‘So, I’ll look at them properly on my laptop, but I like this one – you look friendly, the kind of person all sorts of customers would like to have a drink with, or to tell their woes to as you pour them another.’
I felt, rather than saw, him nod and didn’t dare turn my head to look at him as that would put our faces in perilous proximity and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to resist leaning in for a lovely big lungful of that delicious smell.
‘I still can’t say I like posing, but you’ve done a great job with these, thank you. I suppose they won’t be too embarrassing to have in the local paper.’
‘Not remotely.’
I didn’t add that they would also be appearing in the wider press, if my contacts were amenable, and possibly on some of the publicity material. I was also thinking about an Instagram or Facebook page, but maybe that could wait. For now anyway. I swiped one more time, but rather than a handsome man clutching a bottle of gin, a picture of my dear, ugly little dog sitting on the bathroom windowsill on one of the chair cushions from my bedroom appeared. Now it was my turn to be embarrassed, and I switched the screen off quickly.
‘Oops, I don’t think you’ll be wanting that for your publicity!’
‘Do you always take your dog to the bathroom with you?’
I could feel my face getting hot. ‘Notalways, but I…I mean,shegets lonely if I go for a long bath, and she liked looking out of the window until it got too dark.’
He raised an eyebrow, and my traitorous stomach was infested with a frantic flock of butterflies.
‘I see. Well, at least she attends you in comfort.’
‘I probably shouldn’t have used your cushion. Sorry about that.’
I hung my head and he roared with laughter.
‘Oh, Fallon, I don’t mind in the least! Runcible is our guest, and she is welcome to sit on any cushion in the house.’
‘Thank you. I’m sure she is very grateful. Just be glad it wasn’t a bath selfie I took.’
Why, why did I say that? It was going so well.
‘I can’t say I would have minded that either.’
The butterflies in my stomach had morphed into a troupe of hysterical chimpanzees, by the feel of things, and I was glad – IthinkI was glad – when his phone rang.
‘Hi, Theo, what’s up?’
While they were talking, I tried not to listen, even though it was clear from Alexander’s end that Theo was badly upset over something. I started drawing up a rough financial plan for the Citroën, something I had done several times before, and tried to concentrate on that, rather than getting too worried about the little boy on the phone. I managed to become so engrossed in it that I didn’t notice Alexander had finished his conversation.
‘Fallon?’
‘Oh, sorry,’ I replied casually. ‘I was just wondering if branded glasses would bring in enough revenue to be worth going to the effort of selling them to customers, or if we should just keep them for serving? We can’t use plastic disposable ones these days and washable plastic looks horrible so quickly.’
‘I’m sure you’ll make the right decision. I’m sorry, but I’ll have to go in a few minutes. That was Theo – something’s happened and he wants to come home early.’
‘Oh, okay, well, I’ll carry on working and we can catch up on it later or tomorrow.’ I started collecting up my things, then realised that Alexander was looking at me strangely.
‘Is everything all right?’ he said.
‘Yes?’
‘Oh right, it’s just you didn’t ask what had happened with Theo. It’s fine, it doesn’t matter.’
I swallowed and tried to keep my tone light. The last thing I wanted was Alexander pegging me as yet another hopeful mother substitute for his son. I hadn’t asked because it hadn’t occurred to me –another example of why I’d be a terrible mother– but I did hope that the little boy was okay.
‘Sorry, I was totally in work mode. Is he all right?’
‘Yes, I think so. He can be very sensitive, though he’ll tell me about it later, hopefully. But he sounded upset.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ There was an awkward pause, which I quickly filled with work talk. ‘So, I’ll get this done today and then tomorrow we need to get serious about making some decisions and spending some money.’
