“You spoil me.”
I smiled. “I like to.”
* * *
Half an hour later,we were sitting in bed with the sheet wrapped around us, with coffee and poached eggs with smashed avocado on sourdough. It was my go to breakfast, easy and quick when I had my mind filled with other things.
“How was Phillip?” She’d told me more about him over the last few weeks, about their marriage.
“In deep with his next wife. She wants him to sell all his shares in the restaurants.”
“What are your thoughts on that?”
She shrugged, sitting so she was in a position to eat. “I get it. Why would you want your fiancé to be connected to his ex? I guess she wants me out of their lives and she also wants him to buy multiple galleries. Phillip will only invest in so many ventures at once, and he has no idea whether her gallery will be a success.”
“What’s the conclusion?”
“I’ll buy him out of Tipsy Toad. I have the capital to do that anyway.”
I wished I could invest. That somehow I had the funds to be able to buy into a restaurant I knew was going to be a success. But I couldn’t: I wasn’t that man.
“The other restaurants?”
“This is good. Maybe we should open a breakfast kitchen. If there was an extra day in the week. I don’t know. I think he’ll sell his shares in Mount Street and keep Blue. One of his partners in another venture is keen to buy into Mount Street and he’d be good to work with as he wouldn’t want to interfere. But we’re not there there yet.”
We ate. Talked.
I thought.
Wished. I wished for a lot.
Chapter 13
Simone
It was always the way that when things were going well, something had to fuck everything up. The something came in the form of a knock to the door of my house on the Friday evening before Toad Hall was going to open on the Tuesday for press night.
I was wearing grey sweats and a hoodie that Jack had left, revelling in being able to smell him on it. I hadn’t seen him since Sunday, and it had been a good Sunday because his brother had been at the centre, demanding a fry up, looking none the worse for wear according to Jack.
I’d stayed with Jack at his afterwards and the sex had been different than the other times he’d fucked me. He’d been soft and tender, the worry he’d been carrying the last few weeks finally over and I realised what it finally felt like to have all of his attention on me.
Right now, there were two police officers at my door, both looking grim. My heart had started to pound and there was a distinct chance I was going to be sick.
“Ms Simone Wood?” One of them asked.
I nodded. Pins and needles were running through me.
“No one is injured. It’s one of your properties.”
I knew before they said it. It was Toad Hall.
“Your restaurant in Borough has been vandalised. Your security firm saw someone on camera and acted immediately then called us. You weren’t answering your phone,” the second officer said.
“How bad is the damage?”
“The back door was set alight and there was graffiti. The security firm were quick enough so there’s no real damage, but they were concerned when you didn’t answer your phone. Is everything okay inside? No one been hanging around?” Cop number one seemed genuinely concerned.
“Everything seems fine. I had cameras installed and I know the firm keeps an eye on here regularly.”
