Free Oh-So-Sensible Secretary by Jessica Hart Page A

that’s a chip in your nail polish!’ The laughter faded from his voice and from his face. ‘Come on, I can see in your eyes that something’s wrong. What is it?’
    ‘It’s…nothing.’ I couldn’t look at him. I stared fiercely away, pressing my lips together in one straight line.
    ‘You’re not the kind of person that gets upset aboutnothing,’ he said gently. Going back to the door, he closed it. ‘Tell me,’ he said.
    There was a great, tangled knot of hurt in my throat. I knew if I even tried to say Jonathan’s name I would break down completely, and I wasn’t sure I could bear the humiliation. ‘I…can’t.’
    ‘OK,’ he said. ‘You don’t need to say anything. But we’re going out. Get your coat.’
    I was too tired and miserable to object. He took me to a dimly lit bar, just beginning to fill with people leaving work early. Like us, I supposed. We found a table in a corner and Phin looked around for a waiter.
    ‘What would you like?’ he asked. ‘A glass of wine?’
    God, I was so predictable, I realised. No wonder Jonathan didn’t want me. Even Phin could see that I was the kind of girl who sensibly just had a small glass of white wine before going home. I was boring.
    ‘Actually, I’d like a cocktail,’ I said with a shade of defiance.
    ‘Sure,’ said Phin. ‘What kind?’
    I picked up the menu on the table and scanned it. I would love to have been the kind of girl who could order Sex on a Beach or a Long Slow Screw Against a Wall without sounding stupid, but I wasn’t. ‘A pomegranate martini,’ I decided, choosing one at random.
    His mouth flickered, but he ordered it straight-faced from the waiter, along with a beer for himself.
    When it came, it looked beautiful—a rosy pink colour with a long twirl of orange peel curling through it. I was beginning to regret my choice by then, but was relieved to take a sip and find it delicious. Just like fruit juice, really.
    I was grateful to Phin for behaving quite normally. He chatted about his meeting with Jane, and I listened with halfan ear as I sipped the martini which slipped down in no time. I even began to relax a bit.
    ‘Another one?’ Phin asked, beckoning the waiter over.
    About to say that I shouldn’t, I stopped myself. Sod it, I thought. I had nothing to go home for. ‘Why not?’ I said instead.
    When the second martini arrived, I took another restorative pull through the straw and sat back. I was beginning to feel pleasantly fuzzy around the edges.
    ‘Thank you,’ I said on a long sigh. ‘This was just what I needed.’
    ‘Can you talk about it yet?’
    Phin’s voice was warm with sympathy. The funny thing was that it didn’t feel at all awkward to be sitting there with him in the dim light. Maybe it was the martini, but all at once he felt like a friend, not my irritating boss. Only that morning the graze of his finger had reduced me to mush, but it was too bizarre to remember that now.
    I sighed. ‘Oh, it’s just the usual thing.’
    ‘Boyfriend trouble?’
    ‘He’s not my boyfriend any more. The truth is, he was never really my boyfriend at all,’ I realised dully. ‘But I loved him. I still do.’
    In spite of myself, my eyes started to fill with tears. ‘He told me before Christmas that he wanted out, that he didn’t think it was working,’ I went on, my voice beginning to wobble disastrously. ‘I’d been hoping and hoping that he’d change his mind, and I let myself believe that he was beginning to miss me, but I just found out today that he’s going out with Lori and he’s mad about her and I don’t think I can bear it.’
    I couldn’t stop the tears then. It was awful. I hate crying, hate that feeling of losing control, but there was nothing I could do about it.
    Phin saw me frantically searching for tissue, and silently handed me a paper napkin that had come with the bowl of nuts.
    ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ I wept into it.
    ‘Hey, don’t be sorry. It sucks. Who is this guy,