‘’Spose so.’ There was a pause before he asked, ‘You haven’t told your mother, have you?’
I sent a silent appeal heavenward. As if.
‘No, you’re off the hook. Mum doesn’t know, so you’ll still be the blue-eyed nephew.’
‘Do you know, Olivia, sometimes you’re a shrew. I meant could I reassure her that I’m checking Peter out.’
Bugger, I hated it when Barney showed his kinder side. I always assumed people like him had no conscience.
Chapter Nineteen
To my surprise, the bored tone of the man at the council offices never altered when I recounted my tale when I phoned him from work that morning. For a very reasonable fee he offered to send someone round to collect the fridge.
‘Where’s Emily?’ From the way Cara’s eyebrows were creased over her soft brown eyes, she must have overheard some of my bizarre conversation.
‘She’s going to be late in this morning,’ I answered shortly, not wanting to go into details, especially as over her shoulder, Helene and Camilla were both listening avidly. It was obvious Emily had already told them she was leaving.
Cara stepped back giving me a mild look of reproach. Bugger, she didn’t deserve that. She’d been my first ally on the beauty team. Easily worth ten of Emily.
‘Sorry, Cara. Didn’t mean to snap. Been an eventful weekend.’
‘I kind of gathered. If there’s anything I can do...’ her voice trailed off weakly as she gave me a sympathetic smile and went back to her desk absently flicking at the Arsenal pennant stuck to her computer.
Arsenal. Football. I suddenly remembered. I was supposed to be taking Ned tonight.
‘Actually, Cara, there is something...’ Was it a bit of a cheek to ask her to go to a football match with a complete stranger?
I’d underestimated the power of the Arsenal football team.
Cara’s eyes lit up. Ned could have been Quasimodo for all she cared. All that mattered was that she going to ‘the Arsenal’ as she called it.
‘Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Olivia. Sure you don’t want to go?’
‘It’ll be wasted on me. Plus I need to do something urgent this evening,’ I said, turning back to my to-do list, adding Ned’s name to the bottom. With a million phone calls to make, a bulging inbox of emails and a feature deadline to meet, my day was going to be hectic. My phone never stopped ringing that morning. David, to tell me that Fiona was due to return, so was popping in for a meeting later today; journalists chasing photos, printers wanting artwork and... I still had to talk to Ned.
* * *
Thank God for work. If I’d had time to think, my brain would have melted into a puddle. It had been an eventful few days.
I worked diligently through my to-do list and it was late afternoon when I spoke to Ned.
‘All set for the big game tonight?’ he asked, when I finally got through to him.
‘’Fraid not. Sorry, Ned, I can’t make tonight. It’s a bit complicated.’
He didn’t say a word, so I ploughed on quickly. ‘Don’t worry. You can still go, but you’ll have to go with a work colleague of mine. She’s a big Arsenal fan. In case the client asks, it’ll look better if someone from our company is there.’
‘OK,’ he said slowly. I could tell he was pissed off. Not that I blamed him but my emotions were like glitter in a snow globe. They were so mixed up I couldn’t summon any guilt.
‘Look, I’m really sorry,’ I explained dropping my voice. ‘It’s been a hell of a weekend. My sister lost a baby.’
Immediately I could tell he perked up. ‘Shit, sorry that’s bad news.’
‘Yeah, well. She’s in hospital.’ I didn’t add ‘in Australia’. Thank God she’d got Bill with her. And Ned didn’t need to know about Daniel, just yet. Let him enjoy his Arsenal match. Not thatI was big-headed enough to think that he was smitten with me but telling him now would only hurt his pride unnecessarily.
Feeling relieved to have avoided any unpleasantness, I arranged that he would come to the office to meet Cara at 6.00p.m., by which time I would be long gone.
At five thirty on the dot, I switched off my computer, forwarded the barcode tickets to Cara without a grain of guilt and left the office. My mind was on other matters.
