“Me? I don’t need a flat. I have one and I can’t afford luxury dockside developments.” She shook her head at him.
“You have a flat that your ex-boyfriend seems to be a permanent fixture outside of. So, you need a flat, the location of which he doesn’t know,” said Jon seriously.
“You can’t just find me a new flat though. What if I have a mortgage on my place?” Slight annoyance at his interference was beginning to rise. In contrast, she also felt that he might have a point as Simon’s last message had unnerved her slightly, not that she was ready to admit that, yet.
“You don’t have a mortgage and I have found a selection of properties for you to view and choose from.” He spoke with an air of nonchalance that annoyed her.
“How do you know I don’t have a bloody mortgage?” she asked, outraged by him now.
“I checked the land registry and you don’t appear on the details for your flat, now look at these,” he almost ordered her now.
“You are mad. I am not a commodity, Jon. You can’t take possession of me and just relocate me when it suits. This is fucking crazy.” She slammed the laptop shut.
“I am not mad and I know you’re not a commodity, but I am very concerned about your crazy ex. What does he mean in his message,you know what happens when you mess me around and annoy me?” he asked calmly, his calmness suddenly rubbing off on her.
“He has always had a bit of a temper and when I was less than compliant with his wishes he would accuse me of messing him around and annoying him and then it would all become a big drama. If I’m honest I am not too thrilled about him hanging around outside my flat,” she admitted and for the first time realised how nervous the prospect of meeting him one night at her home made her.
“Then don’t be stubborn and admit that moving is a solution to that.” Jon’s tone matched his serious expression as he opened the laptop again.
“I admit it. But I really can’t afford Docklands and if you even suggest paying I may scream.”
“Surely if you are my mistress it’s in the remit for me to set you up in a place,” he said half-smiling.
Steph stared at him for several long seconds wondering just how to proceed with this conversation. She figured that in the traditional set up of a rich man keeping a mistress he probably would provide her with a home of his choosing in a location that suited him, but this wasn’t traditional. She wasn’t traditional. This affair they were having was a mutually flexible arrangement, they’d decided that, but she was independent still and part of that was her living arrangements. She had her own place and she liked that, not being reliant on another person for her home, but this, his suggestion of setting her up in a place would surely symbolise the complete opposite of independence.
“Stephanie, you need somewhere to live, somewhere safe.” His words interrupted her thoughts, startling her slightly.
“But I don’t need to live in a Docklands apartment, do I? I can find a new flat myself, one I can afford if that’s what I decide I want. If I decide that’s what’s best.”
“But that is going to take time and during that time, Simon will know where you live and be able to hassle you,” Jon countered. “How long is this going to go on before he moves forward with his plan to get you back, you and your good job and salary? How long before he starts chipping away at your self-esteem again? You know I’m making sense.”
“Maybe, but what if we fall out? I’d be out on my ear,” she pointed out. “And I don’t want you to keep me.”
“Right. How about a compromise? Utilise some of our flexibility?”
“Go on.” She was genuinely interested now as she imagined a home that was safe from a drunken Simon. A Simon who was apparently intent on winning her back, if only for his own ends.
“All of these properties technically belong to me, through one of my property holdings. You decide which ones you wantto look at and then which one you’d like to move into, the lease will be in your name, and you will pay the rent at the same rate as your current flat. That way you have a legally binding lease that protects you. They are all vacant so you can move in immediately. Will you at least look at them, please?”
His triumphant smile as she considered his offer suggested this was a deal they were in agreement on.
Steph was still skimmingthrough the properties while Jon made coffee.
“What do you want to do for dinner?”
“I was planning on eating at home,” she replied.
“But you’re here now. What about steak? I have steak,” he declared, making her laugh.
“Okay, arguing with you seems futile.”
“You’re getting it now, but you’ll still miss me when I’m not here,” he said mysteriously.
“Not here when? Why?” Her stomach lurched at the notion that he was going away or about to say he was going home, to the home he shared with his wife. She tried to tell herself that her sudden nausea was down to Simon or even hunger but she knew the real reason was the thought of Jon going home to his wife. The thought of what that actually involved.
“I have to go to Geneva tomorrow until the weekend on business.”
“Oh,” she said, quietly disappointed that he would be away all week but relieved that his absence was down to business.
