‘Listen,’ said Sage. ‘I didn’t know it was you when I met you in the pub that day. And later when I found out you were a writer and I realised I’d reviewed your debut, I thought it might be best if we didn’t see each other again.’

He held still, trying to figure out how he was feeling, knowing the truth. Betrayed? Tricked? But was that fair?

Eventually, he spoke. ‘Thanks for coming to tell me,’ he said. ‘But why? What made you feel like you needed to?’

‘I don’t know! It’s like you got under my skin or something. I started to feel guilty. And I wanted to see you again.’

‘You mean, now you want to date or something? I thought you were only interested in casual sex?’

‘I am! I was. I don’t know . . . I’m just confused. Playing the part of your girlfriend that night, like I said, it was fun pretending to be someone else. Maybe I would like to see you again . . . Is that something you’d want?’

Darren groaned. ‘Oh, now you think you’re interested in something more? Now that I can see there’s no way it would work. I mean, surely you get that, right? You hated my book, and my writing is who I am. It’s me. And considering you shat all over it, that kind of makes things pretty awkward between us. So how would we date?’

‘Look, I don’t even know if that’s what I’m saying, okay? It’s just that I liked you. Or, I do like you, so I needed to talk to you. To tell you the truth. I’m sorry you felt hurt by my review, but it wasn’t personal.’

‘Yeah, well, to me, it is personal. Like I said, my book is me.’

Right then a woman approached from the lift. She was tall with blonde hair tied back in a slick ponytail and heavy makeup. ‘Darren?’ she said.

Sage looked at the other woman and then back at Darren. ‘Ah, I see.’

‘Sage, wait, that’s not what this is.’

‘All good.’ Sage held up her hand as the other woman looked back and forth between them. ‘You and I were never a thing, you’re free to do as you please.’

‘No, I mean, she’s here for the dog!’

‘Oh,’ said Sage. ‘You found Doggo’s owner?’

Darren nodded. ‘Seems like it.’

Her face fell. ‘Darren, I’m really sorry.’ She still backed away though. ‘But I should go either way. Let you sort everything out with the dog.’

‘Sage, hang on,’ said Darren.

‘Here,’ she said, pulling a card out of her back pocket and passing it across. ‘If you do decide you want to talk sometime, this is my number. But you’re probably right, it’d never work.’

Then she turned and left at a brisk pace down the hall.