‘Two minutes.’ He turned to me. ‘You ready?’
‘For what?’
‘Lunch.’
‘Oh! I was just going to grab some sandwiches and have them on the train home.’
‘You were?’
‘Yes. I didn’t know the day involved lunch.’
‘Of course it does.’
I glanced out of the floor-to-ceiling windows that made up the wall of the office. Below us, the retired battleship sat steadfast, as all around it the water glittered as if a million stars had been tipped into the Thames. A tall ship was making its way down the centre of the river, and, to our right, traffic was backing up on Tower Bridge as the Victorian engineering began to go to work raising the middle, ready to allow the ship to pass through.
‘I’m not really all that hungry, to be honest.’ Actually, I was starving.
Charlie moved and stood to my side, watching the bridge. ‘So, that wasn’t your stomach I heard rumbling during my presentation then?’
Bugger. I thought I’d covered that.
‘The cough was a good attempt at disguise though.’
‘I was too nervous for breakfast. Don’t be mean.’
He squeezed my shoulders. ‘No need to be nervous now. They loved you in person just as much as they thought they would from your blog and correspondence.’
‘You think so?’
‘I know so. I might be a bit crap at reading people socially but this?’ He held his index finger in the air and made a small circle with it. ‘This, I’m good at.’
‘I can tell. And thank you.’
‘No need to thank me. Just come to lunch. It’ll be a lot more fun with you there.’
I watched the ship pass through the bridge and the cantilevers start moving immediately to bring it back down. London traffic snarled at the best of times, so there was no hanging around in getting it flowing again as soon as possible.
Ms Brunette was back at the door. ‘Hey, Charlie, can I speak to you quickly, before we go?’
Charlie smiled. ‘Sure.’ He looked back to me. ‘We’ll meet you by the lift in a minute, OK?’
I guessed I was going to lunch with them, then.
‘OK. I’m just going to nip to the…’ I sort of pointed out of the door, and he got the idea.
I was just making sure everything was where it should be when I heard the door to the Ladies open and two pairs of stiletto-heeled shoes walk in. These were accompanied by American accents.
‘Oh, my God. He is so hot! I have no idea what he said in that presentation, so I hope you took notes.’ I imagined this was Ms Brunette. Brandy, Sandy, Mandy? I’d been introduced to seven people at the same time and could remember only the first two names. She hadn’t been in the first two.
‘Lucky for you, I did. Why don’t you just ask him out?’
‘I’m planning my moment.’ I heard a bag zip pull, and some movement. I guessed they were fixing their hair.
‘Ooh owe, I id ink ee ite ee eeing at ibby.’ And doing their lipstick apparently. ‘But I don’t think so,’ she finished, lipstick back to perfect now, I assumed.
My hand was on the door catch, but at this I stopped. I knew I should just go out there. Mum had always told us it was rude to listen at keyholes and that you risked hearing something you’d rather not. But it wasn’t as if I were hearing anything new to me.
‘But he doesn’t look at her like that.’
