Part 24 (2/2)

'Hiya,' says Caroline as I make myself a cup of coffee. 'How are you?'

'I'm fine, thanks!' I say, giving a guilty jump. 'I just had a quiet evening in last night. Just ... really quiet! With my flatmate. We watched three videos, Pretty Woman, Notting Hill and Four Weddings. Just the two of us. No-one else.'

'Right,' says Caroline, looking a bit bemused. 'Lovely!'

Oh G.o.d. I'm losing it. Everyone knows this is how criminals get caught. They add too many details and trip themselves up.

Right, no more babbling. Stick to one-word answers.

'Hi,' says Artemis as I sit down at my desk.

'Hi,' I say, forcing myself not to add anything else. Not even about which kind of pizza Lissy and I ordered, even though I've got a whole story ready about how the pizza company thought we said green pepper instead of pepperoni, ha ha, what a mix-up.

I'm supposed to be doing some filing this morning, but instead I find myself taking out a piece of paper and starting a list of possible date venues where I can take Jack tonight.

1. Pub. No. Far too boring.2. Movie. No. Too much sitting, not talking to each other.3. Ice skating. I have no idea why I put that, since I can't even skate. Except it was in Splash.4.

G.o.d, I've run out of ideas already. How c.r.a.p is this? I stare at the sheet blankly, half-tuning into the idle conversation which is going on around me.

'... really working on some secret project, or is that just a rumour?'

'... company in a new direction, apparently, but no-one knows exactly what he's ...'

'... is this Sven guy anyway? I mean, what function does he have?'

'He's with Jack, isn't he?' says Amy, who works in Finance but fancies Nick, so is always finding excuses to come into our office. 'He's Jack's lover.'

'What?' I say, suddenly sitting up, and snapping the end of my pencil. Luckily everyone's too busy gossiping to notice.

Jack gay? Jack gay?

That's why he didn't kiss me goodnight. He only wants me to be a friend. He'll introduce me to Sven and I'll have to pretend to be all cool with it, like I knew all along- 'Is Jack Harper gay?' Caroline is saying in astonishment.

'I just a.s.sumed he was,' says Amy with a shrug. 'He looks gay, don't you think?'

'Not really,' says Caroline, s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up her face. 'Not groomed enough.'

'I don't think he looks gay!' I say, trying to sound light-hearted and just kind of vaguely interested.

'He's not gay,' chimes in Artemis authoritatively. 'I read a old profile of him in Newsweek, and he was dating the female president of Origin Software. And it said before that he went out with some supermodel.'

A huge surge of relief floods through me.

I knew he wasn't gay. Obviously I knew he wasn't gay- Honestly, do these people have nothing better to do than engage in stupid mindless speculation about people they don't know?

'So is Jack seeing anyone at the moment?'

'Who knows?'

'He's pretty s.e.xy, don't you think?' says Caroline with a wicked grin. 'I wouldn't mind.'

'Yeah right,' says Nick. 'You probably wouldn't mind his private jet, either.'

'Apparently, he hasn't had a relations.h.i.+p since Pete Laidler died,' says Artemis crisply. 'So I doubt you've got much of a chance.'

'Bad luck, Caroline,' says Nick, with a laugh.

I feel really uncomfortable, listening to this. Maybe I should leave the room until they've stopped. But then, maybe that would draw attention to myself.

Just for an instant, I find myself imagining what would happen if I stood up and said, 'Actually I had dinner with Jack Harper last night.' They'd all stare at me, dumbfounded, and maybe somebody would gasp, and ...

Oh, who am I kidding? They wouldn't even believe me, would they? They'd say I was suffering from delusions.

'Hi, Connor,' comes Caroline's voice, interrupting my thoughts.

Connor? My head jerks up in slight dismay. And there he is, with no warning, approaching my desk with a wounded look on his face.

What's he doing here?

Has he found out about me and Jack?

My heart starts to thump hard and I nervously push my hair back. I've spotted him a couple of times around the building, but this is our first moment face to face, since we broke up.

'Hi,' he says.

'Hi,' I reply awkwardly, and there's silence.

Suddenly I notice my unfinished list of date ideas lying prominently on my desk. s.h.i.+t. As casually as possible I reach for it, screw it up and nonchalantly drop it in the bin.

All the gossip about Sven and Jack has petered out. I know everyone in the office is listening to us, even if they're pretending to be doing something else. It's like we're the in-house soap opera or something.

And I know which character I am. I'm the heartless b.i.t.c.h who chucked her lovely, decent man for no good reason.

Oh G.o.d. The thing is, I do feel guilty, I really do. Every time I see Connor, or even think about him, I get a horrible tight feeling in my chest. But does he have to have such an expression of injured dignity on his face? A kind of you've-mortally-wounded-me-but-I'm-such-a-good-person-I-forgive-you look.

I can feel my guilt ebbing away and annoyance starting to ebb in.

'I only came up,' says Connor at last, 'because I'd put us down to do a stint on the Pimm's stall together at the Corporate Family Day. Obviously when I did so, I thought we'd be-', He breaks off, looking more wounded than ever. 'Anyway. But I don't mind going through with it. If you don't.'

I'm not going to be the one to say I can't bear to stand next to him for half an hour.

'I don't mind!' I say.

<script>