‘You’re not going to hear me call if it’s on silent, are you?’
‘No, but how did you know it was on silent?’ I ask, although I already know. I need to put a PIN lock on it. ‘Anyway, it’s rude. And you need to apologise to Sally.’
‘I’m sorry. Who’s Sally?’
‘No, you’re not. Sally is the waif like creature in my office who you verbally attacked.’
‘Oh, I’ll take care of it. Make sure you dream of me.’
I smile. ‘I will. Goodnight.’
‘Oh, Ava?’
‘What?’
‘You’re the one, baby.’ He hangs up, and my heart jumps up into my throat. What is the one? Does he mean what I think he means? I start chewing my thumb nail and drift off to sleep considering his coded statement.
Am I The One?
Is he The One?
Oh, hell. I really want him to be.
Chapter 24
I sit at my desk in a complete daydream, my mind racing with thoughts of The One and fuckings of various degrees. If – in my perfect little world – I end up in a relationship with Jesse, would this be how it is all of the time? Jesse making his commands and me who obeys? It’s that or receiving some sort of fuck, or being subjected to some kind of countdown and torture until I relent, or he manhandles me into complying. I’m not denying the certain element of fun in the fucking side of things, but there has to be give and take. And I’m not sure Jesse knows how to give – unless it’s one of his varying degrees of fucking. He’s so good at it, though. I bristle when I conclude that it is, undoubtedly, because he’s had plenty of practice. My pencil snaps in my hand. What? I look at the splintered wood in my grasp. Oh…dear.
‘Ava, you’re here early.’ Sally walks into the office, and I immediately giggle to myself. I saw Sally in a different light yesterday.
‘Yes, I woke up early.’ I say, wanting to add that it’s because a neurotic arse made me wear a winter jumper in bed, causing me to wake up in a pool of sweat.
She settles herself at her desk. ‘I tried calling you yesterday after you left.’
‘You did?’ I frown, but then realise that I probably cleared Sally’s missed call with the dozens of others from Jesse.
‘Yes, that angry man came into the office shortly after you left.’
‘He did?’ I should have known.
‘He did. And his mood had not improved.’ she says dryly.
I can imagine. I smile. ‘Did you give him a cuddle?’
Sally snorts, flopping back in her chair in another fit of laughter. I join her, laughing helplessly as I watch Sal fall apart all over her desk.
Patrick walks in and looks at both of us in exasperation before making his way to his own office, shutting the door behind him.
Oh, shit! ‘Was Patrick here?’ I ask.
She takes her glasses off and starts cleaning them with the hem of her brown, polyester blouse. ‘What? When the lunatic came in? No, he was collecting Irene from the train station.’
I let out a sigh of relief. What’s Jesse thinking? He’s a client. He can’t come into my office and start throwing his weight around. I can hardly pass off Jesse’s temper as a normal client grievance scenario. He’s already heaved me out of the office once.
The office door opens and the flower delivery girl –Lusso girl again – trundles in with two lavish sprays. ‘Flower deliveries for Ava and Sally?’
I watch as Sally nearly passes out at her desk. I bet she’s never had flowers brought for her. I already know who they’re from, though. The smooth bastard.
‘Me?’ Sally gushes, grabbing the colourful bouquet from the delivery girl and shooing her towards my desk.
‘Thanks.’ I smile, taking the simple spray of calla lilies before signing on behalf of Sally and myself. Sal looks like she might be in a daydream for the rest of the day. ‘What does the card say, Sal?’ I call, watching her eyes dart from left to right across the words.
She leans back, placing her hand over her heart. ‘It says…“Please accept my apologies. That woman makes me crazy” Oh, Ava!’ She looks up at me all soppy. ‘I would love to make a man that crazy!’
I roll my eyes, retrieving the card from my own flowers. I bet I don’t have an apology. And Sally wouldn’t be saying that if she was on the receiving end of Jesse’s unreasonable, neurotic behavior. I make him crazy? What a joke.
I open my card.
You’re the one I’ve been waiting for…
Jx
My soppy side swoons slightly, but then the sensible side of my brain – the part that’s not completely consumed with Jesse – is screaming that The One is actually someone who drops to their knees and obeys his every command, demand and instruction. While I’m fully aware that I’ve done exactly that, on numerous occasions, I also need to keep a hold of my identity and my mind. It’s bloody hard when I’m so affected by this man. He’s already got my body – or claimed it, more like.
My phone starts ringing. I ignore the pang of disappointment at hearing the standard ringtone, but I can’t ignore the pang of panic when I see Matt’s name flashing up on the screen, though. What does he want?
‘Hello?’ I greet as bored as I intended it to be.
‘Ava, I didn’t think you would answer.’ His voice is cautious, and it should be after the stunt he pulled. I don’t know why I even answered.
‘Why would you think that, Matt?’ The sarcasm is dripping from my voice. The worm has a nerve after what he said and how he behaved.
‘I’m sorry, Ava. I was bang out of line. Everything got on top of me. My boss told me that redundancies are going to be happening…and…it…urm…well, it put me on edge.’
Oh, lovely. So he thought he’d try to get me back on that basis? Does he want financial security if he happens to lose his job? Cheeky twat! Does he realise what he’s just said?
‘I’m sorry about that.’ I reply flatly.
‘Thanks. It just brought things home. I’ve lost you, and now I might be losing my job. It’s all gone tits up.’ His voice is quivering with emotion.
I sigh. ‘I’m sure you’ll be fine.’ I assure him in my best calming tone. ‘You’re good at your job.’ He really is. He has the confident – a bit too confident – attitude required of a sales person.
‘Yeah, I just wanted to make amends with you, though.’
That’s okay with me, as long as he doesn’t hit me with another “I want you back” speech. What was he thinking? ‘It’s fine, don’t worry. I’ll see you about, okay?’
‘Yeah, we could do lunch again,’ he adds quickly. ‘As friends…of course, I still have these boxes with the last of your stuff.’
‘I’ll pick them up next week. Take care, Matt.’ I ignore his lunch suggestion.
‘You too,’
I hang up, tossing my phone onto my desk. As much as he’s a twat, I don’t wish unemployment on him. He’ll be fine. I put Matt out of my head and concentrate on getting some work done. I pretend not to check my phone every ten minutes to make sure it’s on and the volume is up. Why hasn’t he called?
I walk down our street after picking up a bottle of wine and see Kate in the distance, jumping around in the middle of the road like the red headed nutter that she is. As I near, I do a double take. Parked up next to Margo is another bright pink van, but this one’s brand spanking new. So, Kate’s finally invested in some new wheels. It’s about time.
‘Nice wheels.’ I say as I approach.
She spins around, her blue eyes dancing, her pale cheeks flushed. ‘Do you know anything about this?’
Me? ‘Why would I?’
‘I just got home and it was parked here. I admired it for a bit, walked through the front door and trod on the keys. Look.’ She thrusts the keys under my nose, prompting me to look at the note attached to a piece of string on the key ring.