The Girl He'd Overlooked Read Online Free PDF

loose grey yoga pants and a tight, long-sleeved grey top, her hair pulled back into a ponytail.
    It had always been a standing joke that James never cooked. He would tease her father, who adored cooking, that the kitchen was a woman’s domain, that cooking wasn’t a man’s job. He would then lay down the gauntlet—an arm-wrestling match to prove that cooking depleted a man of strength. Jennifer used to love these little interludes; she used to love the way he would wink at her, pulling her into his game.
    However, he was just finishing a remarkably proficient omelette when she walked into the kitchen. A salad was in a bowl. Hot bread was on a wooden board.
    ‘I guess I’m not the only one who’s changed,’ Jennifer said from the doorway, and he glanced across to her, his eyes lazily appraising.
    ‘Would you believe me if I told you that I took a cookery course?’
    Jennifer shrugged. ‘Did you?’ She sat at the table and looked around her. ‘There’s less damage than I thought there would be. I had a look around before I went to have a shower. Thankfully, upstairs is intact and I can just see that there are some water stains on the sofa in the sitting room and I guess the rugs will have to be replaced.’
    ‘Have we finished playing our catch-up game already?’ He handed her a plate, encouraged her to help herself to bread and salad, before taking up position opposite her at the kitchen table.
    Jennifer thought that this was the reason she had avoided him for four years. There was just
too much
of him. He overwhelmed her and she was no longer on the market for being overwhelmed.
    ‘There’s nothing more to catch up on, James. I can’t think of anything else I could tell you about my job in Paris. If you like I could give you a description of what my apartment looks like, but I shouldn’t think you’d find that very interesting.’
    ‘You’ve changed.’
    ‘What is that supposed to mean?’
    ‘I barely recognise you as the girl who left here four years ago. Somewhere in my memory banks, I have an image of someone who actually used to laugh and enjoy conversing with me.’
    Jennifer felt the slow burn of anger because
he
hadn’tchanged. He was still the same arrogantly self-assured James, supremely confident of their roles in life. She laughed and blushed and he basked in her open admiration.
    ‘How can you expect me to laugh when you haven’t said anything funny as yet, James?’
    ‘That’s
exactly
what I’m talking about!’ He threw his hands up in a gesture of frustration and pushed himself back from the table. ‘You’ve either had a personality change or else your job in Paris is so stressful that it’s wiped out your sense of fun. Which is it, Jen? You can be honest with me. You’ve always been open and honest with me, so tell me: have you bitten off more than you can chew with that job?’
    ‘I know that’s what you’d like me to say, James. That I’m hopelessly lost and can’t handle the work in Paris.’
    ‘That’s a ridiculous statement.’
    ‘Is it? If I told you that I was having a hard time and just couldn’t cope, then you could be the caring, concerned guy. You could put your arm round my shoulder and whip out a handkerchief for me to sob into! But my job is absolutely brilliant and if I wasn’t any good at it, then I would never have been promoted. I would never have risen up the ranks.’
    ‘Is that what you think? That I’m the sort of narrow-minded, mean-spirited guy who would be happy if you failed?’
    Jennifer sighed and pushed her plate away.
    ‘I know you’re not mean-spirited, James, and I don’t want to argue with you.’ She stood up, began clearing the dishes, tried to think of something harmless to say that would defuse the high-voltage atmosphere that had sprung up.
    ‘Leave those things!’ James growled.
    ‘I don’t want to. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day andthe less I have to do in the kitchen, tidying up stuff that could be done now, the