Playing by the Rules Read Online Free Page A

course I can,’ Kate repeated to herself, as she moved down the hallway, which suddenly seemed three times as long as it did normally. It wasn’t as though this was a real date, after all. It was her friend’s brother doing her a favour. Showing her a good time so that she could go back to work having had a ‘fling’. Giving her some photos to flash around to show how much she didn’t care about Alain. That’s all.
    So why were there butterflies dancing a tarantella underneath her breastbone?
    The doorbell pealed again, temporarily disturbing the butterflies. Kate told herself to stop being stupid and opened the door.
    She was greeted by an enormous bunch of flowers with legs. At least, that’s what it looked like. Kate felt the beginnings of a blush creep into her face and the butterflies turned their fluttering up a notch. Then a man’s face popped around the edge of the flowers and smiled at her.
    It wasn’t Josh.
    ‘Hello,’ said the face, cheerfully. ‘You must be Kate. I’m Matt.’
    Kate was none the wiser.
    ‘Jo’s date,’ he said, more tentatively. ‘I do have the right place, don’t I? The door was open downstairs, so I came up.’
    The penny dropped and Kate felt the blush turn into the standard-issue, hideous embarrassment variety. Of course Jo had a date. Kate had just been too busy stressing about her own non-date to give it any thought. She pulled herself together and smiled at the stranger called Matt.
    ‘Yes, you do have the right place! People are always leaving that door open. Honestly, I don’t know why they bother with a security system at all.’ Kate realised she was babbling and forced herself to be more to the point. ‘Would you like to come in? That is, if you can get through the door with that lot!’
    She kept her tone light and this time, having checked in advance for cats, she managed to open the door without incident. But inwardly, she was fighting a sense of loss. There was no-one else behind the flowers. Even a quick look into the hall outside yielded no trace of Josh. Perhaps he had managed to make plans after all.
    For no good reason she could think of, Kate found she had a dull ache where a second ago the butterflies had been. What on earth was the matter with her? She put her hand to her forehead, wondering if perhaps she was coming down with the flu. Then Matt spoke again, forcing her attention away from the bizarre way her body was behaving.
    ‘Is Jo ready? I’m a bit early . . .’
    Early! Of course! Kate’s mood lightened as if by magic. If Matt was early, then Josh was still on his way. Probably, anyway. Kate still could not justify to herself why it should matter so much, but the butterflies, some of whom had miraculously come back to life, were apparently immune to reason.
    Kate told herself it was because she wanted to get on with her plan and favoured Matt, who was waiting patiently for an answer, with her most dazzling smile.
    ‘No, she’s not quite ready yet. Please, go through and sit down. I’m sure she’ll be ready in a minute.’
    Matt smiled back – he seemed a very smiley man – and pushed off in the direction she’d indicated. Left alone, Kate shook her head. Poor Matt. The flowers were long-stemmed red roses. An expensive but misguided choice. Jo didn’t like roses, especially red ones. It was an odd prejudice, but it was something to do with a bad break-up and it was unshakeable. It had started around the same time as Jo’s ‘three-strikes-and-you’re-out-of my-life’ policy with men, and Kate rather suspected that she had just witnessed Matt’s first strike.
    Kate shrugged. Oh well. She, personally, loved red roses and these were beautiful ones. It had been a long time since . . .
    NO ! She caught the thought and stopped it in its tracks. She would NOT think about him. Alain was never going to give her flowers again. And that was fine. It wasn’t as though he’d given her flowers very often anyway. She needed to remember