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I flinched. ‘And I will do anything. Anything but this.’

‘Scarlett. Listen. You wanted my best advice, so this is me giving it to you.’

I took a deep breath and sighed it hard out, thinking all the relaxing thoughts I could muster in that moment, but allI could hear was my own heartbeat rushing in my ears. ‘I’m listening.’

‘Remember when you and Theo first sent me the manuscript forLittle Boy Lost?’ said Carla. ‘I was blown away. I knew immediately that I wanted to be your agent and that I could sell this book. That editors at the big five publishing houses were going to be clambering over themselves to offer you a deal.’

I thought back to those heady days. My unfulfilling temp job in a dusty Victorian hospital with a pile of patient files on my desk so high that sometimes I couldn’t see the other secretaries in the room. The thrill of taking my first writing course, of having the guts to actually turn up and – shocker – share my work. How surprised I’d been when the class’s most talented (and undeniably popular) student wanted to team up with me to co-write a book.

‘But we hate each other,’ I said.

‘Hate is a very strong word, Scarlett,’ replied Carla.

OK, maybe it wasn’t hate, exactly, but I couldn’t even look at his book without having palpitations, never mind his photo! The only good thing about this whole saga was that we’d very successfully managed to avoid each other for six whole years. And now Carla wanted us toworktogether?!

‘Why would publishers be interested in another book from the two of us, anyway, if our solo careers are supposedly flagging? Knowing my luck, we’d kill ourselves trying to write the thing and everyone would turn it down.’

Carla leaned forward, placing her hands on the table. She clearly meant business.

‘Because you’re stronger writers together than you are apart, and that’s the truth of it.’

This was not what I wanted to hear. I didn’t want to be my best self because of somebody else! And Carla sayingthat she thought our debut only worked because I was writing alongsidehimfelt like a huge blow and one I could have done without after several other huge blows this afternoon. This was fast becoming a really, really shitty day.

‘It makes perfect sense from a business perspective,’ continued Carla. ‘The press loved writing about you the first time around – two young, attractive authors writing together on a whim, selling their first book and having it be a massive sleeper hit.’

‘We’re not exactly young anymore, though, are we?’

‘Scarlett. You’re thirty-four.’

Which would make Theo thirty-two, I instantly worked out, annoyed with myself for remembering how much of an age difference there was between us. And that his birthday was on the tenth of August. Damn.

‘Publishers could tout the story of your reunion,’ banged on Carla, ‘and the publicity would likely translate into book sales. In my opinion, they’d salivate at the chance to publish a book by the same phenomenal writing duo who wrote the bestsellingLittle Boy Lost.’

Oh, God. She was making an excellent case here, and I was trying my best to stay strong and stick to my guns. Perhaps she could re-train as a barrister if she ever got bored of agenting. I could totally imagine her annihilating some poor, unsuspecting witness on the stand.

‘I’ve taken the liberty of running it past Theo and he’s agreed to do it,’ she said, bringing out the big guns.

Well. This was a shocking turn of events. He’d agreed to it?Really?I sat in silence for what felt like ages, twiddling the gold band I wore on the middle finger of my right hand. Mum’s wedding ring. I never took it off.

‘So what do you say?’ asked Carla, calmly holding my gaze.

Every part of me was screaming in protest, but the advantages of her proposal were hard to refuse. I had to think about the money. My family. There were people relying on me to help them out and the cash from book one was long gone. So really, did I even have a choice?

‘OK,’ I said, forcing the words out of my mouth before I could change my mind. ‘Imightbe prepared to give it a try. Or to have a conversation about it, at least. But I retain my rights to pull out immediately at any point if it all gets too much. Or if Theo starts acting like a knob again.’

Carla beamed at me. She had me and she knew it.

‘You won’t regret this, Scarlett, I promise you.’

Chapter Two

I pushed through the door of All Bar One Waterloo, which was not my first choice of venue, it had to be said, but it happened to sit midway between everyone’s offices and my flat. Spotting Alexa and the others sitting in a corner booth, I waved, heading over, trying to put all the stuff whirling about in my head aside so that I could pretend to be my usual upbeat, sunny, interested self. The bar was dark to match my mood, and the music far too loud for my current disposition.

‘Yay, Scarlett’s here!’ trilled Dan, my oldest friend Petra’s husband.

Petra and I had met on our first day at school, a comprehensive in Reading that had seemed terrifyingly too big for us both on that first day, and I’d go so far as to say that entire first year. We’d been inseparable all the way through to sixth form, although we studied very different subjects in the end – I was the arty, creative one who spent my evenings reading novels instead of doing my actual homework, and Petra was strangely scientific. I say strangely, because I was of the misguided opinion that anyone who liked maths was a) weird and b) a genius. We lost touch a bit when she first met Dan and fell off the radar for a few months, but I’d never held it against her. I imagined I might have done the same thing if I’d met the love of my life when I was nineteen.

‘Hello, hello,’ I said, sliding off my jacket and unravellingmy scarf, hugging first Petra and then Dan. It was March and there was the promise of warmer weather, but tonight felt like winter all over again.