Page 99 of Behind Frenemy Lines

“Nothing,” said Zuri. After a moment: “I thought he was a really nice guy, Charles.”

“He is a really nice guy.”

Zuri gave me a sidelong look. “So you do like him?”

There was no point denying it, at this stage. It didn’t make much difference one way or another.

“Yeah. But it’s not going to work, is it?” I leaned back in my seat, glaring at the advertisement for sleeping pills above the window opposite me. “I don’t know why Fate has to do me like this. I have to meet someone nice right when I might be leaving the country.”

“You don’t have to leave. You could get another job here what.”

I had thought about this. “Yeah. But you know, I decided to stay in London for Tom. And I moved to Swithin Watkins for Arthur. I don’t want to make another big career decision for a guy, you know? This opportunity at Sanson could really work out for me. And then, when I come back to London—if I come back—I want it to be on my own terms. Because it makes sense for me.”

“I can see the logic,” said Zuri. “But Charles could move, in that case. He’s from Hong Kong, right? He could get a job there.”

I gave her a look.

Zuri said, “What? What’s so wrong with that? Might as well let the guy chase you for once.”

“OK, I’ll just suggest that to him, shall I?”

“Well, maybe you should!”

“What, tell a guy I’ve known for two months he should move to Hong Kong so we can be together?”

“You’ve known Kawan Baik for years. Anyway,” said Zuri, before I could interject, “I’m not saying go propose to the guy or what. But you don’t need to shut things down because you’re worried about the distance. You could do long-distance.”

I had also thought about this. Over the past couple of weeks, I’d spent alotof mental energy on Charles, how I felt about him and what I should do about that. When I’d first seen the notification of his WhatsApp message, my heart had leapt.

Then I’d read it. Charles had maintained a dampeningly professional tone:

I thought you should know that Arthur has left the firm. Hope all’s well with you.

I’d seen him be more informal in emails to colleagues and clients he’d never spoken to before. That weekend together in my flat might never have happened.

But then again, I’d been the one to push him away, after that last dinner. And the reasons I’d given him then hadn’t changed.

“I’m not up for a long-distance relationship,” I said. “Not after Tom.”

“The whole point of Kawan Baik is he’s not Tom,” said Zuri. “We wouldn’t have signed off on him if he was Tom.”

“You hung out with Charles for, like, an hour max!”

“Yeah, but I got a good feeling from him,” said Zuri. “I liked the way he said your name.”

Of all the arguments for Charles Zuri might have put forward, I hadn’t been expecting that. “How did he say my name?”

“You know. Like it was a little treat that he got to say it,” said Zuri. “It was cute. You guys were so cute. The way you kept looking at each other. It was more like you were boyfriend-girlfriend roleplaying being colleagues, rather than the other way around.”

This shut me up.

Zuri said, “Just because you couldn’t trust Tom doesn’t mean nobody else is trustworthy. You have to leave space for life to surprise you.”

I stared at the beefy Swiftie’s feet. He was wearing bright red trainers.

“If Charles is interested, he could say so,” I muttered. “He’s got my number.”

“And he texted you, no? And all you said was ‘thank you.’”

---