I hear the knock on the door and jump up to let her in.

“How was dinner, gorgeous?” I ask her. And she does look gorgeous. Mind-blowingly gorgeous. Her skin fresh and natural, without make-up. Her hair pulled back in a braid, with loose strands framing her beautiful face.

“Great,” she says, hugging me tight and kissing me. “What did you get up to tonight?”

“Just work, the usual shit. But anyway. You’re here now.” I pick her up and lay her down on the sofa. She’s giggling as I do.

“Drink?” I could do with one tonight.”

“I think I’ll just have a cup of a tea, actually. I need to get an early night. I don’t know what I’ve done but Matthew is making my life hell at the moment. Everything I do isn’t good enough and he got funny with me for being on the internet on my lunch break.”

Shit. I remember my little encounter with Matthew on Monday night.

“And he’s been hinting that I’m not up to the job. Which is so weird because only day before yesterday he said, I was a natural. To top it all off, I’ve never worked so hard in my life. It’s so frustrating.” I sigh. “I think he’s going to recommend to Mr. Montfort to ask for someone else to lead the team. Which will be a blow for me, but there’s not a damned thing I can do about it.”

“No!” I say. “That’s not fair. You’re great at your job. And that project is your baby.”

“Yeah,” she says with a heavy sigh, “but if Mr. Montfort gets involved, I could even be kept out of the project. It’s as simple as that.”

I hesitate. I’m going to have to sort this out. Should I tell her? I can’t believe I might have jeopardized her career. What an idiot I am. Fuck, instead of punching him I should punch myself.

“What are you thinking about?” she asks me, looking confused.

I stand and put the kettle on to boil, then I sit down next to her on the sofa. “I did something really stupid and I’m really sorry,” I tell her, watching with dismay as the confusion on her face grows. “I saw Matthew on the street. I can’t remember exactly what I said now, because I was so angry, but basically, I warned him to stay away from you. I’m so sorry.”

“What?” she says, her mouth dropping open. “You did what?”

I take her hands in mine.

She pulls away. “Here I was thinking I’d done something wrong or I was shit at my job!” she cries out, glaring at me.

“Lauren, I’m sorry. I was going to walk past, I swear, but then he stopped me and asked me something and he had this stupid gloating smile on him. When I saw it, I just saw red. How dare he take my girl out for dinner? I was going to take you to that nice Italian place in the Marina.”

Her eyes soften a little. “You can still take me there,” she says quietly. “But you’ll have to apologize to Matthew first.”

“I’m not apologizing to that little jerk. I know his kind. He can lie to you all he wants I know he wants to fuck you,” I say, feeling the blood rise to my head. There was no way I was saying sorry to him.

She’s looking at me, waiting, defiance in her eyes. “I could lose my job over this. And all you care about is your ego.” She shakes her head in disgust and she gets up in a huff. “I think I’ll sleep at my place tonight.”

I don’t try to stop her. I’m too angry with him and myself.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.