Page 73 of Imogen

“Babe, that is so not cool. Maybe you should go stay with your parents. I know you have a good relationship with them. He might come back.”

“They live next door,” I point out since he doesn’t know.

His eyes bug out of their sockets. “Girl, I moved three hours away from my parents,” he reveals. “Next door? Seriously? Are you not worried they’ll hear you doing the hokey-pokey?”

I splutter out a laugh. “No. I’m not. Dad insulated the walls well when the old tenant moved out. He would have done it before to avoid embarrassment but he didn’t have the means to put her up somewhere else.”

“Are you going to go to the police?”

“No. I’m done with the police,” I tell him, digging into the baked potato.

“Oh shit. How did that go? Laura said they retrieved the disc.”

“They did,” I admit, and don’t bother to tell him about the run-in with Zach outside. I’m not sure I want people to know that much about my personal life. “I’m still waiting to be updated. I know he’s been charged but that’s about it. I’m just glad the company got it back. Despite what Larry thinks of me, I wanted the best for the company.”

“You don’t need to tell me that. It’s been hectic in there. People don’t have anyone to unload their work onto, so Larry has been chomping at the bit to get them into gear. I think he’s understanding why his previous employees left due to stress.”

“I wouldn’t mind, but they get paid so much more than I did for doing less work. I don’t miss the added workload, but I do miss working. I didn’t realise how much I wanted the job until I lost it.”

“About that… I’ve been thinking. We could design our own app game. It’s how most kids play them now anyway. We could do one for children and adults.”

“I would love to, but we don’t have the funding to start up. I was going to run this idea by Larry, but maybe you could. I was thinking of doing a game where people get to travel. We find the cheapest hotels here in the UK at glorious spots, and with each zone they hit, they complete a new level. He could get sponsors from hotels or destinations. There are so many beautiful places in the UK that are hidden from the world. We could open some up with that app.”

“My nanna left me some money. A lot of money. We could do this. Come on, think about it. If you go to Castle and Games with this, you wouldn’t profit. You aren’t under contract anymore so any ideas you have belong to you.”

“Maybe,” I muse. “I’d have to think about it.”

“I’ll check in to make sure you do. We could incorporate it into a children’s one for days out, get discount codes for family days out, and have different things they can do whilst they are there.”

I feel hope bubbling in my chest. But hope can be a fickle thing. It can be crushed within a second. “I’ll definitely think it over,” I assure him. “Anyway, I wanted to see if you were serious about coming away on our next family getaway. We are going to some cabins in January. Ciara has us booked in to do a ghost hunt.”

He grins. “Count me in. I have some holiday I need to use so I’ll see if I can get it off.”

“Now, tell me everything I’ve missed. What have you been up to? Did you make a new BFF?”

As he goes into detail about work and life, I begin to finally relax. George always has a way of making you forget everything shitty in your life. And I need his company today more than anything.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Ben

It’s my first day back and I’m already running a little late. I’ve been all over the place since my night with Imogen a few weeks ago. No one has ever made me lose control like she does. I’m no longer poised or ready to argue back when it comes to her. It’s like she takes the words from my mouth but not before scrambling them in my head. She twists me up and leaves me an utter mess.

And leaving it how we left it… it only gave me bad karma. Not only did I blow a tyre on my way home, but as I pushed open the door to book it in for repair, my mind had been elsewhere and I didn’t see the car speeding past until it took my door off its hinges. It went from shit to worse during the first week.

The second week hasn’t been much better. Every free moment I’ve had time to think, my mind has wandered to Imogen, and the universe has punished me for it. The burn on the inside of my arm proves that. Mum said ‘imagine’, and I thought she said Imogen, which distracted me, thinking she was in the kitchen.

And then today, I swear I saw her car on my way to pick up my own. Thankfully, it wasn’t me driving because I would have definitely crashed.

I step into the office and a warm cheer echoes around the room. “Welcome back!”

I glance around, a wide smile stretching across my face. “You are acting like this is the first time I’ve come back.”

Leeroy walks over and slaps me on the shoulder. “That didn’t count. You’re back officially.”

“Well, it’s nice to see your ugly mug again,” I greet back.

“Welcome back, bro,” Derek declares, holding his fist up.

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