‘Are you ready?’
‘You’ve got me for ten more seconds before I jump in a cab.’ I scanned the flat as the front door buzzed again. ‘Hang on a sec,’ I said, picking up the intercom. ‘I’m coming!’ I shouted and immediately hung up.
‘This isn’t really the sort of announcement I should rush,’ Tony said, as I slammed my flat door shut and ran downstairs. I could hear the buzzer going again – what was the matter with her? She wasn’t usually this stressy. The cabbie must be complaining about waiting. I passed Ned on the stairs, holding a Chinese takeaway.
‘Evening,’ I said, as I flew by.
‘Evening. Off somewhere nice, are you?’ he asked, looking my yellow jumpsuit up and down. I nodded mysteriously and pointed to my phone.
‘Gem has a job opening on her team for the new James Bond film and wondered if you might be interested?’
I stopped on the first-floor landing and stared at Tony’s face. Ned’s sweet and sour pork wafting in the air. I started to reply, then stopped. I couldn’t take the words in.Had I heard him right?
‘What?!’ I had no other words.
‘I know. Pretty cool, huh?’
‘That would be unbelievably amazingly cool! Does she really need someone?’
‘She really does.’
‘And she really wants that person to be me?’ This was a dream come true.
‘Correct again.’
My mind went into overdrive. A job working with Gem on something as incredible as a James Bond film. Although I’d have to explain to the lady atCatsand get Phoebe to negotiate the contract, and fly to wherever Gem needed me to be and… I needed a list. ‘Where is it being filmed?’
‘Well, that’s the thing. She wouldn’t tell me. It’s all top secret. On a need-to-know basis until the last minute.’
‘Do I not count as “need-to-know” to accept the job?’ I asked, confused. They could be filming in the middle of the Sahara Desert for all I knew, or on the International Space Station. I wasn’t sure I fancied that – no matter how fantastic an experience it might be.
‘She has different teams working in different countries to cover the time zones and the filming schedule, so she suggested you join the LA team to start with and do the make-up for the studio scenes. She just wanted to float the idea by me in principle first.’
This was the most excited I’d been in months. I carried on walking down the stairs. Kat would be spitting feathers in the cab. I couldn’t keep her waiting much longer.
‘Meaning I’d need to move to LA?’ I said, suddenly shy.
‘I’m afraid so.’
‘And how would you feel about that?’ I asked, holding my breath for the answer, as he paused.How did I feel about that?I felt very bloody excited. I felt like turning around, running back upstairs, and packing my bags. I was ready to start following my heart again. No more sitting tight, surrounded by a safety net. I pulled the enormous front door open to my building and waited for his answer, scared to death he might not want me living on his doorstep, only to find him standing there on mine. My lovely Tony, stood tall and handsome on the porch, sheltering from the drizzle in the doorway and holding out a red rose.
‘I’d love it,’ he said, into his phone and to my face at the same time.
I screamed and jumped into his arms, kissing him all over his face, then pulled back to check it really was him and I wasn’t having some kind of hallucination. It really was. I screamed again and kissed him again, and he laughed. ‘Was that you buzzin’ on my buzzer?’
‘Guilty as charged, ma’am,’ he said, bashfully.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘I wanted to deliver the good news in person, and it’s been WEEKS since we saw each other.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘It’s been eight days and you know it,’ I said, smiling happily.
‘Eight days is nearly two weeks.’
‘You couldn’t wait for Italy, huh?’ Holly was due any day now, with Mia not far behind, and we’d planned to meet in San Gimignano as soon as we got the call, to visit the babies together.
‘It’s been too long. I missed you. And Nero misses you. So I’m here to represent the two of us in asking if you’d consider moving in with us in LA for a little while, to check out the Californian lifestyle and see if you like it.’
