Chapter 32: Soph

"Oh, hello...!" Charlotte plucked a navy dress out of my wardrobe and held it at arm's length to assess it.

"No," I said. "Apparently navy isn't my colour."

"Uh, says who?" She propped a hand on her hip and raised her eyebrows.

"Some girl on Twitter who then got hundreds of likes."

Charlotte blew out a puff of air and tossed the dress at me. "Even more reason to wear it, then. Take back control."

I wish. If Ed and I wanted a future together, I had to disappear into the background, become irrelevant again, and shift the negativity away from our relationship. Hidden in Mac's snazzy apartment, that was easy. In a hot new club wearing a skin-tight dress, not so much.

"Just try it on, Soph," Gabby suggested. "If you hate yourself in it, we won't make you wear it."

So I did. I squeezed into the stretchy fabric, then smoothed my palms down the front as I examined myself in the mirror. I didn't hate the colour. Not as much as that random troll did, anyway. In fact, I thought it flattered me. The body-con style cinched my curves into a tight hourglass shape, and I had just enough thigh on show to be sexy rather than sexual.

No doubt someone would hate it, though.

"Damn, Palmer. Lookin' good."

"Mac!" Charlotte whirled around and lobbed a hairbrush at him. "Get out!"

He ducked and the brush clattered against the wall.

"The door was open, and you ladies were supposed to be ready ten minutes ago."

"We're almost there," Gabby said. "What do you think, Soph?"

"What does she think?" Mac folded his arms. "She looks great. Put some shoes on and let's roll."

"Some rando on Twitter said I look bad in navy."

"They can go fuck themselves. You look hot. Probably just jealous, anyway."

"Remember these obsessive fan girls don't think the same way as us rational folk." Charlotte dropped a pair of wedges at my feet. "She probably thought you looked great and wanted an excuse to tear you down."

I doubted that, but they'd won me over with the dress, so I crouched down to slip on the shoes. Charlotte was right; I couldn't let these bitches control me. That would mean they'd win. And if Ed and I did ever get photographed together in the future, the spiral would start again because they'd know my weakness.

If you want to beat the sharks, you have to become one.

*

For about the seventh time since arriving, I joined the queue for the bar and searched the room for Mark. Just like the previous six times, I easily found him. He'd tried his best to blend in, but my eyes always managed to snap onto him like a magnet, seeking that reassurance that he was nearby if I needed him.

Catching me, he tipped his chin in a silent question. I nodded back and shifted my attention to the queue again. Normally I loved dancing, but I'd set up Mac with a date for the night, Charlotte and Gabby were coupled off, and that left me as a prime target for guys who'd spotted a single girl. Some of them recognised me, and others didn't, but constantly rejecting them was exhausting. The bar was a safe haven where I could blend into the crowd because everyone was too focused on getting to the front of the queue.

Almost everyone, anyway.

"Oh my god... are you Soph Palmer?"

The question, though delivered in a friendly Welsh accent, prickled the hairs on the back of my neck. Fuck. I glanced at Mark again, and once satisfied his gaze was on me, I pasted on a smile and looked over my shoulder at the two girls behind me.

A brunette and a redhead. Eyes lucid enough to suggest they weren't too drunk. One wearing a dress that I was pretty sure I'd tried on in Zara last month. It looked better on her.

"Hey," I said.

They appeared nice, but my guard was up and my heart hammered in my chest.

"Can we get a photo?" The brunette asked.

"Oh, uh..." I glanced in Mark's direction again, but he'd disappeared. Heat enveloped my body, wrapping me in a dizzying swirl of suffocating air.

"It's totally fine if not!" the girl added, holding up her hands. "We don't want to intrude on your evening."

"It's just that we're big fans and—"

"Everything okay here?" Mark glided into the conversation like a ghost, the solid bulge of his bicep grazing my shoulder blade. A physical reassurance that he was near enough to step in.

The girls' eyes widened. Guilt pushed away some of my fear. Maybe they genuinely were fans, and now they felt like my bodyguard was intimidating them away from me. It was partially true—Mark knew the brief—but considering support for me was hard to come by, I didn't want to throw it back in their faces.

"Sorry," I said to them. "I just get a little skittish when approached sometimes."

"Death threats online will do that to a person." Mark's cool tone stunned me, and apparently it stunned the girls too because they simultaneously took a tiny step back.

It had sounded a tad accusatory, but their reactions seemed horrified enough that I believed they were part of the good crowd.

"Totally get that!" the redhead said. "Social media is a vile place at times."

