by Jules Wake
‘There’s just over another week before you go back. Maybe she’ll get the message.’
When she finished her drink, he got up, undressed and slipped into bed, putting an arm around her and kissing the top of her head.
‘Jason?’
He tensed, still caught up in his thoughts and answered warily, ‘Yes?’
‘Can we go home tomorrow?
Something in the words we and home, settled the swirling thoughts. Pulling her against him, feeling her body soften, he kissed her forehead. ‘Of course we can.’
‘We need to get a Christmas tree.’
Chapter 26
‘Thank God, you’re here,’ shouted Al across the kitchen. ‘The bloody freezer packed up overnight.’
‘Yes,’ said Will, from his position lying on the floor in front of the freezer, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows. ‘Go and work your magic. Al’s about to have a nervous breakdown, trying to work out what he’s going to do with three legs of lamb and five tons of prawns. And I’m trying to put in a new fuse.’
‘Simple,’ said Siena, pulling on an apron, rolling up her sleeves and washing her hands.
By eleven, she and Al had sorted out three different prawn specials and the legs of lamb were cooking slowly in cast iron pans, each in a bottle of wine, which could be served up later in the week or refrozen if necessary.
The morning passed quickly and by three, as the lunchtime crowd had melted away, she enjoyed catching up with Marcus and Will over a coffee in the bar.
‘Siena,’ Lisa bounded in, said a universal hello to everyone, with her usual scowl for Will and hopped up on a bar stool next to her. ‘I’ve got news for you.’
Will’s mouth flattened in a mutinous line. ‘It may have escaped your notice, but this is actually Siena’s place of work and not a social centre. People usually come here and pay for food and or drinks. I don’t see you doing either.’
‘Marcus,’ said Lisa sweetly, ‘what’s the cheapest drink you have here?’
Marcus looked uncertainly between her and his boss. Will’s lip curled and he stomped off into the kitchen. Siena wondered anew at the history between the two.
‘Lime and soda.’
‘I’ll have a cup of coffee, now that Prince Charming’s buggered off.’ Lisa beamed but there was a definite sadness in her eyes.
‘So,’ she fidgeted on the stool and got out her phone. ‘I went back to River Island on Saturday. The manageress grabbed me and said the day you were in the changing rooms doing your Gok Wan act, they doubled their takings.’
‘What? Is that some kind of feng shui?’
‘You haven’t heard of Gok Wan?’
Marcus laughed. ‘She hasn’t heard of John Whitaker. Not likely to have heard of Gok Wan.’
‘Seriously?’ Lisa leaned back on her stool, almost falling off.
‘I’m foreign, remember,’ said Siena with a giggle at their mutually horrified faces.
‘Gok Wan is a fashion presenter. I can’t believe you haven’t heard of him. Anyway no matter, when you were doling out fashion advice in the changing rooms, it turns out the store had its best takings ever. She wants you to go back and do the same again. How cool is that? And she’s going to pay you. I thought you could go into business, position it as,’ Lisa lifted her fingers in quote marks, ‘Shopping with Siena.’
‘Really?’ Ever since she’d been to the fashion school, she’d been thinking about an idea. On the long car journey back with Jason yesterday, she’d talked about it and he’d come up with lots of marketing suggestions. Which she guessed was why he ran his own business. She’d since phoned Ruth back to ask about other courses.
‘That’s brilliant and I’ve been thinking too. You know that dress, the one you sold? The lady at the fashion school loved my coat. I thought we could maybe go shopping again. Pick up some more pieces and sell them, online.’
‘You could do more!’ Lisa hopped up and down on her stool. ‘You could set up a website, offering fashion advice, select outfits from different shops, be a personal shopper. Sell things online.’
‘Or get a stall on the market? I was wondering about setting up a pop up fashion stall.’
Bubbling with ideas and enthusiasm, half an hour elapsed before Will stormed through the bar.
‘If it isn’t too much trouble, I’d be ever so grateful, if you could perhaps consider gracing us with your presence in the restaurant. You know, perhaps lay up the tables for service tonight, as we’re paying you for the privilege.’
