Page 56 of The Work Husband

My heart pounded, and my own armpits started getting damp. Now I knew, I was in this as deep as he was. Even though I hadn’t been there, hadn’t even seen the photos, hadn’t leaked a thing myself, by telling me, he’d made me an accessory to his – well, it wasn’t a crime exactly, but it was about as serious as misdemeanours got.

‘But why?’ As soon as I asked, I wished I hadn’t. I should have told him to shut up and leave me out of it. Or perhaps walked straight into Jasper’s office and revealed that Jamie had come clean to me. But I couldn’t do it – I couldn’t betray my friend.

He shrugged. ‘Because I could. Come on, Georgia – we spend our days booking tables in restaurants and ordering gender-reveal cakes for bloody baby showers. A guy’s got to have a bit of fun sometimes.’

‘You did it for fun?’

‘Why else?’

I looked at him, appalled. Despite my earlier suspicions, I’d never expected that Jamie would come out and confess to behaviour that was… well, unethical didn’t begin to cover it. Was this really who he was? Someone who’d break Rosie-Mae’s heart and trash Trent’s reputation for fun? Had trusting him been the biggest mistake of my life?

‘The thing with Cormac Kennedy at the Ritz. Was that you too?’

‘Get you, Miss Marple. Two and two makes four – the deduction skills of a true pro.’

‘And…’ But I found I couldn’t bring myself to ask whether he’d had anything to do with Zahra’s Instagram posts being sent to her father. That was too much – too close to home.

But Jamie hadn’t finished. ‘Oh, Georgia – there’s just one more thing.’

‘What?’ I asked, my mouth dry.

‘Like I said, we’re mates. I’ve helped you out – admittedly not entirely successfully, but my heart was in the right place. I’ve looked after you, all these years. I care about you. And you care about me, don’t you?’

I could see where this was going. I didn’t want it to, but I felt powerless to stop it. In spite of everything, I did care about Jamie, and I believed he cared about me. He might have lied about a lot of things, but he was telling the truth about that – even though it was a truth I suddenly felt deeply uncomfortable with.

Reluctantly, I nodded.

‘So you won’t dob me in, will you? You wouldn’t do that to a friend. Apart from anything else, there’s nothing in it for you.’

I thought for a moment. I could get up, right now, go to Jasper and tell him what Jamie had told me. Jamie would be sacked. I’d lose my only ally at Devereaux Partners. The firm could lose Cormac Kennedy as a client if an investigation took place, and then my own job could be on the line.

And besides, what Trent had done was on him. All Jamie had done was leak a few pictures. The wedding was going ahead regardless. Maybe Trent had even learned a lesson – although what lesson that might be I didn’t want to think about.

That he could do bad stuff and get away with it? The same lesson Jamie had taken a masterclass in over the past few months.

But maybe I needed to learn a lesson of my own from him – to look out for number one.

‘I won’t tell Jasper,’ I said reluctantly.

‘Good girl,’ Jamie said. ‘I knew I could count on you.’

He picked up his vape and headed towards the stairwell, not inviting me to join him this time. His usual swagger was absent, I noticed – he walked like people walk at the end of a long run, after they’ve made it across the finish line.

Which was exactly what he had done. Thanks to me, his job was safe for now. He’d need to tread carefully for a while, but it wouldn’t be long before he was in the clear with Jasper again.

Then what might he do? What would I be expected to do to protect him?

And how on earth was I going to protect myself?

TWENTY-EIGHT

As I approached our flat, I thought I could hear next door’s baby crying. They’d slipped a note through our letter box a couple of days before, announcing proudly that they’d brought little Freya home from hospital after she’d spent three weeks in the special care unit, and apologising in advance for any noise.

Given they’d only moved in a couple of months back and we’d never actually spoken to them, I sensed that the note was less of a courteous gesture and more of a desire to tell the world that they had a baby and she was well and home with them. I hadn’t heard a peep out of them or Freya anyway, so either she was angelically well behaved or our soundproofing was better than I’d imagined.

I remembered approaching Molly and Ben’s front door the first time we went to see Arthur, hearing his cries from a distance. Molly hadn’t responded to my last couple of messages, and I was worried about her. I’d call her, I resolved, as soon as I was sitting down and could chat properly.

It was almost a week since Jamie’s near miss with Jasper at work. Since then, both of us had been keeping our heads down, Jamie being tasked with putting together multiple PowerPoint presentations for Jasper to pitch to potential new clients while I was arranging accommodation, theatre tickets, restaurant reservations and private shopping appointments for the son of a Turkish oligarch who was spending time in London with his girlfriend and planning a proposal at the end of it.