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“Do you have a lawyer? We have a few, maybe you could chat withone.”
“I do, Gabriella, and he’s entitled to half. I’m just a little worried that I’ll need to move out of London, for financial reasons, once it’s all dealtwith.”
“Not that I should say this yet, but you will be on a higher pay grade than you are now. If you want my advice, get it all over with as quickly as possible. Don’t drag it out. Then you can move on, have a freshstart.”
“Yeah, I think I will. You sound like you’re speaking from experience,” I said, and then thought I shouldn’t have. It was a littlepersonal.
“Not me, I’ve never married. But…” She pursed her lips as if thinking on whether to continue or not. “Our mutual friend has been hauled over the coals, as you Brits call it, for a longtime.”
Has been, not was.Did that mean he was still being ‘hauled over thecoals’?
“We don’t, sort of, talk about personal things,” Isaid.
“No, he’s very closed off. He was deeply hurt by herbetrayal.”
Gabriella laid her napkin on the table and made to stand. Our conversation was clearly over. I stood and we walked to the entrance of therestaurant.
“It was great to chat to you, and Alex, of course,” Isaid.
“It’s nice to make a new friend. It gets a little lonely sometimes, being so far away from home,” she said, surprising me alittle.
“Well, if you ever want to meet for dinner, or drinks, just give me acall.”
She smiled. “I will, thank you. I’ll be in touch about thosecontracts.”
Although she’d placed her hand on my arm, there was no hug goodbye. She smiled and then walked in the opposite direction. In that last half hour, I’d noticed the sadness. I hailed a taxi and headed back towork.
I sat in my office, not working, and just thinking about her, Alex, the job, my life, for ages. Things had progressed so fast, I hadn’t taken the time to sit back and really decide if I was going in the right direction or not. I’d always planned. I’d always known where I was going to be in a year’s time, and for the first time ever, I had no idea what was going to happen the followingday.
Part of that was Mackenzie, most of that was me. Maybe this was an early mid-life crisis, or the result of a traumatic break-up. Wasn’t it usual to gooff the railsfor a while? I wanted to go with it, to just experience being free of any commitment. Perhaps I’d put a time limit on myself. I’d enjoy Mackenzie, and all he offered, for another couple of months and when I started my new job, I’d rein myself in, become Miss Sensibleagain.
* * *
For the nextcouple of days, I noticed the change in atmosphere at work. It felt like people were winding down a little. Everyone was on edge, not sure what the future held. I guessed they didn’t want to put in any effort, in case they lost their jobs. I did the total opposite. Someone would either be replacing me, or my work given to another team. I wanted all loose ends tied up; I wanted everything in order so someone could literally walk in and pick up where I’d left off. I even reorganised all my filing, archiving the old and preparing files for new projects. I was back to some latenights.
I hadn’t heard from Mackenzie and I didn’t expect to. I understood what it was between us. It was nothing more than two people getting together for some fun. We didn’t date; we didn’t talk much either. Being the woman that I was, someone used to a relationship, it felt strange. I was lonely, especially at night. I pushed all thoughts of any kind of a relationship with Mackenzie to the back of my mind. Whatever had happened between him and his wife must have affected him greatly, and he was hardly in the country at thatmoment.
12
I’d takena shower and giggled as Ipreparedmyself. I was nervous, as if I was about to embark on a first date. I’d shaved every stray hair from my body, pampered, manicured, and painted my toenails. I stood naked, in front of my wardrobe. He’d told me wear loose clothing, I hadn’t thought about that at the time. I wondered why. I selected a shirt and a pair of loose fitting trousers, not sure if they constituted his version oflooseornot.
I constantly checked my watch as I blow dried my hair and applied my makeup. The closer it got to eight o’clock, the more nervous I became. It felt a little late to be going out to dinner. I wondered where he would takeme.
I was dressed and standing in the kitchen, sipping on a glass of wine, when the intercom buzzed. I saw him in the TV screen and released the door. I checked my teeth for lipstick, or red wine stains, in the hallway mirror before opening thedoor.
He was dressed casually but smart in a white shirt and dark jeans. He smiled as he exited the lift. He placed his hands on my shoulders and leaned down to kiss my cheek, as one would greet afriend.
“Hi,” hesaid.
“Hello. I was just having a glass of wine, if you’d likeone.”
“No time. Are youready?”
“I am.” I walked into the kitchen and collected my handbag. “Do I need a jacket?” Iasked.
“No.”
As I shut the apartment door, he threaded his fingers through mine. I like that he’d held my hand, it was a comfort and helped quell thenerves.
