CHAPTER TWENTY

Explaining to Sharon why I disappeared from the café and then returned, ten minutes later, with a strange guy trailing behind me was difficult, but thankfully she got a phone call from her boyfriend just as I got back to the table, so I was saved from having to answer too many questions.

If only Ben was as easily distracted, my life would be so much less complicated.

Since I got home an hour and a half ago, he’s been hovering around me and asking incessant questions. My first-date nerves are already off the charts and his constant presence is only making it worse.

I’m in the middle of applying lipstick in my bathroom when Ben pops up again, scaring me so much that I end up with a swipe of red going from the corner of my lips all the way across my cheek.

“Ben! For god’s sake, leave me alone!” I say, whipping around to face him.

I don’t use a particularly sisterly tone, but no hurt shows on his face. All I see is suspicion.

“Where did you say you were going again?” he asks, c