‘You have magic, I mean it,’ he whispered. ‘Please believe me, Charlie. You can’t ignore what happened just now.’

We stood there, frozen in the moment. I could barely catch my breath.

‘I think I’m going to get you into trouble,’ I told him.

His eyes widened. ‘I think so too,’ he said.

‘With the band, I mean!’ I retorted quickly. ‘I mean, I hope I don’t get you into trouble with the band. Sounds like the others are here now.’

Our hands parted and he rubbed his forehead, which told me he’d been thinking of a totally different kind of trouble.

‘Yeah, yeah, the band. That’s what you meant,’ he said, then looked at the ceiling and blew out a long breath.

That accent of his was a killer and could get me into trouble any day, I thought. I closed my eyes for a second. I wanted him to reach out and touch me again, to tell me that he didn’t care if he got into trouble. He said I had magic. He said I was amazing. He said so many things I’d never been told before and I wanted to pause this moment so that we didn’t have to just leave it at this.

I wanted more of Tom Farley and when I opened my eyes I could see from the pain in his face that he wanted more of me, too.

‘I suppose I should make a move,’ he said, but his eyes told me he didn’t want to go. I didn’t want him to go either.

Now that we’d stopped singing, I could hear the rest of the band members chatting in the kitchen. Matthew was going to kill me. Not only had I taken up so much of Tom’s time and attention, but I’d also taken over the living room with our unplanned mini concert which was totally stealing his thunder.

Tom whispered to me.

‘Look, Charlie, between you and me,’ he said. ‘I know some people who aren’t a million miles away right now who would die to have just an ounce of the talent you have. You can’t just hide these songs away or ignore this gift you have. You must send your songs out to some record companies. Believe me, you’d be signed up in seconds.’

Record companies? I’d never even thought of doing such a thing, yet I felt a wave of imagination flood my mind. I laughed out loud at the idea.

‘You mean, do this for a living?’ I asked him. ‘Write songs? As a job?’

I laughed again, but he nodded as if it was just as simple as that.