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E and she alnise the nual secretary voice ‘E’

‘It’s Loukas Kyprianos’

Her heart kicked her ribcage out of the way, leapt to her throat and clung there with hooked claws

He’d called her He’d called her He’d called her

The words were beating in time with her panicked pulse She needed more time She wasn’t ready for this conversation She needed to rehearse in front of the , like she used to do as a kid with a hairbrush as a pretendwas so choppy it felt as though she was having an asthma attack

Breathe Breathe Breathe

She could do with soht about now ‘Ermhi How are you?’

‘Fine You?’

‘Erood, thank you Great Super Fantastic’

Apart fro sickness

There was a tick-tock of silence

‘Are you free this evening?’

Emily sed Free for what? Hook-up sex? She didn’t want to sound too available A girl had her pride and all that But she had to tell him about the baby Maybe over dinner would be the best way to do it No No No Not in a public place She would have to do it in private Private was best ‘I’ll have to check ’

He gave a soft sound that could have passed for an aet with me, Emily’

Yes, well, it was a little late for that, she had to admit The way he said her nao all squishy Em-il-ee It wasn’t a name when he said it It was a seductive caress, as if he had circled each and every buertip ‘Look, I think you should know, I’ I don’t normally drink so much—’

‘Have dinner with me’

Ee at the way he said it, like a com by her phone waiting for him to call? Well, she had, but that was beside the point She wasn’t going to let hiet her to drop everything to have dinner with hi so—’

‘Cancel’

Cancel?

What the hell? Why should she cancel so at his say-so? ‘I don’t think so’

She was quite proud of the haughty I-haven’t-been-Superglued-to--for-you-to-call tone in her voice