"One more. I wouldn't usually drink on a Monday," I said, looking up at him.
"Me neither. But Amelie needed us here. That's why we didn't mention it to anyone else at the office. You get ten minutes to go over work stuff when we get in? My diary's a shit storm of appointments and someone might've booked a reporter in to speak to me." He gave me a mock glare.
"You said it was okay," I knew he was fine with it really. I'd persuaded him, Max and Seph to be interviewed by a journalist I knew at an upmarket current affairs magazine that was glossy but had a lot of kudos. They'd reluctantly agreed, Seph slightly less reluctantly so when he realized there was a photo shoot as well, but that wasn't for another couple of weeks.
"I'll forgive you if you make it up to me." He paid the bartender and passed me my drink, taking a glug of his beer. "You're fine with staying tonight?"
"Yes. I already have stuff at yours. I might leave it there if that's okay, just so I don't have to trek it around with me tomorrow." It seemed presumptuous to mention leaving it there, but common sense and practicalities had won out.
He nodded, clearly wanting to say something but holding it back. "It's no problem. Means I have to see you again at least once more," he joked.
"And at the retirement ball. So that's twice I'd have to put up with you." My hands were on him, drink on the bar forgotten.
"Do you two need to get a room?" A quiet voice disturbed us. Max leaned over my shoulder. "You're losing your man card, brother. No one in the business world would respect you if they could see you now."
I looked over at our tables where Alice was now sitting with Amelie. They were all watching us. "Fuck," I cursed. "This isn't my usual way of behaving." I felt my face grow hot and shook my hair so it partially covered me, my way of hiding.
Jackson just laughed and turned to face the catcalls coming our way. He put his arm around my waist again. "They're enjoying the novelty. This isn't something my family ever sees."
"You with a girl?" I said, reaching for my drink, needing the alcohol.
"Me being affectionate with someone in front of them."
"So why me?"
"I could ask you the same question, Van."
We finished our drinks, said our goodbyes, which included Claire riling Jackson even more and arrangements with Amelie about Wednesday, and walked back to Jackson's house. It was still light and the alcohol hadn't had too much of an effect so I tried to not let myself feel guilty about not working that evening. Alice was right, we needed to expand and we needed a leadership and management structure to be able to do that successfully. I talked through Alice's information that Josh and Sally were interested in buying in and the possibilities that could present. He listened and talked it through, not telling me what to do like Richard would have, but still giving me his opinions on different scenarios, unlike my father who wouldn't have known what to say.
He was quiet as he made us dinner, spaghetti with a prawn and chorizo sauce. I watched the news, drinking tap water and wondered how wrong it was to feel so comfortable so soon and whether he was thinking the same.
"What are we doing, Jackson?" I said, muting the TV.
"Having dinner?" he said flippantly.
"No, this. Us. We've barely known each other a week and a half."
He started to plate up the food. "I know. It's strange for me too. In a good way. I'm not a relationship person so to spend this amount of time with one person and not want to be away from them is something I haven't done before."
"Me either," I said. "You weren't part of my plan."
"Am I now?"
"I don't know," I said honestly. "I'm enjoying what we have at the moment. I'm not sure making plans right now is the best idea as so much is in the air with work and where I'll live and other rather big decisions."
"That's fair enough." He brought the plates over and we ate sitting on the sofa as the night fell over the Thames, speaking no further about what we were or what we weren't and I tried to ignore the warning whisper in my head that at some point this had to go wrong.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Chapter Sixteen
Jackson
Although my days were unpredictable because of work, I'd always had a steady routine: the gym, work, meeting clients and socializing with friends and my siblings. The week that followed the trip to my parents' home became subtly different: I went home more. Since moving into my house, it had been more of a place where I slept and showered, rather than actually lived, but that week it was where I would see Vanessa, for breakfast, dinner or just before we went to bed. There was noise inside, the sound of her voice, or her footsteps or the music she played while she got ready. It felt real and exciting and I realized that as busy as I had been before, it had been tinged with a strange shade of loneliness. The nights we'd spent together had totaled more than the nights we'd spent apart.
My phone started to vibrate against the desk during a rather heated phone call with another solicitor. A stream of messages appeared, which I kept glancing at in case one was from Vanessa. Eventually, once I'd disposed of the phone call – unfortunately not the other solicitor – I got around to reading them. It appeared my parents were back from Canada and Marie was in her usual fine form, judging by the first message.
Marie: We're home. I did imagine that one or two of you might have been here to greet us but then I forgot that ALL of you have inherited the workaholic gene from your father.