"For what it's worth," her friend added, "we love you, and we loved you and Teddy together. I hate that you were driven apart. It broke my heart."

I forced a smile. "Yeah, mine too. But thank you. I appreciate that. Honestly."

Trying to be subtle, I dug my elbow into Mark's waist. He instantly took a step away.

"I hope you know that not everyone feels the same as a few vocal keyboard warriors," the brunette told me. "But I get it's always those who shout the loudest that get heard."

"If you want that photo, it's fine. I don't want you getting attacked on social media for it, though."

That didn't seem to be a concern at all for them, and I enlisted Mark to take the shot.

"By the way, you look really pretty," the redhead told me.

"So pretty!" the other one added. "Thank you for talking to us."

With a nervous wave in my bodyguard's direction, they hurried off towards the dance floor. Sucking in a deep breath, I turned to Mark and squeezed his forearm.

"Thanks for coming over. I think I just panicked a bit unnecessarily."

"Nothing unnecessary about it. You feel how you feel. That's why I'm here."

"You make me feel safer. It has a big impact. Thank you."

His hand briefly rested on my back to guide me into a gap that had formed in the queue.

"You're doing great, Soph. Just keep your head up and keep breathing."

*

With Mac managing to pull, and being gentlemanly enough to go back to her place rather than bringing her to ours, Mark accompanied me home all the way to the door.

"Ed mentioned you might be interested in living around here," I said.

"Did he." Mark's deadpan response suggested I wouldn't get very far with this line of questioning, but I tried regardless.

"Apparently you're looking to move more central?"

He hummed and swiped his card against the corridor sensor, then held open the door for me to walk through first.

"Do you own or rent at the moment?" I asked.

"Rent. I don't like the idea of being tied up in something."

That surprised me. Not the renting in London part—very few people could afford to buy—but the fact he didn't see home ownership as something secure. Mark lived and breathed secure.

"Do you live alone?"

"Yes."

"Have you always lived alone?"

"Not always."

We reached the apartment, and I leaned against the adjoining wall, levelling a stare up at him. In the club, I'd seen a more humane side to him, and I'd liked it, but now we were back to the robotics.

"You called me Soph earlier," I said.

I waited for the reaction, but his face didn't change a bit. Not even the tiniest muscle twitch.

"Force of habit."

"Habit?" I frowned. "You've never called me Soph."

A soft sigh drifted from his nostrils. "That's what I call you when I'm talking to Ed, and we've been talking about you a lot lately."

"Oh."

"Better to keep our working relationship formal." He reached to tap the entry sensor, but I didn't move from my position against the wall.

"It's only a nickname. It's not that deep."

"Deep enough for you to bring it up."

Okay, fair. But it was less about formality, and more about humanity.

"You and Ed had a friendship. It wasn't just professional."

The sensor timed out, and Mark's wrist twitched with the urge to reactivate it. He wanted this conversation to be over, but for once we were getting somewhere. I trusted him with my life, but if we were going to spend more and more time together, it would be nice to have that familiarity between us too.

"Ed and I have worked together for a long time. The friendship took years. Trust me. I thought he was a dick to start."

My eyebrows shot up, and an astonished laugh burst from my throat. "Really?"

"Yes." He sighed and leaned a shoulder against the wall next to me, body angled towards mine. "If it makes you feel better, he'd probably prefer it if I kept my relationship with you purely professional. Not sure if you've noticed, but he's got a jealous streak."

The tiniest smile caressed his lips, suggesting he was half-joking, and the glimpse of humour was like a compromise.

"Mm," I murmured. "I'm not going to be too heartbroken, don't worry. I just liked the idea of you being a human rather than a robot."

"Okay." He slid his hands into his pockets. "I'll be a robot when I need to be. To keep you safe. If you need a human to deal with the emotional side of things, you just tell me, okay?"

I smiled. "Okay."

He tapped his card again, and this time I pushed at the door to open it. Just before I said night, though, I turned back to face him.

"For what it's worth, I don't mind if you move into the building. I wouldn't consider it an intrusion. You do what you want to do."

He nodded. "Noted."

No doubt Ed would laugh to hear that I'd tried to befriend Mark, but I still felt like we'd taken a small step in the right direction, and small steps were all I was aiming for currently.

***

Thank you for reading :) xx

***

Do you think Mark will end up moving into Soph's building? If you're not already aware, Mark has his own book! It's called Bodyguard and takes place over 15+ years, following his relationship/friendship/situationship (?) with female flatmate Zoe 🔥

If you're already reading Bodyguard, leave a comment here with the emoji you think best describes the book -- or an emoji about your favourite scene in the book so far!