‘Ooer,’ whispered Lisa, hopping down from her seat and pushing a fiver towards Marcus as payment for her coffee. ‘Better dash.’ She winked at Siena and scuttled out of the pub.
Funnily enough Will’s mood improved almost as soon as Lisa had departed.
By the time Jason came to ask if she was ready to go, Will was back to his usual self.
‘Want a pint before you head off?’
‘I’d love to but … can we do it tomorrow. All that driving over the weekend: I’m pretty knackered.’
‘You didn’t seem too knackered this morning,’ whispered Siena in his ear as he unlocked the Land Rover.
He slapped her bottom and opened the door for her. ‘That’s why I’m knackered. Your insatiable demands on my poor broken body.’
‘Pish,’ dismissed Siena feeling decidedly pleased with herself. ‘You weren’t complaining when,’ she leaned over and whispered the rest in his ear, grinning when he blushed.
‘I’m a shadow of my former self. Wasting away, I am.’
‘I’d better feed you up then. Seafood linguine tonight?’ She lifted up a freezer bag. ‘Al had to give everyone some seafood to take home.’
‘Wonder if your sister has got a nice wine to go with it.’
Siena laughed. ‘You really had no idea how expensive that wine was, did you?’
‘No, I bloody didn’t. Who in their right mind pays over three hundred quid for a bottle of wine?’
‘Lots of people. You have to agree it was delicious. Worth every penny.’
‘Hmm,’ Jason didn’t look convinced, ‘as long as they’re not my pennies.’
‘Sadly it’s back to supermarket plonk tonight. There’s one bottle of Lafite left but I think we’d need a really good excuse to open it.’ She sighed. ‘I do love good wine.’
It was only as she was cooking and Jason was scanning the local paper that she suddenly remembered her friend’s visit.
‘Lisa dropped by the pub today.’
‘Bet that thrilled Will,’ he said his voice dry, not looking up from the entertainment page.
‘What is it with those two? They clearly fancy the pants off each other but both pretend to hate each other.’
‘I don’t honestly know. He’s a player and any woman who doesn’t realise that is going to get her fingers burned. Maybe that’s what happened, although it doesn’t explain why he’s so anti-her.’
‘His loss, she’s lovely. Anyway.’ Siena proceeded to tell him her news.
‘Lisa and I are going over to see the store manager tomorrow afternoon. She’s going to pick me up from the pub.’
‘Siena?’ There was a questioning tone to his voice. ‘It’s the sixteenth of December today. A week before you go home.’
She stilled. ‘Just for a chat with the manageress. About fashion.’ She crossed her fingers under the table. Until she’d got things arranged, there was no point rocking the boat and suggesting that she might come back after Christmas.
Over dinner, Jason asked if she fancied going out on Saturday night to see some live music.
‘What, like a concert?’ She brightened, ‘Do you know I’ve never been to one?’
‘More of a gig in a pub. We’ll start small, build up.’
‘Sounds fun.’ A thought suddenly occurred to her. ‘Do you know something?’
He shook his head.
‘That’s the first time you’ve asked me out. That will be our first official date.’
He
smiled. ‘Better late than never, I guess.’
Who knew that domestic bliss could be so blissful? The quiet evening was the end to a pretty good day. If this was normal life, she could take it quite happily.
‘Man, you are in so deep.’
‘Don’t talk out of your arse Will.’ They were sitting at Jason’s desk. ‘Now what about the name for our spring seasonal?’
‘Siena’s Fancy. Under the Thumb. Married by May?’ Will put his feet up on the table and leaned back on two legs of the chair, his hands behind his head.
‘Piss off. I’m serious.’ He pushed the new label designs over to Will’s side of the table.
‘I’m not surprised. She’s a babe. Smart. Capable and puts a smile on your grumpy face. She’s good for you.’
‘And she’s going home next week.’ Why didn’t that sound so great?
‘She doesn’t have to. She could come back after Christmas. I’ll keep her on. She’s a bloody good waitress.’
Jason’s jaw tightened.
