Special Relationship

by Fox, Alessandra

  Alex also had the Tavis meeting on her mind. What she hadn't thought about until now was that he was meant to be calling on Sunday and she had planned on keeping the business switch – including her main mobile - firmly in the 'off' position until first thing on Monday.

  Kerry's probably right, she thought. The worry that Tavis would just want to quiz her on her past tempted her to text him and make an excuse.

  In her mind she worked on the message to send. "Tavis something has come up, can't make Monday. Really sorry, but hopefully meet up soon."

  To actually send it would mean switching her main phone on, or revealing her second phone's number – at least without spending an hour trying to work how to block her id. So she decided to wait.

  She went to the fridge and got out a cone-shaped ice cream with "natural forest fruits" from the freezer. In the main fridge compartment she looked at a half-drunk bottle of New Zealand sauvignon blanc but resisted the temptation and grabbed some more fizzy water instead.

  She climbed back into bed but instead of continuing with Annie Hall on her iPad she looked through her 'photos' folder. Tears ran down her cheeks as she saw the little girl patting the donkey at the zoo, building a sand castle on the beach and coming down the helter skelter at the funfair with her beautiful love-of-life laugh.

  Chapter eight: Katherine foregoes The Library.

  Nick was in his apartment a couple of blocks from the office, looking at his phone. He wondered why Alex hadn't even acknowledged the text he'd sent earlier.

  There were plenty of messages, including one from Katherine informing him that she had booked Bianca, an inexpensive Italian in the Village that was so inexpensive they didn't take reservations, nor even credit cards. But Katherine never worried about the small print. She seemed to know everyone and anyone who would help her run round the rules.

  Good choice, thought Nick, who would have despaired at the prospect of some fancy top-end restaurant. He failed to respond to the missed calls from investors and employees, didn't check what was happening on Wall Street or back in London, and also resisted the temptation to call Alex.

  At the top of the spiral staircase in the apartment was his American minder, Elroy Williams, who was busy playing Super Street Fighter on Nintendo.

  "Elroy, I'm going out," he called.

  "I'll come with you, boss."

  "No need, mate. Only going a block or two."

  "I'll follow discreetly, you won't know I'm there."

  "If you must."

  On leaving the apartment block, Nick quickly hailed a yellow cab. "Central Park, please."

  "Hey buddy, Central Park takes up a lot of Manhattan. Any chance you can be a bit more descriptive?"

  First cabbie in New York to use the word 'descriptive', thought Nick. "By the reservoir," he replied.

  As the cab was pulling away he turned behind to see Elroy, looking very pissed off.

  And they hadn't gone a mile when his number flashed on his phone.

  "How's it going, mate?"

  "Hey boss, you know you are not meant to wander around without me. If someone holds you hostage and threatens to slit your throat unless they get a hundred mill, you know who's in trouble?"

  "Me?" Nick suggested.

  "Nope, it's me sir. You get your throat slit and I'll never work in this business again."

  Nick laughed. "Elroy, listen, I promise to review your salary and maybe we can do something to take into account the risks you take trying to look after such a wayward boss?"

  "I'd appreciate it sir and I'd also appreciate it if you didn't keep running off. Or we'll all end up in the newspapers."

  "Elroy, I'll catch you later. You will always be a legend whether I end up getting my throat slit or not."

  "You're trouble, sir,"

  "I know, Elroy, I know...that's why we get on."

  "Be glad when you are back on that small island," Elroy retorted before hanging up.

  On the small island itself, in Bayswater, Lady Ashton was talking to her husband about the invitations for their "Farewell to Britain" ball. It had become an annual event at which they said goodbye to their friends and family while they escaped the British winter for the warmer climate of their villa on the Canary Islands.

  "We'll invite the Walpole's, not that they'll come, the Granville's, the Lambton's and the Chichester's. And the Hensen people, of course, Nick, Tavis and Katherine."

  "Oh and that American girl, Alexander," the Lord rumbled.

  "Alexandra!"

  "Don't be a pedant, my dear. Whatever her name, she's certainly a good-looking girl, and very pleasant as well," replied the Lord. "And what about that lady Nick used to be with, what's her name, Olivia somebody, used to work for him?"

  "Olivia Hartley," replied Lady Ashton. "I'm not sure she and Nick get on now and I think he has eyes for the American girl."

  "Bit premature...they only met at the races," said the Lord, peering at his wife from behind the Daily Telegraph.

  "True, but I had a conversation with Tavis and he said that Nick was quite taken when he first saw her photo sometime earlier. Meeting her just confirmed his, err, intentions."

  "Bit sudden though, don't you think?"

  "Conventions from the days when we courted are long gone, Henry. Now people fall in love using the world wide web and what they call 'social networks' without even meeting each other. You can fall in love in minutes now, so I'm told. Not like in our day. We courted for two years before you even kissed me."

  "Didn't want to risk rejection," the Lord chuckled.

  "I don't think Alexandra will have to wait two years."

  "If I were Nicholas, I wouldn't wait two years either," the Lord guffawed, hiding behind his newspaper as Lady Eleanor threw a piece of scone at him.

