by Kait Jagger
‘Rod, love, I’m going out,’ Jem shouted, launching herself back at Luna, who returned the embrace, lifting her friend up off her feet, laughing out loud. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Scott and his mates watching this, Scott smiling sanguinely as if to say, all’s right with the world.
Two hours later, having purchased the components of a picnic meal and changed into a gingham sundress and sandals, Luna headed off to Mayfair by black cab.
She was excited and shy in equal measure at the prospect of visiting Stefan’s offices for the first time. She knew from the way he talked about them that he viewed their ultra-expensive location as a necessary extravagance, ‘stage setting’ to impress his more high profile clients. But he was proud of them too, she could tell. And she could see why as the taxi drew up in front of a beautiful redbrick Arts & Crafts building just down the street from Green Park Tube station. Walking up to a handsome arched entrance, she located SLA on the intercom and was about to press the button when a man in a pinstripe suit exited the door, holding it open for her.
SLA’s quarters began at the top of the heavily panelled oak staircase, taking up the entire first floor of the building. As Luna got to the top of the stairs, a slender, perfectly made-up woman sitting at an aluminium desk opposite a bank of original stained-glass windows enquired with a smile, ‘Can I help you?’
Luna cleared her throat. ‘I’m here to see…’ Hmm, it didn’t seem right to use his Christian name in an office environment. ‘…Mr Lundgren,’ she finished lamely.
‘Is he expecting you?’
Luna considered that for a second. ‘No, but…’
The woman’s face rearranged itself into a facsimile of desolate regret. ‘I’m sorry, but Mr Lundgren doesn’t take walk-ins.’ Another smile, but a cool one this time, followed by the woman’s eyes pointedly sizing up Luna’s casual outfit and picnic basket. And finding them lacking.
‘Luna Gregory!’ came a voice behind her. Luna turned and saw Stefan’s friend and colleague James MacGregor bounding out of the open plan office visible just beyond reception. ‘You’re a sight for sore eyes!’ he exclaimed, pulling her into a hug.
The next few minutes passed in a blur as one by one, Stefan’s ten or so staff filtered out into the foyer, some on the pretext of fetching a drink from the expensive espresso machine next to the Scandinavian sofas, others making absolutely no bones that they’d come to check out the boss’s girlfriend. Luna noted with some amusement that, despite the fact that she was wearing flat sandals, she was taller than almost all of Stefan’s notably diminutive employees.
The woman on reception, Christina, was abjectly apologetic for icing her out, prompting Luna to laugh reassuringly. ‘Don’t worry, I’m a PA. I’ve seen off my share of time-wasters!’ Holding up her basket and smiling sideways at James, she added, ‘I thought I’d spring a birthday surprise on Stefan.’
This provoked some good-natured laughter from the rest of the staff; although he didn’t turn twenty-nine till the following day, apparently there had been a week’s worth of birthday-related celebrations for their boss, including an office cricket match, celebratory lunch, and cake just that afternoon, a slice of which Christina insisted on bringing to Luna.
Sometime later, sitting on one of the sofas with James, an impromptu party starting up around them, Luna finally thought to ask, ‘Where is Stefan, anyway?’
He cocked his head in the direction of a door at the end of the hall. ‘Client visit. Though I predict that in exactly—’ he slid back the cuff at his wrist and consulted his watch, ‘—thirty seconds, he’s going to come barrelling out of that door, off to fetch you at the airport.’ He smiled, his seal-like brown eyes shining. ‘It really is good to see you. He’s… well, all I can say is that he’s been in a very good mood, these past few months.’
Luna smiled and opened her mouth to reply when, right on cue, the door at the end of the hall opened and Stefan came running out into the foyer. If he was surprised to see his entire staff hanging out around the front desk, he didn’t show it, shrugging on his suit jacket as he ran, lifting a quick hand to Christina.
He was halfway down the stairs before he came to a screeching halt and reversed a few steps, his face appearing between the spindles of the banister. Cue more laughter from his employees and another strange rush of shyness in Luna, who stood as he made his way back up the stairs.
‘Sorry, can’t stop,’ he said, coming to stand in front of her. ‘I’ve got to get to Heathrow.’ And smiled his very best smile, bending down to kiss her.
