abstract
| - The Man was sat alone drinking in the Weatherfield Arms one evening in February 2006 when after ordering their own drinks, Deirdre Barlow, Liz McDonald, Eileen Grimshaw and Frankie Baldwin sat beside him at the next table as the women - in high spirits, began openly discussing the faults possessed by members of the opposite sex. As the man's curiosity about their conversation grew, Frankie jokingly told him that they were out for the evening to celebrate Deirdre's divorce and clearly taken with her, he soon began chatting solely to Deirdre. Although she told him that her mother had warned her about his type, and initially laughed off his efforts to impress her, she eventually gave in to temptation and the pair shared a long, lingering kiss - cheered on by the trio of onlooking women. Deirdre's conscience was immediately pricked and confessed straight away to being married, and said that she'd only been having fun. Unimpressed, the man told her to be careful as she could end up getting into trouble by pulling such stunts and hurriedly left the pub. When a mortified Deirdre asked her friends what had possessed her to do such a thing, Frankie retorted "six glasses of red wine and a large gin & tonic". The following week, Deirdre told Emily Bishop about the drunken incident and explained how the man had found out where she worked and blackmailed her into approving his planning application by threatening to tell her husband Ken about the events of that evening. By the end of the month however, her boss had also found out about the planning application approval and Deirdre stood to lose her job. A tearful Deirdre eventually confessed all to a supportive Ken, who promised to stand by her.
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