  The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park was huge, getting on for three times the size of London's equivalent, the Serpentine. Nick sat on a bench and looked across the water to the spectacular city skyline beyond. He looked too at his phone but there was still no message from Alex.

  There was one from Katherine: "Elroy says you have ditched him again. Where are you?"

  He wasn't bothered to reply. He thought about his life and his relationship with Claire and what might have happened but for their baby's death eight years earlier.

  Nick wondered what Claire was doing now and whether she was happy and whether she missed him or even thought of him at all. Since their split, he had been in several relationships with footballer-wives-type women, and they'd all been brief. His 'fling' with Olivia Hartley was about the longest but even that was only four months.

  Olivia, he thought, was absolutely opposite of what he wanted. Dull and shallow and interested only in who was following her on Twitter and when the next must-have fashion or makeup would turn up in the smart shops.

  But it was only after they had parted and he had paid her to leave her job as his PA that he realised he must have meant something to her, if only financially. She was quickly drinking far more than she used to and still making attempts through clumsy text and email messages to get back what they once enjoyed, however briefly.

  Alex was different. He knew she didn't care about his success and wealth. She wasn't chasing the kudos of being partner to a rich guy. She just didn't care. And somehow he knew that would be the case from the moment he first saw her photo. But what was it that made her hide or disguise her past? As much as he was loathe to admit it, he knew Tavis was right - Alex Anderson was not the person she claimed to be.

  He also conceded that he, one of the most successful men in Britain, was too timid to delve into her background because he was scared of what he might find, like some kid not wanting to find out his first love was cheating. Tavis, he knew, could uncover everything about Alex Anderson were he given a free rein.

  The sexual encounters he'd enjoyed with glamorous, attractive women who most men could only dream about counted for little, he thought, as he left the park. He still felt like one o
ne of the loneliest people on the planet. He walked three blocks along West 90th into Broadway and hailed a cab to take him back to his apartment.

  Once there, he apologised again to Elroy who at the door greeted him with a disapproving look and a fake punch.

  He then called Katherine to confirm dinner at eight. "What are you doing, shall I meet you there, or do you want to do you want to come here and we can walk?" he asked.

  "Where's Elroy and where have you been?" she asked.

  "I've been to the park and Elroy is here," he replied.

  "Is he coming with us tonight?"

  "No need," Nick replied.

  "I'll call him and explain, and I'll be with you at a quarter to eight." said Katherine. "Try to be a good boy until then."

  Nick thought about calling Alex but it would be almost midnight in London, so he showered and changed. Katherine texted him "I'm outside" at precisely 7.45.

  "Do you have to be so bloody perfect?" he asked as they pecked each other on the cheek.

  "Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work - Aristotle, I think.

  "And how have I been so perfect, Nicholas?"

  "Well, it's 7.49 and you turned up at 7.45, just when you said you would."

  "And you would have preferred if I'd been late?" she asked.

  "Yes, or early, or at least not spot on the time."

  They walked to Bianca where there were people queuing patiently outside. Katherine took Nick by the arm and walked him past everyone straight into the restaurant where the headwaiter guided them to a table before taking away a "Reserved" notice.

  Nick ordered the same dish as he had on both previous occasions at the restaurant, Fegatini con Aceto Balsamico , which was chicken liver in balsamic vinegar with pine nuts and raisins. Katherine ordered tagliolini ai frutti di mare which he knew to be pasta with seafood.

  The place was just the sort of restaurant he liked. Good simple food in good simple surroundings, like a place any Italian grandmother would be proud of. "I like it here," he told her. "No thrills, nothing phoney, just good food and a nice atmosphere.

  "Thanks. I thought it would remind you of Manarola," she said. "And that..." she continued hesitantly..."you'd start behaving more like a chilled-out Italian than a stressed-out British boss of a huge hedge fund."

  "Sorry, Kath, I know I was a bit short in the meeting this morning. Maybe I need a holiday."

  "With anyone in particular?" she asked.

  Nick immediately knew who she was referring to and didn't duck the subject.

  "OK, I know that you know that I do, err, like Alex, even though I've known her for a preposterously short time, but there is something about her that I find very alluring, her looks, obviously, but also her banter and, I guess the mystery that surrounds her.

  "And when I first read her file I knew that there was something that enticed me. When I met her at the races and at lunch the other day I was sort of hypnotised by her wit and intelligence, or should I say smartness...I think that's a better word.

  "When I saw her in real life for the first time, at the lift, I just thought she was even more than I expected. And when she smiled..."

  "Sorry, I'm rambling..."

  "Well, Nick, my job is to keep you in good shape and by doing so I'd like to think that I keep the company in good shape as well. I'm a bit worried that you are too quickly getting yourself involved with a girl who, to put it mildly, has been hiding things that the company ought to know about."

  "There's more to life than business," he replied.

  "So you are going to pursue her without any concern about what damage you might do to yourself or the company?"

  "I'd be lying if I said 'no'," he replied.

  "I replaced Olivia, Nick, do you remember what sort of mess you got in with her?"

  "Alex is not Olivia," he said. "And, besides, nothing has happened yet and she might not even like me."

