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purred the words into the phone and then ended the call with a satisfied smile. Now all she had to do was sit back and wait for Dalton to call her back.
     

***
     
    Freshly showered, Dalton stalked across the changing rooms of the gym towards his duffel bag. His cell phone was on the top, blinking to alert him to a new message. Reaching for the phone he unlocked the screen and saw that he had a missed call and voicemail from Lucie.
     
    Straightening against the wall of lockers he pushed his phone against his ear and listened to the message. Then with a brisk swipe of his finger he locked the screen and tossed the phone back into his duffel bag.
     

***
     
    Lucie checked her phone for what felt like the millionth time. Still no call or message from Dalton.
     
    “Dammit,” she groaned in annoyance to herself. Outside it was dark. Stars shone in the black sea of the night sky as Lucie sat curled up on her sofa catching up on some of her favorite TV shows. But she struggled to concentrate on what was happening on the small screen. Her hands kept wandering over to her phone as though she was addicted to checking it. She chewed her lip nervously, wondering over and over why Dalton hadn’t got back to her. Perhaps he didn’t get the message? But what if he had and he was just ignoring her?
     
    It was half past ten in the evening when Lucie plucked up the courage to text Dalton. She wasn’t feeling brave enough to call him again in case he was actually ignoring her. Her message echoed the sentiment of the voicemail she’d left him. Once she’d composed it, her finger hovered nervously over the send button. If she kept contacting him she feared that she risked appearing like some sort of desperate stalker. But they’d had a great time together, she hadn’t imagined that. There was real chemistry between them. Her body still shuddered whenever she remembered how amazing it felt to be in his arms.
     
    Lucie pressed down on send before giving herself chance to chicken out of sending the message. Then she sat up for another hour in the hope that Dalton might call.
     

***
     
    Dalton was sprawled across the plush leather sofa in his open plan apartment. Beyond the large windows the city glittered like a million man-made stars. But Dalton wasn’t admiring the view. He was half watching a show on his plasma screen which was up on the wall above his solid marble fireplace.
     
    He was tired but not yet ready to sleep. For years Dalton had suffered with insomnia. He blamed his childhood when he’d spent countless nights fearing what happened when he closed his eyes. Back then it felt like each time he dared to fall asleep he’d wake up to his mother screaming.
     
    Stretching, he yawned and considered that perhaps it was time to go and lie on his king-sized bed. He could watch the TV in there anyway. He was about to get up when his cell phone beeped from where it was lying on the sofa beside him. He lazily reached for it and saw a new message from Lucie. He deleted it without reading. Then with a groan he got up and walked over towards his bedroom which was up a metal staircase and hung above the living area in its own private alcove.
     
    As his head hit the pillow he was still thinking about Lucie. But Steve’s words were also tumbling around in his mind. It felt wrong that he should have to choose. Why couldn’t he have it all? Surely he could make space in his life for both Lucie and fighting? But if that was the case why hadn’t Dalton called her back? In reality he knew why. He tried dating before and it had never worked out, he was too focused on his career, too driven to make space for anything else in his life. He knew that he should have called her. She probably thought he was an ass for not calling her sooner.
     
    Tormented, he rolled onto his back and stared up at the mirror which was hung above him on the ceiling. He looked so small alone in his vast bed. All it would take was just one call to have a