“Hey! I said I need you to leave, so off you go.” Annie poked at his exposed leg. He was wearing boxers, another cause for relief in her books. He didn’t seem her type at all either; he was bone-skinny with a bit of a culchie accent, so she had no idea how or why he’d ended up here.

But did she even have a type these days?

Still, if this gobshite thought he could grab a lie-in at her expense, he was sadly mistaken. She’d throw him out on his arse herself if he didn’t skedaddle on his own, pronto.

Her persistence got his attention and he forced his eyes open once more.

“Hey, why don’t you get back in and we can finish what we started last night?” he said suggestively, and Annie’s hackles rose even more.

“Are you deaf? Get the feck out!” She grabbed the end of the duvet and yanked it off him. “I mean it.” Then, grabbing his clothes, she marched across to the door of her flat (which didn’t take long as it was a tiny studio) and flung it open, launching his stuff through. “Don’t let it hit you on the way out.”

Her unexpected guest looked completely bewildered. “What the hell? Why are you being so weird? You asked me back, remember? You were all over me.”

Annie didn’t remember—that was the problem—but she wasn’t about to tell him that. “Look, I’m sorry but I told you already that I’ve got stuff to do and you’re getting in the way. So please just go,” she insisted.

She watched as her guest jumped up again and stepped out into the hallway, scrambling for his clothes. He pulled his shirt over his head, sticking his arms into the sleeves in one smooth movement, then eyed her angrily from the doorway.

“You’re something else, you know.”

“I know,” she murmured airily, as she closed the door behind him, her heart racing a thousand beats a minute. She’d done a pretty good job convincing him of her bravado, but all the while she’d been terrified. A strange man in her bed and in her flat. It wouldn’t be the first time things had gone awry.

“That’s it. No more getting pissed out of your head, Annie... No more.”

She walked to her bed and looked at the sheets with scorn, before yanking them off. She’d be doing a wash today for sure. Once all the bedding was off, she returned to the bare mattress and flopped down on the edge of it.