engagement over the phone last night. I’m meeting him one last time so that we can deal with it face to face.”
Sophie stared at Alex in disbelief. “You’re kidding,” she whispered. Alex shook her head.
“What a nightmare,” Sophie murmured in a state of shock as she rested her hands on Alex’s shoulders. “No wonder you look like something out of the body snatchers.”
“I need a favour,” Alex asked, urgency in her voice.
“Anything,” Sophie agreed nodding.
“I need you to go and tell Jonathan I’m not feeling well and that I’m going home. Tell him it’s just a headache. Then I need you to find my handbag and bring it back here so that I can get across to the lift and meet Simon downstairs.”
“Well I’ll try but Jonathan was pretty insistent I bring you to his office. He’s not going to be happy.”
But Sophie did as she was asked and Alex was forced to wait what felt like endless minutes as she paced the ladies bathroom. When Sophie finally returned she looked triumphant.
“Mission accomplished!” she announced. “He was on the phone so I did the handbag thing first. I’ll have to go straight back now to let him know you’ve gone home. Are you going to be all right?”
Alex nodded. “Thank you, Soph. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” The two girls clung onto one another before Alex squeezed her friend’s hands, gave her a long reassuring look and then made her way quickly out of the bathroom and across to the lifts.
Once on the ground floor she found a quiet, well-concealed corner to stand in while she waited for Simon, and she was soon thanking her lucky stars she had because JP appeared out of nowhere.
With her pulse racing Alex watched him as he thrust his hands deep into his pockets and walked straight past her, across the foyer and out of the building. She could still catch glimpses of him through the revolving doors as he stood on the street outside and turned his head from side to side as though he was looking for someone, but for once his radar failed him.
He disappeared amidst the moving sea of pedestrians outside just before Simon wandered into the building. Unlike JP, Simon saw her immediately and with a haunted look he approached her and took her in his arms. Alex sunk into them, the temptation to regress back into their familiarity and safe harbour almost overwhelming. But she quickly prised herself away. She’d done enough damage in his life already and would not play with his feelings any longer.
“Where would you like to go?” he asked as they wandered out into the heat of the early evening and paused outside. Alex looked around nervously but thankfully JP had vanished.
“I don’t mind. Anywhere where we can talk and have a drink,”
“Why don’t we go down to the Frog and Toad … look, isn’t that your boss?”
Alex swung around in the direction Simon was facing. JP stood a short distance away with a hand on an open cab door as Caroline Cartwright slipped into the back seat ahead of him. He was motionless as he searched the crowded street. But his gaze bypassed Alex and Simon altogether and with that he turned and folded himself into the cab next to Caroline and slammed the door behind himself. And as he did so Alex watched on, mesmerised by the irrevocable finality of that moment, as JP’s taxi pulled out into the bustle of the traffic and disappeared.
Chapter Eleven
The knocking went on and on. It merged with her dreams until finally its persistence roused Alex from the deepest of slumbers. She lay there motionless, unsure where she was and struggling to put together the pieces of her life in any kind of sensible order. But as she opened her eyes and looked around she realised she was in her own apartment. Morning light was filtering through the lush garden outside her window and casting a lime green hue throughout her bedroom.
With a groan she rolled over. The sleeping pill she’d taken the night before was drugging her every thought and movement. But with a dull ache pounding away inside her she started to piece together the night before with Simon and a renegade tear of emotional exhaustion rolled down her cheek.
The knocking began again and Alex eased herself up into a sitting position in her bed. Then she heard a voice at the door and it was with relief that she guessed