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‘Next month sometime. We locked it down with the girls,’ Jack announces.
‘That was too easy –what’s the catch?’
‘The girls are coming,’ Jack confesses.
‘You’re having a laugh. That’s a couples’ weekend, not a stag!’
‘They’re going to do their own thing. They’ll just be in the hotel room with us.’ Tim sighs.
‘That’s the only way we’re going.’ Jack shrugs.
‘Both of you are pathetic. Let me guess, it was Lou’s idea.’
‘Em saw the itinerary, got excited and called Lou,’ Tim admits sheepishly.
‘There’s no way Lou’s letting me out of the country alone with you guys.’
‘Honestly, Jack, where are your balls? Are you sure you want to marry this girl? She doesn’t trust you to be in France for three nights?’
I’m livid.
‘No, she doesn’t trust me to be alone in France for three nights, with you.’
‘Tim?’
‘Whatever makes my wife happy, goes.’
‘This is seriously crap, guys; I can’t believe you are letting this weekend get hijacked.’
I toss my pint back and make my way back home. I like Em, but Louisa is bad news. I wish Jack would just dump her and start again.
I walk in and find Ariella cross-legged on the couch, surrounded by paperwork, with a massive bouquet of flowers on the coffee table in front of her.
‘Hey, how was SF?’
‘Revealing. Oh hello. Who are those from?’
She beams at me. ‘Tim. He brought them round the other day and stayed for some tea and chat. It was nice. He said he’d swing by again when you’re out of town.’
‘Ariella, you know Tim is really,reallymarried – right?’
‘He just checked in to say thanks for dinner.’
It must be innocent, but Tim is playing a dangerous game. I play the flowers down.
‘He’s too overprotective for his own good. How are things over here?’
‘One of your Singaporean clients cancelled a week-long conference, which left a massive ops hole in the event schedule. That’s all we talked about at the tena.m. today. The professor texted, he dumped me. If you’re hungry, there’s some plum chicken in the fridge – want me to heat it up for you?’
‘No thanks, I’ll heat it up myself. You don’t seem that upset about the professor?’
‘I’m happy for him. He’s met someone else and he didn’t think we were going anywhere, which I fully understand.’
I walk over to the kitchen while digesting the conference cancellation. We will retain our fees and I will keep my bonus, but it’s a big hit. I’ll be heading to Singapore for damage control, which I am not totally displeased with. I look over to Ariella as she hums to herself and pokes her lips with her pen. She is a funny one. She doesn’t even care that she has been dumped.
‘Wine?’ I ask her.
‘Maybe tea?’ she suggests.
