Oliver relaxed the knot on his tie and unfastened the button of his suit jacket as he walked along the corridor.
‘What is in that thing?’ he asked, looking to Tony, who was devouring something wrapped in paper.
‘Pastrami. Want some?’ Tony offered it over, strings of meat hanging from his lips.
‘No. What Idowant is to know what you’re doing here again.’ He pushed open the door in front of them. ‘I thought you had two new businesses to oversee.’
Tony nodded. ‘I do. I also have a best friend who’s determined to kill himself with overwork and malnutrition before his genetic heart condition can do the job.’
‘Shh,’ Oliver hissed. He looked over his shoulder to see who might be listening. ‘Keep it down.’
‘What?’ Tony asked, his eyes wide with innocence.
‘My condition isn’t common knowledge around here.’ He lowered his voice further. ‘They know my brother died young, there’s enough speculation of age and alcohol playing a part with respect to the rest of the family.’
‘OK, I get it. Sorry.’
Oliver blew out a breath. ‘No, I’m sorry. I’m just strung out about my mother, that’s all.’
‘What’s up with Mrs D? She’s OK, isn’t she?’
‘That clarifies one thing,’ Oliver said, pushing open the next door.
‘What thing?’
‘That she didn’t have intimate dinners with Andrew Regis at your restaurant.’
‘No freaking way!’ Tony’s eyes came out of his head. ‘She’s seeing Andrew Regis?’
Just the sentence had Oliver’s shoulders tensing in reaction.
‘I don’t like the guy,’ Tony followed up. ‘Eyes are too close together. And you should never trust a man who wears that much cologne.’
Oliver stopped walking. ‘I need to get on.’
‘Oh, sure, me too. I just dropped in to check you were still alive and kicking after yesterday and… thought I might bump into Kelly.’ Tony grinned.
‘Go and check on those restaurants plural,’ Oliver ordered.
‘I’m going.’ He stopped, waving his wrap in the air. ‘Oh and I’ve had orders from Momma to get you to the restaurant soon. She wants to feed you up. Said you looked too thin in the picture on the front of theNew York Times.’
Oliver shook his head. ‘Tell her I’ll pop by soon.’
‘She’ll expect you this week.’ Tony started walking but stopped. ‘Oh and the tree in the lobby? Very understated.’ He laughed at his own joke. ‘No less is more around here.’
‘Tony,’ he said, smiling. ‘Only more is more.’
Tony laughed and began to make his way back up the corridor.
Oliver took a deep breath in before approaching the final door. He had had a productive morning. As well as getting some ideas ondate locations from Clara, he had called everyone off the Regis Software merger. By the end of the day, both his mother and Andrew Regis would know the deal was officially off the table. And now, down on the tenth floor of his building, he was going on another fact-finding mission.
The dark-haired secretary at the entrance to the level almost spilt her coffee when he stepped onto the floor.
‘Good morning,’ he greeted, smiling at her.
‘Mr Drummond, we… we weren’t expecting you,’ she replied.
‘I wanted to take a walk,’ he said, looking through into the work rooms.
