The Plus-One Agreement. Charlotte Phillips

was taking Alistair to Adam’s civil partnership ceremony?

      Dan felt a deep and lurching stab of misplaced envy at the thought of this guy slotting neatly into his recently vacated place—fake though it might have been—in regard to Emma’s family. OK, so they were opinionated and mouthy, and in her mother’s case that translated as being downright bigoted at times, but he’d never felt anything but welcomed by them, and their simple mad chaos had been something he’d enjoyed.

      An unhappy flash of his own childhood rose in his mind. His mother, hardly more than a child herself. No father—at least not in any way that mattered to a kid. Plenty of ‘uncles’, though. He hadn’t been short of those. And plenty of random babysitters—friends of his mother’s, neighbours, hardly the same person twice. What he wouldn’t have given for an interfering nosy mother at the age of thirteen, when babysitters had no longer been required and he’d been considered old enough to be left home alone.

      He dismissed the thought. Things were different now. He’d learned to rely only on himself, without influence from anyone else. Maggie had been the one time he’d deviated from that course, and it had turned out to be an agonising mistake that he had no intention of repeating. He had no need for family. Past or future.

      ‘Got your message, baby, but there’s no way we’re going to be able to make the gay wedding,’ Alistair said.

      Dan watched Emma’s smile falter and suppressed an unexpected urge to grab Woods by the scruff of the neck.

      ‘Why not?’ she said. ‘I can’t miss Adam’s wedding. I promised him.’

      Dan recognised her tone as carefully neutral. She was upset and trying to cover it up. Did this Alistair know her well enough to pick up that little nuance? Hardly.

      * * *

      Emma took a sip of her coffee in an effort to hide her disappointment. Had she really thought it would be that simple? That he would just agree to her every whim?

      ‘We’re spending that weekend in the Hamptons,’ Alistair was saying. ‘I’ve been in talks to land a movie role and one of the producers is having a garden party. Can’t miss it. Lots riding on it. I’m sure Arnold will understand. Career first, right?’ He leaned in towards her with a winning expression and squeezed her hand. ‘We agreed.’

      His career first.

      ‘Adam,’ Emma corrected. She could hear the disappointment, cold and heavy, in her own voice. ‘His name is Adam. And I really can’t miss his wedding.’

      Alistair sat back and released her hand, leaving it lying abandoned in the middle of the white tablecloth. His irritation was instant and palpable, and all the more of a shock because he’d never been anything but sweetness and light so far. But then, she hadn’t demanded anything from him so far, had she? She’d been only too eager to go along for the ride. His ride.

      ‘You do whatever you have to do, baby,’ he said dismissively. ‘You can fly out and join me afterwards.’

      ‘But I really wanted you to be there, to meet my family.’

      ‘Sorry, honey, no can do.’

      Alistair turned to the waiter to order a drink. She noticed that Dan was looking at her with sympathy and she looked away. Everything was unravelling and it was a million times worse because he was here to witness it. She tried to muster up an attitude that might smother the churning disappointment in her stomach as her high hopes plummeted.

      From the moment she’d met Alistair he had made her feel special, as if nothing was too much trouble for him. But it occurred to her that it had only related to peripheral things, like flowers and restaurants and which hotel they might stay in. Now it had come down to something that was truly important to her he hadn’t delivered the goods. It wasn’t even up for discussion. Because it clashed with his own plans.

      Disappointment mingled hideously with exasperated disbelief. She felt like crashing her head down despairingly on the table. Would she ever, at any point in her life, meet someone who might actually put her first on their agenda? Or was this her lot? To make her way through life as some lower down priority?

      ‘Look, I don’t want to interfere,’ Dan said suddenly, leaning forward. ‘But how about I step in?’

      * * *

      ‘What do you mean, step in?’ she asked, eyes narrowed.

      Suspicion. Not a good sign, Dan thought. On the other hand Alistair was looking more than open to the suggestion.

      Dispensing with Alistair to some swanky party on a different continent was far too good an opportunity to pass up. All he needed to do was step into Alistair’s shoes as Emma’s date and he’d have a whole weekend to make her rethink her actions and to get the situation working for him again.

      ‘I got my invitation to the wedding this morning,’ he said, thinking of the gaudy card that had arrived in the post, with ‘Groom & Groom!’ plastered across the front in bright yellow, very much in keeping with Adam’s usual in-your-face style.

      ‘You’ve been invited?’ she asked with obvious surprise, as if their interaction had been so fake that all the connections he’d made with her family were counterfeit, too. But he genuinely liked Adam—they’d always had a laugh.

      ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘So if Alistair is away working I can fill in if you like—escort you. It’s not as if I haven’t done it before. What do you think?’

      She stared at him.

      ‘For old times’ sake?’ he pressed. ‘I’m sure Alistair won’t mind.’

      He glanced at the ex-cyclist, who held his hands up.

      ‘Great idea!’ he said. ‘Problem solved.’

      Emma’s face was inscrutable.

      ‘That won’t be necessary,’ she snapped. ‘And actually, Dan, if you don’t mind, we could do with a bit of time to talk this over.’

      She looked at him expectantly and when he didn’t move raised impatient eyebrows and nodded her head imperceptibly towards the door.

      All was no longer peachy with her and Mr Perfect and that meant opportunity. He should be ecstatic. All he needed to do was leave them be and let the idiot drive a wedge between them, because one thing he knew about Emma was that her parents might drive her up the pole but Adam meant the world to her. Yet his triumph was somehow diluted by a surge of protectiveness towards Emma at Alistair’s easy dismissal of her. He had to force himself not to give the smug idiot a piece of his mind.

      He made himself stand up and excused himself from the table.

      Give the guy enough leeway and he would alienate Emma all by himself. Dan could call her up later in the role of concerned friend and reinstate their agreement on his own terms.

      * * *

      Bumped to make room for Alistair’s career?

      Her mind insisted on recycling Adam’s comments from the day before. ‘Don’t you think he ought to prove himself before you take that kind of plunge?’ Was it really so much to ask?

      The insistent ‘case closed’ way Alistair had refused her suggestion told her far more about him than just his words alone, and it occurred to her in a crushing blow of clarity. How had she ever thought she would come first with someone who had an ego the size of Alistair’s? An ego which was still growing, by the sound of it, if he was trying to break into the movies.

      The waiter brought their food and she watched as Alistair tucked in with gusto to an enormous steak and side salad, oblivious to the fact that there was anything wrong between them. He’d got his own way. For him it was business as usual. His whole attitude now irked her. It was as if she should be somehow grateful for being invited along for the ride. She’d been too busy being swept away by the excitement of someone like him actually taking an interest in her to comprehend that being with him would mean giving up