Conveniently Engaged To The Boss. Ellie Darkins

ask us which century we’re living in. Perhaps if this was a real relationship we’d say to hell with what they think. But we need to make them believe us. I don’t want to give them any reason not to. I’ll start moving some stuff in on Monday.’

      He moved to leave, and somehow, although it was what her rational brain wanted, it seemed her body wasn’t expecting it. Disappointment washed through her. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t used to living alone. She loved having her own space. But they’d been through a lot today, and she wasn’t particularly keen on being left alone with her thoughts.

      ‘Do you want a coffee before you go?’ she asked, flicking on the kettle behind her.

      ‘Sure,’ Joss said, watching her carefully. ‘Something wrong?’

      ‘No,’ she replied, rubbing her forehead and realising she wasn’t being very convincing. ‘Just a lot to take in. Weird day.’

      ‘Tell me about it,’ Joss said, leaning back on the counter.

      Eva looked up and realised that it wasn’t a figure of speech.

      ‘No, no—it’s fine,’ she said.

      ‘I can listen. Even help.’

      ‘I can’t, Joss. He’s your dad. You don’t want to... It should be me asking if you’re okay.’

      ‘I don’t get an exclusive on it, Eva. I know you care for him too.’

      ‘I just can’t believe I didn’t know...you know.’

      She made two coffees and carried them back through to the living room. Plonking them on the coffee table, she just had time to wish she had space for a bigger sofa before Joss appeared behind her.

      ‘Do you sit and spy on your neighbours?’ Joss asked, pointing out the way the sofa was angled towards the big picture window out onto the mews.

      ‘More like bask in the sun. I get enough gossip at work.’

      He looked surprised.

      ‘What? Don’t tell me you hadn’t noticed.’

      He shook his head. ‘What do people gossip about?’

      ‘Oh, you know—the usual. Who’s sleeping with who. Who’s angling for a promotion. Who’s getting fired.’

      ‘So why don’t I hear any of this?’

      Eva rolled her eyes. With all his expensive business education, did he seriously not understand how an office worked? She was clearly going to have to spell this out to him.

      ‘Of course you don’t hear the gossip,’ she said. ‘One, you’re practically the boss. No one gossips in front of the boss. Two, you’re hardly ever in the office. And three, you’re not exactly Mr Friendly over the coffee machine when you are there.’

      ‘People don’t think I’m friendly?’

      ‘I don’t think you’re friendly. I can’t speak for anyone else.’

      He folded his arms and fixed her with a stern look. She was tempted to laugh.

      ‘What’s so unfriendly about me?’

      Should she go for it? Unload all his faults? All the reasons she’d been telling herself for years why he was a million miles from boyfriend material.

      Why not? Perhaps it would be the final straw in this idiotic deception.

      ‘Fine—if you want to hear it. You’re not exactly an open book, are you, Joss? You don’t talk to people unless it’s directly about the business.’

      ‘I don’t do small talk. There’s a difference.’

      ‘Right: the difference between being friendly and not friendly. It’s not a criticism. Just an observation.’

      ‘You think I should be friendlier?’

      She sighed and shook her head. Seriously, this man’s emotional intelligence didn’t even register on the scale. ‘I didn’t say that. I don’t think you need to change. But just don’t be surprised if people don’t open up around you.’

      ‘Well, you don’t seem to be having a problem with that.’

      She shrugged and gave a resigned laugh. ‘Proposing to a girl will have that effect. If you didn’t want to know, you shouldn’t have asked.’

      ‘Might as well know what people think of me. So—office gossip. Is there going to be a lot of it. About us?’

      ‘Are you kidding?’ She laughed properly, genuinely amused for the first time all day. ‘I’m going to be grilled like a fish about this on Monday morning.’

      ‘You could just not go in,’ Joss offered. ‘Take a few days off. Benefits of dating the boss.’

      The smile dropped from her face as the insult hit. As if she could just not show up for work, with no notice, and it wouldn’t make a difference to anyone.

      ‘I think we need to get a couple of things straight, Joss. One—I work very hard with your father. My job is important, and I can’t just swan off because you say so. Unless you fancy handling his correspondence in Arabic, Italian and French on Monday morning, I’ll be at my desk as usual. Two—we are not now, nor will we ever be “dating”. If I’d wanted to date you, I’d have asked you out for dinner. I’m going along with your little charade because I care about your father. Don’t confuse the two.’

      ‘Would you?’ He leaned into the arm of the sofa with a smile that was verging dangerously on smug.

      ‘Would I what?’

      ‘Have asked me out for dinner?’

      She sighed. Bloody man. ‘The key part of that sentence, Joss, was if. I’ve never asked you because I don’t want to date you.’

      ‘You know, you sound like you’ve given that quite a lot of thought. Should I be flattered?’

      ‘Honestly. Only a man with your ego could find a way to take that as a compliment. Listen to me carefully, Joss. I don’t want to date you. I don’t want to be engaged to you. I’m going along with it for now. But when the time comes we’ll both extract ourselves from this situation with as much dignity as we can muster and forget it ever happened.’

       CHAPTER THREE

      EVA SPENT THE weekend in a daze. The further she got from having seen Joss the more ridiculous the whole thing seemed. So when she pitched up at her desk at eight o’clock on Monday morning she was almost surprised to see him there waiting for her.

      ‘You’re in early,’ she commented, unwinding her scarf from around her neck and draping it over the coatstand. ‘Trying to impress somebody?’

      ‘I told you—my father wants to start handing things over today. I thought we’d need an early start.’

      ‘Well, we’ve both beaten the boss in.’ She glanced through the blinds to Edward’s darkened office beyond. ‘Did you see him at the weekend? How is he?’

      ‘He is marvellous, Eva, dear,’ Edward said, bowling up behind her. ‘Thank you for asking. And I was out of the city this weekend, so I’ve not seen anyone since I left the office on Friday. How about you two? I hope you did something nice with your weekend and didn’t spend it worrying about me.’

      ‘Dinner on Friday night,’ Joss supplied truthfully.

      ‘And Borough Market on Saturday,’ Eva added.

      No need to mention that she’d gone alone. She disliked the taste of the half-lie in her mouth, but the smile on Edward’s face softened the blow.

      ‘And arriving together on Monday morning. Were you this indiscreet before or