The taxi was out of sight. That was it, chance blown, she was gone forever.

John drove his Nana home in a slight daze, not quite able to process what had just happened. He went back to his house, took the quiche out of the fridge, sat on the sofa and switched on Sky.

The next morning he drove the usual route to pick Kayleigh up as though he was on auto-pilot. It didn't even dawn on him where he was until he was almost there. He saw her walking out the gate as he rounded the corner. He pulled up next to her and opened the passenger side window.

"You alright?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to pick you up."

"I meant what I said John, I'm getting out of your life."

"Come on Kayleigh, just get in the car."

"No, I'm going on the bus." She sighed. "Just leave me alone, please." She continues on her way down the road, without so much as a glance back.

He sat there for a moment watching her walk away for the second time in the space of 24 hours, it broke his heart but there was nothing he could do. He snapped back to reality when a car behind him beeped and he drove off to work on his own.

All day he tried to find an excuse to talk to her but every time he gets close she avoids him as if he's Stink Ray. It's not until after lunch that Dave Thompson informs him she's declined to be part of his Christmas team.

At the end of the day, he waits for her by his car on the off chance she'll let him drive her home. When she eventually leaves she doesn't look at him once as she walks down the side of the carpark towards the tram station. He doesn't bother trying to go after her, choosing instead to drive straight home and watch the Brian Cox documentary he's been saving.

The next day John just drives straight to work on his own in silence, without Forever FM or even 5 Live on for company. The whole day his thoughts are occupied by her, what he should have said, what he should have done. By the end of the day, he can't take it anymore. This is his chance he tells himself as he drives towards Our Mandy's house. Steve's in the driveway messing with one of the wheels on his motorbike. He stands up and wipes his hands when he sees the red Fiat 500L pull up.

"Steve," John calls as he steps out the car.

"Ah John, ya' alright?"

"Yeah, just wondered if Kayleigh was around? I need to talk to her about something."

"Haven't seen you the last couple days. Why haven't you been taking her to work?"

"Hasn't Kayleigh said anything?"

"No, well not to me."

"Is she here now?"

"She is but I wouldn't talk to her if I were you." John looked confusingly at Steve. "She may not 'ave said anything to me but she did talk to Mandy. She's not your biggest fan at the moment John, not that I know the reason why, but even so, might be best to leave it for a bit. Whatever you've fallen out about, I won't lie, she's pretty cut up about it."

"Oh, alright. I guess I'll be on me way then."

"Ok, see soon mate," Steve slaps John on the back before he walks back to his car and drives away.

"I don't know what to do Mandy, I told him I loved him and he didn't say anything. He still hasn't. It's so difficult at work. I'm avoiding him while trying to dodge questions from everyone else about 'us', which is ridiculous because we're not an us and we never will be. If I wasn't so mad at him I'd cry!"

Mandy raises her eyebrows at her sister.

"Alright I might have shed a tear but, urgh, I have a good mind to phone in sick tomorrow just to have a break from it all."

"What would that solve? We've been over this, I don't know how many times. As far as I can see you have two options. Talk to him, get a definite answer from him one way or another. He never said he didn't feel the same, give him one more chance to speak his mind. You owe it to yourself. The other option is carrying on ignoring him and dodging questions at work."

"Or I could phone in sick."

"That's temporarily avoiding the problem. Just talk to him, you'll regret it if you don't. You can't ignore him forever you know."

"I could get another job, or transfer to another branch."

"Do what you want, you will anyway. Lord knows you never listen to me. My advice if you want to hear it, do what you need to do, talk to him. You have to do something because doing nothing isn't helping. If you want to go over what you're going to say to him I'm here ok?" Mandy stood up and gave Kayleigh a hug before leaving the bedroom and walking downstairs.

Kayleigh sat still for a moment before going to her bedroom door and calling after Mandy. "I didn't say I'd talk to him!"

"I'm your sister, I know you better than you do!" She heard the reply echo up the stairs. Kayleigh slammed the door and sat down in a huff, tightly hugging a pillow. She really hated this.

The next say she makes her decision… she phones in sick.

John looks out for Kayleigh all morning. It's at lunchtime that he finds out she's off sick. He can't stop thinking about her, he needs to know she's ok. He keeps trying to phone her throughout the afternoon but it goes straight to voicemail every time.

