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Chloe on his sofa.
    Kyle had argued over and over again he hadn’t done anything; that Chloe had pounced on him. But Mattie knew better than to believe that load of tosh.
    Never trust them , her mum always said. Look at your father. Would a man who really loved his family bankrupt us for his own selfish dream? And Mum had been right – her father hadn’t loved them, running off soon after declaring bankruptcy.
    Mattie had been smart to get rid of Kyle.
    ‘ Anyway, I can rem ember most of them,’ Mattie answered, trying to push Kyle out of mind. The ruddy-faced bloke beside them leaned in closer. God, was he listening?
    ‘ Can I help you?’ Mattie asked, loudly. He blushed an unfortunate shade of purple and turned away. ‘Loser!’ she muttered.
    ‘ Yeah, there are the major ones, like Adam, from secondary school.’ Jess shook her head sorrowfully and Mattie sighed. Jess really needed to get over feeling so guilty about that whole thing. Sure, she’d encouraged Adam to ask Mattie out, for some inane reason only Jess knew, but she hadn’t known it would end so badly.
    ‘ And Charlie, of course,’ Jess continued. ‘Disaster. Then didn’t you have sex with some bloke in his student digs at UCL?’ Jess wrinkled her brow. ‘I remember something about Star Wars . . .’
    Mattie grimaced as the memory flooded back. Determined to exorcise the prom trauma caused by gay Charlie and his Korean-kissing ways, the second she got her hands on some birth control pills, she was on the hunt for a man to ‘dominate her womanhood’, as her mother so romantically phrased it. Her first week at university, she and Jim had forged a bond over putrid vodka jelly shots in the student pub. They’d gone back to his room, where he’d huffed and puffed his way into her as she stared up at his Star Wars poster.
    ‘ His name was Jim, ’ Mattie said, impressed by Jess’s memory. Then again, it wasn’t like Jess had a long list of her own to remember. Poor girl had only had two or three serious relationships since secondary school, usually with strays she’d adopt for a few weeks and clean up as pet projects. After a time under Jess’s wing, the men would take off when the first fake-tanned bleached blonde cocked her finger.
    ‘ Jim, right, and then there was that super-hot guy. The one with the really big feet.’ Jess smirked.
    ‘ Duncan. ’ Dumb as a doornail but he’d still been great sex.
    Jess laughed. ‘Ah yes, Duncan. Hard to forget that one. But what about after university?’
    Mattie thought back, rattling off a dozen or so names of men she’d seen pre-Kyle. Now for the post-Kyle bit. There’d been the foreign fling – what was his name? Giancarlo or Giovanni – on her trip to Italy right after the whole Kyle thing. And then Sean, Kirby, Stuart, of course . . .
    ‘ And I think that’s it,’ Mattie said finally, draining her whisky. ‘See? I can remember after all!’ The man sitting beside them got up and pushed past, knocking the table with his leg.
    Jess laughed as she mopped up the drops of spilled drink. ‘See, you did scare him, with your long and distinguished list!’
    ‘ Well, at least I’m not boring!’ Mattie shot back.
    Jess flushed and looked away. Oh shit. Mattie reached out and touched Jess’s hand. ‘Sorry – you know I didn’t mean you.’ Although really, she did. Jess had about as much excitement nooky-wise as a bed-ridden pensioner.
    ‘ That’s okay, I know you didn’t.’
    Whatever. The past didn’t matter. It was the future that counted. And right now Mattie’s future held two hundred thousand pounds, financial freedom and a newly successful business.
    What more did she need?
     

 
     
     
    CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    Two in ten admit to feigning a sexually transmitted infection to
    escape unwanted sexual advances.
     
     
    ‘ HELLO? ANYONE HERE?’ NATE’S TIMID voice floated through Mattie’s empty reception.
    ‘ Shit,’ Mattie muttered, looking up from GetToned’s bill fo r