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“I’ll try not to be insulted by that,” Ellie said, sitting back now, the tightness in her chest getting looser. “I just… this is a different class of event. The big leagues. That’s all. I wanted the project, now I’ve got it, and… Well, kind of a lot is riding on it.”

“And you’re more than capable of doing this, as you’ve said yourself,” Paul said, smiling at her. “And if it all goes tits up, which, let’s face it, it might because there’s always that risk, then there’ll be other opportunities. No one’s going to die, no one’s going to get hurt, and if you bankrupt yourself, well, you can always sleep on my couch.”

Ellie snorted with laughter. “Cheers, appreciate the pep talk.”

“You’re welcome.” He put his hand on her knee. “You’re going to be alright, you know that, Ellie. Want me to sleep on the couch and keep an eye on things?”

“No, God no. I’ll be fine. I’m sure.” She grinned at him. “I can always scream if things go wrong, you’ll be here in a minute.”

“Yeah, not locking your door in London isn’t necessarily the best idea, you know that, right?”

“I’m lucky enough to have neighbors like you to keep an eye onme.” She swallowed. “Thank you.”

Paul shrugged and got up. “You’re a good friend and you’ve no idea how many single people die at home from choking. I make sure I listen out just in case you need a heimlich maneuver.”

“Thanks for that,” Ellie said, making a mental note not to make any loud noises in her flat. And to make sure she wore headphones when watching anything spicier than the news.

“You’ll be fine, El. Good luck tomorrow.”

She thanked him again and showed him out, not locking the door after a second’s thought.

It had scared her, being helpless like that. Scared her badly. But she wasn’t going to let that stop her. What kind of person would she be if she didn’t just keep going? She hadn’t fought so hard and worked so hard just to be scared into stopping.

Besides, she could do this.

Constable meowed and she picked him up. “Come on, you beast. Another half hour of work and then an early night. We need to be in good shape for the morning.”

He meowed again when she lowered him to the couch. But she couldn’t play with him right now. Tomorrow could be life-changing.

Chapter Nine

Jem crossed her legs and tried to look interested. Her head was pounding and in all honesty she wondered if she might still be slightly drunk. She’d seriously considered not showing up, or at least coming in late. But from the look on her father’s face, she’d made the right decision for once.

“Two months,” he was saying from behind his desk. “I’ll have it written up as a two month internship, that way you’ll be able to put it on your resume for future employment. And of course you’ll be paid.”

Jem opened her mouth to inquire as to how much that might be, but he waved a hand at her.

“You’ll receive your allowance on top of that, of course, and your salary here should be enough to cover repairs to the car.”

Again, she opened her mouth. She needed her car and waiting two months to even start getting it fixed seemed like a complete waste of time to her. But again, her father waved his hand patronizingly to shut her up.

“If you needed the car sooner than that then you should have been more careful with it.”

“I was,” Jem said, finally getting a word in edge-wise.

“Evidently not, since it seems to be broken.”

“But there was a cat and—”

“I don’t care about the details.” He leaned forward, the expensive leather of his chair creaking. “What I care about iswhat you prove in the next two months, Jem. I care that you show me something, something about yourself.”

She breathed out through her nose, keeping her patience. Obviously he was after her having some kind of Come to Jesus moment, a moment that was very unlikely to happen. Jem was fairly sure that Jesus wouldn’t like her, though he did have that water and wine thing going on which was a good party trick.

She felt like she’d been conned into this. She’d assumed her car would get fixed, that her father would pay for it, and that after a week or so he’d lose patience with her and she’d be back to her old ways.

Maybe he still would.

Two months though? That was an eternity. An eternity of doing what exactly? Running around and making coffee? Filing papers. She looked uncertainly around his office. There weren’t any papers in sight.