'No!' I say in alarm. 'No, Katie, don't do that.'
'But I want to!' She leans forward and gives me a hug. 'That's what friends are for!'
It's another twenty minutes before we finish our second cappuccinos and head back for the
office. As we approach the Panther building I glance at my watch and see with a lurch that
we've been gone thirty-five minutes in all.
'Isn't it amazing we're getting new coffee machines?' says Katie as we hurry up the steps.
'Oh… yes. It's great.'
My stomach has started to churn at the thought of facing Jack Harper again. I haven't felt so
nervous since I took my grade one clarinet exam and when the examiner asked me what my
name was I burst into tears.
'Well, see you later,' says Katie as we reach the first floor. 'And thanks, Emma.'
'No problem,' I say. 'See you later.'
As I start to walk along the corridor towards the marketing department, I'm aware that my
legs aren't moving quite as quickly as usual. In fact, as the door is nearing, they're getting
slower, and slower… and slower…
One of the secretaries from Accounts overtakes me, with a brisk high-heeled pace, and gives
me an odd look.
Oh God. I can't go in there.
Yes I can. It'll be fine. I'll just sit down very quietly and get on with my work. Maybe he won't
even notice me.
Come on. The longer I leave it, the worse it'll be. I take a deep breath, close my eyes, take a
few steps into the marketing department, and open them.
There's a hubbub around Artemis's desk, and no sign of Jack Harper.
'I mean, maybe he's going to rethink the whole company,' someone's saying.
'I've heard this rumour he's got a secret project…'
'He can't completely centralize the marketing function,' Artemis is saying, trying to raise her
voice above everyone else's.
'Where's Jack Harper?' I say, trying to sound casual.
'He's gone,' says Nick, and I feel a whoosh of relief. Gone! He's gone!
'Is he coming back?'
'Don't think so. Emma, have you done those letters for me yet? Because I gave them to you
three days ago-'
'I'll do them now,' I say, and beam at Nick. As I sit down at my desk, I feel as light as a
helium balloon. Cheerfully I kick off my shoes, reach for my Evian bottle — and stop.
There's a folded piece of paper resting on my keyboard, with 'Emma' written on it in a
handwriting I don't recognize.
Puzzled, I look around the office. No-one's looking at me, waiting for me to find it. In fact noone
seems to have noticed. They're all too busy talking about Jack Harper.
Slowly I unfold it and stare at the message inside.
It could have been worse. It could have read 'Clear your desk'.
Even so, for the rest of the day, I'm completely on edge. Every time anyone walks into the
department I feel a little spasm of panic. And when someone starts talking loudly outside our
door about how 'Jack says he may pop back into Marketing', I seriously consider hiding in the
loos until he's gone.
On the dot of 5.30 I stop typing mid-sentence, close my computer down and grab my coat. I'm
not waiting around for him to reappear. I all but run down the stairs, and only begin to relax
when I'm safely on the other side of the big glass doors.
The tubes are miraculously quick for once, and I arrive home within twenty minutes. As I
push open the front door of the flat I can hear a strange noise coming from Lissy's room. A
kind of thumping, bumping sound. Maybe she's moving her furniture around.
'Lissy,' I call asl go into the kitchen. 'You will not believe what happened today.' I open the
fridge, take out a bottle of Evian and hold it against my hot forehead. After a while I open the
bottle and take a few swigs, then wander out into the hall again to see Lissy's door opening.
'Lissy!' I begin. 'What on earth were you-'
And then I halt, as out of the door comes not Lissy, but a man.
A man! A tall thin guy in trendy black trousers and steel spectacles.
'Oh,' I say, taken aback. 'Er… hi.'
'Emma!' says Lissy, following him out. She's wearing a T-shirt over some grey leggings I've
never seen before, is drinking a glass of water and looks startled to see me. 'You're home
early.'
'I know. I was in a hurry.'
This is Jean-Paul,' says Lissy. 'Jean-Paul, my flatmate Emma.'
'Hello, Jean-Paul,' I say with a friendly smile.
'Good to meet you, Emma,' says Jean-Paul, in a French accent.
God, French accents are sexy. I mean, they just are.
'Jean-Paul and I were just… um… going over some case notes,' says Lissy.
'Oh right,' I say brightly. 'Lovely!'
Case notes. Yeah, right. Because that would really make a whole load of thumping noises.
Lissy is such a dark horse!
'I must be going,' says Jean-Paul, looking at Lissy.
'I'll just see you out,' she says, flustered.
She disappears out of the front door, and I can hear the two of them murmuring on the landing.
I take a few more swigs of Evian, then walk into the sitting room and slump down heavily on
the sofa. My whole body's aching from sitting rigid with tension all day. This is seriously bad
for my health. How on earth am I going to survive a whole week of Jack Harper?
'So!' I say as Lissy walks back into the room. 'What's going on?'
'What do you mean?' she says shiftily.
'You and Jean-Paul! How long have you two been…'
'We're not,' starts Lissy, turning red. 'It's not… We were going over case notes. That's all.'
'Sure you were.'
'We were! That's all it was!'
'OK,' I say, raising my eyebrows. 'If you say so.'
Lissy sometimes gets like this, all shy and abashed. I'll just have to get her pissed one night,
and she'll admit it.
'So how was your day?' she says, sinking onto the floor and reaching for a magazine.
How was my day?
I don't even know where to start.
'My day,' I say at last. 'My day was a bit of a nightmare.'
'Really?' says Lissy, looking up in surprise.
'No, take that back. It was a
'What happened?' Lissy's attention is fully grabbed. 'Tell me!'
'OK.' I take a deep breath and smooth my hair back, wondering where on earth to start. 'OK,
remember I had that awful flight back from Scotland last week?'
