A Budding Romance

by Bella Osborne

  ‘Have you seen Silvie?’ Anna asked Karl, when he put his head around the door.

  ‘I’ve seen her new haircut. Looks like it’s been done with a knife and fork.’

  ‘Harsh,’ said Anna.

  ‘Do you think she was going for the Will.i.am look?’

  ‘It reminded me more of a Cornetto,’ said Anna.

  Karl gave an approving nod at her description. As if on cue Silvie strode past. ‘Morning, Silvie. Love the new haircut,’ said Karl.

  Anna daren’t look at Karl. ‘Yes, really suits you.’ She felt she needed to comment now he had. All she could think about was a giant Cornetto.

  Silvie preened herself. ‘Thanks. Anna, you look well, I almost didn’t recognise you.’ Silvie’s lipstick-caked mouth made a boomerang shape but it most definitely wasn’t a smile. The woman had a gift for delivering an insult in a way it was difficult to challenge. Anna wished Silvie was a Cornetto then she could leave her to melt in the sun.

  ‘Can I catch up with you later about dependencies?’ asked Anna.

  ‘I’ll have to check my diary. I definitely can’t do Friday as I’m needed in the city,’ she said, turning to leave. ‘Send me an invite for next week and I’ll see if I can squeeze you in.’

  She was barely out of earshot before Karl was spluttering out his laughter. ‘Needed in the city? Who does she think she is – Batman?’

  ‘Who knows. At least someone needs her. Soon there’ll be lots of vacancies,’ said Anna, with a knowing shift in her eyebrows.

  ‘Don’t be pessimistic,’ said Sophie, announcing her arrival with a giant yawn as she dropped her bag at her feet and slumped against the wall, making Anna dash over and adjust the dislodged sticky notes.

  ‘We’ll be fine. Change is the only constant,’ said Karl, with a faux wise expression.

  ‘Has Liam spoken to you yet?’ asked Anna. Sophie shook her head and Anna noticed she had a blueberry stuck in her hair. Liam had kept a fairly low profile in their area having chosen to start from the top and work his way down. He always told clients this approach was to live and breathe the ethos of the company and ensure it was the key thread running through any revised structure. But the truth was he liked to establish himself with the senior leaders quickly, work out what they were expecting and then ensure whatever he recommended wasn’t a million miles off. It also meant he cemented strong contacts for any repeat work. This was a tried and tested approach. It was of small reassurance to Anna that she knew his modus operandi.

  ‘He’s booked something in for Friday,’ said Karl, checking his calendar. Sophie moved a couple of Post-it Notes to be later in the timeline. Anna stared at them. ‘I might cancel. I might be needed in the city,’ Karl said, putting his hands on either side of his hair to make a cone shape.

  ‘You okay?’ asked Sophie, tilting her head at Anna.

  Anna chewed the inside of her mouth. ‘My parents were going on about marriage again. They only see the positives.’

  ‘Ah,’ said Sophie. ‘It’s not all plain sailing. A marriage is like a marathon.’

  ‘Sweaty?’ suggested Karl, his face deadpan. Sophie glared at him. ‘You grease your nipples first and dress like a chicken?’

  ‘No. It’s bloomin’ hard work and you deserve a medal,’ said Sophie, shaking her head.

  Anna laughed and flicked round to see Hudson.

  ‘Sorry to interrupt. I wondered if you’d like to come to a party. It’s just a few friends coming over for drinks on Saturday, but you’d all be very welcome.’

  Anna was already shaking her head whilst returning the Post-it Notes to their original position. Anna wasn’t a fan of parties. Sophie, however, had quickly perked up and was beaming at Hudson. ‘Yes, sounds wicked. We’ll be there. What should we bring?’

  ‘Just yourselves.’ He seemed to look at each of them in turn. ‘Bye, now.’

  Sophie trotted to the doorway to watch until he was out of sight. ‘He has the perkiest bum,’ she said, with a sigh.

  ‘I bet the bloke I saw him kissing says that too,’ said Karl, focusing on his screen.

  ‘When was this?’ asked Anna.

  ‘The other night. He was outside a bar in Hurst Street and some guy literally jumped into his arms and kissed him.’

  ‘Life is cruel and unfair,’ said Sophie, finally dragging her eyes away from Hudson’s distant form.

