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“Kent, I need?—”

“Gemma? I’m sorry, I didn’t realise this was where you were coming for a drink with your friends. I promise I?—”

“Look worried,” Gemma said as she glared at him.

“What?” His eyes narrowed in confusion.

“Yes, that’s it. Just keep looking worried at me.”

“I’m sorry, any chance you can tell me what’s going on?”

Gemma didn’t want to glance back and see if Angus was looking at them. Part of her suspected he wasn’t. He was probably on his phone or simply staring into his glass of Bordeaux and working out all the stories he would tell her next. She couldn’t do it. It didn’t matter how much of a terrible person in made her. She couldn’t listen to another one of his ridiculously conceited, egocentric tales.

“I am on the most disastrous date possible,” she said, lowering her voice and moving in close to Kent to ensure she wasn’t overheard. “It was meant to be a double date, and my bloody friend went and left me, and he is horrific. Honestly, I can’t do it anymore.”

She glanced at the glass in Kent’s hand, only to note that it wasn’t a pale ale like he’d drunk before, but the light, golden hues of a cider. She picked it up, took two large gulps, then put it down in front of him.

“Okay,” Kent said slowly, looking at his substantially depleted glass. “What do you want me to do? Am I to step in, pretend I’m the ex that you’ve never got over?”

Gemma crinkled her face up.

“No, of course not. Why would you do that? I need you to tell me there’s been an emergency at work. That a fridge has stopped working or something.”

It was Kent’s turn to crinkle up his nose.

“Surely, I wouldn’t have come down and had a drink if there was a major incident. I would’ve rung you, wouldn’t I?”

Gemma chewed on her bottom lip. She got the impression that Angus wouldn’t question the details of any matter too greatly, but she still felt she owed him the dignity of a decent lie.

“Okay, well, we could say it’s something to do with the suppliers,” she said, verbalising her thoughts as they came. “Maybe there’s been an issue with something we ordered, and it can’t come in until tomorrow. I can’t come in tomorrow like normal, and we will have to work through the menu together. Yes, that would work, wouldn’t it? You came here because it was a nice environment to work in, considering the stress and the extra hours we will have to put in. I think that’ll sound believable, right?”

Kent looked at her with a mixture of amusement and bewilderment.

“Why don’t you just wait here for one second,” he said. “It’s that guy over there, right?”

“Yes,” Gemma said as he nodded towards Angus.

“Okay, I will deal with him. And you might as well help yourself to some more of my cider while you’re here.”

Not needing to be asked twice, Gemma picked up his glass and took a big gulp.

She wasn’t entirely sure what was happening, but when Kent stood up and walked over to Angus, a sense of dreadchurned through her. Maybe she should have gone with him, she thought? At least that way, she would know what he was saying. As it was, she could only imagine. Still, she kept her eyes focused on the two men, and a moment later, Angus’s gaze met hers. With a strained smile on his lips, he offered a timid little wave, at which point Kent turned around and strode back to her.

“Come on,” he said, holding his arm out in a manner that implied he wanted her to take it. “It’s just until we are out of here.”

There was no way Gemma could refuse. Not when she didn’t know what was going on. Still, she was surprised at how easily her arm slipped into Kent’s and how much more secure she felt now she was holding him. It was unnervingly comfortable. So much so that the second she was out of the pub door, she let go and took several steps away from him.

“What did you say to him?” she said as she glanced through the window to check that Angus was still there, nursing his Bordeaux.

A perfect smile slanted upwards on Kent’s lips.

“Oh, I just told him you and I had been dating for a couple of months and that I wanted it to be exclusive. I also added that if he laid a hand on you, I’d break every bone in it.”

CHAPTER 33

Gemma went to bed on Monday night feeling totally bemused. That Fleur and Henry could ever have thought she would be a match for somebody like Angus irked her, but so did Kent’s attitude. Considering how heated some of their exchanges had been so far, he could’ve easily told her to get lost when she accosted him in the pub, but instead, he had helped her and lost half his drink in the process. It was a nicer side of him that she’d not encountered before, and she wasn’t sure she liked it. It was bad enough that he was physically attractive. Not that she was attracted to him, of course. It was purely an objective observation, that was all. Still, she didn’t like the fact that he was still rolling through her thoughts as she tried to get to sleep. Kent had no place in her bed, whether that was physically or imaginatively.

“So, how did yesterday go?” Sophie said in the cafe the next morning.