‘A lot.’
‘So, I’m not a party animal. There’s nothing wrong with that. Everybody’s different.’
‘Except that now you’re planning to do nothing but work and sit and read for the entire year. I’m just not sure it’s the best plan for you, going forward.’
‘Now you sound like one of your reports.’
A ripple of humour showed in his eyes. ‘I do know a thing or two about mental health. And shutting yourself away doesn’t seem like the best option. That’s all I’m saying.’
‘Who said I was shutting myself away?’
‘You did.’
‘No, I didn’t.’ I shook my head. ‘I just said I was going to say no.’
‘To everything.’
‘No. Only to the things I don’t want to do. I refuse to feel obliged to say yes to things I’d rather not, just because someone else wants to do it, or someone else wantsmeto do it. I am giving myself permission to say no.’
‘Well, that’s a good thing.’
‘So now you agree? Talk about fickle.’
The serious expression he’d been wearing evaporated and he laughed, deep and melodic, and my treacherous tummy did the flip again. I mentally told it to behave and tried to ignore the wave of newly released butterflies.
‘I’ve been called a lot of things in my time—’
‘That doesn’t surprise me.’
Seb gave me a look that I imagined had silenced many a lower ranked soldier in his time, but I could see the softness around those chocolate brown eyes and gave him a grin in response.
‘So why the change of heart?’
‘I was just concerned you had planned to shut yourself away entirely, that’s all.’
‘Nope. Just no more bloody bungee jumping, rampant, runaway Segways or hideous dates with men who look nothing like their profile picture and then leave me to pick up the bill.’
‘You know not every guy is like that, don’t you?’
‘Once upon a time I might have believed you, but if my experience over the past year is anything to go by, then I’m sorry, but I’d have to disagree.’
‘You do seem to have had some… fun experiences.’
‘Fun isn’t exactly the word I’d use for most of them.’
‘No. I guess not.’
‘And you should have seen some of the messages from the blokes that I didn’t agree to meet up with!’
‘It’s probably better that I didn’t,’ he replied, that unreadable expression settling back on his features once again.
I shrugged and kind of got it. Seb was one of those men who couldn’t help feeling protective towards women, however outdated some people felt that was. Personally, I thought it was sweet. I knew from all he’d done with the charity, the men and women he’d helped via that and the effort he put in, that he had an incredibly caring nature. If that spilled over into what I considered a nice touch of old-fashioned chivalry, I wasn’t about to complain. And I’d certainly take that over the behaviour of most of the dates I’d had in the past year. Honestly, the fact that there were single men out there like Seb, who were nice and normal, gave me the slightest sliver of hope for the future. It was just kind of a shame that he lived over two hours away and was, more importantly, a client. My biggest and best client. This was my livelihood and as much as I liked Seb, he’d had to be put firmly in the fantasy pile. But what a fantasy that would be! Oh. My. God. With a capital O!
Making a concerted effort to push those unhelpful thoughts out of my mind, I focused back on the moment.
‘I kind of thought you’d be behind me on this.’
‘I am.’