She swore she heard the sound of at least two female and one male hearts shattering at the sight of this, and at the indecent haste with which he subsequently fended off all suggestions that the two of them join a Friday night pub crawl. Instead, he took her by the hand and led her back down the stairs, Luna waving haplessly to James as they made their exit.
‘You look like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz,’ Stefan remarked at the bottom of the stairs, eying her sundress approvingly.
‘I feel like her,’ Luna laughed, walking with him out onto the pavement. ‘Don’t think I haven’t noticed that your entire staff is Munchkin-sized. Is that a job requirement of yours or what?’
‘Miss Gregory, I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said, and pulled her into his arms, lowering his mouth to hers again.
They decided to head back to the apartment for their picnic in the end, a light drizzle having begun to fall by the time they got to Stefan’s parking space around the corner. Surprised to see the same Land Rover Stefan had driven to the Highlands the previous weekend, Luna joked, ‘Is the Lamborghini in the shop?’
Stefan shook his head. ‘Sold it.’
Luna was dumbfounded. ‘Really? But…’
‘It isn’t the right car for me now,’ he said, opening the passenger door for her and taking her basket. ‘Now that I’m doing more work around the estate, and I’ve got my girlfriend to move in next month.’ His tone was matter of fact, but Luna felt unaccountably wistful on his behalf as he loaded her basket in the tailgate and climbed in the driver’s side.
‘Won’t you miss it?’ she asked.
Another shrug. ‘“When I became a man I put aside childish things,”’ he quoted, and when she looked unconvinced, he added, ‘It’s a car, Luna. A thing. I have all the things I need.’
His words stayed with her later that evening as they sat on the floor of his apartment, the contents of the picnic basket spread out around them, watching the lights come on across the Thames. Despite the fact that Stefan’s actual birthday wasn’t till the following day, Luna wanted to give him his official gifts now. Still, she was a little apprehensive; what, after all, do you give to the man who’s just told you he has everything he needs?
She needn’t have worried. Ripping into the wrapping paper with all the gusto of a five-year-old, Stefan proclaimed himself delighted with his first gift, a limited edition of the silk bird scarf Dagmar had designed. ‘A little bird has told me that your father is going to give you a Lundgren coat,’ Luna said, ‘so I thought you should have an accessory to go with it.’ He saw the item underneath it and began to chuckle, unspooling the massive, unevenly knitted scarf she’d been working on for the past few months.
‘Ah, a memento of Shetland,’ he said warmly.
‘The ladies in the knitting club helped me with the fringe, see?’ Luna said, stroking her hand along the edge of the scarf, decorated with tassels in every different natural shade of Shetland wool, from black to brown to grey to white.
‘It’s beautiful,’ he said, leaning over to kiss her. ‘I’ll wear it with pride.’ He looked down at the scarf, then lifted his fingers to her jaw. ‘But not when I’m with you, allergy girl.’
*
‘Oi! Lou! Luna!’ Kayla shouted. Smiling apologetically at the man she was talking to, who happened to be Kayla’s homme du moment and who may as well have had TEMPORARY written in Sharpie on his forehead, Luna looked down the table toward K
ayla, who was sitting between Stefan and Nancy, half-drunk flute of bucks fizz in hand.
It was the following morning and, at Nancy’s insistence, they had joined her and on-off boyfriend Robert for brunch at their five-star-hotel near Greenwich. By coincidence, today was Robert’s birthday as well, and Nancy had decided to surprise him with an impromptu trip to London. Luna and Stefan arrived first to find Nancy and Robert sitting at an outside table overlooking a courtyard garden. Nancy was wearing her usual black accessorised with a Chanel scarf and Robert had on a very nice cream linen suit.
‘Savile Row,’ Nancy announced proudly when Stefan dutifully admired it. A birthday gift from her.
‘Yee-ah,’ Robert said in his strong New Jersey accent. ‘I’m still rebuildin’ my wah-drobe.’ A reference to the incident Luna had borne witness to late last year when, having discovered he was cheating on her, Nancy had set fire to the contents of his clothes rail.