After work, he drives the familiar route to her house once again and is met by Steve messing around with his bikes as per usual.

"What are you doing here?" Steve calls to John as he climbs out his car.

"Kayleigh phoned into work sick, I just wanted to make sure she's ok. I tried to phone her but all I get is her voicemail."

"She's fine, she threw a sickie. Mandy said it's because of you."

"What?"

"People at work keep bugging her about you two's relationship? I don't know, Mandy won't tell me everything and what she does tell me, I'll be honest, I'm only half listening."

Kayleigh looks out her bedroom window and sees John talking to Steve on the driveway. She ducks below the windowsill so he won't see her before dashing towards the door and down the stairs.

"Mandy, Mandy, John's outside talking to Steve."

"Is he? Now's your chance to talk to him!"

"What?! No, I'm not talking to him. I want him to leave."

"Well wait long enough and he will. Steve knows you don't want to see him so he won't let him in."

"Can't you just tell him to go?"

"If you want him gone that badly you'll have to go outside and tell him yourself."

"You're no help at all!" Kayleigh turns around to go back upstairs before looking towards her sister once more. "You could just find out what they're talking about?"

"If you want to know find out yourself."

"Fine I will," she runs back upstairs to her room and slowly opens the window before sitting down the under the window, straining her ears trying to hear what they're saying.

"So what your saying is it's my fault but I can't talk to her and try to put things right because she won't talk to me?"

"I'd let you go up and see her but that would be the end of me as far as Mandy's concerned."

"Women!"

"Tell me about it!" There was a moment of silence.

"Guess I'll be off then." John sighed.

"Alright mate, maybe see you around."

"Yep." John stalked back towards his car half upset, half angry. "This time I'm really done." He muttered under his breath.

"Wait, John! Wait a minute!" He turned back to see Kayleigh leaning out an upstairs window. As soon as he'd stopped walking she disappeared only to reappear a moment later at the front door. She strode towards his car, handbag resting on her shoulder. She pulled open the passenger door, got in and slammed it shut. He stood there for a moment gawking at her then ran round to the driver's side. He sat in the car and turned to look at her. She stared straight ahead.

"Just drive John." She said flatly not taking her eyes off the road. He switched on the ignition and pulled away from the kerb.

They drive in silence. Every few minutes John glances over at her but she just stares at the road ahead, the same cold expression on her face.

"Where do you want to go?" He asks tentatively.

"I don't care, somewhere we can talk." She sighs.

John drives for about 15 minutes before parking in a car park outside a cafe.

"Do you want to go in and a get a drink?" He said eyeing her carefully.

"No," she took a deep breath before turning to him. "You said to Steve you want to talk to me to put things right."

"Yes?"

"Well talk!"

"Oh ok, well, erm, the thing is," He turned away from her, looking around at the cars parked next to them. "When I asked you to be on the Christmas team, I was going to ask if you fancied going out at some point, you know, spend some time together outside work, you could come see Compendium play a gig or something. Then the monkey pissed all over the roof of the car and the moment was ruined."

"Oh… why didn't you say that last week, when I said, and we were…" she trailed off.

"You caught me off guard! I didn't know what to say! I didn't think we'd do that then and I just wasn't ready, wasn't prepared." He paused and muttered under his breath, "to tell the truth I'm not ready now." He turned his gaze back towards her before continuing. "The fact is if you'd just stayed in the bloody car you'd know how I feel because the truth is, Kayleigh Kitson, I love you."

Kayleigh looked down at her lap trying to hide the grin that spread over her face before turning to face him.

"I love you too." They slowly leant in towards each other. Sparks flew as their lips met for the first time, her hand drifting to the back of his head, holding him close to her. He could feel her smile against his lips as they pulled away from each other.

"So," he smiled.

"So," she giggled.

"What d'ya want to do now?"

"Take me home!" She continued to grin at him.

"Oh I thought we were going to…" his face fell as he gestured towards the cafe, "alright, yes." He started putting his seat belt back on.

"John," he looked at her.

"I mean your home,"

"Oh, oh, let's go back to mine then."

They were both grinning as he threw the car into reverse and set off towards his house. They had been driving for less than a minute when Kayleigh reached over and turned on the radio.

"There, that's better," she said happily as the sound of Forever FM playing 'More Than A Feeling' by Boston filled the car.