Page 35 of An Island in the Sun

Ollie did all the talking as they sat down. He was loud and all-encompassing, making Tabitha realise how much she’d mellowed over the last few years, slowly swapping touring the world and perpetual late-night drinking for a quieter life. He was upbeat and obviously pleased to see her and as they got all the niceties out of the way about how Ollie’s parents were and Tabitha’s family, it felt as if no time had passed and they’d slipped back into the comfortable friendship they’d once had. Yet there was much that needed to be said.

Ollie ordered a bottle of white wine and once the waiter had uncorked it and poured them each a glass, Tabitha knew it was time to turn the conversation to the real reason why she wanted to meet.

Ollie knocked his glass of wine against hers. ‘Cheers, Tabitha.’ He took a sip and shook his head. ‘It really is so good to see you.’

Tabitha took a deep breath. ‘You understand why we haven’t seen each other, right?’

Ollie leaned back and looked away.

Here we go, Tabitha thought, noticing how he crossed his arms, as if he was protecting himself. She assumed the people around him were all yes people, at his beck and call, praising him, sucking up to him, enjoying his fame and all its trappings. Tabitha didn’t care one jot about how famous he was because she still didn’t see him that way, even after all this time.

‘You’re talking about the song, right?’ he eventually said.

‘Of course I’m talking about the song!’ She hadn’t meant to raise her voice. Ollie flashed her a worried look. She lowered her tone. ‘Do you have any idea how much you hurt me?’

‘You wouldn’t talk to me, Tabitha.’ Ollie leaned forward and placed his glass on the table. ‘After the final, I tried calling you, messaging – I even turned up at your place later that week, remember, but you refused to see me.’

‘Because I was so angry with you, that’s why.Youdidn’t talk to me. You kept me in the dark about what you were going to do, led me to believe that you were going to sing our song, that my name would be mentioned live on TV as the co-writer. You must remember that you didn’t talk to me or reply to my messages during the two days leading up to the final show. I put it down to you being crazy busy with everything that was going on. But that wasn’t the case at all, was it? You were just avoiding me. It worked out rather well for you that I was too nervous to watch the final live at the studio so watched it at my parents’ house instead. The whole family was there, friends too, all squeezed into my parents’ living room, and then what happened, Ollie?’

His jaw clenched and he avoided meeting her eyes. ‘I sang our song,’ he mumbled.

‘And…’

‘Said I’d written it.’

Anger flashed through her. ‘Exactly.Claimedthat you’d written it. No mention of me whatsoever.’

She waited for him to say something, but he took a long swig of his wine instead.

She sighed. ‘Why didn’t you talk to me? Why weren’t you upfront about what you were planning on doing?’

‘And what, you’d have been okay with that?’ He kept his voice low, but tension ebbed through it.

‘Probably not, but you never gave me the chance. You were cowardly, hiding what you were going to do, allowing me to believe that you were going to tell the world about the songIwrote, and instead, you made a fool of me in front of everyone. That was what was unforgivable.’

‘I had my reasons.’

‘I’m sure you did; I just wished you’d shared them with me, like a friend would have done.’ She picked up her glass and took a gulp, the smooth, dry wine now bitter on her tongue. Animated chatter from the surrounding poolside tables mixed with the catchy beat of Dua Lipa’s ‘Levitating’ distracted her for a moment. She frowned and turned back to Ollie. ‘What were your reasons?’

Ollie’s nostrils flared. ‘Bad judgement and a misguided decision.’

‘It was your decision to claim the song as yours, was it? Or were you influenced?’

‘Of course I was influenced,’ Ollie said sharply. He glanced around and lowered his voice. ‘Do you have any idea of the pressure I was under? Once I was a part of the show, it was a total rollercoaster, pulled in all directions, and the further I got, the more pressure there was. It was a money-making exercise and I was deemed to be someone who could make the record label a lot of money.’

‘Even before you won?’ she said in disbelief.

‘Yeah, the whole way through the competition – it was all leading to me winning.’

‘Are you saying it was fixed?’

‘No, of course not. But the producers, hell, everyone on the show, the judges included,’ he stressed, ‘felt it would be an even bigger final and sound even better if it was announced that I’d written the song.’

‘Well, you got all the attention you wanted, totally focused on you, didn’t you?’ She was trying so hard to control her churning anger, that her hands ached from gripping the edges of her chair. ‘By leaving my name out of it, you didn’t have to share the limelight. You understand that sort of platform would have made my career – at the very least it would have got me noticed by the people who mattered.’

‘You got there, though; look how well you’re doing.’ He leaned close, nudging his shoulder against hers as if trying to make light of the situation.

‘You have no idea.’ Tabitha shook her head. ‘I stopped writing for months – my confidence was knocked by your betrayal. I felt like I’d missed my big break, while I watched your career skyrocket. Not to mention you cheated me out of royalties. But I picked myself up, started gigging again, played guitar, met the right people and wound up getting bigger and bigger gigs until I was touring the world with One Love.’

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