Girl on the Run Read Free

she could make her excuses and leave without looking antisocial.
    Ordinarily, she didn't mind being surrounded by men. Before Triphoppers became famous, she had spent many an evening in the pub with Ashby and the band without feeling awkward. But then she had been a student and the band had been just a bunch of guys her boyfriend sang with. She hadn't needed to impress them.
    With these men, the situation was different. They were work colleagues and part of the city set. She could sense undercurrents of professional tension, but didn't know what they were. She felt as though she was a fresher at university once more, aware that allegiances formed and impressions made in the first week would dog her for the rest of her time there. As despondency started to creep over her, she told herself that she shouldn't rush to judge. She took a sip of her wine.
    Keith was good-looking enough, but the way he was eyeing her up was irritating. Eric was telling a joke, watching Jane out of the corner of his eye. She recognised that look too, from when she was with Ashby. It was that of someone calculating how useful she would be to them. In her past life, she would have clung to Ashby and played the dumb blonde, but she couldn't do that here. She had to work with these people. She had to show them that she was smart, capable and likeable.
    Besides, she reminded herself, she wasn't blonde any more.
    ‘Hallo, hallo.’ A cheery voice made them all look up as a red-haired man approached. ‘I'm Jim, one of the junior partners.’ He had a friendly face and an infectious smile.
    Jane liked him immediately.
    ‘Hi.’ She wondered if everyone defined themselves by their level of seniority in the company.
    Jim moved aside a little. ‘This is Marshall. One of the associates.’
    He was tall and handsome and looked oddly familiar. She hadn't been introduced to him at the office, she would have remembered. And she didn't know many people in London. Where had she met him?
    ‘Hello again.’ Marshall's brown eyes lit up. A dimple appeared in his cheek.
    The jogger from that morning! He looked different in a suit and with his hair neatly combed. She had thought that underneath the sweat and the jogging clothes, he might be quite attractive. It turned out she'd been right.
    ‘Oh! I didn't recognise you …’ She was about to say ‘with clothes on’ but realised how inappropriate that would sound. She felt her cheeks warm.
    Marshall seemed to sense the rest of the sentence and his smile widened.
    ‘Do you know each other?’ Keith's eyes narrowed as he looked from one to the other.
    ‘ Yes, we ran into each other earlier this morning. Literally.’ Marshall looked around. ‘Can I get anyone a drink?’
    ‘ I'll have a pint of the usual,’ said Jim. ‘I'll grab us a couple of seats.’
    Keith moved his stool slightly closer to Jane. Jim dragged a stool over and sat on the other side of her. ‘So,’ he said as he shrugged off his coat. ‘How was your first day, Jane?’
    ‘ It was good, thanks.’ Jane waited for any comparisons to life in the North, but none came.
    Marshall returned and sat opposite Jane. By then Keith was talking again. There was a certain over-the-top quality to the way Keith spoke, as though he was trying to project more personality than he actually had. Jane tried to listen to him, but found her attention kept being drawn towards Marshall. He really was very handsome. But then, Ashby had been handsome. It didn't mean he was a nice person.
    When there was a lull in Keith's monologue, Marshall said, ‘So, Jane, what made you decide to become a patent agent?’
    Jane had been asked the same question at almost every job interview. ‘I wanted to be involved with cutting edge science without actually doing any lab work. I figured, what better way than to become a patent attorney and help people file patents to protect their brilliant inventions.’
    ‘ Too right,’ said Jim. ‘Leave the research to people who are good at