“I can only apologize for being so predictable. You don’t have any spare heels lurking in your office, do you, Cosmo?”
He looks appalled. “I beg your pardon.”
“Worth a shot. If you—”
I stop midsentence on seeing Ryan approaching our corner. He’s wearing a full-on tux and is busy fiddling with one of thecuffs of his shirt, sorting his cuff links, I think, before bringing his eyes up to meet mine. His eyebrows lift in surprise before the corner of his mouth twitches into a smile.
“Nice dress,” he comments.
“Nice tux,” I reply. “I forgot you were going tonight.”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
I snort. “You hate black tie.”
“I can put up with it for one night.”
“Great to have you attending tonight, Jansson,” Cosmo declares, patting him on the arm. “The crowd will be a real mix of who’s who. Lucky we have someone like you there to bag us some good interviews, eh? I best be off, I have a dinner reservation.”
I glare as he bustles away, while Ryan has the decency to look embarrassed. When he’s gone, Ryan puts his hands in his pockets and looks at me expectantly.
“If you want to put your shoes on, Harper, we can share a taxi.”
“I can’t put my shoes on. I only have one.”
He blinks at me. “What?”
“You can go on ahead and I’ll see you there,” I sigh, pulling my trainers back out from my bag. “I need to stop by a shoe shop on the way to buy some heels.”
“Okay, well, if you’re quick, I might as well come with you,” Ryan offers, checking his watch. “We have time, and it’s not so fun showing up alone to these things. I’ll just grab my things from my desk.”
He strolls away, and as I slip on my trainers, I notice Mimi giving me a funny look.
“What?” I ask.
“How do you know he doesn’t like black tie events?” she whispers.
“I don’t know.” I shrug, feeling the heat rise in my cheeks. “He must have mentioned it when I was talking about going to this thing tonight.”
She doesn’t look convinced, eyeing me suspiciously.
“Harper,” Ryan says from the end of our station of desks, having retrieved his wallet and phone. “Ready?”
Ignoring Mimi’s prying eyes, I walk over, feeling ridiculous in this dress with my trainers on. We make our way through the open-plan office toward the exit, and he waits until we’re out of earshot of everyone to say he actually thinks I can pull off the trainers with the black-tie dress look.
“If you’re trying to persuade me not to bother with the shoe shopping, I’m afraid it won’t work,” I inform him haughtily. “It’s essential that we stop for some appropriate shoes on the way. Don’t worry, though. I won’t take long. I can be very decisive when I want to be.”
“I don’t doubt it. And I wasn’t trying to put you off shoe shopping,” he insists. “I was genuinely trying to pay you a compliment.”
“That I can pull off trainers?”
“That you look good in that dress.”
Looking bemused by my stunned reaction, he pulls the door open and gestures outside.
“Shall we?”
By the time we arrive at the charity ball, Ryan is in a slightly worse mood than when we left, having had to put up with me trying on almost every pair of heels in the shop and then deciding to go with the first pair I selected. I’m in a much better mood myself, because I now have two shoes, which is great,andRyan said my legs look good in these shoes. I mean, I sort of forced him to say it, but it still counts.
