When Polly Met Olly: A fantastically uplifting romantic comedy for 2019!. Zoe May

warmest people I know.

      Gabe and I catch up on a bit of gossip, sipping our drinks, while we wait for Jim and Sanjay to arrive. The bar starts filling up with an after-work crowd and someone turns the music up. The atmosphere is actually pretty good for 7 p.m. on a Wednesday night and I can tell by the way Gabe is looking curiously around the bar – taking in the flash punters that have also chosen this place over the pretentious bars down the road – that he’s beginning to reassess his view of Milano’s. It beats those poncey city bars hands down, and I can practically see him making a mental note to come here again.

      ‘What’s up party people!?’ Sanjay bellows as he approaches our table. A few other drinkers turn to look as he barrels over, embracing us in big hugs. Jim trails behind a little sheepishly.

      It turns out Sanjay is in such high spirits because he’s just snapped up a disused bar in a property auction and has big plans to renovate it and make a fortune.

      ‘Let’s celebrate! Drinks are on me!’ he announces, before heading to the bar to get a round.

      Jim fills us in on some news from The Eagle.

      ‘A new guy came in for a singing audition today,’ he says, causing Gabe’s ears to prick up.

      ‘A new guy?’ Gabe asks.

      ‘Yeah. He’s a George Michael lookalike. Spitting image. And he sounds the same too.’

      ‘What?! But we do drag queens at The Eagle, not lookalikes,’ Gabe huffs, clearly not impressed with the idea of having the spotlight on someone else.

      ‘I don’t think that’s set in stone!’ Jim says. ‘It’s just kind of happened that way that it tends to be drag queens that perform. Sanjay doesn’t seem opposed to having lookalikes, or cover artists as they prefer to be known.’

      ‘Cover artists?!’ Gabe sneers, knocking back the last of his drink. ‘What is The Eagle? A cruise ship?’

      Jim shrugs, looking a little awkward. Unlike me, he doesn’t quite understand how protective Gabe gets about The Eagle. Gabe loves singing there. It’s his only creative outlet these days and I think he sees it as his place with his fans. He’s already sidelined his singing ambitions enough, the last thing he needs is to get sidelined at The Eagle too.

      Fortunately, Sanjay arrives back at the table with our drinks. He’s carrying a tray loaded, and I mean loaded, with drinks.

      ‘Oh my God!’ I gawp at the shots – a rainbow array of tinted spirits that make me feel nauseous just looking at them.

      Gabe reaches for a yellow coloured shot before Sanjay’s even managed to place the tray down on the table.

      ‘Congratulations, mate!’ he says, toasting Sanjay with the shot glass, before knocking it back.

      Sanjay tells us all about his plans for his new bar, awhile we all down shots. It feels like we’re back at The Eagle, at one of the lock-ins we’d have after work, where we’d sit up until the early hours of the morning chatting rubbish and setting the world to rights. I’m feeling happy and fuzzy inside, not just from the company but from the booze too.