“Have you changed your mind about that drink, then?” I ask, pretending to be totally fine with this. “Because it’s no problem if you have. We can do it another night. I’m cool.”
Alex chuckles.
“No you’re not,” he says, sounding much more like his usual self. “But you’re about to be. Look.”
I turn and look in the direction he’s pointing, but all I see is the door of the entertainment area; the one with the stage where they held the karaoke the other night. My entire body cringes reflexively at the memory.
“What am I looking at? I don’t understand?”
“The stage,” says Alex, looking pleased with himself. “You’re going to go on stage. Right now.”
“Oh, hell no,” I say, crossing my arms firmly across my chest to underline my determinationnotto do this. “Absolutely not. You saw what happened the last time. I’m never singing in front of people again. Like,ever.”
“Well, from what I saw, you didn’t actuallysingin front of anyone the first time,” Alex points out. “You just stood there and made this weird choking noise. It sounded a bit like—”
“Yeah, I remember,” I interject crossly. “You don’t have to re-enact it for me. I feel bad enough just thinking about it.”
“Okay, okay. But, look, you don’t have to sing in front of people this time either. It’s closed tonight. There’s no one there.”
“Oh. Right.”
I take a closer look at the door to the stage area. Sure enough, the cavernous space behind it is in darkness; not a single orange-skinned singer or chirpy member of the ‘animation team’ in sight.
“So, why are you showing me it?” I ask, confused. “I’m not following?”
Alex grins devilishly.
“I said you don’t have to sing forpeople,” he says. “But you can sing foryourself, can’t you? For practice. And there’s a handy empty stage right here for you to do it on.”
I blink, still confused.
“You want me to sing to an empty room?” I ask. “For practice? Practice for what, though?”
“For the end of the week,” Alex says, sounding pleased with himself. “When you enter the karaoke contest and blow everyone away withthat voice of yours. And it won’t be atotallyempty room, either. I’ll be there.”
“You’re ‘people’,” I point out. “So that would still be me singing for ‘people’, wouldn’t it? And anyway, you have no idea what kind of voice I have. You’ve never heard me. The ‘choking’ incident doesn’t count.”
“Summer, I’m staying in the room next to yours,” Alex says, looking me right in the eye. “The walls are thinner than you think, you know. And you take really long showers, just FYI. It’s terrible for the environment, but excellent entertainment if you happen to be in the room next door.”
I gape at him, thinking about my habit of singing in the shower, and how I belted out the entire ten-minute version ofAll Too Wellthis very morning.
Please let him not have heard that. Please let him not have heard that.
“What’s the significance of the scarf?” asks Alex thoughtfully, dashing my hopes to the ground. “Is it a metaphor, or is there anactualscarf, do you think?”
“Oh God,” I moan, covering my face with my hands. “I’m mortified. Completely mortified.”
“Don’t be,” he replies briskly. “You have an amazing voice. Really. And I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t believe it; trust me. I never say anything I don’t believe.”
“Yeah, I kind of got that about you.”
I look from the closed door of the entertainment area to Alex, then back again.
He really sounds like he means what he’s saying. But I still feel horribly shy at the thought of singing in front of him. It’s not so long ago that I thought he was the most annoying man I’ve ever met, after all; one who’d judge and sneer, and probably laugh all the way back to his room the second I got the first note out.
But if tonight’s shown me anything, it’s that Alex Fox is not any of those things. And he’s looking at me now with that line between his brows still faintly visible, and an expression in his eyes that makes me somehow sure I can trust him.
“Look, I just poured my heart out to you about my doomed marriage, and how it’s all my fault,” he says, as if he can sense me wavering. “Which is pretty embarrassing for a guy, really. The least you could do is at leastconsiderembarrassing yourself in return. Not that I think you will, obviously. I’ve heard you singing that scarf song too many times now.”
