‘Yeah,’ she said cautiously.
‘I wanted to talk to you. I mean, I wasn’t hiding anything. I rang you the next day, but your mother had died so…’ He shrugged. ‘And then it never felt like the right time to bring it up.’
‘I hadn’t seen any of it at that stage anyway. I hadn’t been on Twitter.’
‘I thought you probably hadn’t. So then I thought it would all just blow over and there was no need to upset you with it.’
‘You didn’t think I had a right to know?’
‘Know what?’ he asked. ‘Nothing happened. It was a lot of idle gossip.’
Claire raised a sceptical eyebrow. ‘Nothing happened?’
He looked at her silently as if weighing something up. Then he seemed to come to a decision. ‘Okay.’ He sighed. ‘Full disclosure. We kissed. But that’s all, I promise. It was a mistake, and I’m sorry. Sophie and I have this… thing. I suppose it was unfinished business, but it won’t happen again.’
‘Sophie seemed to be reading an awful lot into a kiss.’
‘That’s just Sophie.’
‘And what about New York?’
‘Look, I won’t lie – she made it clear she wants us to get back together. But nothing happened, I promise.’ He took her hand. ‘So, can you forgive me?’ he asked, looking earnestly into her eyes.
She took a deep breath. ‘I forgive you, but?—’
‘Thank Christ for that,’ he said, putting an arm around her. ‘Because I really don’t want to lose you.’
She wriggled out of his embrace. ‘I hadn’t finished. I said I forgive you, Mark,’ she said, looking down at her hands. ‘But that doesn’t mean I want to be with you.’
‘You don’t think you can trust me again,’ he said. ‘But Sophie and I are over, I swear.’
‘I don’t think you’ll ever be over, not really. You love her, don’t you?’
‘No, I?—’
‘You may not want to,’ she continued, as he shook his head, ‘but I think you do. Whether you do something about it or not, she’ll always be there, and anyone else is going to feel like second best. And no one should settle for second best.’
He looked at her in silence, his expression anguished and confused, as if he was going through some sort of internal struggle.
‘Oh, fuck.’ He huffed out a breath, propping his forehead on the heel of his hand. ‘I do love her, don’t I?’ He peered up at Claire from beneath his lashes.
‘Yeah, you do.’ She laughed wryly. ‘Tough luck!’
He smiled at her fondly. ‘You don’t hate me?’
‘No, I don’t hate you. Full disclosure – you got lucky. Because I’m in love with someone else too, as it happens.’
‘Well, I hope he’s a better prospect than Sophie, whoever he is.’
‘Not really. He’s not into anything serious.’
‘God, why can’t we just be in love with each other? We’d be great together,’ he observed.
‘I know! We’re perfect on paper.’
‘We’re both nice, we both want commitment…’
‘At least you know Sophie wants to be with you.’
