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"He shouldn’t have told you," I mutter furiously "I told him not to He promised"

"Well, he did tell me! And now…" Luke breaks off "And now I don’t knohat to say," he says more quietly " ‘Thank you’ doesn’t even come close"

We stare at each other in silence for a few ," I say at last, looking away "I only did it because I can’t stand Alicia No other reason"

"So… I’ve put you on row thirty-two," says the checkin girl brightly "Boarding should be at four thirty…" She takes one further look at es "Hey! You’re the one off Morning Coffee, aren’t you?"

"I used to be," I say with a polite sht," she says puzzledly As she hands overcard, her eye runs over raph She looks up at Luke, and down again

"Hang on Are you hi at the picture

"I used to be," says Luke after a pause "Come on, Becky Let me buy you a drink, at least"

We sit down at a little table with glasses of Pernod I can see the light on Luke’s phone lighting up every five seconds, indicating that so to call hi you," he says, staring into his drink "Every single day, I wanted to ring But… it’s been so crazy since I got back And what you said abouttime for a real relationship? That really stuck with me Plus…" He breaks off into silence

"Plus what?" I say at last

"I wasn’t sure," he says, and looks up with frank brown eyes "The truth is, I didn’t knohether we could make it work It seeoing in different directions It was as though we didn’t understand each other any But for soain

"So -- what happened?" I say, forcing myself to sound matter-of-fact "Why are you here? The day when all your investors have flown in to see you"

"Not ideal I’ll give you that" A flicker of amusement passes briefly across his face "But hoas I to know you were planning to skip the country? Michael’s been a secretive bastard And when I heard you were leaving…" He meets e

"That I’d been a fucking… stupid…"

He pushes his glass around the table abstractly, as though searching for soht," he says suddenly "I was obsessed withit in New York It was a kind ofelse Jesus, I’ve fucked everything up, haven’t I? You… us… the business…"

"Come on, Luke," I say aardly "You can’t take credit for everything I fucked up a good few things for you…" I stop as Luke shakes his head He drains his glass and givesyou need to know Becky -- how do you think The Daily World got hold of your financial details?"

I look at hiirl who came to the flat and snooped around while Suze was…" I tail away as he shakes his head again

"It was Alicia"

For a e at last "How do you… ould she…"

"When we searched her office we found some bank statements of yours in her desk Soot hold of theuy at The Daily World to adave the that day I visited his office The Conran bag with alllike a cat with abehind Oh God, how could I have been so stupid?

"You weren’t her real target," Luke’s saying "She did it to discredit me and the company -- and distract my attention from what she was up to They won’t confir all those quotes about ot it all wrong My deal wasn’t ruined because of you" He looks at me matter-of-factly "Yours was ruined because of le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">