Page 59 of Cover Story

As she washed her face she thought:am I really going to platonic bed with the arsey intern? Is this what this sodding ‘jape’ has come to?She allowed Connor had far more to resent here.

Bel said perkily: ‘All yours!’ and once Connor was in the bathroom, wriggled to the far edge of the bed. Thank goodness it was massive. Not massive enough for this not to be hideously awkward, of course.

After a moment’s worry it looked like seduction, she dimmed the lights. As well as the side-table library lamps there was a recessed LED yellow-glow that ran under the skirting on a separate circuit. It was enough illumination that you could see your way to the loo, and not too intrusive for sleep.

Bel plugged her phone in to charge and stared determinedly at the handset as a pants-clad Connor exited the bathroom on the periphery of her vision and climbed in next to her. From the scant amount she saw of the abdominal definition, she could tell Shilpa would be growling.

There was a moment of quiet where they lay there in mutual disbelief.

‘Oh God, this is nightmarish,’ Bel whispered, to ease the tension.

‘You’renot topless,’ Connor muttered.

‘Sorry to break the news that I am,’ Bel said, and was rewarded with Connor shaking with laughter.

‘I worry about you a little, you know,’ he said. ‘You didn’t consider this downstairs could be a try-on, and now you’re unexpectedly in bed with a male co-worker you barely know. What’s the next intern going to stumble into? Hitchhiking in a cheerleader’s outfit by moonlight? Infiltrating the Taliban in a joke shop moustache?’

Bel laughed and Connor smiled, sighed, and put his arm above his head. Bel didn’t pay any attention to his arm, his bare chest, or the way his muscles moved.

‘I’m able to trust you implicitly on the basis you not only do not find me attractive, but actively abhorrent,’ Bel whispered.

‘You love exaggerating. Our generation’s Vivien Leigh.’

It might be the school trip silliness affecting her, or the claret, but she sensed firstly that Connor was warming to her, and, secondly, her surprise that he’d echoed her nearest and dearest.Bel’s flair for the dramatic, her mother said.

‘This bork aside, an amazing evening, I thought?’ Bel said. She had to be careful. They were at a distance, two doors in between, where they’d not be heard speaking at normal volume, let alonesotto voce. Yet comparing notes with the marks still on premises felt both reckless and unkind.

‘For sure, talk tomorrow?’ Connor said, reflecting exactly this discomposure.

‘Yes. For now I will only say I have an unforeseen issue, and it’s not you in Calvin Klein grey trunks.’

‘Oh my God, they ARE Calvins! You pervy little spy!’

Connor was definitely sounding sweeter on Bel than he ever had, and while Bel was grateful, what a time for it to arrive.

‘It was a guess! Settle down, no one’s objectifying you. My issue is, Connor: I like Amber and Rick.’

‘Same,’ Connor said.

34

Bel had saidnightand lain awake in taut self-consciousness for some time. She was, as far as she knew, a silent sleeper, but it was extremely hard to relax with Some Guy From Work, feeling exactly the same, an arm’s length away.

When she woke, lightning was flashing outside the window in blue-white bursts while rain pelted the window. Downpours in this city had to go the extra mile to be considered torrential and yet it was truly Biblical, the kind of ferocity where you felt it could do damage, break the glass.

As Bel got her bearings in the low light, she saw Connor was sitting up, awake. He turned to her and put his finger to his lips.

He leaned over and whispered directly into her ear:someone is on the stairs.

Bel brushed her hair out of her face and tried to get a measure of the situation, amid the jump-scare special effects. There was a rumble of thunder and another huge crack of lightning.

‘Why?’ she mouthed back at Connor and he shook his head.

She could see his alarm and she abruptly grasped the stakes. There was absolutely no respectable reason for anyone to be creeping up those spiral steps, when ‘calling out’ or ‘ringingBel’s phone’ were easier options. And if the intention was to knock and wake them, why the stealth?

‘Get your phone,’ Connor whispered.

Bel nodded and pulled it out of the charger.

---