Things were better now, she told Luna in a brief phone conversation earlier that week. ‘He’s really trying,’ she said. And again, Luna chose to keep any comparisons between Robert and her own boyfriend, who had never cheated on her, to herself. Though she couldn’t quite stop herself from sending a little Hallviken Robert’s way when he made an offhand comment about Nancy, something humorous verging on disparaging. You had better not fuck with my friend again, her look said, and she was satisfied to see him flinch and look away.
Down the table, Stefan appeared to be getting on well enough with Robert, and rolling with the punches as far as the general conversation was going. Whereas the homme du moment – why was it always Luna who ended up babysitting Kayla’s boyfriends? – seemed overawed.
And who could blame him, trapped in what had to be one of the loudest, most boisterous brunches in history? The conversation veered from politics, to films, to the relative merits of London vs. New York, with even innocuous topics erupting into heated debates, mostly between Kay, Nancy and Robert, but sometimes drawing in Rod and Jem.
And now they appeared to have moved on to sex, Kayla’s specialist subject. Having gotten Luna’s attention, she enquired loudly, ‘What was the name of that professor of yours at uni? The one who never made you come?’
Jesus wept, Luna thought. She knew that last round of bucks fizz was a mistake.
Rolling her eyes apologetically at Stefan, Luna declined to respond to Kayla’s query, and thankfully Kayla let it drop and was soon cackling at some remark of Rod’s. Judging from the thick as thieves looks she and Nancy kept exchanging, Luna could only assume that the conversation continued to revolve around sex.
‘So I said to Kayla, maybe next year, when the show finishes, we can go away on holiday,’ Kayla’s date was saying. ‘I was thinking the Swiss Alps, or Lake Como?’ Hmm, Luna thought, if that’s your idea of where Kay wants to go on holiday, the countdown till she dumps you is definitely on.
Suddenly a commotion broke out at the other end of the table, Kayla screeching, ‘You’re kidding, right?!’ and Robert laughing in response, ‘What can I say, I’m Italian.’ Nancy, meanwhile, had turned a rather amazing shade of puce and was glaring at Robert like she wanted to kill him. Jem, who was sitting beside her, turned and widened her eyes at Luna as if to say, you are missing some serious gold here.
‘She’s just so busy these days, I hardly get to spend any time with her,’ homme du moment was droning on. Get ready to spend even less, Luna thought impatiently, wishing she could tune in properly to the conversation intensifying a few seats away from her. Jem and Kayla both sounded to be laying into Robert, Jem practically hopping up and down in her seat. To her alarm, Luna caught peripheral sight of Kayla leaning toward Stefan to ask him something.
And then the sound of Stefan’s calm reply: ‘I consider it both a duty and a privilege.’
Followed by a full ten seconds’ silence, whereupon Kayla stood up and leaned across the table, lifting her palm to Jem.
‘That’s what we’re talking about, right, sister?’ she cried, smacking her hand against Jem’s. Luna looked questioningly toward Stefan, but he only smiled at her, a smile so, whew, so full of honey that her heart skipped a beat. Kayla and Jem saw it too, and sat back down, looking first at him, then at their respective partners.
The table broke up after that, Nancy coming to sit next to Luna while the men gathered around Rod to look at something Remainers-related on his tablet. Jem and Kayla, in the meantime, ordered two more drinks and did a very bad job of pretending they were discussing anything but the conversation that had just occurred. Which Luna knew better than to ask Nancy about.
She and Stefan left soon after, Luna giving every single member of their party a parting kiss on the lips and Stefan stopping at the restaurant’s front desk to pay the bill. ‘You don’t need to do that,’ she said, secretly loving him for it.
‘No, no,’ he insisted. ‘That brunch was worth the price of admission.’
They had to run to catch the next ferry, so Luna didn’t get a chance to question him till they were sat on the upper observation deck.
‘Right, what was that all about?’ she asked.
Stefan brushed an imaginary piece of dust off his shoulder. ‘If you must know, we were discussing cunnilingus.’
‘Jesus wept!’ Luna exclaimed. ‘They really are too bad. I can’t think of a less appropriate brunch conversation.’ She hesitated. ‘Hold on, was Robert saying…?’
Stefan met her eyes and nodded solemnly.
‘Oh, come on.’
‘Apparently his ethnic heritage precludes providing this service to Nancy,’ Stefan said, starting to laugh.
