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‘No problem,’ Megan said coolly. They were out in the street now and there was no sign of him feeling the cold, even though the wind was brisk and the skies promised freezing rain later.
She had to half run to keep pace with him as he headed towards the Kings Road—which, predictably, was already crowded with restless shoppers, who were clearly bored with enforced inactivity.
Tellingly, he wasn’t even glancing in her direction. She might almost have not existed at all. So much for the friendly truce. Once established, he obviously saw no need to prolong it.
He managed to hail a taxi with the efficiency of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, and Megan couldn’t dash towards it fast enough.
‘How much?’ Alessandro reached for his wallet and Megan looked at him with freezing disdain.
‘I can pay for this myself,’ she told him flatly. ‘Teachers may not be the highest-paid workers in the city of London, but we can still run to the occasional taxi fare.’
‘Be quiet, Megan, and get in the cab. This is a journey you undertook for my benefit, so don’t waste your time arguing about something as pitiful as the cost of a cab ride to Shepherd’s Bush.’
He was already fishing out the amount quoted, and handed it over while Megan glared at him, confused and stung by his abrupt change of mood.
She sat back and stared straight ahead in total silence, half expecting him to say something. Anything.
He didn’t. He pushed himself away from the taxi, and as she turned her head she saw him quickly disappearing as he half-jogged back to his house.
It had been a learning curve, she told herself brightly as the cab driver pulled away. Learning curves were very important, and this particular learning curve had come at a very opportune moment. Because he had catapulted back into her life and shattered her peace of mind. But now, she told herself, staring out of the window at the grey, uninspiring view rolling past her, she could consider herself on the road to recovery.
Firstly, she had seen Alessandro and Victoria together in a social situation, and instead of letting her mind drift away into the past she would now have it cemented in her head that Alessandro was half of a couple. She might call it a compromise relationship, but it was still very real and very meaningful for him.
Secondly, she had seen for herself how impatient he could become with her—because really and truly he had outgrown her.
Thirdly, she had proved conclusively to herself that she could actually have a normal conversation with him—which surely meant that he was no longer the bogeyman in her head, the guy who had broken her heart, the benchmark against whom all other men fell short.
Fourthly…She couldn’t think of a fourthly, but she would.
She thought of him back in his house, looking through her and past her as if she had suddenly become invisible.
The best Christmas present she could give herself would be a gift-wrapped box full of all those reminders of why it was time to finally let Alessandro go.
CHAPTER FIVE
ALESSANDRO stepped out of his car, dispatched his driver, and squinted through the driving rain at Megan’s house. There were several reasons why he shouldn’t be here—the most pressing one being that he had had too much to drink. It was also gone eleven in the night. A time when most normal people would be tucked up in bed. But he’d banked on Megan not being in the normal category, and sure enough there were lights on.
He didn’t give himself too much time to think. Lately, thinking hadn’t been doing him too much good.
He began walking very slowly up to the front door. He could feel the icy rain slashing against his face, permeating through the thin layers of his trenchcoat and jumper to bare skin.
The three bangs he gave on the front door were loud enough to raise the dead. There was a muffled sound of activity, and the door was pulled open just as he had raised his hand to administer another earth-shaking bang.
‘Oh, my God. What are you doing here?’
‘Developing pneumonia.’ Alessandro placed the palm of his hand on the door—at which point Charlotte positioned herself neatly between him and the hallway. ‘Let me in.’
‘Megan’s not here.’
Alessandro pushed a little harder and stepped forward. ‘You’re as forthright as ever, aren’t you?’
‘Just looking out for my friend, and she doesn’t want to see you.’
‘Doesn’t want to see me or isn’t in? Make your mind up.’
The appearance of Megan hovering on the staircase behind Charlotte answered at least one of his questions. She looked confused and rumpled, as though she had just woken up. Her cheeks were flushed, and her silky blonde hair was a curly cloud around her startled face.