  Katherine poured some wine and, sipping it from the glass, looked at her boss trying to work out whether he knew what he was doing.

  "And how are things with you Katherine, like love-wise?" Nick asked, buttering some bread.

  "Oh, same old thing. Jonathan is a bit of a bastard. Where he goes after work or what he gets up to I no longer care.

  "Philip has kids now and I rarely hear from him. But unbelievably we still have a savings account with about £50 in it from about ten years ago and he emailed me the other day to ask what we should do with it."

  "As one of the western world's greatest investors my suggestion is that you get him to send you £25 and close it down ."

  "Thanks for the advice," Katherine laughed.

  "No worries, you'll get the bill later."

  Katherine retold the story, this time with more detail, of how Philip had left her after ten years of marriage on account of her inability to conceive. At the time she was still going through gruelling IVF treatment and his departure had sent her almost over the edge.

  Jonathan was her new husband, chosen by Katherine because he didn't want kids even though she eventually persuaded him, as well as the British and Chinese authorities, for them to adopt a boy, now aged five, called Cheng.

  The problem then emerged that Jonathan seemed still not to want children nor even Katherine and, when she was working, Cheng was cared for by a child minder or her parents.

  She talked for a long time about her son, how her parents doted on him, and how Jonathan seemed indifferent. "It was like we'd got a puppy, or something." She spoke too about the number of times she came close to leaving the home so that she and Cheng could start a new life on their own.

  Nick had heard her speak of her past many times before, but this time she seemed more afflicted by her situation than previously.

  After she'd finished talking, something happened which neither of them had anticipated. She leant across the table and squeezed his hand.

  Nick squeezed back.

  They looked at each other nervously.

  "Let's go to Vanguard," Nick said, finally letting go.

  "It's too early yet, there's a bar across the road and I can call from there, to make sure we can get in," said Katherine.

  "And don't forget we have got this fucking meeting first thing in the morning."

  In the bar opposite they sat next to each other on a sofa, sharing wine.

  "So you think my admittedly juvenile infatuation with Miss Alex Anderson is going to turn out bad?" Nick asked.

  "Maybe you need to ask someone who is impartial."

  The bold statement took Nick by surprise. Katherine had never given an indication that she was attracted to him. Her holding his hand and what she had just said left him in no doubt. And he didn't know how to respond.

  The tension between them was palpable and for a time neither dared look at the other.

  "Listen, I think we should go now before anything happens that might impinge on our professional relationship," she said, taking a deep breath.

  He was lost for words. Give him a glance of a stocks chart, and he would be able to roll off an hour-long speech on how the market was performing and how the market was likely to perform. What to say to valued PA whom he had never before considered as a potential love partner left him mute.

  But maybe the wine or just pure loneliness got the better of him. "Katherine, stay at mine tonight."

  "I told you, I'm in the Medicine room at the Library."

  "Stay in Nick's room at the apartment," he blurted out more clumsily than he would have preferred.

  "Nick, we can't."

  "Why not?"

  "Because we will regret it in the morning. You are quite clearly besotted by Alex Anderson, I'm going through a rough time with Jonathan, I work for you in a fantastic job that I don't want to be less fantastic, and we are both lonely. All the ingredients make a fantastic recipe for disaster."

  "Stay in the spare room at the apartment, then," said Nick.

  "Sure, and the chances of us not ending up in the same bed are
, according to your forecasts and algorithms, saying what?"

  "Mmm, it would definitely be a buy for me."

  They both laughed and Katherine leant across and kissed him on the lips.

  He reciprocated and this time the kiss lingered.

  "I don't want to lose you as a PA but I do want you," Nick said.

  In the cab on the way back, Katherine called Elroy. "Elroy, it's Katherine, we're fine tonight, thanks. You go home and get some rest."

  "God, you are so efficient," said Nick.

  "You haven't seen anything yet," Katherine smiled.

  Nick opened the door to the apartment and called for Elroy. No answer.

  "Looks like we are alone," he said.

  "Looks like we are. And maybe we shouldn't be," said Katherine her arms around him.

  "I don't know about that," he said, undoing the two buttons on her jacket.

  She pulled it off and threw it on to a chair in the hallway.

  Nick then started undoing her pink blouse as they frantically sidestepped, kissing as they did, into the living room.

  He wondered why after all the years she had been working for him – even stayed overnight in his apartments in London and New York - he had always seen her only as a valued employee.

  He kicked off his shoes and took off his jacket while she undid the buttons on his trousers. Both of them were clearly excited enough that there was no going back, Katherine thought, even though in the back of her mind she was fearing the consequences.

  But she was wet and beyond acting sensibly. She pulled down his shorts and took him in her mouth. As she did so his fingers caressed her back, and then as they slumped on the sofa, he explored inside her knickers, first behind and then at the front. Helped by how wet she was, he stroked her easily and she groaned with pleasure.

  Soon they were both totally naked, her on top, first in soixante-neuf, her beautiful buttocks circling above his eye line. And then, when she could wait no longer, they were face to face, her astride him as he gyrated to a figure of '8' inside her.

  It was the best sex Katherine had ever had and she came quickly. He followed seconds later.

  She flopped exhausted on top of him.