„I thought we might just have a quick chat—‟

‘A quick chat!’

„And then when you‟ve had time to absorb it all, we could maybe meet and discuss things…in a bit more detail. If that‟s what you want…‟ Her eyes skittered away from his.

„What do you think I want?‟

„Look, Dominic, I know this is a bit of a bombshell…‟

„And you once told me that I was the master of understatement!‟

„It was a shock to me as well.‟

In the midst of his swirling confusion, this brought Dominic up short. Yes, it would have been a shock to her. She had only now started on the long, slow climb up the career ladder. To discover that she was pregnant must have been as much of a bombshell to her.

Her powers of recuperation were obviously second to none, he thought a little acidly.

Because she certainly didn‟t look like a woman in a state of shock. She was calm, cool and utterly collected. The hallmarks of a woman relaying information without a shred of emotion to convey what she was really feeling.

„How did it happen?‟ he asked in an effort to bring some normality to his wildly cavorting emotions. „Look, I‟m going to have to get another drink. Want anything?‟

Mattie shook her head and watched him as he walked up to the bar and then stood, restlessly tapping on the counter, while his drink was poured.

She had been right to meet him in a public place. A bit of a cowardly move but a good one, because at least here he couldn‟t give vent to his obvious temptation to storm at her, which was what he wanted to do. If he raised his voice one decibel she could always walk out, and anyway he wouldn‟t. His arms were tied with people all around them. He would be forced to discuss this like an adult and she needed him to do that. One wrong word from him and she felt that she might crack. Under the calm exterior, emotions were just waiting to burst their banks and lord only knew what she would say to him if that happened. Tell him that she was glad that she was pregnant? Tell him that she had fallen in love with him? Put him in a position where his horror at an admission like that would force him to kindly but politely remind her of the pact they had made, the non-involvement pact that she had broken?

Maybe he might even accuse her of getting pregnant on purpose so that she could drag commitment out of him even though she knew that commitment was the equivalent of a four-letter word to him.

„You asked me how it happened,‟ Mattie said, as soon as he had sat back down. Polite.

Businesslike. Because to him this would be business and not particularly pleasant business. „I…I came off the Pill for the last six months I was with Frankie. We weren‟t…and, anyway, I thought it was a good time to give my body a break, so the first time we…well, I wasn‟t protected. Silly, I know, but I didn‟t think. By the time I started back using contraception, well, obviously it was too late…and I didn‟t know because…‟

„OK. I get the picture.‟

„Look, I‟m sorry.‟ Mattie felt a dismaying sense of unreality and had to struggle to get her thoughts together. „I know you think that this is probably going to turn your world upside-down, but it won‟t.‟

„And how do you work that one out? Clarify for me.‟

You don’t even care, do you? she wanted to shout. „Nothing‟s going to change between us. It‟s only right that you should know but it‟s a formality—‟

„A formality!‟ Dominic banged his fist on the table.

„Ssh!‟

„Don‟t tell me to be quiet, Mattie! You chose this ridiculous venue to break this news, well, you‟ll just have to live with the fact if I don‟t collude and duck down quietly!‟

„Shouting isn‟t going to get us anywhere.‟

„And what are you proposing we do? What‟s this anywhere you have in mind?‟

„Maybe we shouldn‟t have met here after all,‟ Mattie whispered, biting her lip. Several people had looked around when his fist had hit the table, and she could feel their ears flapping at the prospect of an impromptu cabaret show even though they had returned to their conversations.

„You picked the place!‟

„Could you keep your voice down?‟

„I‟ll shout as loudly as I like!‟ Dominic deliberately raised his voice a few more notches and was rewarded by sudden silence from the tables surrounding them. Then he sat back and folded his arms and looked at her.

How dared she think that she could be carrying his baby, only to tell him that his involvement was reduced to a mere formality?

She looked pale and tense and he had a sudden urge just to go round the table, pull her to her feet and wrap his arms around her until the paleness and the tension were both wiped away.

„We need to get out of here,‟ he said roughly. „This is no place to discuss a subject like this and you know it. We‟ll go back to my apartment. It‟s only ten minutes‟ walk away and at least we‟ll be private there.‟

„No way!‟ The thought of being alone with him in his apartment, the place where they had shared so many good times, where her love had taken root and grown without her even realising, made her flush with panic. „If anything, we can go to…to my place. But there‟s nothing we can say there that we can‟t say here.‟ She discovered that she was wringing her hands, like a damsel in some Victorian saga, and she shoved them safely out of sight on her lap.

„Fine.‟

Which was not the description she would have used as they sat in total silence in the back of the cab on the way to her flat. Hideous might have been more apt. And if she felt like this now, trapped and miserable and longing for the impossible, when they weren‟t even alone, how was it going to be when they were in her very tiny sitting room?

It felt like ages before the taxi arrived at the tired converted Victorian house.

„You live here?‟ Dominic asked in a scathing voice. „You gave up the apartment to move into this?‟

„It‟s affordable,‟ Mattie said briefly, turning to unlock the front door. She could feel his presence behind her and it sent ripples of awareness shooting up and down her spine like moth wings.

„It would be,‟ Dominic commented from behind her, looking at the eight little

cubby-holes used for the post, „considering how many people are crammed in here. I suppose you‟re at the top?‟

Mattie ignored him, even though it wasn‟t too difficult to imagine what he was thinking as they mounted the stairs towards her flat. Peeling wallpaper, threadbare carpet, bare bulbs hanging at intervals from the high ceilings.

„You do realise,‟ he said, once they were inside her flat and she had shut the door behind them, „that this is unacceptable.‟ He stood in the middle of the room and looked around him with a practised and disdainful eye.