The Party Starts at Midnight

‘Would you want to risk it?’

‘I would if Joe Hamilton was the doctor on duty.’

‘Joe Hamilton?’ said Leo, thinking, as his gaze flickered from the road to her for a second, that he didn’t like the look of adoration on her face one little bit.

‘Cardiac surgeon. Brilliant. Gorgeous. Arrogant. Big hit with the women but a total bastard, naturally. I saw him having a sneaky cigarette behind a trailer. We chatted for a bit and it was dreamy,’ she added with a sigh.

Leo hmmed and frowned and told himself that he couldn’t possibly be jealous of this Joe Hamilton person because being jealous of a fictional character was just plain mad.

‘Then what?’ he prompted when the silence stretched for a bit too long and it occurred to him that she might well have drifted off into a daydream about the brilliant, gorgeous cardiac surgeon.

‘Oh. Well, then I got to see some actual filming, which is of course far less glamorous and far harder work than you might think as a viewer. And when it was time to stop I had lunch with the cast and crew.’

‘Fun?’

‘Brilliant. The stories they have. You wouldn’t believe half of them... So, anyway, what about you? What did you do while I was living it up with the stars?’

‘I checked out a site nearby for possible development.’

‘Interesting?’

‘Very.’

‘So a good day had by all, then?’

‘It would seem so.’

And if things went the way he hoped it was only going to get better.

* * *

Abby couldn’t remember the last time an hour had passed so quickly or conversation had been so effortless. They’d told each other more about their mornings, and then moved on to other, more general things. She’d asked him about rowing and he’d invited her to the Boat Race. A casual invitation, sure, but that hadn’t stopped her holding it close and melting a little bit more inside.

She couldn’t remember ever wanting someone so much, quite so desperately either, but then she’d never come across anyone like Leo before.

Where he’d got the reputation for being cold, ruthless and forbidding she had no idea because when the man put his mind to it he could be charming. Very charming indeed. Who’d have thought that he’d turn out to have a sense of humour, albeit an extremely dry one? Who’d have thought he’d actually be able to crack jokes?

Her immunity to it, to him, was now non-existent, and she’d lost count of the number of times she’d had to bite her tongue to stop herself demanding he drive her to the nearest hotel. And it didn’t even matter, because now she’d decided to embark on a fling, relationship, whatever with him, she didn’t need to be immune. She didn’t need to resist him any longer.

All she needed to do was tell him. And wasn’t now, when they’d arrived back at her house and were within spitting distance of privacy and a bed, the perfect time?

‘Thank you, Leo,’ she said, unclipping her seat belt and twisting round to face him, her heart pounding so hard she was in danger of cracking a rib.

‘What for?’

‘Today. Setting up the meeting. And the tour.’

‘No problem.’

She smiled. ‘It was thoughtful.’

There was a moment’s silence, then he frowned. ‘Thoughtful?’

‘It’s the first time that anyone’s set anything up for me in as long as I can remember.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘When you do what I do, whenever there’s a wedding or a party or whatever—and I don’t mean work, I mean when it comes to friends—you end up being asked to organise it. And it’s fine. It really is. I love it. It’s just that every now and then it would be nice to go to something that I haven’t had to organise. Like today. It was lovely.’