Anna
Good
My snort of laughter went utterly ignored.
Patrick was too busy muttering under his breath. ‘I can’t believe it’s gone viral this quickly.’
I tried to focus as a waiter stepped silently to our table and started removing what was left of my main – something in French that I could never hope to pronounce but had wolfed down.
‘You can’t believe it? Thanks.’ I smiled at the waiter before turning back to my … date, I guess? ‘But you’ve gone viral loads of times.’
There was – was that a flush across Patrick’s cheeks?
Surely not.
‘Not like this,’ he mumbled, gaze still fixed on his phone. ‘Not for anything … personal.’
Just a moment of sympathy, that was all I allowed him. Shit, I wouldn’t want my private life splashed all over the internet, a Wikipedia page telling the world what school I went to and who I’d dated.
The sympathy departed quickly.
‘So,’ Patrick said bracingly. ‘Are you enjoying it?’
My jaw dropped. ‘You think Ilikethis – that this is fun for me? I’m being hounded!’
Patrick blinked, confusion sweeping across his face. ‘Hounded?’
‘Yeah, there are journalists and paps and weirdos literally camping outside my house,’ I said quietly, remembering with an uncomfortable twist in my chest just how difficult it had been to get out of there this morning. ‘My housemates aren’t happy, I can’t go to work –’
‘I meant the food.’ Patrick pointed awkwardly at the table between us. ‘Are you enjoying it? The food?’
Oh. Right.Embarrassment flooded through me. ‘Yeah, the food was amazing.’
The company less so.
Not that I should care. This whole thing was only for Laura’s sake – something I had reminded her of sternly this morning. There was nothing in the contract that said we had to have a good time, even if I’d had dreams about riding this man until dawn.
But that was just the hormones talking. A nice, perfectly normal stranger was what I needed to scratch that particular itch.
But I wouldn’t be doing anything like that for the next five weeks. Thanks to Section 18.
Section 18: Other connections
Patrick Tetlow and Jessica Donovan, subsequently known as the co-signed, will agree to pause and not return to any other romantic or sexual relationships for the duration of the strategy.
My gaze roamed over the man sitting before me.
Other romantic or sexual relationships. Not something I had to worry about: Ross had done a brilliant job of making sure of that. But had Patrick been forced to shut down a relationship just to make this work?
Was that who this Cassie Fletcher was? A woman he’d been seeing until I’d come along and ruined it all?
God, it was moments like this that made me desperate to have Mum back. She wouldn’t have had anything useful to say, her own dating life had always been a disaster. But still. We could have laughed together.
‘Dessert menu,mademoiselle,’ murmured the waiter.
I jumped. I hadn’t noticed him return. ‘Oh – thanks. Patrick?’
Patrick shrugged without looking up. ‘Whatever you want.’