‘Will, shut the fuck up.’ He pushed Will’s converse off the desk and tapped the A3 sheets insistently. ‘Concentrate.’
‘Ooooh. Touched a nerve.’
Jason sighed, Will really wasn’t letting go of this. He sat back and folded his arms.
‘Look mate, if you’re so bloody insistent on knowing, Siena and I having been having a good time, probably because we knew it was finite. OK? That’s all there is to it. Circumstances mean we’re sharing a house but we’re not living together.’
‘Just having wild monkey sex on tap until then?’
‘That’s about the size of it.’
‘By the way, that’s a very defensive pose. Negative body language.’
‘That’s to stop me decking you. Now if we could get down to business instead of discussing my wild monkey sex life, which is nothing to do with you.’
Will narrowed his eyes.
‘Jeez. You really believe that don’t you? You poor deluded bastard.’
Jason clenched his teeth and counted to ten. Will leaned forward, not realising quite how much danger he was putting his ugly mug in.
‘You could do much worse. I like her a lot. Like I said, she could stay on. You’re punching well above your weight, but one day the brewery will take off and you’ll make enough to keep her in Prada handbags and Mercedes.’
He winced. Siena used to drive a Mercedes. She once had a Prada handbag. She drank three-hundred pound bottles of wine without a second thought. It might be years before the brewery made proper money. At the moment they made enough to pay Ben and for Jason’s own living expenses.
‘I still think Married in May is a good name.’
‘And I still think you’re an arse, so shall we agree to disagree?’
‘Fine by me.’ Unrepentant Will smirked.
A top of the range BMW had parked in his space, which didn’t improve his mood. Will’s needling had got him thinking and his thoughts weren’t encouraging.
No promises. They’d agreed. In five days’ time she’d be gone. Christmas Day. New Year’s Eve. All without Siena. Now it had taken root, the thought wouldn’t leave him alone. Like ivy, it pushed itself into every nook and cranny of his brain.
This had been a pleasant interlude for both of them. A brief novelty before going back to the champagne lifestyle she’d enjoyed all her life. He couldn’t ask her to give that up, it would be Stacey all over again. Dooming someone to disappointment.
He’d topped off a bottle of lager when the doorbell went. They had nearly a week.
‘Hi, is Siena in?’ An urbane, business-suited man in his early forties stood on the doorstep. It took Jason a second to twig the French accent.
‘Sorry, no she’s out.’
The guy’s face radiated supercilious amusement, reminding Jason of a particularly snooty cat. ‘Shopping, knowing Siena.’
Yves. The suit said it all, along with the regal tilt of his head, suggesting an over-inflated awareness of his place in the world.
Jason shrugged, aware and amused by the contrast between his own faded jeans, bare feet and the obviously, tailored cut of Yves’ suit and Italian leather shoes. ‘I don’t know. Do you want me to tell her you called?’
‘Actually, I’ve come a long way to see her. I’d like to come in and wait, if I may?’
Not if he had anything to do with it. The bastard could go to hell.
‘I’ve no idea how long she’ll be. Haven’t you got her mobile number?’
‘I wanted to surprise her. She loves surprises.’
Did she? Should he have known that? ‘So who are you?’ Petty, but satisfying when he saw the expression on Yves’ haughty face.
‘I’m Yves. Her fiancé.’
Jason glared. ‘Really? I should have guessed.’
‘Yes,’ the other man sighed. ‘I’m the big bad wolf.’ He held up his hands and grinned showing perfect white teeth. ‘She’s been telling fairy tales again about how awful I am. Mistreating her. Taking her out to dinner against her will. Buying her expensive jewellery she doesn’t need. You’re not the first, you know.’
‘Not the first what?’ Jason felt as if he’d made the wrong move, left his queen in danger, enticed into it by a chess master.
‘First lover she’s taken. She’s very impetuous. Impulsive. Acts on the spur of the moment.’
An image of her face laughing up at him, like a fallen snow angel, the day she dragged him into the field, filled his head.
‘I’ve come to take her home. You probably think I’m mad.’
‘Why would I think you’re mad?’
