As Eva Cassidy’s Who Knows Where the Time Goes played in the background, I strummed on my guitar before singing along. It was October 2017 and, feeling brave, I recorded myself on my phone and uploaded the video to Facebook. I’d been playing the guitar since I was 11 and had been in a few bands. Now, though, I was working in administration in a dental practice, so it was just a hobby. Still, when people on my Facebook page complimented me on my singing voice, it felt good, and when a man called Haithem wrote, ‘You have a beautiful voice,’ I felt flattered. ‘Thanks,’ I posted back.
Clicking onto his profile, I saw that he was good-looking but very young – early 30s, maybe. I was in the process