With her non-urine-spattered hand, she scrolled through the photos on her phone. Her and Robert at dinner. Her and Robert watching the Superbowl on TV when she had cooked hotdogs and made him wear an American football shirt and huge foam hands. She smiled, in spite of the fact she was standing in a public toilet drenched in her own pee. If his colleagues had seen him that night, they would never have believed it. Such a doofus.

But if she was pregnant, and it looked very likely that she was, what was he going to say? This was never supposed to be a serious relationship. It was just fun. Starting a relationship with your boss was a completely ridiculous thing to do, but it didn’t matter if you weren’t planning on staying with the company – or even in the country – for that long. She had been very clear with him from the beginning. Keep it light and uncomplicated. He had agreed. It was just a casual thing.

Four minutes to go.

The row last night. The reason he hadn’t stayed over at her place. It was the same discussion they’d been having on and off for the last two weeks. Robert had first mentioned her meeting his daughters about two months ago, but the pressure had started to mount the closer it got to his eldest daughter’s birthday party. He wanted Shannon to come with him. To meet his daughters and the other members of his family. He was so deluded that he had even suggested she might get on well with his ex-wife. The French and their mature attitude towards relationships. That would never happen in the States. Back home, your ex was usually an ex for a good reason. A very good reason.

The birthday party wasn’t even the real issue. It was Shannon’s feelings for Robert. They were getting out of control. She hadn’t even liked him when she’d first met him – stern, unfriendly, demanding, and he came down so hard on those poor sales guys. Fixing them with his steely glare and waiting for them to start babbling their excuses before pronouncing his decision. But then, it was this steel that she had also found interesting. It was a challenge.

Three minutes.

And beneath the steel was a real sensitive side. Of course she had been totally attracted by his looks: dark floppy hair, broad shoulders, an intense frown which could flip in a heartbeat to a raised eyebrow above a wide smile. But as she’d got to know him, it was his gentleness that had reeled her in deeper than she’d wanted to go.