Jim ran a hand through his hair. Clearly there was no getting out of it this time.
‘We’ve been together almost a year,’ she said. ‘I’m thirty-five, you’re almost forty, for God’s sake. Are we supposed to carry on behaving like school kids, meeting once, twice a week? You get jumpy when I leave a bloody cardigan at your flat.’
He blew out his cheeks in irritation. ‘And what did you have in mind?’
‘Something! Anything!’ cried Melissa, throwing her hands up. ‘Cath moved in with Daniel before Christmas and she only started seeing him six months ago. Nikki’s just had her first baby. All my friends are settling down.’
‘So now we’re keeping up with the Joneses?’
She looked at him, her gaze level: her ‘don’t screw with me’ face.
‘Do you know what I did on New Year’s Eve, Jim? Do you?’
He sighed. ‘You were at Suzanne’s dinner party.’
‘Wrong,’ she hissed, her eyes sparkling with fury in the dark. ‘I was on my own, watching some crappy repeat movie with a bottle of wine and a microwave meal for one.’
He frowned. ‘But what about the dinner party?’
‘There was no fucking dinner party.’
‘Then why did you tell me there was?’
In the cool moonlight he could see spots of colour rising on her cheeks.
‘All my friends were with someone that night – husbands, boyfriends, lovers. That’s what you do on New Year’s Eve when you love someone. I wasn’t going to admit that my boyfriend didn’t even want to see me.’
‘I did want to see you, Mel. I was working – you knew what I did for a living when we first met. I happen to have a job that means I have to work on nights like that. You know how important Munroe is to me.’
She snorted angrily. ‘Oh, I know how important your job is to you, believe me, but don’t try to tell me I wasn’t there because you weren’t allowed to bring a partner.’
‘I wasn’t!’ he cried in frustration.
‘So why, when I talked to Annabel Miles at Christmas, did she tell me she was going to Munroe for Hogmanay?’
‘Annabel was there because her husband is CEO of Omari. He wasn’t working; he was drinking the champagne I had to carry in from the vans.’
Her tone softened. ‘Jim, you know and I know that you could have invited me if you’d really wanted to. The fact is that you didn’t want me there.’
‘Mel, that’s not true.’
‘But it is, Jim. When it’s me or your precious job, the job wins every time. And you know what? I’ve had enough of being second best. You’re not a workaholic. You’re just sad. A sad commitment-phobe with Peter Pan syndrome who needs to change his ways or he’s going to end up very, very lonely.’
‘Peter Pan syndrome?’
‘They say Hitler had it.’
Jim laughed incredulously. ‘Now you’re comparing me to Hitler.’
‘I’d actually feel sorry for you, Jim, if I wasn’t starting to believe I’m wasting my time waiting for you to do something. Relationship, marriage. It’s not the bogeyman; it’s called growing up. I mean, look where we’re just been. Your parents have been married, what, forty-five years, and I bet he’s not the easiest man in the world to live with.’
‘Two minutes ago you said he was amazing.’
She shook her head and looked back at him. ‘Tell me, Jim. Is our relationship going anywhere?’
‘I just need time.’
‘Then look me in the eye and say that you love me.’