"Sebastian Armitage. Pleased to meet you." Sebastian did not give the nature of his business. He was quite used to sidestepping such things. "I'm new to this field," he offered. "I'd be grateful for your opinion of the paper. I've just been up there for a job, minor league stuff, but anything you could tell me would be helpful." It was somewhere near the truth, he was about to embark on a short-term contract with the paper.
"Sure," Roger replied. He glanced toward the door again, then at his watch. "I did have a date, but it looks as if I might have been stood up." He gave a wry smile and turned his attention to the timely distraction that had been offered, opening the paper to the editorial and contents list.
"Their loss is my gain," Sebastian replied, although that wasn't quite what he was thinking. More like your loss is my gain. And would he be able to get Roger to divulge the name of the sexy siren, along the way? It was certainly worth a shot.
Chapter Two
"Don't ask." Amy declared when Janine walked into the office the next morning. She put her elbows on her desk and her chin sank onto her hands. "I blew it, big time."
Janine looked cool and efficient in a jade linen dress, a matching jacket hanging from one finger. She flipped her sunglasses onto her desk and stood looking at her forlorn colleague with a frown. "You didn't get to spend the evening with the man of your dreams?"
"Nope." She had spent the rest of the evening thinking about the man of her dreams, and most of the night too, but it was a mixture of restless fantasizing about the gorgeous stranger, punctuated with bouts of frustration and embarrassment over what had happened.
"Not the Quasimodo complex?"
"Far from it, the guy I met was gorgeous, a total hunk with dreamy green eyes. Charming too."
"So, what's the problem?"
"I met the wrong guy."
"You did what?" Janine's eyes began to sparkle with amusement.
"I started talking to the wrong guy." Amy folded her arms across her chest defensively. "By the time I realized and saw the other one, the real Roger, I was up to my neck in trouble."
Janine rested back on her desk to support herself. "Blimey. It could only happen to you."
"Tell me about it." Amy shook her head in dismay. Sadly, it was true. She was ditzy and ill fated, no way around it.
"And what was the real Roger like?"
Amy struggled to remember. It was difficult to get the picture of the gorgeous stranger out of her head. "It's hard to say."
Janine laughed aloud. "This hunk of yours must have been good, if you started chatting to him and you can't remember anyone else in the pub. It's a wonder you even noticed Roger was there at all."
Amy nodded. It was kind of funny, but she wasn't ready to laugh about it yet.
"So you didn't have your date with Roger. Please tell me you got the hunk's number."
Amy shrugged helplessly
"Oh dear, and did you explain it to Roger?"
"No, I just left."
"So…he will be ringing here any minute now to ask why you didn't turn up for the date."
Amy nodded.
Janine shook her head then leapt away from her desk when the phone blared from behind her at that very moment. "That'll be him now," she declared.
Amy gave her an imploring look.
"Oh, no. No way." Janine waved her hands, backing behind her desk, when she saw Amy's face. "You answer it yourself, matey, you got yourself into this mess."
Amy stared at the loud, offensive machine, dumbstruck. What on earth was she going to say to him? It had to be done.
"Hello, Women's Page," she faltered, as she picked up her phone.