‘Tash!’ I shout as soon as I’m through the door.

The flat is bright with sunshine and I squint and then get myself a glass of water. I think I must be dehydrated. I can’t think straight.

All the way home from the office, I went over and over what I heard Alex saying to Mel – interspersed with what Nichola and Debs said in the loo, and the worry that my parents will still come round – and there’s no way I can make it mean anything other than he’s trying to steal my idea.

‘Tash!’ I shout again, putting my glass in the sink and crossing the kitchen to push open my bedroom door.

‘Oh fuck!’ I say as soon as the door swings open.

Liam is lying on his back in the middle of the bed, arms up over his head. There’s a Tash-shaped bump moving under the duvet.

‘What the fuck?!’ Liam says. He’s looking at me, but he obviously doesn’t know he’s looking at me.

‘Shit, I’m sorry,’ I say, before I think better of it.

‘What the fuck is happening?’ Liam says, starting to scrabble up the bed.

The duvet flaps back and Tash sits up and looks over at me.

‘Fucking hell, Izzy,’ she says, pushing one hand back through her long hair that had been hanging almost entirely over her face. Her other hand is on Liam’s chest and I can see it rising and falling with how quickly he’s breathing.

‘It’s okay,’ she tells him. ‘I mean, you’re not going to fucking believe it. But trust me, okay?’

He’s staring at her, his eyes wide. He nods.

‘Okay,’ Tash says. ‘Iz, go and make us some teas, yeah? I need to talk to Liam.’

‘What the fuck?’ I hear him say again as I leave the room and close the door behind me.

‘You can touch me,’ I say about ten minutes later when the three of us are sitting on the sofa – Liam at the far end and Tash in the middle. Three mugs of tea are steaming gently on the coffee table in front of us.

‘Yeah,’ Tash says. ‘Hold your hand out.’

She’s dressed now and she’s tied her hair up in a messy bun on the top of her head. Liam’s wearing the same clothes from last night and an utterly terrified expression.

Liam reaches his hand out in front of Tash and I touch her hand with mine. She picks my hand up and puts it on top of Liam’s. He immediately yanks his hand back, then says, ‘Shit. Sorry. Sorry.’ He reaches out again.

‘It’s okay,’ Tash reassures him. ‘She won’t hurt you.’

‘Unless you hurt Tash,’ I say. ‘And then I might kill you.’

‘Ignore her,’ Tash tells him, rolling her eyes at me.

‘I can’t believe this,’ Liam says. ‘This is… did someone spike my drink?’

‘That’s what I thought when I woke up like this,’ I say. ‘But apparently not.’

‘But this has got to be a prank, yeah?’ he says. ‘This can’t happen.’

‘I know,’ I say. ‘But it kind of has. Sorry.’

His hand feels soft in mine and I squeeze his fingers in what I hope is a reassuring, rather than terrifying manner.

‘I think… I need to go,’ Liam says, pulling his hand away again.

‘Oh babe,’ Tash says.

‘Not because of… this,’ he says. ‘I mean, I need to go anyway.’

‘Okay.’

Tash uncurls from the sofa and follows Liam to the door. They talk quietly for a bit and then Liam calls out, ‘It was nice to meet you, Izzy. Sorry I didn’t drink my tea.’

‘What the actual fuck?’ Tash says as soon as the door’s closed behind him. ‘Were you trying to give him a heart attack?!’

She flops back on the sofa next to me and picks up her tea.

‘I’m sorry!’ I say. ‘I was freaking out. I forgot he was here.’

‘Freaking out about what? Alex’s place? Is it a sex dungeon? Has he got My Little Pony wallpaper?’

‘Ha!’ I say. ‘That’s what I said.’ I reach for my own tea. ‘No. I mean, he’s homeless and living in the archive room at the office, but—’

‘Oh shit,’ Tash says.

‘Yeah, that’s not it.’

‘Was the sex bad? Did you not have sex? Did he want to do weird stuff?’

‘No, we did. And it was great. And I mean, I guess yeah to the weird stuff because I’m invisible and he had to put water on me to see me, but that’s not it either.’

‘Jesus Christ,’ Tash says. ‘Then tell me!’

‘I’ve been trying to. Okay, so when I was leaving the office I overheard him talking to Mel and he was telling her stuff from my pitch. Like word for word. Stuff I told him. The only fucking thing I’ve managed to come up with. And he was telling her.’

‘So?’

‘So he wasn’t saying “Oh, Izzy’s come up with this, doesn’t it sound great?” He was telling her as if it was his own idea. He was passing it off as his own.’

‘You don’t know that,’ Tash says, frowning.

‘Well it sure as shit sounded like it,’ I say, my throat tightening. ‘What if… what if that’s been what he wanted all along? What if none of this has been real? What if he just wanted my job?’

Tash shakes her head. ‘No. No way. I’m a better judge of character than that. I don’t buy it. And I mean… surely there’d be an easier way. You’re no picnic at the moment, you know. As much as I love you, there’s no getting around the fact that you are fucking invisible.’

