Chapter 31
I’m a whole hour late for work, but I’m not going to get away with it today. Patrick is here, and he’s standing over my desk when I finally burst through the door.
‘Flower?’ His round face is questioning, and the last thing I need today. I’m late, and now I’m going to shock him into a heart attack with my announcement. He looks up at the office clock. ‘What time do you call this?’
It’s one of the only times I’ve seen a displeased look on my boss’s face. I’ve always been so dedicated to my career, but personal stuff is getting in the way and my job has been side lined. I’m really pushing my luck, and I have been since Jesse trampled into my life. ‘I’m sorry, Patrick.’ I can’t lie and feed him any rubbish on a client appointment, so I leave it at just an apology.
‘Ava, I know your life has been moving pretty quickly lately—congratulations, by the way, but I need dedication.’ He takes his comb from his inside pocket and sweeps it through his silver mop.
I’m a little shocked. Congratulations, by the way? That was hardly sincere. ‘I’m sorry.’ I repeat because I’m stumped for anything else to say. By the way? I’m a little insulted, but my slighted state isn’t drawing any further inspiration to voice it, and Patrick doesn’t give me the chance to, anyway. He goes back to his office, shutting the door behind him. I turn my confusion onto my three colleagues, who are all sitting quietly with their heads down. Has he had a pop at them, too? I collapse in my chair and decide, wisely or not, given my boss’s annoyance, to call Kate. A friendly voice. That’s what I need to hear right now.
She grunts down the phone in greeting.
‘Are you still in bed?’ I ask, firing up my computer.
‘Yep.’ is the one word, swift reply that shoots down the phone.
I smile. ‘Is a certain cute, messy haired, dimpled faced man with you?’ I pray for a yes, then hear shuffles and definitely a giggle, making my smile widen. I might have wanted to hear a friendly voice, but this will do the trick, too.
‘He is.’ She answers on a little shriek, not bothering to evade or brush off my question. ‘Sam!’
‘Okay, I’ll go.’ I have things to share, but I’m more than happy to hold off.
‘No, Ava!’
‘What?’
‘Wait!’ she demands. I hear more shuffling, definitely a few slaps and then a door close. ‘I just wanted to know how you got on with Dan.’ She’s whispering, for obvious reasons.
That wipes the smile clean from my face. Kate doesn’t need to know the gory details, and I’m just as ashamed of my brother as he is of himself. ‘Fine. It’s fine. He’s gone back to Australia, and Jesse convinced him to keep quiet.’
‘I feel responsible.’
‘Kate, he’d already worked it out, before you made the entrance of the year.’ I can joke about it now. ‘Did you talk?’ I ask tentatively, taping my pen furiously on the table and wondering if there’s still scope for a bit of head bashing.
‘Yes, we talked. He knew about Dan.’ She pauses, and I know she’s waiting for a shocked gasp from me, but too much time has passed for me to fake one now.
I try, anyway. ‘Really?’ I practically shriek, receiving three sets of wide, startled eyes shoot straight to me from every corner of the office.
‘Whatever, Ava.’ she mumbles. ‘I felt like such an idiot. He’s not as daft as I thought.’
‘I know,’ I agree. ‘So, everything is okay?’
‘Yes, everything is fine. Perfect, in fact.’
I’m smiling again. ‘No more Manor?’
‘No more Manor.’ she confirms. ‘How are you? Throwing up? Achy legs? Any stretch marks?’
‘Not yet,’ I look down and notice my hand resting on my stomach. ‘I might not be the only one getting all of those things, though.’ I prick her curiosity. There’s no way in hell I’ll ever keep this one to myself.
‘Ooohhhh, who’s preggers?’ she asks, obviously intrigued. ‘Not boring Sal?’
‘No!’ I look over at boring Sal and instantly register that she is, in fact, boring Sal again. I cave on the inside for her. ‘Who then?’ Kate’s impatient voice relieves my eyes of boring, suicidal Sal and pulls me back to her pressing need for answers.
‘Coral.’
‘Fuck off!’
‘No, Coral is pregnant and that’s not all.’ I’m teasing when I really don’t need to. I have her full attention and shock. She’s heard nothing yet. ‘And she claims it’s Jesse’s’
‘WHAT?’
I pull my phone away from my ear, certain that the whole office, perhaps even the whole of London, heard her. ‘It’s not, though.’
‘Wait, wait wait.’ She’s gesturing with her hands in my mind’s eye, and I hear the unmistakable scraping of a chair across her kitchen floor. She’s sitting herself down. ‘Coral’s pregnant?’
‘Yes,’
‘And she claims its Jesse’s?’
‘Yes,’ I open my email as I answer, all casual and not at all affected by Kate’s shock. I’m over it.
‘But it’s not?’
‘Nope,’
‘How do you know?’ She asks the question prudently, but it’s a fair one, and I highly expected it.
‘Because she tried to pass off a peanut as a walnut.’
‘What the fucking hell are you on about?’
I sigh and continue absentmindedly scrolling my email account. ‘She has a scan picture. She’s claiming it’s a four month scan, but it’s clearly not and she’s cut all of the evidence away - the date, everything.’
‘The crafty fucking bitch! Is she that desperate?’
‘Very. She’s four-ish weeks, maximum. The last time Jesse slept with the tramp was over four months ago. I swear to God, Kate, I was this…’
‘Hold up!’
‘What?’
‘Fucking hell! SAM!’ she shrieks, and I jump in my chair. ‘SAM!’
‘Will you stop yelling in my ear?’ I snap, hearing thundering footsteps down the line, then the sound of a door crashing open. There’s the mumbled, sleepy voice of Sam, and the high pitched, wide awake shriek of Kate. I can hear neither. Sam is too quiet and Kate is so loud, she’s all distorted. ‘Kate?’
‘Ava, fucking hell!’
I’m losing my rag now. ‘Stop your shouting and talk to me.’
‘Okay,’ she pants. ‘Drew slept with Coral.’
I sit up in my chair. ‘When?’
‘Oh, about four or five weeks ago.’ she says casually, which is a million miles away from the last few moments of frantic shouting and blurting of words.
‘How do you know?’
‘Sam told me. Drew was rat arsed, Coral nabbed him. The poor bloke knew nothing about it and probably wouldn’t if Sam hadn’t have turned up at his place. He caught her sneaking out.’
‘Oh shit,’ I’m not scrolling my email casually anymore. I’m tapping my pen wildly on the side of my desk. ‘How did she think she’d get away with it? I mean, the baby would be three months overdue!’
‘Desperate people do desperate things, my friend.’ She’s calmed right down. ‘Sam’s on the phone to him now. Are you okay? That must have been a shock, even if she was lying.’
‘Yeah, I’m used to shock with Jesse.’ I brush it off with the apathy the whole episode deserves. Drew won’t be, though.
‘Good. You need to be careful now, don’t you?’ She asks it sweetly as a question, but there is a tinge of menace in there, too.
‘I do, I am, and I will. Listen, I’d better go. Patrick’s got the hump with me and Tom, Sal and Victoria all look like someone’s slapped them in the face. Lunch tomorrow?’
‘Perfect. Call me.’ She hangs up, and I cast a sceptical gaze around my office. It’s only ever this quiet when I’m here on my own. I glance over my shoulder to Patrick’s office and see his door shut and whilst I’m dying to call Jesse and off load my new knowledge, I would be pushing my luck further. I know Sam will be calling him up, anyway. I should prep for my meeting with Ruth Quinn.