Page 104 of Behind Frenemy Lines

Charles reflected. I’d forgotten how furious his face got when he was thinking.

My chest squeezed. I wanted to protect him from anyone who might ever be mean to him.

“There’s a famous cha chaan teng not far from here,” he said. “It was one of my recommendations. Shall we go?”

“It’s a date,” I said lightly.

We started walking together, close enough to hear each other over the noise of the traffic and the bustle of the crowd. Not quite close enough to touch.

“Is it?” said Charles, not at all lightly. He glanced at me before looking away. “I came here to tell you, I—I really like you. I’d like to explore—I mean, it would be good to—I mean, we could try dating and see how that worked, if you were open to that. Really dating, I mean. Not just what we were doing before.”

“Oh,” I said.

My tone must not have been very encouraging. Charles looked worried.

“It’s fine if you want to think about it first,” he said.

“That’s not it,” I said. “It’s just… I thought you weren’t interested. You know, you were put off because of the distance, or because I breached privilege, or all of the above.”

I laughed, though it wasn’t a joke. I had passed a couple of jet lagged nights since arriving in Hong Kong, dwelling on all the possible reasons why Charles had decided he didn’t want to see me again.

“No. I could understand your concerns about the Helen Daley case,” said Charles. “The firm’s decided not to act, by the way. I wasn’t sure if your contact would have told you.”

“He mentioned it.” I hesitated. “I think I stopped short of breaking privilege. I told him as little as I could, but they already knew it was coming. I’m sorry if it made any trouble for you.”

Charles shook his head. “It wasn’t an attractive case. Farah was keen to have a good reason to push for us to step away. The documents your contact sent us were helpful, in that regard.” He paused. “I’ve thought about how I would have felt, in your position. I’m sorry I wasn’t very supportive, especially given you took the work on as a favour to me.”

“Well, you offered the work as a favour to me. I could see your point too. Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s the right thing to do.” It was an observation that applied to more than ethical dilemmas about work. I said, “Sanson are going to make me an offer.”

“I thought they would,” said Charles. “Congratulations. Are you pleased about it?”

“Yeah. I’m planning to take it. But it means I’ll be in Hong Kong for the next two years, at least. Possibly longer, if it all works out.” I looked at Charles, wistful. “I like you so much, Charles. But I don’t know if I can do a long-distance relationship, at this point in my life.”

“About that…” Charles cleared his throat. “I’ve set up a meeting with the Head of Litigation at Swithin Watkins’sHong Kong office. I’m seeing him tomorrow. We’ve spoken before. He knows I’ve got an interest in the region. It sounds like there may be an opportunity.”

I came to a stop in the middle of the pavement. A Chinese auntie almost crashed into me, but swerved off, grumbling in highly profane Cantonese.

“You’d move here for me?” I said.

Charles took my arm to shift me out of the way of the people streaming down the street.

“I’ve thought about moving back before,” he said. “You know, my mum’s here. And my dad.” He grimaced. “But so are my half-siblings. It would be good to be able to spend more time with them, and the food’s better… But it would mostly be for you, yes.”

He looked nervous. “I hope that’s not too much. Loretta said to work up to it. I probably should have let you have your yuenyeung first.”

“It’s OK,” I said. Warmth filled my chest. I reached out and took his hand.

Charles looked up, startled. After a moment he smiled. His fingers curled around mine. His palm was warm and dry.

We were waiting at the cha chaan teng for our pork chop buns, holding hands under the table, when it occurred to me to ask. I said:

“So what happened with Arthur? Did he get asked to resign?”

“I assume so. I only saw the announcement that he was leaving,” said Charles. “They kept it to a line in the internal newsletter. The last email about a partner departure ran to five paragraphs, so that said something in itself.”

“He’ll probably pop up again.” I made a face. “It’s a good thing I’m getting out of the London legal market.”

“You don’t think you’ll be going back?”

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