ISBN: 9780373820641

SO MUCH for the paperless office, Amanda thought as she hefted the two enormous briefcases off the tube. But this was probably giving her arms as much of a workout as she'd have got at th… Plus…

SO MUCH for the paperless office, Amanda thought as she hefted the two enormous briefcases off the tube. But this was probably giving her arms as much of a workout as she'd have got at the gym. And she didn't have time for the gym tonight anyway; if she wanted to get these schedules signed off, she needed to get home, grab a ready meal from the freezer, and eat it while she worked on the files. The moment she walked in to the flat and sniffed the air, she knew she didn't stand much chance. Dee was clearly entertaining this evening. And her flatmate's friends, being an arty lot, were loud. With the amount of red wine that was bound to be consumed tonight, she'd need to add another item to her mental to-do list: insert earplugs. 'Hey, Mand! I was beginning to wonder if you were planning to sleep at the office tonight,'Dee teased, coming out of the kitchen. 'No.' Though perhaps she should've doneat least then she could've avoided having to be nice to people she knew didn't really like her. Dee was a sweetheart, but Amanda knew only too well that she didn't fit in with the rest of Dee's crowd. She was too quiet, too serious, not someone who made the room sparkle with her witty conversation. 'Sorry, I didn't realise you had people round tonight.' She gave Dee an apologetic smile. 'Let me nuke something in the microwave and I'll be out of your way in less than ten minutes.' 'No, no and no,' Dee said. Amanda frowned. 'What?' 'No, I don't have anyone coming round. No, you're not eating your usual rubbishyou're having a decent meal, for once. And, no, you're not holing up in your room all evening with a pile of work.' Dee ticked the points off on her fingers. 'Especially not on a Friday night.' Amanda stared at her flatmate. 'You've cooked for me?' They'd agreed the ground rules ages ago: they shared all the chores except cooking. Half the time Amanda ate out, and she was a hopeless cook, so she didn't think it fair to subject her flatmate to burnt offerings. Then she had a nasty thought. 'Dee, is this your way of telling me that you're going to move out with Josh and I'm going to need a new flatmate?' 'Don't be so paranoid!' Dee smiled. 'It's nothing.' It didn't feel like 'nothing'. It didn't look like it, either, from the expression on Dee's face. 'I just thought you deserved a treat. You've had a rubbish couple of weeks and you work too hard,' Dee said. That was a sore point. Amanda was still stinging from last week's appraisal, and right now she could do without the work-life balance lecture she normally got from Dee. 'So I'm cooking you dinner tonight to give you a break. A girly chat'll do you good.' Amanda wasn't so sure about that. She'd never been much good at girly chats. Numbers and percentages were so much easier to deal with than people were. 'I've made us Cajun chicken with sweet potato mash, green beans and roasted peppers,' Dee tempted. It sounded almost as good as it smelled, and Amanda knew from experience that i Fiction Fiction eBook, Harlequin<

ISBN: 9780373820641

SO MUCH for the paperless office, Amanda thought as she hefted the two enormous briefcases off the tube. But this was probably giving her arms as much of a workout as she'd have got at th… Plus…

SO MUCH for the paperless office, Amanda thought as she hefted the two enormous briefcases off the tube. But this was probably giving her arms as much of a workout as she'd have got at the gym. And she didn't have time for the gym tonight anyway; if she wanted to get these schedules signed off, she needed to get home, grab a ready meal from the freezer, and eat it while she worked on the files. The moment she walked in to the flat and sniffed the air, she knew she didn't stand much chance. Dee was clearly entertaining this evening. And her flatmate's friends, being an arty lot, were loud. With the amount of red wine that was bound to be consumed tonight, she'd need to add another item to her mental to-do list: insert earplugs. 'Hey, Mand! I was beginning to wonder if you were planning to sleep at the office tonight,'Dee teased, coming out of the kitchen. 'No.' Though perhaps she should've doneat least then she could've avoided having to be nice to people she knew didn't really like her. Dee was a sweetheart, but Amanda knew only too well that she didn't fit in with the rest of Dee's crowd. She was too quiet, too serious, not someone who made the room sparkle with her witty conversation. 'Sorry, I didn't realise you had people round tonight.' She gave Dee an apologetic smile. 'Let me nuke something in the microwave and I'll be out of your way in less than ten minutes.' 'No, no and no,' Dee said. Amanda frowned. 'What?' 'No, I don't have anyone coming round. No, you're not eating your usual rubbishyou're having a decent meal, for once. And, no, you're not holing up in your room all evening with a pile of work.' Dee ticked the points off on her fingers. 'Especially not on a Friday night.' Amanda stared at her flatmate. 'You've cooked for me?' They'd agreed the ground rules ages ago: they shared all the chores except cooking. Half the time Amanda ate out, and she was a hopeless cook, so she didn't think it fair to subject her flatmate to burnt offerings. Then she had a nasty thought. 'Dee, is this your way of telling me that you're going to move out with Josh and I'm going to need a new flatmate?' 'Don't be so paranoid!' Dee smiled. 'It's nothing.' It didn't feel like 'nothing'. It didn't look like it, either, from the expression on Dee's face. 'I just thought you deserved a treat. You've had a rubbish couple of weeks and you work too hard,' Dee said. That was a sore point. Amanda was still stinging from last week's appraisal, and right now she could do without the work-life balance lecture she normally got from Dee. 'So I'm cooking you dinner tonight to give you a break. A girly chat'll do you good.' Amanda wasn't so sure about that. She'd never been much good at girly chats. Numbers and percentages were so much easier to deal with than people were. 'I've made us Cajun chicken with sweet potato mash, green beans and roasted peppers,' Dee tempted. It sounded almost as good as it smelled, and Amanda knew from experience that i Fiction Fiction, Harlequin<