‘All done now.’
I pulled a face.
He chuckled. ‘Fine. You can pay next time.’
‘Next time! I’m not waiting another year to pay you back. Or… wait! Are my books in that much of a state?’ A hint of panic crept into my voice.
‘No, they’re fine. And I’m sure we can sort something out if you’re that bothered about waiting a year to recompense.’
‘Good. And good. Because I am.’
He did the cute little chuckle again. ‘OK, then.’
* * *
We did sort something out. After lunch, Charlie returned to the flat and spent another couple of hours going over everything with me, which led me to deciding that I would take him out to dinner, along with Amy and Marcus, as a thank you to all of them for their help. I rang Amy the following day to ask her.
‘Hey, how’d it go?’
‘Brilliant! My accounts are in tip-top shape.’
And that wasn’t the only thing in tip-top shape.
‘Great. Told you we’d get it sorted out. At least I don’t have to worry about learning how to bake a cake for file smuggling now.’
‘I still don’t understand how you can be glued to every single series ofBake Offand still have no idea how to make a cake.’
‘I don’t need to know. That’s what bakeries are for.’
‘Fair enough. Anyway. The thing is, I want to take you all to dinner as a thank you for setting up this whole accountancy bail-out thing.’
‘Aah, that’s sweet, Libs. You don’t have to do that. Charlie quite enjoyed himself, from what I heard. Marcus had it on speaker in the car when he rang to say he’d done your books.’
‘Did he?’
‘Apparently.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘Oh, he was just going on about how nice it was to get back to basics and how…’ Amy paused. ‘Ohmigod! You like him!’
On the other end of the phone, alone in my flat, I flushed the colour of a beetroot.
‘I did. He’s very nice. Not like the other accountants I tried.’
‘And just exactly how much of him did you try out?’
‘Oh, ha ha! Look, do you want a free dinner or not?’
‘Of course! When were you thinking?’
‘I wondered about tonight?’
‘Blimey. You are keen on him! Can’t wait, eh?’
‘Don’t be daft. It’s not that. I just thought it might be nice as it’s a lovely day and I know Charlie can get home fairly late in the week. I mean, I haven’t even asked him yet, so he might not be able to do it anyway but I just thought—’
‘Libs!’ Amy interrupted my jabbering. ‘Just ask him and let me know.’
