LITMIR.BIZ

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conspiring about?’ Dan joked.

      ‘Nothing,’ Jamie said slightly breathless.

      ‘I’m not sure I trust the two of you together?’ Dan’s flirting was heavy-handed but Jamie lapped it up.

      ‘Excuse me.’ Jamie left to ‘freshen up’.

      Dan moved a bit closer. Well, it was hard to hear over the voices.

      ‘I think Jamie looks great in that shirt, don’t you?’ she said as she watched him walk out of the kitchen.

      ‘Yeah, sure.’ Dan said.

      Had he even looked?

      Okay, Dan might be a harder sell than Jamie but she could do this. She’d managed to get Phil, who had notoriously said that he’d never date a singer again after a disastrous relationship, to marry Brooke. She’d created the Phooke phenomenon. She could make people believe black was white. It was the way you sold it, after all.

      What was Dan’s soft spot? The one thing that she could flatter him with?

      ‘Jamie was saying how much he admired that presentation you did last week on audience segmentation?’ she lied. It had been dry, boring, and all he had done was regurgitate facts that they all knew.

      ‘Oh, really?’ Dan’s chest puffed out and preened.

      Bingo, she thought. He obviously thought he was an intellectual.

      ‘Yes, we were discussing which part we thought was the best. I thought it was how you explained the breakdown of fan behaviour as being like ice cream flavours they like, but Jamie was particularly taken with your analysis of the LGBT+ fans.’ In reality, his analysis had been horribly clichéd for someone who was gay. But just because you were part of a group didn’t automatically give you insights into the audience, she thought. She hoped Jamie would go with her bending of truth, she had no idea what he thought about Dan’s presentation. In fact, maybe he’d slept through it. She had a vague memory of Jamie jolting awake at the end and knocking her knee. She’d only kept awake because she’d begun craving a chocolate ice cream part way through.

      ‘I put a lot of thought into it. I know how important it is to have LGBT representation and to build allies,’ Dan said winking at her again.

      Maybe he had something in his eye or a tick she wasn’t aware of because it would be a bit weird to think he didn’t know that representation and allies were important. Had she drunk too much – or had he?

      She spotted Jamie weaving his way back.

      ‘Jamie, I was just telling Dan how much you liked his presentation last week.’ Jamie looked confused.

      Did she have to do all the work?

      She widened her eyes and raised her eyebrows. Get the hint.

      ‘Oh, yes. Fantastic.’ Jamie started nodding and then smiling sweetly when he realised what she was doing.

      Okay, this was when she pushed them together, the grown-up equivalent of seven minutes of heaven. She couldn’t lock them in a cupboard…

      ‘Dan, maybe you can mentor him about it all, give him the lowdown? I’m happy to let him spend some time with you?’ Actually, she wasn’t, because with this new project she was going to be working long hours. But the path of true love, or at least proper partnerships, never ran smooth. And she was a sucker for getting things right, romance or no romance.

      ‘That would be great,’ Jamie gushed. Not that he needed mentoring in understanding audiences, he had a natural knack for it. But it looked like he was beginning to understand what he needed to do to get his own audience of one. At long last. One day maybe she wouldn’t have to draw a map for him to get there.

      Emma looked up to find Gee staring at them.

      She waved.

      He rolled his eyes and turned away.

Chapter Eleven

      ‘I have to go,’ Dan said an hour later. ‘It’s been great but, well…’ He turned his mouth down in an exaggerated moue. Thank god, she thought. Every time she’d tried to leave them alone to talk to other people, one of them would stop her from leaving.

      ‘Oh, that is a pity. Jamie, didn’t you say you had to leave too?’ she lied.

      Within ten minutes, Jamie was sharing an Uber with Dan, Emma having told them both that it really was very easy and convenient for the car to detour via Stoke Newington to get to Primrose Hill. It wasn’t that far out of their way. Hell, worst case scenario, she would pay one of them the difference in the cab fare.

      ‘But what about the shirt?’ Jamie whisper-shouted as she slammed the door on the white Prius. She wasn’t taking any chances that one of them would not get in the car.

      ‘Yeah, what about my shirt?’ Gee said from behind her. She looked back briefly to see him standing on the front door step.

      ‘I’ll text him and tell him to bring it into work on Monday.’ She said, turning back and standing with her arms folded watching the red taillights as they disappeared down the road.

      And hopefully Jamie would have a great story to tell on Monday. She hoped Dan would be gentle with the shirt, he didn’t seem to be a ripper but you could never tell.

      ‘I don’t think you’re going to get what you want out of this,’ Gee said as he slowly walked down the front steps to stand next to her. The warmth of his body called to her. Sometimes being the only one in charge of making a happily ever after was too much. Trying to get people to fall in love with the right person was exhausting. It was so tempting to give in and to lean on Gee.

      She stood straighter.

      ‘I don’t want anything out of this,’ she said. This wasn’t for herself. It was because she merely wanted everyone else to have a calm and comfortable, stable life. Nothing messy, not where they had to date any number of unsuitable people who left them or broke their heart. If Emma could bypass that for them then she was happy.

      That was the point of plans. Casualties were kept to a minimum.

      ‘I know you want to everyone to live in the structured, sterile world you’ve constructed but it doesn’t work like that,’ he said

      She could feel her body tense and her skin flush with irritation as she stepped away from him. How would he know how it worked? He’d never tried the safe and sensible way. If there was a messy or uncomfortable way of doing something he found it. And then bleated on that it was all because he wanted to be truthful.

      Why didn’t he get it that the truth could hurt, both yourself and everyone around you. White lies didn’t hurt anyone, they greased the wheels. There was nothing sterile about it. Wanting a calm, orderly life was what everyone should have.

      ‘And don’t give me that look.’ He held his hands up, as if in surrender, but she knew he wouldn’t let it go. ‘I know what you believe. I don’t understand it but I get why you think this is the only way. But taking all the ups and downs out of life doesn’t make you safe. It makes it stale. I know you think having a plan is the only way to go. But Ems, what happens when the plan doesn’t work? When things happen that you can’t plan for or bully into submission? All these rules and strategies you have, you use them as a barrier to keep everything at a distance. And the more you make, the further away you get from real life. I worry that soon you won’t be in touch with things anymore…’ His mouth turned down, as he frowned. It wasn’t the fake overly dramatic moue that Dan had used.

      That was the hardest part of it all, he really believed it. He prided himself on always being truthful, or at least what he thought was the truth.

      He looked so sad, his eyebrows shielding his eyes. A sad Gee wasn’t good. She hated it.

      Why couldn’t he leave her alone. Rules and plans were good things, they helped

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