He was an idiot for starting to create a sliver of false hope for himself. He knew better. And it was insulting to Charlotte to keep thinking she’d go back on this decision, because it wasn’t a decision, was it? It was a revelation of who she was. He needed to pull himself together and accept their relationship for what it was — friendship. Because if he wanted to keep Charlotte in his life that was all it could ever be.

He made a conscious effort to fix his body language, pulling his shoulders back and lifting his chin so he wouldn’t look disappointed. Then he started weaving his way through the Friday night crowd of men in suits with loosened ties and women in cute blazers, short skirts and high heels. Sometimes he missed working a normal nine-to-five job. Being able to head out with his colleagues at the end of the week to cut loose, sharing a drunken pash on a hot summer’s night with someone from the office as the night drew to a close. Before he’d quit to write full time he’d worked as a sales development manager for a finance company in the city. He hadn’t been all that great at his job, just barely hitting his targets each month. He suspected his boss had accepted his resignation with some relief when he’d scored his publishing deal.

‘Ladies,’ he said as he reached Charlotte and Steph’s booth but remained standing. ‘Grab you something from the bar before I sit down?’

Charlotte jumped up and gave him a kiss on the cheek while Steph stayed sitting but smiled at him. ‘All good,’ said Charlotte. ‘We’ve ordered and we’ve got a beer coming for you as well.’

‘Asahi?’

‘Asahi.’

He grinned and pulled out a chair while Charlotte dropped back into her seat. He thought Steph’s smile might have become a little fixed throughout the exchange and wondered if it bothered her that Charlotte still knew him well enough to order him a beer before he’d even arrived to choose it.

Now that it had been confirmed her invite really did have nothing to do with wanting him back, he was curious to find out what the important thing was that she wanted to talk about. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in any hurry to enlighten him.

‘What’s going on? How have you been?’ she said before he could jump in and ask her what she wanted.

‘Not much. The usual. You guys?’

Steph went to answer but Charlotte spoke over the top of her. ‘Oh, us? We’re boring. Tell us more about you. The usual? What does that mean? Come on, tell us about your “exciting author life”.’

Darren cocked his head to the side. Charlotte’s voice seemed to have switched to high-speed mode and it was a tad shriller than usual. She was nervous about something.