‘What did you—? How did you get this out of him?’ Luna said in amazement. ‘Nancy hasn’t said anything to me about it.’
‘I’d imagine not.’
They sat in silence for a few moments.
Then, ‘She should break up with him.’
‘Absolute she should.’
At that moment, Luna’s phone vibrated and Stefan’s rang simultaneously. ‘Hello, Jem,’ he answered as Luna looked down to see a three word text from Kayla: Oh. My. DAYS.
‘You are most welcome, Jem,’ Stefan was saying sweetly. ‘Would you like to speak to Luna?’ He handed the phone to her, but by the time she held it up to her ear Rod had clearly grabbed Jem’s away from her. ‘I’m not kidding, mate,’ he was saying. ‘We didn’t even make it out of the hotel. Straight to the front desk, straight up to a room and—’
‘That’s good to hear, Rod,’ Luna said, resting her free hand on Stefan’s knee.
‘Oh, hullo, Luna. That was some brunch, eh?’ He passed the phone back to Jem, and the two women spent another five minutes trading statements of incredulity, each suggesting that the other should really have a word with Nancy, tell her she could do better. ‘Or maybe you should get Stefan to talk to her,’ Jem ventured.
Or maybe not, Luna thought.
‘So, I take it this is not the first outing with your friends where the subject of sex has come up,’ Stefan said a few minutes later, as their boat passed under Tower Bridge.
‘Ha. I’m afraid not. You’d better get used to it,’ Luna replied, continuing, ‘but the girls all think you’re God in that regard, so…’
If she’d expected him to preen and say something humorous, she was in for a surprise, for all he did was cock his head at her, like he didn’t quite understand.
‘I mean, not that I talk about our… what we do, with them. Not in any detail,’ Luna stumbled on. ‘But, well, your reputation goes before you… and you’re so much more experienced than I am…’ She stuttered to a halt as his quizzical look turned into a frown.
‘I see,’ he said, a clear and pointed edge to his voice. ‘You’re saying they think, you think, I’m some kind of lothario, working my magic on you?’
‘I meant it as a compliment,’ Luna replied earnestly, squeezing his knee. She cleared her throat, mightily mortified by the turn this conversation had taken. ‘You’re the most skilled partner I�
��ve ever had,’ she whispered. ‘You don’t need me to tell you that.’
He smiled a little at that, and she thought that was the end of it. But he was quiet for the rest of the boat trip back to Bankside and as they walked hand-in-hand back to his apartment. They were just approaching the Millennium Bridge when he stopped abruptly, pulling her around to face him.
‘Do you know what I think?’ he said, looking up at the sky and shaking his head. ‘And I see already the look you will give me when I say this, like, “Oh, Stefan, you must not talk of these things.”’ He paused, daring her to interrupt, and Luna inwardly winced that he had her so bang to rights.
Running a hand through his hair, he went on, ‘I remember the first few times you and I made love, what it was like for me, being with you. Unlike anything else, anyone else, I had ever experienced.’ He gave a rueful laugh. ‘I was literally doing times tables, humming the Match of the Day song in my head, visualising road kill to keep from coming too soon. Like some kind of teenage boy. Still, sometimes, it’s like this for me with you. Like I have lost control of my body – lost myself in you.’
He placed his hands on her shoulders. ‘Here is what I believe: I believe that I am that lucky one in ten thousand men who has found his physical match. Found the body that is perfect for him; that is meant to be with his. And I believe, I hope, that you feel the same.’
‘I do,’ Luna said swiftly, leaving no room for doubt or misinterpretation. For emphasis, she leaned into him, placing her hand on his stomach. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been flippant about it.’
Chapter Eighteen
She left the apartment at 2pm, slipping an envelope containing some very brief instructions, plus an address and time, into his hand and saying, ‘I’ll see you later.’
Their weekend in the Highlands had provided the inspiration for this, her final birthday gift to Stefan. Luna meant it when she told him he was the most skilled lover she’d ever had, and she wanted to thrill him the way he’d thrilled her at the lodge. The only problem was… she wasn’t Stefan. She didn’t have his sexual confidence or, indeed, his winning way with ropes and knots. She was, however, very good at making lists and checking them off, so she approached this challenge like the world-class personal assistant she was.
