‘Now, get back to work before you get fired.’
He raised his head and gave his little half-smile. ‘I’m a partner. It’s not that easy to get rid of me.’
‘But not impossible. And I’m not being held responsible.’
He shook his head at me, gave me a big hug and turned, setting off in the direction of his office.
‘And have a good trip,’ I called after him, suddenly remembering he was jetting off.
‘Thanks.’ He looked back. ‘I’ll be sure to let you know about Tiffany.’
‘Perfect.’
He waved and continued on his way. I watched him for a moment, before turning and heading back towards the station and the Underground to begin the part of the day I was now dreading.
9
‘Hello, darling! Come in.’ Dad opened the heavy door of the Kensington town house dressed impeccably, as always, in his version of casual, which was a suit with his shirt open at the neck. Not wearing a tie pushed an outfit firmly into the realms of casual attire in Dad’s eyes.
‘Hi, Dad.’ I kissed him on the cheek and stepped inside, my heels echoing on the pristine, white tiled floor.
‘How was your morning? Did you say you were meeting a friend?’ he asked, as we walked up to the next level and the sumptuous sitting room that overlooked one of the private parks.
‘No. It was actually something for work.’
Dad didn’t really understand the whole blog thing. I think as far as he was concerned, I was still the little girl playing with Mum’s make-up. ‘I was meeting with a cosmetics company. They want to work with me, and my blog.’
‘Right! That’s good, yes?’
‘Yes, it’s good.’
‘Excellent. Now, what would you like to drink?’
And that was the end of the enquiry. Had it been Matt standing there, he’d have been questioned up, down and sideways about all of his latest operations and procedures. I got one question. I tried not to let it hurt and most of the time it washed over me. But just once, it would have been nice if he’d shown a bit of interest and pride in what I was trying to achieve. I’d built my own, now moderately successful business, from nothing. I’d just met with one of the hottest new eco-friendly names in the cosmetics industry who wanted to work with me, but it still didn’t seem to be of interest to Dad. I thought again of how different things would have been if Mum had still been around. Then I concentrated on pushing those feelings back down again. They’d reared up unexpectedly once already today. That was enough.
‘Libby?’ Dad prompted as I gazed out onto the park and watched a nanny unlock the iron gate to the park and push a pram that probably cost more than my car through it.
‘Sorry?’
‘Drink?’
‘Oh. I don’t really…’ I paused, considering the afternoon and the enforced blind date due later. ‘Actually, got any champagne?’
‘Of course.’
Two minutes later, I had a glass of fizz in my hand.
‘So, Matt mentioned that we’re now actually going to be four for dinner? Is that right?’ Dad’s expression barely flickered.
‘Complete chance! Anthony’s been working over in Switzerland for the last few years. We were just chatting and he mentioned that he hadn’t been to Ocean, and was planning on going. Well, I thought it might be nice for him to have some company.’
I rolled my lips together to keep them from saying anything I couldn’t take back and gave a short nod.
‘I think you’ll really like him. He’s—’ The sound of the doorbell interrupted his speech.
‘Oh, that’ll be Gina. She’s probably loaded up with shopping and can’t get to her key. Back in two shakes.’
I gave a little raise of my glass as acknowledgement and waited for him to leave the room before downing the entire thing. Moving to the drinks’ cabinet, I took the bottle of Veuve from the ice bucket and topped up my glass. Somewhere inside I knew that this probably wasn’t a great idea. I wasn’t a robust drinker at the best of times, so heading straight in mid-afternoon having eaten nothing but the sandwich Charlie had bought me, I was pretty certain I was heading for Trashville.
