Page 102 of The Fallback

‘What? How?’

‘I just went to see the girl in the comms team who had shown the email to Ben. Turns out she was feeling dreadful about even having shown it to him so she was only too happy to delete it.’

‘Oh, wow. I don’t know what to say.’

‘Thanks would cover it,’ Mitch said dryly.

‘And she hadn’t forwarded it to anyone else?’ Rosie still couldn’t quite believe that Mitch had sorted it out so easily.

‘Nope. As I said, she was feeling bad enough about showing it to Ben. And by the way? Your non-X-rated press release will be going out tomorrow.’

So that was that. So simple. Rosie felt a weight lift off her shoulders. She wasn't about to get fired. Rachel never need know how badly she had cocked up. She could forget the whole thing ever happened, and she had Mitch to thank. ‘Well, thank you.’

‘It was nothing.’ Mitch shrugged.

‘Not for me it wasn't. It was a stupid thing for me to do.’

‘Rosie,’ he said patiently, ‘we all make mistakes, you simply forwarded an email. It was Rachel’s mistake in the first place.’

‘Ha!’ laughed Rosie bitterly. ‘Do you really think she’d have seen it that way?’

‘Yeah, OK, maybe not. Anyway, it was easy enough to fix. I just wondered why you didn’t ask me yourself?’ He paused. ‘We said goodbye outside my work and the logical Rosie I’ve always known seemed to do a vanishing act. It's kind of funny. For years I’ve told you not to be so analytical about stuff, and as soon as I want you to be, you're not.’ He shook his head.

Rosie looked across at him, her expression deadpan. ‘I’ve come to the conclusion that sometimes logic doesn't apply to real life.’

Mitch smiled at her. ‘Eureka!’ he said softly. ‘So do you want to explain why you vanished?'

‘Meexplain?’ spluttered Rosie. ‘Don’t you thinkyouought to explain about New York?!’

Mitch sighed. ‘I’ve been trying to explain Rosie, that’s why I’ve been calling you, that’s why I’ve been hanging around your flat. By the way, it’s a miracle your neighbours haven’t called the police on me yet.’ Rosie watched him warily. ‘I thought maybe you’d like to explain whyyou’vebeen avoidingme. Whyyouwouldn’t takemycalls? And why on earth you would listen to Ben’s version of events and not askmewhat was going on?’

Rosie shook her head. ‘He’s not that bad, Mitch.’ Mitch laughed. ‘No, really,’ she insisted. ‘You do believe me when I tell you nothing happened between us don’t you?’

Mitch shrugged his shoulders. ‘Yeah, I know that.’

‘Good,’ she exhaled in relief.

‘I know he’s not all bad, after all he did come and find me to tell me what he’d told you. But that still doesn’t explain why you would listen to his story and not mine?’ he said sadly.

Rosie sighed. ‘OK, I agree that I shouldn’t have listened to him. But he wasn't lying, was he? I had to hear about New York from him, not from you.’

‘Yes, but it’s not like that,’ Mitch protested, ‘I’ve been trying to explain it to you.’

Rosie looked at him cautiously. She reminded herself that this washerMitch,herbest friend, who up until recently had never done anything to hurt her. ‘OK, I’m listening. But Mitch, you have to understand,’ she said, tears beginning to well in her eyes, ‘from my point of view I felt you had persuaded me that you wanted to have a baby together and then ditched me as soon as you got a better offer.’ Mitch opened his mouth to protest but Rosie held her hand up, asking that he allow her to continue. “Then you got me to confess that I’m actuallyin love with you,youpretend that you have feelings for me, too, but all along you’d been planning to leave the country!’

‘I wasn’t pretending!’ Mitch blurted out. ‘Of course I have feelings for you, Rosie. I always have done. Ever since we first met.’

‘So why didn’t you say something sooner?’

‘Why didn’t you?’ he countered, both of them starting to sound like petulant children. ‘And anyway,’ he said, ‘you’re the one who ran away when I kissed you in our flat.’ Mitch slumped back in his chair.

‘You remember that?’ Rosie said in shock.

‘Of course I remember that,’ Mitch sighed. ‘It was one of the best and worst nights of my life.’ Rosie stared at him. ‘I’d wanted to kiss you ever since we first met in that awful pub,’ he smiled sadly, ‘and I finally got to do it, but then you obviously weren’t interested so it quickly became the worst night of my life.’

‘You fell asleep!’ Rosie protested.

Mitch looked embarrassed. ‘I was drunk! And when I woke up the next morning, I wanted to kiss you again, but you never mentioned it so I thought you wished it had never happened.’

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