“I don’t think so,” she replied tartly, hoping to convey the strength of her dismissal “But I will call your office early next week, bye Mr Mason,” she said and hung up. “What the fuck is it with you at the moment that you can only attract bloody married men?” she asked herself as she picked up her bag and decided that she had really had enough and was going home.
She had just got in her car when her phone rang and she saw it was Jon.
“Hi darling, how are you doing?” he asked tenderly.
“Fine, well, maybe not fine, but okay,” she rambled. “How’s Dublin?” She was desperate for a change in subject.
“Same as it was when you asked me this morning. You sound upset,” he observed.
“No, I have just got in my car to go home,” she told him.
“Home? It’s only just four o’clock. You never leave this early,” he replied.
“Today I do. The Richards deal is still unresolved,” she told him hoping to avoid asking anything too inflammatory like,are you and your wife having fun?orhave you shagged her senseless or stuck anything up her arse?if she stuck to work.
“What is their problem?” he asked.
She laughed as she explained, “They think you are asking for too much, they don’t want to give any more than thirty-three percent and that would leave Mr Richards with a controlling interest.”
“When did they contact you?” he asked between mutterings that she couldn’t quite understand.
“About ten minutes ago, Jonah Mason called to ask if you would be receptive to that.”
“And what did you tell him?”
“I said that you were a crazy control freak, that I could speak to you next week, but that I thought you would want the controlling interest because if Mr Richards retains that who’s to say that he won’t make more poor choices and lose Brooker money as well as Richards money,” she explained and was sure that she could sense a smile at the other end of the line.
“Exactly that, darling. What else did he say to you?” Jon sounded more suspicious now.
“He offered to discuss it over the weekend if I wanted to as he is free, due to the fact that his wife is away all weekend. I really know how to attract them don’t I?” She sighed again but refrained from telling him how highly fuckable Mr Mason found her.
“I can see why you’d think that, but presumably you declined Mason’s offer?” He sounded a little nervous and she found that quite satisfying although the inference that there was ever a world where she wouldn’t have declined the offer irked her and her tone was indicative of that.
“Obviously! I may be slutty Steph, but one married lover at a time really is my limit.”
“Don’t speak about yourself that way.” He’d lost his nervous edge and had reverted back to bossy. “I have to go now, but call me when you’re free tonight, I erm, I . . .” he hesitated and then recovered, “I miss you, Steph.”
“I miss you, too,” she replied and almost wished she didn’t because she was tiring of knowing that there was a more important woman in his life.
Steph had spentFriday evening with Lindsay and Charlie and after she and Lindsay had agreed which holiday to book, Steph realised that Jon had forwarded all of their holiday requests to his people including the naturist one and they had provided a like for like quote, but Steph and Lindsay had opted for a well rated 3 star all-inclusive resort in Marbella. Charlie had asked her several times, when Lindsay was out of hearing distance if she was okay and if she and Jon were okay? She had responded with a degree of tact and discretion merely sayingfine. She had arrived home by eleven o’clock and had spent about half an hour on the phone to Jon and was a little confused about how he could be talking to her while Lucy was surely in the vicinity but decided against asking. He told her that he was flying back on Saturday morning and despite several attempts to coax her into meeting up, she had resisted. Just.
On Saturday she spent the day with her sister Jessica and her nephews Adam and Oscar; they had started off at the park before grabbing burgers and then after dropping the boys home to their dad, the two sisters partook in a little retail therapy. It was as they were taking a short break over coffee that Jess stopped dropping hints and just asked her younger sister what was on her mind.
“Things not so good with your hotshot married lover then?” she asked bluntly.
“Things are just fine,” she replied.
“So why the long face and the whole day with me then?”
“No long face and I like to spend time with you and the boys,” replied Steph defensively.
“Oh, so you and Mr Hottie will be seeing each other later then?” she persisted.
“No, we don’t live in each other’s pockets and he’s away until today and we could have met up tomorrow, but . . .” she said and then realised that she had inadvertently revealed that they, she, was deliberately not seeing him when she could have.
“But?” queried Jess suspiciously.
“But, nothing!” cried Steph wishing she had stayed home alone for the weekend.
