‘Thanks. Can I be honest and say I really don’t want to talk about it?’
‘This is me – of course.’
Luke is the only person who has ever called me Scar. Others have tried, Lord knows everyone tried at school, and I’ve always dismissed it. But Luke calling me Scar always sounded right somehow.
‘So before you try to schmooze me into giving you work – don’t look at me like that; if you weren’t schmoozing, we’d be headed to a club on a Saturday night, not sitting in a coffee shop amongst a load of suits on a Monday morning. So, before you talk business, tell me something new. Anything.’
Something new about me, the woman who works hard, cares for her dad and plays a tiny amount.
‘Well, actually.’ I play with my coffee cup, rolling my finger around the cardboard rim. ‘I’m sort of, kind of?—’
Then I stop mid-sentence, distracted by a man ducking his head behind a tabloid. ‘Excuse me for a minute, Luke.’
I stomp from our table to where Jackson’s sitting and snatch the tabloid from his grip. ‘Tell me he hasn’t sent you to spy on me.’
‘He hasn’t sent me to spy on you.’
‘He’s such a dick.’ I growl. ‘I’m not going to make a scene in a coffee shop so can you please just leave?’
‘I have a coffee.’
‘Leave your coffee, or take it with you, I don’t care, but don’t sit here and watch me from behind your newspaper.’
‘Scarlett, you know I can’t leave.’
I grind my teeth and breathe heavily out of my flaring nostrils. If I could breathe fire, I would fly to Gregory’s office and blow my red-hot flames all over him. But Jackson is just doing his job, taking orders from Mr Irrational Dickhead Bazillionaire CEO.
‘Fine.’
‘Fine.’
Irritated beyond all imaginable belief, I stride huffily back to Luke.
‘You were saying?’ He looks like he’s suppressing a laugh at my tantrum but he knows better than to tease me.
‘Never mind.’ I refuse to tell anyone about how truly smitten I am with the annoying, controlling, enigmatic, most mesmerising man I’ve ever met. Because he’s also a dick. ‘What’s new about you?’
‘Erm, single again.’
‘You are? Since when?’
‘About ten weeks. In fact, not about ten weeks, ten weeks and two days as of eleven twenty-two this morning.’
‘Gosh, I can’t believe it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other. I’m sorry, you guys were great together. What happened?’
‘Apparently, it’s not me, I have a lot to offer but I just don’t look like the dream man.’
‘You’re kidding!’ Of all the reasons Luke might be dumped, being unattractive is just not one of them. When he asked me out to dinner at uni, I couldn’t believe it. What would a guy like him want with a girl like me? He was shabby then; he had rugged, tousled, brown locks and he used to wear slim-fit jeans and Converse, back when Converse weren’t really that cool. His amazing, piercing-blue eyes used to be the topic of every girl’s conversation. ‘Well, you know, a lot of people are probably counting their lucky stars that you’re back on the market.’
He rests his hand on top of mine, leans his head to one side and blows me an air kiss. My smile is short-lived when I remember my stalker watching me from behind his newspaper.
‘And how’s work?’ I coax.
‘Okay, okay, we have to go there at some point. Actually, I got promoted.’
I already know that, courtesy of Amanda. ‘You did? Congrats.’
‘Well thanks and congrats to you too. It means I can manage my own budget for external advisors.’