  ‘He probably disagrees with you if he’s got men throwing themselves at him,’ said Anna, reaching over and pulling the blueberry from Sophie’s hair and presenting it to her.

  ‘Bumfuzzle,’ said Sophie, with feeling.

  Another day of pointless meetings was starting to get Anna down and when a meeting popped into her diary from Roberta it made her anxious.

  ‘Hudson, can we have a chat?’

  ‘Sure,’ he said, leaning back to stretch and pushing today’s fitted shirt to its limits thanks to the chiselled abs underneath. ‘When?’

  ‘Now? Roberta’s called a meeting with both of us and I don’t think we’re making much progress. And any minute now Liam is going to pounce on this project and we need to be in a fit state.’

  ‘Come on,’ he said, grabbing the jacket off the back of his chair and striding off, making Anna follow him at a trot and instantly resent it. Why did tall men do that? They must know small women in heels can’t do striding.

  The little coffee shop in the square was busy but they found a couple of high stools and Anna managed to climb up on the third attempt. Hudson bought the coffees and joined her. ‘Liam had a quick talk with me this morning.’ He blinked so slowly it was like watching slow motion.

  ‘Did you find anything out? When’s he looking at the project? Any mention of redundancies? Anything?’ Anna found she was nearing the edge of her seat with every question, getting precariously near to falling off. She shuffled her bottom back a safe distance.

  ‘Nope. He wanted to talk about my girlfriend.’

  ‘Your girlfriend?’ Anna’s voice went up at the end in disbelief. It was only a moment ago that Karl was recounting how he’d seen Hudson kiss another man.

  ‘You, Anna. You’re my girlfriend, remember?’

  ‘Ah, yes,’ she said and an embarrassed snort of a giggle escaped. ‘Of course I am. I don’t know how it slipped my mind! So, what did he say?’ The last thing she needed was Liam and Hudson bonding over her faults.

  ‘He says I need to be careful because you are on the rebound.’ He pointed a finger at her and rolled his lips together thoughtfully. ‘He says if I’m not careful you’ll break my heart.’

  Anna huffed. ‘I think he’s the heartbreaker. Not me.’ She was annoyed with herself for dwelling on what Liam had said about her. Yes, she’d turned him down, but only after he’d unceremoniously dumped her in the first place. She wished it didn’t bother her what he thought of her but it did. She was thoroughly fed up with everything. ‘Did he ask anything else? Anything useful?’

  ‘He asked if I’d met your parents yet.’ Hudson leaned forward and rested his forearms on his thighs. ‘Why haven’t I met your parents, Anna?’ There was a twinkle in his eye.

  ‘Do you think maybe we should drop the girlfriend-boyfriend thing?’

  ‘Are you dumping me? Are you dumping me?’ Hudson’s voice had hit drama diva level as he clutched at his heart in a dramatic fashion. ‘What did I do wrong? Was it that I showered you with too many gifts? Did I do the ironing wrong? Was it the sex?’

  ‘Hudson!’ Anna twisted about her to see who was listening. From the descending hush it would appear most of the coffee shop had now tuned in. ‘Stop it,’ she said in a stage whisper.

  ‘Promise you won’t dump me,’ he said, giving a cheeky twitch of a smile. Anna shook her head in exasperation. ‘Promise?’ His voice faltered as if choked with emotion.

  ‘Bloody hell. Okay. I promise not to dump you.’ She lowered her voice. ‘I didn’t realise fake boyfriends could be so insecure.’

  ‘I bet I’m the best fake boyfriend you’
ve ever had. Aren’t I?’ He was openly grinning at her and she found it hard not to grin back.

  ‘Yes. Yes, you are.’ Sadly, he was probably better than some of her real boyfriends. ‘Now, shall we go through what progress I think we’ve made?’ suggested Anna.

  ‘You can if you like.’ He slung one arm over the back of his chair. Why was he completely relaxed all of the time? It wasn’t natural. Maybe he took drugs.

  ‘When Liam gets to us, he’s going to tear this project apart,’ said Anna.

  Hudson leaned forward and reached his hand out and for a moment she thought he was going to touch her. She watched his approaching hand until it swept up his coffee cup and he took a slurp. ‘This is worrying you, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes, and it should be worrying you.’ She was feeling a little irritated by his laissez-faire attitude.

