He’d had this vision of doing coupley things with Neve—romantic strolls in Hyde Park, cosy lunches in chi-chi bistros, snuggling up at night on the sofa. The sort of thing he’d done with Lyssa before ‘baby’ became the most frequently used word in her vocabulary.

Women generally wanted their man to be around, while Neve was obsessively independent. Most of the time he just felt as if he was in the way. If that was the case, he had no idea why she’d asked him to live with her at all. Or maybe it had been he who’d suggested it? To be fair, Neve hadn’t mentioned any other long-term relationships to him—but then she hadn’t mentioned much to him as they spent so little time together. Perhaps this was all too new to her.

‘She went out with her mates on Saturday night while I watched Saturday Football Special with a bag of sour cream and onion Kettle chips and two cans of Miller Lite.’

‘Mmm,’ Pip said.

‘Mmm, indeed,’ Jake said. ‘Still, I shouldn’t complain.’ Although he wasn’t exactly sure why not. ‘What did you get up to?’

Pip shifted on his desk. ‘Not a lot.’

‘It can’t have been less than I did, mate,’ Jake said with a sigh. Then he grinned. ‘Or are you being evasive because there was a lovely lady involved?’

‘Yes,’ Pip said.

Jake sat up at his desk. ‘Oh?’

His friend chewed at his lip thoughtfully and took his time before answering. ‘I was at Lyssa’s yesterday.’

Jake sat a bit more upright. ‘My Lyssa’s?’

‘Your ex-Lyssa’s.’

Jake felt vaguely put out. ‘What were you doing there?’

‘If you’d thought to call her at all, you probably would have found out.’

‘I’ve been busy,’ Jake said and sounded too defensive even for his own ears.

Pip looked at him as if to say, ‘You’ve just told me you did fuck-all this weekend.’

‘I didn’t want to upset her,’ Jake corrected quickly. ‘Was she okay?’ He tried to look suitably penitent. ‘I’d hate to think of her moping around because of me.’

‘No,’ Pip said. ‘I can’t say she was moping around.’

Jake forced a smile. ‘You’re not thinking of…’

Pip raised his eyebrows in question.

‘You know…you’re not thinking of…you and Lyssa?’

Pip pondered for a moment. ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘Why? Would it be a problem?’

‘For me?’ Jake said. ‘Why would it be a problem for me?’

‘Quite,’ Pip pointed out. ‘You’ve moved on to bigger and better and more athletic things, remember?’

‘Yeah,’ Jake said. ‘Yeah, I guess I have.’ But his stomach had started churning all the same and he was sure that it was simply because of all the fast food he’d consumed over the last few weeks.