Her sister’s outrage was catching and Zoe found herself thinking, yes, why hadn’t he suggested they forget about it? ‘It’s complicated,’ she said with a sigh.
‘It always is. Well, it sounds like good riddance if you ask me,’ said Lily, swivelling round to pick up the phone that had just started to ring. ‘You’re way better off without him.’
Hmm, maybe she was, thought Zoe, finally deploying the logic and reason that had been strangely absent these last few weeks. It wasn’t as if they were madly in love or anything. They’d simply been having a hot affair, and, while the sex was great, frankly if Dan was prepared to suspect the worst of her quite so quickly, did she need him? No, she most certainly did not.
‘Think of him as a stepping stone to bigger and better things,’ said Lily, before turning her attention to the call.
‘You’re right. I will.’ Eventually. Once she’d got over the disappointment that they were over she’d maybe start online dating again. Surely great sex and a great man couldn’t be all that hard to find...
‘What?’ she asked, dragging herself away from thoughts of great sex to find Lily watching her, an odd expression on her face.
‘The stepping stone.’
Despite everything that had happened in the last twelve hours Zoe’s heart lurched. ‘What about him?’
‘He’s here.’
Her mouth went dry. ‘Here?’
‘Downstairs. To see you, apparently.’
‘Why?’
‘Well, how would I know?’
‘Does he know I’m here?’
‘Yes, but I could always fob him off and tell him you’re in a meeting or something.’
Ignoring the brief temptation to tell her sister to go for it, Zoe reminded herself that she no longer shied away from conflict, and set her jaw. ‘No, it’s fine,’ she said. ‘I have a few things I’d like to set him straight on anyway.’
Lily grinned and punched the air. ‘Way to go, sis.’
* * *
Quite what sort of reception Dan had been expecting he wasn’t sure, but the minute the lift doors opened and Zoe stepped out he could see the one he was getting.
He watched her approach, her stride efficient and purposeful, her expression cool and haughty and her smile neutrally professional and nowhere near her eyes, and he half expected her to hold out her hand for him to shake.
She showed no sign of the kind of disturbed night he’d had. She didn’t look as if she’d spent the early hours pacing the width of her bedroom asking herself how she could have been such an idiot to put into jeopardy a fling she’d been enjoying. She looked gorgeous, magnificent and, unsurprisingly, as inscrutable as the Sphinx.
‘Dan,’ she said coolly, her voice echoing around the lobby and her heels tapping against the marble floor as she came to a stop in front of him.
‘Zoe,’ he replied, reminding himself why he was here and why he couldn’t just haul her into his arms and kiss the daylights out of her.
‘I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again.’
‘I don’t blame you.’
‘What do you want?’
‘Well, now, that’s not very polite.’
‘I’m not feeling very polite.’
No, well, in all honesty he couldn’t blame her for that either. In fact, the blame for everything that had happened in the last week or so lay entirely with him. ‘That’s fair enough, I suppose.’
‘And I’m extremely busy this morning,’ she added with a pointed glance at her watch.