Don't Tell Eve by Airlie Lawson Page B

at the same time he couldn’t help wondering if Hilary was as authoritative in the bedroom as she was in the office. But not being a manwho was fond of pain, he didn’t think it was worth finding out. Ilona – no, he thought, there was too much competition. Jess, no – not Jess, that would be looking for trouble and, as his mother would say, those who looked for trouble always found it. It would be a brave, bold and possibly foolish man who’d take her on, and he didn’t see himself as any of those things. Not usually, anyhow. He still remembered what she’d done to Jack’s predecessor. Talk about humiliation. The man deserved it, but still.
    He was sorry about Zoë. Not about the previous night – but that it wouldn’t happen again. It had been more than nice.
    Phil found Eve attractive too, despite – or probably because of, if he were honest – her generic appeal: the hair, the boobs, the lips. A bloke didn’t need much more, not for a fling, anyway. She was a little older than the girls he usually shagged, but he’d always had a thing for the Mrs Robinson type so that wasn’t an issue, and it wasn’t as though Eve was actually old anyway, just older. He wasn’t convinced about her fashion sense, but as long as a woman wasn’t actively frumpy what she wore didn’t matter too much, what mattered was that she was prepared to take it off.
    ‘The thing is, Phil,’ Eve said, uncrossing her legs and breaking his train of thought, ‘I wanted you, as a pivotal member of my team, to know the inside story. Obviously this is strictly between us – I don’t wanna hinder her chances of work elsewhere – but, with those kind of figures, we really have no choice but to let her go.’
    She leaned back and waited for him to comment.
    Phil wished he’d been listening. The only thing clear was that someone was going and it was not, this time at least, him. He moved his feet off the desk and nodded slightly, in an attempt to indicate complicity, if not comprehension.
    ‘I knew you’d understand.’ Eve stood up. ‘You’re doin’ a terrific job, by the way – don’t think for a second we don’tappreciate you, darlin’.’ What Eve appreciated about Phil had little to do with his work performance and a whole lot to do with his swagger, cockiness and general blokey-ness. He and Todd were so different.
    After she’d left the room Phil began to wonder who else knew whatever it was that Eve has just told him. Presumably few people, just those she’d informed for tactical reasons. Hilary – sure, but he couldn’t ask her. Jess – probably, but he wouldn’t ask her. David – no, he was very much on the outer after that fuck-up with the prime minister’s piece of self-indulgent, incomprehensible drivel. Ilona – maybe, and she was still on speaking terms with him, just. It had taken a lot of wine to convince her that everyone already knew about her and the Traitor.
    Kate – the children’s publisher – that was it. She might not have been told, but she was sure to know and she was one of the few female colleagues he hadn’t hit on in the last few months. Of course, now she was single. And she was cute. She wasn’t a typical firey redhead, but the pale skin, the jaw-length bob, those unlikely blue eyes all did add up to make a nice – that damn word again – package.
    Phil stood up, deciding to kill two birds with one stone.
    By the time he’d reached Kate’s office, Jess was already there.
    ‘Just be sensitive, yeah?’ she said.
    ‘Why? What’s happened?’ Phil asked, striking an imaginary cricket ball with an imaginary cricket bat as he spoke. It was a habit he’d picked up at school and one that he’d never quite got around to growing out of.
    Like most people, including Jess, Phil was genuinely fond of Kate. She was scatty, clumsy and far too inclined to inappropriate tears, but her fragility worked in her favour. Who wouldn’t warm to the kind of person who, on first meeting her new boss,