Page 72 of The Fallback

‘What are you doing here?’ she said accusingly.

‘Nice to see you, too, Rosie.’ He laughed. ‘You weren’t answering my calls or texts so I thought I’d try and catch you in person.’

Rosie eyed him warily. She didn’t like being caught off-guard, especially not by someone she was actively trying to avoid.

‘Come for a drink with me?’ he asked.

‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘It’s midday. I’m not going to the pub.’

‘Later?’ he asked.

Realising her mistake, she clarified, ‘I’m not going to the pub with youever,OK?’

‘Please?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know, Ben, I don’t think it’s a good idea given everything that’s happened and anyway I’ve got stuff to do.’

‘I promise I won’t try and kiss you,’ he said, holding his hands up in front of him.

Rosie looked sceptical and glanced down at her watch. She actually had almost two hours until the lab would be free and eating one sandwich wasn’t going to take all that time.

‘All right.’ She sighed. ‘But I’m not drinking at lunchtime, OK? I need to clear up a mess, not make another one.’ She mentally ran through everything she needed to get done in the lab that afternoon.

‘Why, what’s happened?’ Ben asked suddenly curious.

‘Nothing you need to know about,’ she said dismissively, shoving her hands into her pockets and second-guessing her decision to say yes.

‘Where do you guys drink around here?’ he asked, looking back over his shoulder at the busy street.

Rosie shrugged. ‘There’s the pub round the corner but that will be packed with students. If you’re happy to walk five minutes, there’s a quieter place just down the road.’ Rosie had no desire to bump into anyone from work with Ben in tow. Imagine having to explain who he was and why she was with him.

Ben nodded. ‘Sounds good,’ he said. ‘You lead the way.’

Rosie kept glancing at Ben as they walked round Russell Square. She was aiming for a pub she knew near Tavistock Place. It would hopefully have no students and no faculty in there but be busy enough that Ben wouldn’t try anything on.

Shehadbeen avoiding him, that much was true; she hadn’t seen him since he left her flat the morning of her argument with Mitch, but he had sent her enough messages that she knew he was trying to get her attention and she also knew he must have heard some of what was said but she didn’t know how much or what he had subsequently guessed to be true.

The pub was practically empty. There were two men drinking at the bar and a couple sat in one corner. Rosie looked around and hoped this was enough people to make Ben keep his hands to himself. This was where Rosie came with Nadia when they had something to discuss after work, mainly because it was always quiet and the students either hadn’t discovered it yet or it wasn’t cool enough for them. It was also somewhere that she had never been with Mitch, which made it feel like neutral territory. Ben followed her in looking around as he went.

‘Is this OK?’ she asked, noticing that he hadn’t immediately gone to the bar as she was expecting him to.

‘Yes, it’s fine,’ he said. ‘Can I get you a drink?’

Rosie noticed his hesitancy. The Ben she had encountered before would have gone straight to the bar, ordered himself a drink along with whatever he thought Rosie might want.

‘A white wine, please,’ she replied, deciding that any conversation with Ben did, after all, require alcohol. ‘A small one’ she added.

Rosie noted the small glass of wine that Ben carefully placed in front of her, minutes later. She looked at him suspiciously as he sat down across from her, removing his jacket.

‘OK,’ she said. ‘Who are you and what have you done with the real Ben?’

Ben looked around from hanging his jacket on the back of his chair.

'What?’ he asked, confused.

‘You just seem different, that’s all,’ Rosie said. She decided she didn’t know him well enough to insult him openly so she left it at that.

Luckily, Ben laughed. ‘Less arrogant?’ he asked.

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