‘It sounds great,’ Ollie said, draining his wine and top-ping up both their glasses with the small amount that was left. He was always so supportive about her work – it was one of the reasons she liked having him around.
‘We are doing something special for my birthday, though, right?’ Ollie looked at her quizzically.
‘Um …’
‘I turned thirty-five a month ago, and I’ve yet to get so much as a card from you. Thirty-five is a milestone, you know. So I insist you take me to dinner at the classiest goulash joint in the whole of Prague.’
‘You’re an idiot,’ she told him, wondering silently if she had time to sneakily go online, find a restaurant in Prague and book them a table before their flight. She guessed that she probably didn’t.
‘I’m only teasing you.’ He nudged her leg with a bright pink sock. ‘How about another snog instead?’
Megan couldn’t help it; she pulled a face.
‘Ollie …’ she began, but he held up a hand.
‘I know, I know – we’re friends and there’s to be no funny business whatsoever. I promise I was only joking, Meg.’
She narrowed her eyes at his bemused expression.
‘You’re so easy to wind up,’ Ollie told her, pushing his glasses up on his nose.
Megan couldn’t help but conjure up the first time they’d been sat side by side on her sofa, having only met a few hours before. She had been buoyed up by wine in her system then too, but the outcome had been very different to this.
‘Is it hot in here, or is it just me?’ she murmured, looking up to find Ollie peering at her in amusement.
‘You’ve gone all pink in the face, young lady,’ he said, taking her glass out of her hand and draining it himself. ‘Come on – time for bed. We’ve got a long day tomorrow.’
Megan forced herself to walk to the cupboard and fetch the spare bedding, which she dropped on the sofa next to him, waiting out in the hallway until she heard him start to undress.
This trip clearly was going to be weird, she realised. But then there was nothing Megan Spencer loved more than a challenge.
THE BEGINNING
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First published in Penguin Books 2016
Copyright © Isabelle Broom, 2016
The moral right of the author has been asserted
ISBN: 978-1-405-92528-0
My Map of You Page 36