite edge. ‘I mean I’m sorry about what happened … at the weekend.’ He picked at the corner of his music book where the page had become dog-eared.
‘You did nothing wrong.’ Sophie looked down at her own music and pulled her jumper sleeves down over her hands. ‘I panicked.’
‘I’m sorry that I behaved in a way that made you panic.’ He reached across for her hand, took it briefly in his own and then let go. ‘It was never my intention.’