‘I know,’ I say. ‘But… that makes it easier. For him. Because if this is permanent, then… I can’t go back to work. He won’t even need to take my job. It’ll just be there, he can walk right into it.’

‘You need to talk to him,’ Tash says. ‘Or Mel. You should talk to Mel. Give her everything you’ve got. Make sure there’s no room for him to—’

‘But it’ll be his word against mine, won’t it?’ I say. ‘And – and I know I’m repeating myself – but I’m fucking invisible!’

‘Okay,’ Tash says, leaning against me and rubbing her thumb over my elbow. ‘Okay. We’ll think of something. Just… drink your tea and calm down.’

‘That’s not even all of it.’ I close my eyes and roll my head from side to side. ‘My parents found out about the mortgage – that Max hasn’t been paying it – and now they’re freaking out. They were planning to come and see me tonight. I think I managed to convince them not to, but what if they’d just turned up? What the fuck would I have done?’

‘You would have had to tell them what happened,’ Tash says.

‘What happened with Max?’

‘Yes. But also what’s happened with you.’

‘That I’m invisible?!’ I say, and I sound slightly hysterical even to myself.

‘Yes.’

‘As if.’

Tash laughs. ‘But what else could you do? This isn’t some West End farce. You couldn’t, like, hide in your room and talk to them through the door, pretending you were contagious. You could just literally tell them.’

‘It might kill them,’ I say, biting on the edge of my thumbnail.

‘We would cross that bridge if we came to it,’ Tash says, and then grins at me. ‘They’re definitely not coming? ’Cos I’m thinking I’d quite like to see your mum’s face…’

‘She said they’re not coming. But you never know with Mum. And I hung up on her, so—’

‘Woah. You hung up on her?’

‘Yeah. I mean the conversation was over and someone was coming into the loo, so I had to.’

‘But still. Standing up to your mum. I’m all for it.’

I rub my face with both hands. ‘It really sounded like Alex was stealing my idea.’

‘I know it sounded like that to you,’ Tash says. ‘But I’m not sure you’re the best judge. Have you called him?’

‘That’s another thing,’ I say, flopping back against the cushions. ‘Nichola’s got my phone.’

‘I think you got scared,’ Tash says, once I’ve told her what happened with my phone.

I sigh.

‘I know you, you know? Alex revealed this secret to you. And then you slept with him. And he told you that you’re important to him. And god knows he’s important to you.’

‘What is this? “Previously on Izzy’s Ridiculous Life”?’

‘You got scared. And as soon as you saw an out, you took it.’ Tash reaches over and pats at the air until I reluctantly take her hand. ‘You didn’t just take it. You grabbed it with both hands and legged it out of the office, shouting “A-ha!”’

‘But why didn’t he say it was my idea?’ I say. ‘He said “You know that expression?” He didn’t say “Izzy told me about that expression”.’

‘Maybe Mel called him in there specifically to ask what you were up to? Maybe he’d already said that before you arrived? There are explanations, Iz. You don’t need to jump to the worst conclusion.’

‘But he shouldn’t have been telling her my ideas, even if she asked.’

‘Maybe not. But that’s very different to “He stole my idea and that’s the only reason he wanted to sleep with me in the first place”, right?’

‘Yeah,’ I say. ‘Fuck.’

I bang my head on the sofa cushion.

‘You’re falling for him,’ Tash says. ‘It makes sense that you’re scared.’

‘Are you scared? With Liam?’

‘Fucking hell, are you joking? I’m terrified.’

‘Really?’

Tash shakes her head, her hair swinging. ‘He’s just so… good. He’s kind and hot and sweet and he’s really into me. I keep wanting to tell him horrible things I’ve done. Or say, like, “You know I’m really fucked up, right?”’

‘You’re not fucked up.’

‘I just… it feels too lucky. To have found him straight after everything that happened with Rob, you know?’

‘You didn’t find him after,’ I say. ‘You were already seeing him.’

She laughs. ‘Yeah. But that was for sex. Not… feelings.’

I squeeze her hand. Fucking feelings.

‘But you know what I mean?’ she asks, squeezing back. ‘Like this is what I said I wanted. And here it is. It feels like it’s too soon. I’m just waiting for something to go wrong. I want to be all in. I think he’s all in. But there’s still this little bit of me thinking I’d better hold back in case I’m wrong.’

‘Ugh,’ I say.

‘I know, right?’

I shuffle up the sofa so I’m sitting up straight. ‘What were you doing? When I came in.’

Tash rolls her eyes. ‘What do you think I was doing? Naked. In bed. With a man.’

‘Yeah, I know. But I mean specifically. Were you doing something with your hair? It looked weird, when you sat up.’

She laughs. ‘Oh yeah, he likes me to wrap my hair around his dick.’

‘Of course he does,’ I say. ‘I can’t believe I even asked.’

‘Hey, listen, I think of the two of us, you’re doing the kinkier shit at the moment.’

I huff out a breath. ‘Yeah. I guess.’

‘You just need to talk to him,’ Tash says. ‘Alex. I mean, I’m no expert, clearly, but I really think he’s one of the good guys.’

Me too. At least, I hope he is.