Page 76 of Fundamentals in Flirting

“I, um…” My voice dropped off as Jonathan appeared from the tent, his arm linked in my mother’s. Her usually tight, drawn features were open and smiling delightedly up at him. She was almost swooning, which was pretty sickening to observe.

“What’s wrong?”

Giles came back to where I had ground to a halt, my boots taking root in the ground and rendering me immobile.

“Nothing.” But my wide-eyed stare was fooling no one.

“Hannah? Seriously, what is it?”

He turned to follow my gaze.

“What’s he doing here?”

Giles looked uncomfortable for a moment. “Professor Pierce? Well, he contacted me recently about including us in a trial he’s setting up in first-opinion practices, and I said we’d be delighted. It’s a great opportunity for the practice and I was going to talk to you about leading it from our side. I thought you’d like to dip your toe back into some research again?”

“What?”

My head was swimming. Jonathan had absolutely zero interest in first-opinion practice. He’d always sneered at the daily routine, suggesting that vaccinations and dealing with overweight animals and distraught owners was beneath him. He’d focussed on the most interesting and challenging cases in the referral practice at the vet school, cherry-picking the ones that would give him the most glory or allow him to test a new cutting-edge treatment. I could smell his bullshit a mile away. What the actual hell was he doing now?

At that moment, Jonathan saw us, and a slow, arrogant smile spread over his face. Without breaking eye contact with me, he leant down and whispered something to my mother, making her giggle and flick her long hair flirtatiously and then they started to walk towards us.

“Giles, what is he doing here, today, right now?” I hissed, wretched loathing almost swallowing me whole as they neared.

“He called the other day to talk through the trial and said he’d pop down this weekend to show me some of the data so far. When I told him about the fayre he offered to judge.”

“Which bit?”

“The dog show.” Giles winced as he said it, shrivelling under my ferocious glare.

Of course he did.

“Right, well, you don’t need me then, do you?” I turned abruptly and stalked off back the way I’d come, head down, muttering curses and demonic incantations under my breath in a bid to expel the fiery rage building inside. Running away from him, and not facing up to another shitstorm of emotion and regret definitely seemed like the best course of action at this point.

“Hannah, wait!” Jonathan’s voice spurred me on and I almost broke into a trot, desperate to be anywhere else. To escape. To hide away. But he too had clearly quickened his pace in a bid to catch up with me. He took hold of my hand, sending ripples of revulsion under my skin at his touch.

“Don’t run away from me, you silly thing,” Jonathan said with a laugh, as though he were reprimanding an errant child.

Bastard.

Wrenching my hand free, I spun to face him, honey-badger mode locked and loaded.

“Either you leave, or I will.”

“Now why would I do that? I’m the head judge of the dog show,” he replied, not even bothering to hide his disdain.

“Fine, then I’m most definitely leaving.”

I turned around again, heading for the exit, but he stepped in front of me and blocked my path.

“You can’t leave. You’re my trusty wingman, just like the good old days.” This time the slippery and persuasive lilt to his voice was back, one that I knew so well. It immediately put me on high alert. “I thought I was clear. I need you. I love you, and I’ll do anything to get you back.”

Staring into his face, I was slapped again with the odd realisation that I had once had feelings for this man, but that seemed so alien and obnoxious now – nausea-inducing, in fact. I racked my brains, trying to summon up any compassion or empathy towards him, but all I felt was cold and frozen, and unable to bear another moment in his presence.

“You and your needs can take a long walk off a short pier into alligator-infested waters.”

“That’s not very nice, Hannah.” Jonathan’s attention flicked over my head to the crowd of people undoubtedly gathering around us. “I thought you might have had enough time to come to your senses by now.”

“No. But then, you absolutely do not deserve my niceties. You gave up any right to me beingniceto you when you cheated on me with your PhD student, or have you had enough time to forget I know about that?”

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