  He sat up a bit straighter. ‘Anna, I want you to be happy …’

  She missed what he said next due to a thrumming in her ears. This was a phrase she’d heard before. Something her dad said to her at certain points in her life when things had been bleak. Her dad was her go-to person, her rock, and it was impossible to disassociate the phrase.

  ‘Sorry, what?’ asked Anna, widening her eyes and trying to focus her attention on Hudson.

  Hudson looked a tad confused but repeated himself anyway. ‘I want you to be happy on this project. We have established what the overlaps of the two companies merging are, we understand the main phases and we’re doing it as quickly as is humanly possible. And more than anything I know you and I can make this happen, together.’

  Anna was spellbound. Not only did she feel something akin to calm settling on her, she also had a sensation of steely determination gripping her insides. It now felt like this was actually within her grasp. Within their grasp.

  ‘Thanks, Hudson.’

  ‘Hey. We’re a team.’ He sipped his coffee. ‘We’re a great team.’

  Lunch with Sophie was a welcome break from a frustrating session with the technology team who were struggling to give even a ballpark figure on costs and timescales. There was only so much teeth sucking she could stand. Anna retold the conversation she’d had with Hudson.

  ‘He’s just so … together,’ said Sophie, inspecting the inside of her sandwich.

  ‘Overconfident would be more accurate. I’ll admit he’s all right but I’m not going to his party.’

  Sophie stopped millimetres away from plunging her teeth into her sandwich. ‘Anna, I need to go.’

  ‘I’m not stopping you from going but you know I don’t like parties.’ Sophie gave a slow blink. ‘No, don’t give those wounded kitten eyes. You are quite literally a big girl now,’ she said, with a warm smile.

  ‘Ha, ha. No, I’m serious. I need to go to the party to see him with his partner.’ Anna was sure the exasperation showed on her face. ‘Seriously, if I see him loved up with his boyfriend, it will set my hormones at ease and I’ll be able to move on.’ Sophie took a huge bite of her sandwich.

  ‘Total rubbish. How can seeing him with his boyfriend sort out your hormones?’ She sprinkled a sachet of black pepper over the contents of her sandwich.

  ‘Please come with me, Anna. I know it will help at least. And don’t tell me you don’t secretly want to have a nose at where he lives.’

  Anna rolled her eyes. ‘Not in the slightest bit nosy actually.’ Sophie started with the wobbly lip thing. ‘But I care about you so I’ll come. Though I’m not stopping long.’

  ‘I love you,’ said Sophie before releasing a huge burp. ‘Shocking indigestion, nobody tells you about all the downsides of pregnancy – the veins, the cracked nipples or the piles …’

  ‘Enough!’ Anna didn’t fancy her sandwich any more.

  Hudson strode out of the office buttoning his suit jacket. He spotted them and came over. Anna could feel Sophie jittering next to her, and however comical Anna thought it was, this crush was very real for Sophie.

  ‘Hi Hudson, did you want to join us?’ asked Sophie, jiggling up to Anna and squishing her to make room on the bench.

  ‘No, it’s okay. Sim has decided it’s now a costume party. Amazon theme.’

  ‘Ooh, brilliant,’ said Sophie. ‘I can’t wait.’

  Anna tried to think of something enthusiastic to say but nothing came to mind. She took a bite of her sandwich. Not only was she now going to a party she didn’t want to go to, she’d also have to spend money on a sodding outfit.

  ‘You all right, Anna?’ he asked, holding her gaze.

  ‘All good, thanks.’

  He smiled and headed off towards the shops. Sophie watched him go until he was out of sight. ‘My God, he has the most gorgeous bum,’ she said.

  ‘So you keep pointing out.’

  Sophie gazed off into the distance. ‘Do you ever wish you’d done things differently?’

  ‘Blimey, that’s deep,’ said Anna. ‘And you’re not even thirty yet. You have a lifetime ahead of you to do whatever you want to do.’

  Sophie looked glum. ‘I don’t though. I’ve got the kids and my future’s mapped out. You can do whatever you want. You don’t have to be somewhere at a certain time; your life isn’t dictated to you.’

  ‘Nor is yours. It’s just trickier, that’s all.’

  ‘Tricky. There’s an understatement.’

  This wasn’t the first time Sophie had sounded really down about things and it was starting to bother Anna. Going to the party with her was the least she could do and hopefully it would give Sophie the boost she needed.

