‘Barney!’ I squeaked. She had to be kidding.
She shrugged. ‘Why not? We really clicked that night at the speed-date. Who did you think it was?’
I couldn’t bring myself to admit how wrong I’d been, instead I opted for the cheap way out. I hadn’t planned to do this but she was such a cow she deserved no mercy. I delivered thecoup de grâceas she was carrying the last box out.
‘David told me you’d resigned.’
A sly smile lifted the corners of her mouth. She looked like the cat that has swallowed the golden canary as she preened, waiting to hear the next bit.
‘He said...’ I let her preen a bit longer, ‘it was up to me...’ I enjoyed the dimming of her self-satisfied smile, ‘... when you go.’ I paraphrased him. ‘So you can either fuck off tomorrow andwe’ll pay you up to the end of the week, or you can work the full month, bearing in mind your reference depends on how well you behave.’ The power had completely gone to my head, I really wasn’t a nice person — but God, I enjoyed it.
Her face darkened with rage.
‘You can’t do that,’ her voice cracked. ‘I’m on a month’s notice.’
‘What, like the month’s notice you’re giving me?’ I asked, looking pointedly at the box in her arms.
‘I was going to give you the rent,’ she said haughtily. We both knew that wasn’t true. It was hard enough getting her share of the bills at the best of times. ‘Anyway, you still have the deposit. In fact, you’ll owe me, that was a month and a half rent.’
‘What, after bills?’
She shrugged. ‘Let me know what I owe. My new job pays a lot more. I can afford it.’ And with that she tossed her head and marched down the stairs.
The decisive slam that accompanied her departure almost shook the foundations, and for a fleeting moment I felt sad that it had come to this but that was quickly overtaken by indignation that she could get away with behaving so badly.
It was amazing how quickly I’d become so reliant on Daniel, my first thought was to ring him but then I remembered he was probably already on his way with the temporary fridge. Until then, I had the flat to myself and I knew exactly what I was going to do. Perhaps I’d just give him a quick call and ramp up the anticipation. Tell him that Emily had gone and we had the place all to ourselves. There was time enough to tell him the shocking revelation about Emily and my cousin.
My throaty message on his voicemail was full of invitation. Whether he would arrive in time to scrub my back in the bath was debatable.
In my next life I might come back as a hippo — there’s nothing quite like having a bath to calm you down, especially when you’re wallowing in someone else’s expensive bubbles that she left behind.
Breathing in the scent of mimosa and frangipani and watching the steam rising off the water, I wriggled my shoulders in satisfaction deliberately ignoring my mobile ringing in the other room. It finally rang off, the answer service must have kicked in but less than a minute later it started again. Bugger it, I was staying put. Let it ring.
When I finally emerged from the bathroom, and looked at the dratted thing, there were five missed calls. All from Barney.
There was one message from him.
‘Call me. On my mobile. ASAP. I need to talk to you.’ Against the background sound of traffic, he sounded slightly breathless as if he was walking quickly along a busy street.
I didn’t want to call him, guessing he wanted to come clean about Emily. Bet she hadn’t told him the half of it. I still felt shocked. Emily and Barney. Never saw that one coming. But what if he was ringing with news on Peter? I had to call, but he didn’t answer. Where the hell was he? Now my curiosity was piqued. I left a quick message desperate to know what he had to say.
His call had undone all the good of my bath. Restlessly I wafted round the flat rearranging things to my satisfaction, stacking all of Emily’s magazines in a neat pile on the coffee table, moving the sofas so that they didn’t both face the TV and putting the ugly spare dining chairs into her empty room.
When the knock at the door came I jumped in eager anticipation, glancing at the clock. Daniel had made very good time. He must have left work early.
Chapter Twenty
Quickly I tousled my hair and kicked off my bunny slippers, changed my mind and slipped them back on again. It was only as I skipped down the last few stairs towards the opaque front door that some sixth sense slowed me down.
Of course, it might not be Daniel. Was it my imagination or was the height of the outline through the rippled glass too small or had the knock been too urgent? In the pit of my stomach there was an uncomfortable sensation, as if something was rubbing the wrong way. Whatever it was, it made me put the chain on the door.
I’d never even looked at the little brass chain before. It suddenly seemed very flimsy. Don’t be so paranoid, I told myself as I slid the chain into place very quietly so that whoever was on the other side of the door didn’t know what I was doing. I could see their outline shifting impatiently.
A gruff voice in an off-hand tone said, ‘Delivery. Needs signing for.’
Phew. I needed to get a grip.
He had his back to me as I opened the door. All I could see was neatly cropped brown hair and a red scarf tucked above the collar of a dark brown anorak. Below this he was wearing a pair of sand-coloured cords, which finished an inch too high above scruffy brown brogues. Hang on. Delivery man? Dressed like that? Those trousers didn’t say courier to me.
