Chapter 6

When I looked up later, I was surprised to see the office floor around me was empty. Most of my colleagues had gone home while I was reading. Getting lost in a good book was the best feeling though. I'd started reading Bitten, and I was completely hooked already. This was definitely the vampire romance that had been missing from my life.

Seeing I better head home, I reluctantly stopped reading then remembered I needed to give Noah a copy of the book before I left. So I grabbed my jacket and slung it over my arm with my bag, the manuscript and publicity plan I'd printed out for Noah, and knocked on his office door.

I went in and he looked up with a start, checking his watch.

‘Oh, it's six thirty already,' he said.

Another jolt from the past. He was the only man my age that always wore and checked his watch for the time, and not his phone.

‘Here's the manuscript and publicity plan. I started reading Bitten, and OMG, they are all crazy for not wanting to push this book. It's brilliant and it should be a success. Every romance lover I know would want this. And the vampire love interest, I only have one word,' I said, getting carried away without meaning to. ‘And that is SWOON.'

Noah's mouth twitched again. ‘Swoon. I haven't heard that as an adjective before.'

I walked over to his desk and held out the stack of paper for him. ‘You'll know what I mean if you read it. Well, not that a male vampire will make you swoon but you'll see why I'm already in love with him.'

‘I remember you had a lot of book boyfriends,' Noah said.

‘Fictional men can't let you down,' I replied.

Noah eyed me and started to say something, but I pushed the manuscript into his hands. He looked down at my bare wrist. He gently held it to stop me pulling it back. I let out a little gasp at the sudden contact. Noah heard and dropped my wrist immediately.

‘You got a tattoo,' he said, so softly I only just heard him.

My heart had sped up at his touch and I hated it. I lifted my wrist to show him, making sure I didn't touch him again. I could still feel his skin against mine. Muscle memory had crept in and I remembered how his touch had the power to make me melt. It had been a long time since I'd been with anyone who could make my knees tremble just by touching my wrist. I was furious at my traitorous body for the way it had reacted.

Noah looked at the tattoo. It was of a book with flowers coming out of the pages.

‘Of course it's of a book. When did you get it?' he asked, keeping his eyes on the tattoo, which I was relieved about because I was certain eye contact right now would cause my pulse to speed up even more.

‘A week after you left,' I said, forcing the words out because part of me didn't want to admit it. But he'd remembered I hadn't had a tattoo when we were together. At last, we were acknowledging we had known each other once.

Noah slowly looked up at me and I drew my wrist into my body.

‘I see,' he said.

I stared at him. What did he see, exactly?

‘Well.' Noah put the paperwork on his desk and turned away from me. ‘Thank you for this. I'll read it tonight and then maybe we can meet and make a plan for what we can do to make this book a hit. Good evening, Stevie.'

‘Goodnight, Noah,' I echoed, trying to sound as calm as he'd been even if inside I was freaking out, then I spun around and rushed out, not caring if he noticed because I needed to get away from him. And fast.

I left the office and frantically hit the call button for the lift. The doors opened quickly, thank God, so I slunk in, hit the ground floor button and leaned against the mirror with a sigh. How could my body betray me like that?

But then again, it always had when it came to Noah. From the first night we'd met right up until the last when I'd thought the heart he had jump-started might break down forever.

The memory of Noah saying goodbye five years ago slipped into my mind even though I really didn't want it to.

‘I am moving to New York.' He had said this out-of-the-blue sentence as we sat on a park bench together. ‘My family need me.'

I'd stared at him in disbelief. ‘But I need you,' I said. I had thought our future was together.

‘I'm sorry but I can't do this any more. I have to go,' Noah said, not looking at me.

‘So, that's it?' I asked.

He looked at me once more. ‘This is it. Goodbye, Stevie.'

I had stared at him, stunned that the man I'd fallen in love with had just told me he was not only breaking up with me but also moving to another country.

I watched helplessly as he got up and walked away from the bench. People passing by me were oblivious to the fact my world had just been turned upside down. I thought for a moment about running after Noah. Begging him to change his mind. But I knew it was pointless. I couldn't make him want to stay with me. He clearly didn't feel the same way about me as I did about him if he could leave me so easily. And move so far away too.

Itching to do something other than chase after him, I had picked up my phone.

The screen was blurry through my tears but I scrolled to Noah's number and I selected ‘block'. Then I had gone on all my social media accounts, unfollowed, unfriended and blocked him there too. It had felt cathartic. A small victory for a moment. But afterwards, I felt even worse.

Conscious that I was in public and my mascara had run, making me resemble a panda, I got up and numbly walked home, unable to believe that I'd never see him again.

Now though, five years later, I had.

The lift opened and I stepped out and left the building, walking into the dark London evening, glad of the fresh air and distance from my ex. I rubbed my wrist before I pulled my jacket on, remembering Noah's surprise at seeing a tattoo there. After Noah had left, I had tried really hard to do what I wanted even if it scared me, because nothing could ever be as bad as Noah leaving me, making me wonder what my future was going to look like. Like getting the tattoo I'd always wanted but been too chicken to get. Or moving out of my flatshare into my Islington flat to live alone for the first time in my life.

I knew I'd got too comfortable working in the university library though and meeting Liv had cemented that feeling. So I'd got this job. The one I'd always wanted in publishing. I had finally created the future I wanted.

But now it felt like I was being punished for trying to make my dreams come true, the universe flinging Noah right smack into the middle of it all.