When she’d come back to the table spread with maps and guidebooks she poured him the port.
‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Now after Vienna, I suggest we take the train …’ He paused. ‘Now what?’ He sounded impatient. He wanted his audience to pay proper attention.
‘Sorry! I was just wondering how you were going to get home. You’ve had far too much alcohol to be safe to drive.’
‘Isn’t that my decision?’ he said coldly.
‘Would you like me to call you a taxi?’
He cleared his throat. ‘I was rather hoping to stay with you tonight.’ He looked at her in a way that last week would have had her half fainting with lust.
‘Sorry, but I’m absolutely chocker. Not a spare bed in the house.’
‘Really? I haven’t heard a soul and you haven’t jumped up from the table once.’
Except when I’ve been tending to your needs, thought Gilly. ‘They’re all coming in much later. By arrangement.’
He was silent for a few moments – rare for him, Gilly realised. ‘Maybe you’d better call that cab,’ he said at last.
Gilly went to get her phone. She had a number of cab companies on ‘Favourites’. As she looked through the list she wondered if she should tell him to cancel the trip to Vienna and decided ‘no time like the present’.
She waited until the cab had arrived, however. ‘By the way, Leo, I don’t think I want to go to Vienna after all. At least, not in June. It’s just too inconvenient.’
He sighed, obviously being patient with the whims of a woman. ‘Why don’t you sleep on it? I’ll leave the information that I’ve printed off. It’s got a link to the hotel on it.’
Gilly smiled and nodded, feeling cowardly but also that she’d been run over by a Savile Row-suited steamroller and so her cowardice was justified.
As he left Gilly noticed he had cat hair on the seat of his trousers. He would not appreciate that. Butshe’d had Ulysses a lot longer than she’d known Leo. If she had to choose between them, it would have to be Uly.
Gilly’s emotions were mixed. Part of her felt she’d probably lost the silver fox that her friends envied her for having and so was regretful. The other part hoped she had: the thought made her feel liberated, in the same way she had when she’d finally navigated the tortuous divorce proceedings her ex-husband put her through. After all, Leo might be a silver fox but he was high maintenance. She enjoyed cooking for people and loved to be appreciated, but she wondered if she would ever get to the stage with Leo that they could just eat cheese on toast in front of the telly. He’d probably want her to go on a diet, too, in case she got just a bit too plump to be presentable.
After she had put on some music to tidy the kitchen by, she examined her feelings. Supposing she couldn’t go to Vienna, how did she feel? Relieved, she realised. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go, she did, but not in the high-powered, high-end way that Leo would arrange.
She switched on the overfilled dishwasher. Next question. How would she feel if she never saw Leo again? This wasn’t quite so clear, she realised. Part of her was definitely relieved but part of her would wonder if she’d made the right decision. He wasgorgeous, by anyone’s standards, and the fact that he was courting her, a middle-aged woman, was very flattering.
Now she wished she’d gone for a rich and creamy chocolate dessert instead of the lighter, diet-friendly oranges in caramel. That would have been good – something really fattening and rich to indulge in so that the faint nausea she’d feel afterwards would match her mood. Fortunately she’d brought some cream just in case (in case of what, she never asked herself) and although it curdled slightly when poured over the oranges, it tasted nice. After she’d eaten it and poured herself some Grand Marnier she did the full number on the kitchen. Usually she’d just do the minimum and finish in the morning. She much preferred cleaning in daylight but she suspected she’d be feeling low when she came down the next morning and having a clean kitchen might help.
Before she settled down to sleep she texted Helena, hoping her daughter hadn’t taken her phone into the bedroom as she didn’t want to disturb her.I’m not going to Vienna with Leo, she said, and added a grinning emoji.
Chapter Sixteen
Helena must have seen her mother’s text early because she was in the kitchen by eight.
They hugged.
‘Oh God, Mum, I’m so sorry! I would never have told you all that stuff about Leo if I hadn’t been really worried!’ Helena said, still clinging on to her mother.
‘I know you absolutely did it for the best and I don’t know if it was what you said, or him, but I’m going off him.’
Helena gasped in delight. ‘Have you dumped him?’
‘No. He may dump me first.’
‘Oh, don’t let that happen,’ said Helena, possibly worried that Gilly might keep him. ‘Far better for you to do it!’
Gilly didn’t really want to talk about this now. She wanted to make up her own mind in her own time. But she knew Helena would put pressure on her if she showed doubt. She changed the subject.‘Would you like some belly of pork? You could heat it up for Jago next time you see him.’
Helena looked a bit guilty. ‘I could and that may be quite soon.’
