LITMIR.BIZ

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We can’t. And we don’t really have the time for it to become more mainstream.’

      ‘Pff. You suck.’

      Zander stared at her. Assessing. ‘I think I need to get some food into you.’

      ‘I told you I didn’t do this for the soup.’

      ‘I was thinking of something a little more solid than soup.’

      Judgement stung, low and sharp. She sat up straighter. ‘I’m not drunk.’

      ‘No, you’re not. But you will be if you keep going like this.’

      ‘Maybe the new me drinks more often.’

      He gathered up their papers and his tablet and returned them to his briefcase. ‘Really? This is how you want to start the Year of Georgia? By getting hammered?’

      She stared at him. Thought about that. ‘Have we started?’

      ‘First day.’

      ‘Then we should leave.’ Because, no, she didn’t want to start that way.

      ‘Let me feed you. I have somewhere in mind. We can walk. Clear your head.’

      ‘Why isn’t your head fuzzy? You’ve been matching me drink for drink.’

      He shrugged. ‘Body mass?’

      She relaxed back into the booth and smiled happily. ‘That’s so unfair.’ Then she sat bolt upright again, her fingers reaching for her phone before her mind was even engaged. ‘I should ring Dan. I need to explain.’

      Zander caught her hand before it could do more than curl around her phone. ‘No. Let’s not do that on an empty stomach. Let’s go get some food.’

      He was right. She needed to talk to Dan face to face, not over the phone. She stood. ‘OK. What are we having?’

      ‘We could start your cooking lesson tonight. Something informal.’

      ‘I live miles from here.’

      He smiled. ‘I don’t.’

      And just like that—bam!—she was sober. Zander Rush was taking her back to his place. To feed her. To teach her to make food. Something about that seemed so...intimate.

      ‘You know what?’ she lied. ‘I have some things to do tonight before work tomorrow. I think maybe I should just head home.’

      ‘What about food?’

      If she was clear-headed enough to lie she was clear-headed enough to catch the tube. ‘We’re one block from the station.’

      His smile grew indulgent. ‘I know. You drove us here.’

      ‘It’s on the same line as Kew Gardens. I used to catch it home all the time.’ So she knew it well.

      ‘At least let me walk you to the station, then.’

      She shot to her feet. ‘That would be lovely, thank you.’

      He shook his head. ‘Still so courteous.’

      She shrugged. ‘Old-school upbringing.’

      ‘Traditional parents?’

      Her laugh was more of a bark. ‘Definitely not. My gran raised me mostly. To give me some stability. My mother really wasn’t...well adapted...to parenting.’

      He threw her a sideways look. ‘I’m the youngest of six to older parents so maybe we were raised by a similar generation?’

      It took just a few minutes to walk down to the station and something in her speech or her steady forward movement or her riveting, non-stop chatter about her childhood must have convinced him she was fine to be left alone because he didn’t try and stop her again.

      He paused by the white entry gate. ‘Well...’

      ‘You’ll be in touch?’

      ‘Casey will. My assistant.’

      Of course. He had minions.

      ‘She’ll pull together a schedule for the next few months, to get us started.’

      ‘So...I guess I’ll see you at the first one, then.’

      ‘Remember, we’ll be strangers as far as anyone else is concerned. I’m just your shadow. I won’t even acknowledge you when I arrive.’

      Weird. But better. If they were doing these things together she’d just get too comfortable. And that wasn’t a good idea, judging by how comfortable she’d been for the past few hours. ‘I’ll remember. See you then.’

      She stepped towards the ticket gate, then turned back and smiled. ‘Thanks for letting me drive the Jag.’

      ‘Any time.’

      Georgia waved again and then disappeared into the station. Zander turned and jogged across the pedestrian crossing, then ducked down the commercial lane that led to the back of the garden of his nearby house where they’d parked the Jag. Except she thought they just got lucky with a street park convenient to his favourite bar, not parking in front of his house.

      He was really out of practice. Who took a woman to a bar, then drank so that he couldn’t drive her home? Who let a woman ride the tube alone at night?

      A man who was trying really hard not to feel as if he was on a date, that was who.

      He’d first caught himself back at his office when she’d thrust her hand out so professionally and he’d felt a stab of disappointment. What did he expect, a kiss on each cheek? Of course she was all business. This was...business.

      And this was just an after-hours work meeting. He’d almost sabotaged himself by inviting her back to his house to eat, but it had just tumbled from his lips. The old Zander never would have let so many hours pass without taking care to make sure they’d both eaten. It had been a long time since the new Zander came along. This Zander had perfectly defined business muscle but it had come at the expense of social niceties.

      Any muscle would atrophy without use.

      And then the coup de grâce. Any time. He could have said ‘you’re welcome’ or ‘think nothing of it’ but he went with ‘any time’. As though there’d be a repeat performance.

      He pushed through the gate to his property and started down the long, winding path between the extensive gardens to the conservatory.

      Clearly something of the old him still existed. Something that responded to Georgia’s easy company and complete failure to engage with him the way others did. She just didn’t care who he was or that he was the only thing standing between her and a lawsuit. Or maybe she just didn’t recognise it.

      She stared up at him with those big brown eyes and treated him exactly like everyone else.

      No one did that any more. Even Casey—the closest thing he had to a friend at work—was always super careful never to cross a line, to always stop just short of the point where familiarity became contempt. Even she was sensitive to how much of her future rested in his hands.

      Because he was so thorough in reminding them all. Regularly.

      His minions.

      He smiled. The irony was he didn’t think that way at all. Not deep down. He believed in the power of teams and much preferred collaborative working groups to the way he did things now. They’d served him well back in the day when every programme he’d produced had been the product of a handful of hard-working people. But there was no getting around the fact that EROS really did run better with a clear, controlled gulf between himself and the people who worked for him. And he didn’t mind the gulf; it meant no complications between friendships and workplace relationships.

      And driving Georgia home would have been a complication.

      Having her here, in his house, would have been a complication.

      He

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