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myself I didn’t care. So what if I’d offended them by asking a few reasonable questions about their expenses forms. Did they expect me to approve anything they put in front of me? Grant any leave request? Would I really be doing my job properly if I didn’t scrutinise these things? But even as I tried to justify my actions to myself, I recognised, with a sick feeling, that Rob’s words were true. I had recognised the truth of them as surely as though he’d held a mirror up to me and I’d seen my own face.
    Lost in my own thoughts, I jumped when I suddenly heard a new voice calling my name.
    “Quin! Quin, wait up!”
    A new voice, but an oh-so-familiar one.
    I stopped and turned, and sure enough, there was Ben, my ex, jogging towards me. He was dressed in the casual clothes he favoured—jeans, a hoodie, a denim jacket. An orange beanie hid his blond hair. Another guy was walking behind him, bringing up the rear more slowly. He was tall, leanly muscled and Asian—all details which confirmed I was about to meet the famous Leon, Ben’s new boyfriend, whose too-perfect-to-be-true credentials Freddy had already filled me in on in sickening detail. Leon was handsome, attentive to Ben and had an incredibly well-paid engineering job in the oil and gas industry. Oh, and just like Ben, he loved to travel. I was very ready to hate him.
    “Hi,” I called, as Ben closed the distance between us, somehow dredging up a smile. “It’s great to see you!”
    I didn’t sound awfully convincing to myself, but Ben didn’t seem to detect my lack of enthusiasm.
    “Oh my God, tell me about it!” he cried, grabbing hold of me and pulling me into a bear hug. “It’s been way too long.” He rocked me tightly from side to side for a few seconds before pushing me back to give me a good look over, his hands still gripping my upper arms.
    “God, Quin, you look amazing!” he exclaimed happily. He beamed at me, then winked and added, “Of course, you look too tired, as usual, but still…smokin’ hot.”
    Leon drew level with us. He slid a proprietary arm round Ben’s shoulders and sent me a pleasant, if not hugely friendly, smile.
    “Quin, this is Leon,” Ben told me, then he looked at his boyfriend and said, “Babe, this is Quin. You meet at last.”
    They exchanged a brief look, and although nothing obvious passed between them, I felt like they shared something right then. It made me wonder what Ben had told Leon about us. When Leon turned his attention back to me, the indulgent smile Ben had coaxed from him melted away, and the more reserved one of before returned. He held out a hand.
    “Hi, Quin. I’ve heard a lot about you. It’s good to meet you at last. I can’t believe it’s taken so long.”
    I shook his hand. “Me either. And it’s good to meet you too.”
    All lies.
    “The reason it’s taken so long for you to meet,” Ben told Leon, “is that Quin never turn up to any of our nights out. He’s always working.” He turned to me and added, “Babe, you really gotta come out sometime. All work and no play…”
    I wondered if that was a barb, but Ben’s expression stayed as open and friendly as ever, his broad smile still firmly in place.
    I cleared my throat uncomfortably. “Well,” I said weakly. “You know how it is with my job.”
    Ben smiled and shrugged. “I guess some things never change.”
    “Are you coming out tonight at least?” Leon asked. “Freddy mentioned she was going to try and get you to join us.”
    Weirdly, while seeing Leon with Ben hadn’t prompted the stab of jealousy I’d been imagining I’d experience when this meeting finally happened, his casual mention of Freddy really bothered me and it wasn’t easy to keep my forced smile in place. Freddy was my best friend and had been so for more than a decade. It pissed me off to hear fucking Leon talk about her in that casual, easy way.
    “I told Freddy I’d try to come along tonight,” I said stiffly, then, catching sight of