“I don’t know if I can without being indiscreet further. For example, if my role in relation to your company was discussed, would you expect me to tell you, or would you think that it wasn’t my place to?” She was unsure whether she had clarified her point or confused it further.
He lay a dish in front of her before scooping his papers together and returning them to his briefcase. “If we weren’t seeing each other I doubt our paths would cross so much and it would be unlikely that we would discuss such things and my company would deal with your company regarding your services, so I suppose it would be unfair of me to expect you to tell me such things, to compromise you. However, if Baker, or anyone at your end was intending to do something that could damage me, I would hope you would warn me because if you didn’t, and I sustained damage I am unsure that I would be able to forgive that.”
She nodded as he sat next to her and passed her a glass of water.
“Does that clarify things?” he asked her.
“Yes, thank you.” As she tucked into the dinner he had prepared for her, she was only slightly reassured.
Eighteen
Steph was at her desk compiling some proposal figures for another prospective big client and wondered how Jon’s meeting in Manchester had gone. It seemed that he was still interested in securing the company but needed some reassurances and further details and reports compiling. She had been quite surprised that when she’d woken at six o’clock he was ready to leave but smiled as she remembered how gently he had held and kissed her as he promised to see her that night.
She jumped as her mobile phone rang.
“Hello.” She smiled because she knew it was Jon at the other end of the line.
“Hiya, darling, how are you feeling? Did you go back to bed after I left?”
“I’m fine thank you, and no I didn’t go back to bed,” she told him, suddenly realising that he thought she hadn’t come to work and was at home still.
She knew he would probably disapprove of her choice to work so decided not to contradict his assumption.
“How’s your head feel? Any blurred vision, nausea, sickness or headache?”
She smiled at his concern. “Fine, no, no, no, and no. How’s Manchester?” Her sole focus was on changing the subject.
“Okay, although the deal could be dead in the water.”
“Oh dear, sorry,” she commiserated. “Don’t you have people to do the running around for you?”
“I have lots of people to run around for me but I like to do it myself sometimes and as this one was a fuck up . . . and you have absolutely nothing to be sorry about, Steph. You were the one that spotted the biggest flaw in the deal, which I have pointed out to Dave,” he informed her.
“You didn’t! Why?” She panicked at the prospect of further incurring the wrath of the head accountant who obviously disliked her.
“Because he didn’t do his job properly and I told him that too, but I didn’t actually name you, I just said a friend, although . . .”
“Steph, do you want tea or coffee?” asked Rosie from the open office door interrupting the flow of conversation, but also revealing her whereabouts to Jon.
“Where are you? Are you at work? What the bloody hell are you doing there?” His annoyance clear to them both and probably Rosie too.
“Nothing for me, thanks Rosie, and close the door behind you if you would,” she said before replying to Jon. “I am at work putting some figures together and I really am fine. There is no reason for me not to be here,” she assured him.
“I disagree, but there is nothing I can do about it now is there?” Look, I am at Manchester airport waiting for my flight, so I will see you later at yours, with a proposition,” he added.
“That sounds very mysterious, but okay.”
Steph arrivedhome and found that Jon was already there wearing a perfectly cut pair of black jeans and a black t-shirt.
“I meant to ask you yesterday, since when have you had a key to my flat?” She stretched up to kiss him while he chopped some vegetables and wondered why this felt like the most natural thing in the world.
He immediately stopped what he was doing and turned towards her. “You even look hot with a black eye,” he commented as he gently brushed his thumb across the abrasions on her face and then slid his hands beneath the shoulders of her jacket to slip it off her arms.
“I’ve had a key to your flat since you had one to mine.” He grinned at her as he picked a key up from the worktop behind him and passed it to her.
“Really?”
“Yes, if you want it?” He smiled at her, melting her heart a little. “I can’t have you waiting around for me in corridors or lifts, can I? If I do, who knows who you’ll find to talk to, an ex-boyfriend maybe?” He turned back towards the vegetables.
