"No, no, no, no! Please don't! Both of you! Stop it! Now!" I cried putting my hands over my eyes, trying not to look at them, my lover and his enemy, fighting, and I, Evaline Beaufort, cannot do anything about it.

Chapter 1

"Hey Evie, Mr Jordan wants to see you in his office" Karen called to me as I entered the 'Health and Beauty' Department of The London Times newspaper building where I worked. "Do you know why?" I called back puzzled, "Nope" she said finally before disappearing behind her cubicle.

I hurried to my untidy cubicle to see an email on my crappy laptop from Mr Jordan, our boss, asking to see me in his office that morning. I took one final sip of my cheap Starbucks coffee then took deep breaths as I nervously walked towards his office door, I could see my other colleagues looking at me in the corner of my eyes, I didn't like being the centre of attention, it's not really my thing, not like my Sister, Roselle, who is young, smart and beautiful, and is already happily married at the age of twenty-eight, not like me of course, still smart and pretty, so I've been told, but not confident in any way possible, more of a shut in, and happy about it.

I knocked on the glass door, covered with closed blinds from the inside, and was beckoned in. "You wanted to see me?" I muttered while shutting the door behind me. "Ah yes, Evaline" he said turning, "Evie" I quickly corrected, "Evie... do you know why you are here?" he asked with his usual serious look, more like a death stare I suppose. "No" I gulped, feeling the tears start to well up behind my eyes, 'I knew it' I thought, 'He's firing me, oh-my-gosh, where am I going to get another job?' He gave me a quick stern smile, "You're being promoted, you'll have Bridget's old office, and I am giving you a higher salary" he said leaning back in his chair, looking me up and down smiling, "Oh that's great, thank you so much Mr Jordan!" I said enthusiastically. "Please, call me Mark... and you'll be writing a two page article about 'Beauty around the World', now I trust you will be able to create your own views about that, and you'll being doing an article a week that is to be completed for Saturday's paper, you will have today to move in to your new office and you start work tomorrow, okay?" I nodded continuously, thinking 'why me?', as there are many other people working in this department who are just as good, or better than me, but I didn't want to jinx my luck, so I forgot about it.

I sat in my new office chair and leaned back closing my eyes, when a message popped up on my laptop, making me jump. It was from Shannon, a colleague of mine, I hate that girl, such a selfish gossiper.

Shannon: hey, u no why mr j picked u rite?

Evaline: No, but I don't think it matters

Shannon: ur such a teachers pet, its cos he wants u in bed

Evaline: What?

Shannon: he wants 2 hav sex with u!

Evaline: I guessed that, but he is married? No, you're making it up

Shannon: no im not, don't u see the way he looks at u?

Evaline: Okay, stop it Shannon, just forget it

Shannon: u no im rite

She is not right, she is just trying to annoy me because she is jealous of me getting Bridget's old job instead if her.

What Shannon had said I started to realize could be true, because I didn't talk a lot to people, I was usually good reading people's body language, and Mark, I mean Mr Jordan, always looks at me differently to everybody else.

I started to feel sick in my stomach, Mr Jordan... and me... eww! He is married and is over twice my age. I spent the afternoon blocking it out of my mind, and also trying to block him and Shannon out of my sight.