Page 34

He gets it. He totally gets it.

‘No, but it might be the only option when this life coaching doesn’t work out.’

‘How do you know you’ll not be any good at it?’

‘Hello? Didn’t you hear me on the radio? No one in their right mind will want to come and do a session with me.’

‘I would,’ he says kindly. ‘I mean, how many sessions will it take to get to the bottom of my issues with Eduardo and my murderous stepmother?’

I start laughing. I’m very attracted to his face. He has very kind eyes that sparkle with life and energy.

‘That’s the first time I’ve laughed since…’ I stop mid-sentence. Since we were rolling about, engaged in wanton fornication. His mind appears to have gone to the same place.

‘Can I see you again?’ he asks softly.

Oh.

It’s taking me a few seconds to gather my thoughts. He waits patiently while I blink at him and think of something sophisticated to say. There’s definitely a spark there. A sort of sizzling sexual undercurrent. He must feel it too, remnants from our dalliance last week at the spa retreat.

‘Obviously, there’s a certain client confidentiality to maintain.’

‘Obviously,’ he agrees.

My cheeks are burning. I try to stop myself, but for some inexplicable reason, I rise slowly from the sofa, pick up the feather duster and begin to busy myself dusting crystals and shelves. ‘And a certain professionalism to uphold.’

Dust, dust.

‘And considering our…’

Flit, float.

‘…our, you know, romantic history…’ I smile shyly at him from over my shoulder, dithering like a girlie fool. I’m really teasing the moment out. I wonder if, like me, he is imagining me cleaning naked. ‘I suppose we could… you know. If Nidi has no objections.’

I reach out and trail the feather duster down his arm, just like he did to me with the leaf last week. Even the mere memory of it makes me tingle all over.

He seems conflicted. Or confused. It is something of a moral dilemma I suppose. I take a seat beside him, wondering who should make the first move. My lips feel drawn to him like magnets. But even though I’m leaning in, an inch from his nose, my eyes willing him to rip my bra off with his teeth, as the superior authority in the room I should leave the first move to him.

‘I mean,’ he says, looking down at the awful line of dust that I’ve left on his sleeve, before patiently wiping it off. ‘Can I see you again for another session? An actual life coaching session.’

14

I fling the feather duster across the room with more force than I mean to and cringe when it lands with a loud thwack against one of the larger crystals. ‘Yes. No. Sorry. No. Of course you meant that.’

Feck! Feck! Feck!

Oliver shifts away from me. ‘What did you think I meant?’

‘It doesn’t matter. I’m focusing on my career anyway so I don’t have time to spend… doing things.’ I’m babbling as I brazen it out. ‘Now, a coaching session, you say?’

He looks at me intensely as though figuring me out. This hot mess of a woman in front of him who lies to her new boss and persuades clients to do the same. I must have red flags all over me.

‘I need to offer some sort of proof to my board of wankers that I’m actively co-operating with their request for me to take some time off work to focus on my mental health. They are playing the burnt-out card in the hope that they can overrule my strategic decisions.’ He shakes his head as he stares out of the window. ‘Obviously, we wouldn’t have to go through with actual sessions. Just book me in, I’ll pay and you sign something at the end that says I’ve attended. It’s a win-win for us both. I get to keep my job. You get to keep yours.’

How embarrassing.

‘So much for honesty being one of your cornerstones. And I thought you hated your job and wanted out?’ I’m pleased to see him blush.

‘I do. I did. I just… I’m not sure I can just leave like that. It’s complicated. I’ve been there a long time.’