‘Because I’m so stupidly besotted, I forgive her every time she does this.’
Jason felt acutely uncomfortable discussing this on the doorstep. Yves was supposed to be intimidating and authoritative. A heartless bully. Not understanding and lovesick, unafraid to declare his feelings.
‘Why don’t you come in? Have a drink. She shouldn’t be too long. She’s out with a friend.’
‘Thank you.’ When they reached the kitchen, the other man’s eyes were round with fascination.
‘Siena lives here? Nom d’un chien! I can’t believe it.’ His accent thickened and he laughed delightedly. ‘My poor girl. Oh, she really will be ready to come home this time.’
‘I wouldn’t be too sure about that.’ Siena didn’t seem to mind the cosiness of the kitchen and the tiny lounge and certainly didn’t complain about the size of the bathroom or having to share it any more.
‘Would you like a drink? I’ve got lager or English beer.’
‘Do you have any wine?’
‘Yeah, some white.’ He removed the open bottle from the fridge.
‘Actuellement, no. Don’t worry. It looks a bit—’ He pulled a face. ‘Poor Siena, is that what she’s reduced to drinking now? We’ll have to sort that out.’ He placed his hands on the back of one of the chairs, like the foreman of a jury delivering important news. ‘I think I need to explain. This is not the first time Siena has decided to have a little adventure. You have only heard her side of the story, which I’m sure was very sad.’
‘Adventure?’ Rather damning terminology.
‘I know I’m an idiot. But I love her. However, I have responsibilities. She can’t seem to understand that. Last time I had to go to the estate to manage some business and I couldn’t take her to the Paris shows, so she went to Canada. A month’s skiing. A fling with an instructor. Decided she was going to be a ski teacher. Then in January, I had to cancel our trip to London. She flew to New York. I think he was a photographer and that’s what she was going to be.’ He smiled sadly. ‘It’s a pattern I’m afraid. But she always comes back. This time, she wants to be a fashion designer and there’s you. She’s very impetuous, led by her passions, non?’
A flush heated Jason’s body. Her hands on him. He had to turn away.
‘She seems happy enough to me. Enjoying the independence.’ Jason tried to reconcile what Yves was saying with everything he k
new about Siena.
Yves laughed. ‘You’re not thinking of asking her to stay? With you, in this,’ his eyes ranged dismissively around the room, ‘love nest? Look around you. This is novelty. How long before she misses her designer clothes, shopping trips, the skiing – she loves skiing. You know that? Can you afford to take her to Zermatt?’
At the moment Jason couldn’t afford to take her to Tesco, not until the next pay check.
Who knew how long it would be before his finances looked healthier? How long would it be before Siena’s relentless optimism was ground down by disappointment? Stacey who had lived with him for three years hadn’t been prepared to take the risk; why would Siena? And when had he started thinking of Siena with any permanence? Hell, Will was right. He was in too deep. They’d agreed this was never supposed to be forever. But he wanted her to be happy.
‘Do you have a bathroom I could use?’
Of course they had a flipping bathroom, what did he think this was? ‘Up the stairs, second door.’
When Yves didn’t reappear, Jason started to mount the stairs and saw him coming out of Siena’s bedroom, his hand inside his suit jacket pocket.
The other man gave him a dejected smile. ‘Sorry I couldn’t resist. Seeing where she’s been all this time.’
Something didn’t quite ring true but Jason couldn’t put a finger on it.
‘Hi Jason,’ Siena’s voice called as the front door opened.
‘Hi, you’ve—’
‘Siena,’ Yves stumbled down the last stairs in his haste to get to her, enfolding her in a film star style heartfelt hug. He even threw in an expression of heart-rending pain.
Jason itched to shove him out of the way. Siena should be in his arms. For good. But it wouldn’t be fair. He could never give her what she needed.
‘Yves.’ Her voice sounded choked. Jason couldn’t bear to look. Retreating to the kitchen he took a long swallow of beer.
Siena walked in as he was pulling a second bottle out of the fridge, her eyes bright, as if close to tears.
‘Yves wants to talk.’