  Sophie thought her biggest issue was whether her hastily ordered fancy dress outfit would arrive in time for the party but now she was trying to squeeze herself in to it she realised that wasn’t the case. The black cat costume, which she was going to tell everyone was a black jaguar, was not exactly generous when it came to sizing. She’d gone for the large, which was the biggest they did. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that she might not be able to fit in it with her ever-growing baby bump – but it was. And why on earth were the zips always at the back? It was by far the most inconvenient place to put them.

  She struggled a bit more and realised it was tiring her out. That horrid sense of exhaustion was sweeping over her again. Perhaps if she closed her eyes she could have a little nap …

  ‘I want a Viking party for my birthday, Mum. Mum?’ Arlo was staring at the strange creature on the bed.

  ‘Okay, sweetie,’ she said, as she considered dislocating her shoulder to get to the zip.

  ‘Does that mean I can have one?’ He came closer and peered at his struggling mother.

  ‘Let’s not make a decision right now. We’d need to think about what would happen at a Viking party.’ She had a quick think as she wriggled onto the other side and had a try with her other arm. ‘We could make Viking hats with horns on. Pin the sail on the long boat …’ She caught the look in Arlo’s eye. ‘What did you have in mind?’

  Arlo’s face lit up. ‘Setting fire to things. Pillaging. That’s stealing things—’

  ‘How many times have I said you mustn’t take the go-cart from next door’s garden?’

  ‘Ahhh, Mum!’

  ‘Do you think you could help Mummy and do this zip up?’ Sophie spun round and presented Arlo with her back. When nothing happened she glanced over her shoulder at him.

  Arlo pouted. ‘I think you’ve grown out of it, Mummy,’ he said, and he ran from the room.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Anna and Sophie followed an elephant and a rather slap-dash zebra into the building, and saw Hudson greeting people warmly with his usual charming approach. He was dressed as an ‘Englishman on Safari’ and greeted them both enthusiastically.

  ‘Stunning outfit, darling,’ he said in a faux British accent, and placed a fleeting kiss on Anna’s cheek. Anna was impressed when she stepped into Hudson’s flat. It was a trendy loft-style apartment right on the canal and it had been converted into a magical jungle-inspired world. Swathes of black fabric had bee
n pinned to the ceiling with tiny fairy lights twinkling like a thousand stars. All around were tubs of huge plants with bright green shiny leaves and weeping ferns, which swayed as people passed.

  The apartment had a mezzanine level where a rope trapeze and a number of vines hung down from the upper ceiling. Huge fur throws, which Anna very much hoped were fakes, were draped over the sofa and chairs. In two large dome-shaped birdcages two magnificently coloured macaws preened themselves meticulously. She wondered what Maurice would make of them.

  A very large, and somewhat frightening, stuffed jaguar was in attack mode about to pounce on the coffee table. A huge vivarium about eight foot long took centre stage and inside lay the biggest snake Anna had ever seen.

  ‘Sim!’ Hudson called and a slim tanned man appeared at his side. ‘This is Anna and Sophie from work. Anna and Sophie, this is Sim, my …’

  ‘Lovely to meet you at last. Huds talks about you all the time,’ said Sim, before air-kissing Anna’s ears. Sophie was beaming at the comment. ‘Get these gorgeous creatures some cocktails,’ Sim instructed. Hudson shook his head good-naturedly and disappeared behind a large plant.

  ‘Wow, this is amazing,’ said Sophie, taking it all in.

  Sim was grinning from ear to ear. ‘I know, it’s fabulous isn’t it? It is, isn’t it?’ he gabbled.

  ‘Sim, it’s incredible and your outfit’s, um … great,’ said Sophie.

  ‘You like?’ he asked doing the obligatory twirl followed by a well-practised crack of his whip.

  Anna wasn’t sure if he was some sort of Doctor Livingstone meets Madam Whiplash character but thought it rude to ask. Instead, she nodded and said, ‘It really captures the party mood.’

  ‘Thank you. You are the sweetest,’ said Sim, beaming at them. There was a knock on the door. ‘God knows where Huds has disappeared to. Grab yourself a large glass of jungle punch and go mingle,’ said Sim and with another crack of his whip he went to greet some new arrivals.