me and Woody Allen, it wouldn’t be much of a punishment, would it?’
‘You don’t have to punish yourself.’ Ellie frowned; was she not making herself clear here? ‘I’m glad it happened.’
‘Maybe, but that’s irrelevant. The point is, I didn’t know you’d be glad, did I? I just went ahead and did it.’
‘But you didn’t do anything!’
‘I let him put his arms around me.’
‘Big deal.’
‘OK, what if it hadn’t been Todd? If it had been your Jamie,’ Roo stated bluntly, ‘you wouldn’t be saying that.’
Ellie looked at her. She had a point. Then again, hopefully Jamie wouldn’t have put his arms around Roo in the first place.
Would you?
Are you kidding? No way, not in a million years, not even if we were in Antarctica.
OK, don’t overdo it.
Anyway, speaking of husbands…
‘What about Niall? Please tell me you aren’t planning to break it to Yasmin that you’ve been doing a lot more than just putting your arms around her husband.’
‘You know, I was wondering about that.’
‘Don’t even think it!’
Roo looked torn. ‘Not a good idea?’
‘Hideous, terrible idea. You can’t do that, no way.’ Ellie shuddered at the thought. ‘She has a baby and a husband who cheats on her. Isn’t that bad enough? You mustn’t tell her.’
‘Oh. OK.’
‘Promise.’
‘I promise.’
‘Right. Good. Now come here.’ Ellie stood up and gave her a hug. ‘Everything’s going to be fine.’
Roo promptly burst into tears. ‘Oh God, you’re being so nice and I don’t deserve it. I’m such a horrible person.’
‘You aren’t, you aren’t.’ Her spiky gelled hair felt like Astroturf. ‘You made a mistake and now you’ve learned your lesson. I’m happy you’re not going to see Niall anymore. I’m even happier that Todd and I don’t have to pretend to be a couple anymore. We can just go back to being friends. Look at me.’ Pulling back, Ellie regarded Roo’s wet, miserable face. ‘Don’t cry. I’d love it if you two got together.’
But Roo was already shaking her head, clearly dead set on punishing herself. ‘No way. That’s not going to happen. I won’t let it.’
***
‘How was the party last night?’ Zack, between appointments, came into the office eating a slice of toast.
Well, he was bound to ask. Ellie said, ‘It was great! No rain, everyone was lovely, food was fantastic. I ate seven chicken samosas. How did your posh do at the Dorchester go?’
‘Probably a lot more boring than your barbecue. And sadly lacking in samosas.’ He finished his toast. ‘There’s another event on Monday evening at Claridge’s. Could you make that, do you think?’
Claridge’s? Wheeeee!
‘Monday? No problem, that’s fine.’ As Ellie nodded enthusiastically, the doorbell went, signaling the arrival of his next appointment.
‘Good. Excellent. I’ll get that.’ Looking pleased, Zack swung out of the office to let the client in and take him upstairs.
Ellie went back to her typing. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to tell him about Todd. It was only last week that she’d mentioned him for the first time, boasting to Zack about how happy they were. What kind of an idiot would she look like if she were to announce, just days later, that it was all over? If she tried to explain that she was delighted, Zack wouldn’t believe her. He’d think she’d been heartlessly dumped. Worse, he’d feel sorry for her. She’d be back at square one all over again, the poor widow to be pitied and handled with kid gloves.
No, far easier for now to not mention it. There was no reason at all to tell him the truth.
Speaking of the truth, there were still things to sort out with Todd. Oh dear, his poor old mum. Maria was going to be devastated when she heard her son was single again.
All the more reason to persuade Roo to change her mind and abandon her pledge.
***
Todd came over straight after work. He couldn’t have been more penitent. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Oh, don’t you start. I told you, this is good news! It wasn’t working out. We both knew it. We were just too polite to say so. Now we can relax and stop trying to make it work. We don’t have to do any more of that yucky kissing stuff !’
Todd visibly relaxed. ‘Oh God, wasn’t that weird? I had no idea it could be like that. I couldn’t figure out why it felt so… so…’
‘Gross,’ Ellie supplied helpfully. ‘No offense. It wasn’t you.’
‘It wasn’t you either.’
‘It was just wrong. Like a Marmite and strawberry sandwich. We’re both nice, we just don’t go together.’