Page 83 of The Love Hack

‘What does Greg say?’ Ross asked. ‘Is he spitting feathers?’

I forced myself to look at him. His face was full of concern. ‘No, he’s not, actually.’

‘Jesus. He must really like you. But why not?’

‘It’s gone viral,’ I explained. ‘It’s had the most hits of any Ask Adam column so far, like way more. It’s had more hits than any Max! article ever, except the interview Marco did with Boris Johnson back in the day. The analytics are insane, Greg says. It’s getting shared all round the web.’

Ross let out a long, slow breath again. This time it came out as a whistle. ‘So you got away with it?’

‘Looks like it. But I feel terrible. I did a shit job. I was late and careless and it could all have gone horribly wrong.’

‘I mean – yeah, I suppose so. But what’s the worst that could have happened? The AI could’ve spat out some anodyne response about the guy talking to his wife and getting counselling and blah blah, and no one would’ve been any the wiser. Or if it really hadn’t stacked up the subs would’ve flagged it and Greg would have assumed you’d sent the wrong draft and made you do a rewrite.’

‘I guess.’

‘I mean, that’s why we have processes in place, right? Checks and balances.’

‘And I didn’t follow them properly. I deserve to be sacked.’

‘Well, you’re not going to be,’ he said. ‘You’re lucky, you’ll learn from this – but also, you know what?’

‘What?’

‘I think this is good shit. I think it’s better than the Ask Adam columns have been in the past, I’m not going to lie. You’re a great writer, Lucy. You do your research and give put a lot of thought into them. But they could be a bit more… you know? Punchy?’

‘Like this?’

‘Exactly. And this isn’t GenBot, Lucy. This is you. GenBot wouldn’t have come up with it if you hadn’t fed it the ideas in the first place. I reckon – speaking as a man?—’

‘Don’t say that! That’s what men always say when they’re about to start mansplaining.’

‘Sorry. Speaking as me. I mean, when I wrote in to Ask Adam?—’

‘You what?’ Suddenly I remembered the letter I’d responded to way back, from a guy who wasn’t sure how to tell if the woman he was seeing was the one for him. At the time, something about it had struck a chord – and now I remembered why.

The conversation I’d overheard between Ross and Marco in the pub. The doubts he’d expressed then had been almost identical to what Adam’s anonymous correspondent had been worried about. And it was Ross – it had been Ross all along.

‘So that was you?’ I asked, astonished.

‘That was me.’

‘But why?’

’Two reasons. I genuinely wasn’t sure what to do about Bryony. I needed advice. And also – oh God, I feel like a right pillock saying this.’

‘Saying what?’

‘I wanted you to know that I wasn’t sure. I wanted you to know that I liked you.’

I looked up from my screen and met his eyes. He was blushing furiously.

I felt my own cheeks turn absolutely scarlet. ‘I really liked you too. I still really like you.’

‘Then maybe we should do something about that.’

‘I…’ I hesitated. Most of me wanted to throw myself into his arms, feel his body close to mine the way it had been at the foot of the ladder in the escape room. But a smaller, frightened part wanted to hold back, to walk away. ‘I want to. But, Ross, I’m scared.’

He didn’t throw his arms around me. Instead, he reached over and took my hand. ‘Relationships are scary. At least, they are when there’s something real going on. When you care about the other person a lot.’

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