He shook his head and I pulled back far enough to see his face.
‘Don’t look so worried. Although, don’t get me wrong, that look is doing great things for my ego. But I have an early meeting tomorrow.’
‘I don’t care.’
Finn rested his forehead against mine. ‘But like I said before, I do, and you need your rest. I’m at the site in the afternoon so I’ll see you then, if that’s OK with you.’
‘Yes. It is. Definitely.’
‘I’d better go because otherwise I won’t.’ He kissed me hard and quick once more before pulling away and striding back tothe car. I stood watching, both of us drenched and neither of us caring.
11
‘Hi.’ Finn dropped his bag on the floor. Dressed in a pale blue shirt, light tan chinos and a navy blazer, he looked edible.
‘Hi,’ I said, making no attempt to cover my wide smile at seeing him. The reaction caused the corners of his own unfairly sexy mouth to turn upwards.
‘How was your meeting?’
‘Good, thanks.’ He glanced around. ‘How’s today been?’
I knew what he was referring to. ‘I haven’t seen her yet.’
‘Is that unusual?’
‘Not especially. I’ve been in a meeting for much of it. We got the go ahead to have our new friend scanned so now comes the hard bit – arranging it all to the nth degree.’
‘That’s great news!’ Finn said, coming over. ‘Are you excited?’
‘I am. That probably seems a bit weird to you.’
‘Not at all. I know what your work means to you.’
I nodded. ‘But there’s more to life than work.’
‘That there is.’
Admittedly this was a new concept to me but I was willing to learn. Especially if my teacher was volcanically hot!
‘You two seem pleased with something.’ Bella’s voice cut into our little bubble, popping it sharply.
Surprised, we looked up. Ooh, someone was dealing with a monumental hangover. Perhaps that was part of the reason I hadn’t seen her so far today. Finn laid a hand briefly on my shoulder.
‘I’ll see you later.’ He gave Bella a nod as he passed and left us alone in the office.
‘Hi, Bella. Are you OK?’ I asked.
‘Fine. Have you seen Inis?’
‘She’s working from home today but said to call if we need her. I’ve got some work to do for the exhibition so you can have the office to yourself if you want to call her about your news.’
Surprise mixed with a flash of insecurity shadowed her attractive, but clearly tired face. I didn’t want to know the reasons for the tiredness. I didn’t care. And I didn’t want either Finn or Friedrich to come between my relationship with Bella as a colleague I both valued and appreciated.
‘Oh right. I thought you might have told her already.’
I frowned. ‘Why would you think that?’
She gave a Millennial’s shrug. ‘You didn’t look that thrilled about me and Friedrich last night.’
