Page 54 of Here Comes Trouble

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It was for the best. They would never have worked as a couple anyway. He was too self-involved, too wild, too ephemeral in nature for her, and she couldn’t match that.

Pulling off her coat and slumping into her chair at her desk, she was just about to turn on her computer when she noticed an envelope next to her keyboard, addressed to her at the magazine. The handwriting was loopy and messy and something about it made her heart beat a little faster. Tearing it open, she took out a piece of shiny black card and stared at it for a moment. It appeared to be blank, but when she went to flip it over something caught her eye. She tipped it back slowly until the florescent overhead lights in the office shone up the words ‘Out of the Shadows’. A new exhibition by Xander Heaton.

Her heartbeat accelerated, sending a rush of adrenalised blood to her head, making her feel for a moment as if she might pass out. Taking a few deep breaths, she waited until the pounding in her head had calmed down before looking at the invitation again.

There was an address for a gallery in Brick Lane and a date and time for the following week in neat print below it.

Xander’s exhibition.

Her naked body about to be exposed to the whole world.

The invitation slipped out of her trembling fingers and fell onto the floor. Looking down, she saw there were words scrawled on the back of it in the same looping handwriting that was on the envelope. Leaning down to peer closer at them, she made out the words ‘Jess, please come. I need you to see something. Xander.’

She stared at it for a few moments, the rushing sound in her ears blocking out the noise of the office. Sitting up she jumped in shock when she realised Pamela had appeared out of nowhere and was standing over her, waiting for an answer to a question she’d totally failed to hear. Looking up to see her boss’s imperious expression, she had to quell the nervous impulse to leap up and dash off to the sanctuary of the loos. ‘Sorry, Pamela, I missed that.’

Pam shook her head, clearly unimpressed by Jess’s lack of focus. ‘I said: did you get an invitation to Xander Heaton’s exhibition too? He sent one to me asking me to make sure you came along. You must have made quite an impression on him.’ She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow.

‘Ah, yes, but I wasn’t going to go. I have a thing that night.’

Pamela’s other eyebrow shot up to join its counterpart. ‘Cancel it. You should attend. We could do a great follow-up piece on him for the magazine. Your interview’s been syndicated all over the place already and you’re in a position to exploit your relationship with him to get a good exclusive interview afterwards. Am I right?’

Jess sighed. There was no way Pamela would let her get away with missing the exhibition if she thought the magazine had something to gain from it.

Well, she was going to have to face the horror of being recognised as the model in his paintings some time. It may as well be sooner rather than later. At least it might be a friendly crowd at the exclusive first showing of his work. She could write the piece, then go and hide away under a rock until all the fuss had died down.

She gave her editor a tight smile. ‘Sure, Pamela, I’ll be there.’

‘Good, good. Make sure you work all the angles, Jess,’ Pam said, waving a hand in the air as she stalked off, unquestionably on her way to terrorise another poor member of her staff.

* * *

Xander couldn’t ever remember being this nervous before a showing of his work, and for once, the nerves weren’t about what the critics might say about it. It was all down to what Jess would think.

Everything he’d done here was for her, after all.

After she’d refused to reply to his messages, he realised it was going to take more than words to prove to her he was sorry and that he cared about her and wanted to make a go of a relationship – something he’d never been interested in before. Unfortunately, his reputation for being such a playboy didn’t do him any favours in that regard, and he’d clearly fed directly into her insecurity about taking a relationship with him seriously with his selfish disregard for her feelings.

He missed her so much.

He couldn’t go on the way he was, isolated and casually using people before casting them off like pieces of rubbish.

She’d shown him how incredible it could feel to fall in love with someone and now he’d experienced it he was damned if he was going to let her just walk away.

Because he was in love with her, he realised. This aching hole he’d been living with for the last two months was exactly Jess-sized.

The front door to the gallery swung open, bringing him back to the present and letting in a draught of cool evening air. He looked round to see who it was.

Jess.

He’d sent an invitation to her editor as well in the hope it would force Jess to come but he had made the time on Jess’s half an hour earlier.

He wanted her to see what he’d done for her first, without being interrupted.

Apparently, this exhibition opening had turned into a hot ticket after Jess’s article on him forSparkmagazine had been so well received. He’d been humbled by her descriptions of him and impressed by how she’d weaved in his background with real sensitivity, making him sound like the kind of guy he’d always wanted to be – intelligent, passionate and talented.

She’d let the piece run, showing him in such a good light, despite how he’d treated her.

He knew he didn’t deserve that, but he wanted to become a man who did – and only she could help him with that.