Since it’s publication week for Doctor January, here’s an extract. Meet Hibs. He’s just getting dumped.  

Beth removed her cycle helmet and fluffed up her hair before she punched in the security code to get into the labs. As soon as she entered the corridor, she heard the shouting. Since she hadn’t had a card or text from Gordon, she was hoping she’d at least get a couple of cards and ‘happy birthday’s’ from her colleagues, but it looked like she got to witness some sort of argument instead.

Vik, her fellow PhD student, was standing beside the door to the lab, apparently listening. A female voice wailed, ‘You care more about those bloody bacteria than you do about me!’

Beth shot Vik a questioning glance. He put a finger to his lips, so she stopped outside the door too.

Hibs said something, his voice too low for Beth to make out the words. ‘Well, I’ve changed my mind,’ the woman said. ‘You can keep your experiments. I’ve had enough. We’re finished.’

Footsteps stamped towards the door. Beth pulled back, flattening herself against the wall.

‘Wait,’ Hibs said, and the footsteps stopped. ‘You forgot your scarf.’

The girl made a strangled ugh noise and stormed out of the door. Beth tried to look like she hadn’t been listening outside as the girl gave another ugh, marched down the corridor and slammed the security door behind her.

Beth entered the lab to find Hibs concentrating on his computer screen. ‘Are you okay?’

Hibs tied back his long hair and shrugged. He was tall and slim and moved like something on the hunt. A Japanese ancestor a few generations back meant he had a faint, high-cheekboned exoticism about him. Beth was so comfortable hanging out with him as a friend, it sometimes surprised her that he was such a success with women. On the other hand, he was so phenomenally bad at keeping hold of the ones he bedded that being his friend was a far better long-term option.

‘That one lasted … what, two weeks?’ Beth asked as she hung up her coat.

‘Ten days,’ said Hibs as he returned his attention to the computer. Beth shook her head.

‘Anyone would think you don’t really want a girlfriend.’

‘Why would I want a girlfriend? They just get in the way and make you go to dinner parties,’ he said, without turning away from the screen.    

Doctor January is available as an ebook now and will be out in paperback in August. *mad, happy grin*