I walked back into the bedroom and glanced at the bedside clock: ten to seven. I sat on the bed and put my shoes on, then checked on my dress. It was a simple Grecian-style halter sheath with a choker collar that joined to the main body of the dress with a delicate three-link chain. I’d bought it on a whim, which was most unlike me. And, having had no occasion to wear it, it had hung in my wardrobe for the last three years looking beautiful and a little sad.
I wasn’t usually one for keeping things I didn’t use – that was the ethos of my company after all – so tonight was this dress’ now or never chance and I just hoped it was right for the occasion. This was obviously an important night for Michael and I didn’t want to let him down. I’d never been to a big function like this one and, frankly, the whole cool, calm, cope-with-anything persona was desperately making a dive for the window. I grabbed onto her proverbial ankles and yanked.
It’s just a party. I can do a party.
The doorbell rang. I’d been expecting the intercom. The flats had an internal security system that was supposed to prevent people just turning up at a front door uninvited. In reality, people often just held the door for someone if they were close behind, whether they recognised them or not.
Michael was early and at my door. I pulled it open: Except that it wasn’t Michael.
‘Calum. What are you doing here?’
‘She left me.’ His eyes skimmed me up and down. ‘You look amazing, babe.’
‘You didn’t answer my question. What are you doing here?’
He held out his hands. ‘I’m free now. There’s no need for us to hide any more. We can be together properly.’
I stared at him, unable to see what I had once seen, the charming persona that had attracted me before. Because now I knew that’s exactly what it was, just a persona.
‘Calum. If you recall, you were the only one hiding something and that was a pretty big something. You lied and made a fool out of me. What on earth possessed you to think that I would ever want to see you again?’
He stepped forward and took my hand before I could move it. ‘Kate. You know we were good together. And now there’s nothing to stop us being together for real.’
‘I’ll have to disagree with you there.’ Michael’s soft lilt caused us both to turn. He smiled at me across my ex, whose face darkened.
‘Well, that didn’t take long.’ Calum’s mouth was almost a sneer as he looked back at me.
‘I’m not one to waste the chance at something amazing.’ Michael stepped closer, causing Calum to automatically back out of my personal space, allowing Michael to fill it instead.
‘Sorry to just appear.’ He smiled down at me. ‘Someone left the front door on the catch. That’s not exactly high security, you know.’
I shrugged in a what-can-you-do manner.
‘You look stunning.’ His eyes met mine after a detour of skimming me and my outfit. ‘Are you ready?’
I nodded, still taking in what I was seeing after some eye roving of my own. The unpleasant surprise of Calum turning up on my doorstep was obliterated by the incredibly pleasant surprise that stood before me now. I hadn’t thought that Michael could possibly get any better looking, but he had proved me wrong. His hair was now short and cropped, his face clean-shaven and he was dressed in one of the beautifully cut suits I’d seen hanging unloved in the wardrobe. A pure white shirt stood out against the charcoal grey of the fabric, with a silk tie in subtle versions of the suit’s colour to tone.
I grabbed my clutch and wrap from the table by the door and closed the door behind me, throwing the double lock before dropping the key in my bag. When I turned, Calum was still there.
‘Calum you should leave.’
‘We have things to talk about.’
‘She asked you to leave.’ Michael spoke, his voice was calm but from the corner of my eye, I saw his jaw tense.
I reached down and took his hand, squeezing it gently to let him know I had this.
‘I don’t remember asking your – ’
‘Calum,’ I cut him off before he ended up saying something that might result in him taking an unexpected nap in the corridor, and possibly being fitted for a new set of teeth. ‘I’m not interested in getting back together with you, whatever the circumstances. Please don’t come here again.’
‘Shall we go?’ I looked up.
Michael smiled back at me. ‘Absolutely. Here.’ He took the wrap and draped it around my shoulders, his fingertips brushing against my bare skin, causing a flash of heat to whoosh through my body. We turned, leaving Calum where he stood.
‘Are you sure you’re warm enough?’ Michael asked as we got to the front door of the building? ‘The cab’s just out here but – ’
‘You have a cab waiting? Why didn’t you say? Oh God, the meter is going to be sky high after faffing about with bloody Calum. You should have just rung – ’
Michael placed his hands on my shoulders. ‘You might want to take a breath.’
That was a good plan. Nerves about the party, Calum showing up out of the blue and then Michael walking in looking like the sexiest, most gorgeous man I’d ever seen was a lot to cope with in ten minutes.
‘Good idea.’ And I did as he instructed. ‘But still. You could have just rung me and I’d have come down.’
‘Katie I’m happy to wait when it’s something worth waiting for.’
I didn’t really know what to say to that, so I opted for nothing. Or more to the point, my mind just stayed unhelpfully blank.
‘Besides,’ he said, opening the door of the waiting cab and holding out his hand to help me in whilst I held up my dress hem with my other one, ‘it would have deprived me of the opportunity of meeting the clearly charming Calum.’
‘Please don’t start.’
‘I wasn’t planning to. I’m just saying it’s nice to put a face to a name.’
Michael gave the driver directions and leant back. I slid a look to him. ‘You had the look of wanting to put something else to his face.’
‘And in my youth I might have done. Not, I hasten to add, something I’m necessarily proud of. But don’t worry, I’m older and wiser now.’
‘I’m glad to hear it.’
‘Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t meet people I’d quite happily deck. Tonight was a prime example.’
‘You only met him for a few minutes.’
‘Which was plenty.’
I turned in my seat to face him, the lights of the city flashing across the windows and his now clean-shaven face. ‘Can we talk about something
