by Fiona Harper
Saffron shook her head. ‘Love the girl to bits, but she’s not very discreet.’
Nicole stifled a laugh. No wonder they got on so well.
Saffron frowned. ‘I don’t want Alex to get wind of it, not when it’s only weeks away. He’s already asking lots of questions.’
‘Is he?’ Nicole asked breezily, ignoring the jolt in her pulse at the mention of his name.
Saffron nodded and picked up a strange-looking wood carving, which might have been a turtle, from one of the stalls. ‘How much is this?’ she asked the vendor.
He mentioned an exorbitant price. Nicole was just about to tell him to stop having a laugh, when Saffron handed over some cash and tucked the wooden creature in her pocket. ‘For my friend’s little girl,’ she explained. ‘She likes tortoises.’
Nicole couldn’t fault her generosity, if not her bargaining skills. ‘He charged you far too much,’ she whispered. ‘Next time, let me do it.’
Saffron smiled at her and tucked her arm through Nicole’s. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘This is nice, isn’t it? Shopping. Just us girls.’
Nicole smiled and nodded back. It was nice.
Or it would have been, if not for the sliding sensation she was feeling inside. If Saffron knew the truth about her, about what she was feeling for the man she was about to propose to, Nicole doubted she’d be smiling at her like that. She felt like the lowest kind of worm, even though she’d done the right thing and had walked away from Alex.
Saffron eyed a pink T-shirt with a rather dodgy Union Jack printed onto it. ‘Do you think I could get away with this if I was being ironic?’
Nicole cleared her throat and looked at Saffron. As nice as shopping was, they had appointments to get to. ‘We should really head towards The Ritz.’
Saffron wrinkled her nose. ‘I had a think about The Ritz while I’ve been hiding in here. I’ve been to plenty of events there and I’m not sure their biggest suite will be large enough. I’ve definitely decided I want the party to be massive. Why don’t we go straight to the Savoy?’
‘Okay,’ Nicole said slowly. She’d been hoping Saffron would make it more of an exclusive and intimate party, but it seemed that was not to be.
‘Only…’ Saffron crept towards the gates and peered round ‘…do you think you can nip out and hail down a cab? I’d rather not bump into anyone else I know.’
Nicole nodded and set about doing just that. Once one had slowed outside the entrance to the church courtyard, she ushered Saffron inside and soon they were zooming through the London traffic.
Saffron was looking out of the window, frowning, as they turned from Haymarket to pass Trafalgar Square.
‘And you’re definite about the big party idea?’ Nicole asked. Secretly, she was hoping none of the big party venues Saffron wanted would be free this close to Christmas and that Saffron would be forced to go another way. ‘It’s not too late to go with one of the other London-based options if you think it’d be more Alex’s cup of tea. How about the speedboat down the Thames? Or the helicopter ride that takes you over the city and out to Hadsborough Castle for an intimate evening together in their turret suite?’
Saffron shook her head. ‘No, I want a party. Something that’ll get in the papers and the celebrity magazines. Something to let them all know…’ She shook her head. ‘Never mind.’
Well, Saffron was her father’s daughter all right. The media mogul had a reputation for not just setting his mind, but setting it in concrete. It hadn’t mattered how many great suggestions she’d fired in Saffron’s way; they’d all been batted away without a moment’s consideration. Which was irritating on a professional front—after all, Saffron had hired her to do a job and now wasn’t letting her do it. If Nicole had wanted to be a glorified dogsbody, who did all the legwork for someone else’s ideas, she’d have stayed at Elite Gatherings.
But it also niggled on another front, the way crumbs did when you’d had breakfast in bed. Every time she tried to make peace with what was happening, she just couldn’t settle down comfortably and rest.
Even if she totally ignored her own feelings about Alex, Saffron wasn’t planning the proposal Alex would want. Which meant either she didn’t know Alex well enough to choose well, or she was just ignoring his needs and doing what she wanted. Neither option was a good omen for a long and happy marriage.
If it was any other client she’d say something, give a gentle hint, but she hadn’t quite been able to let the words out of her mouth. Probably because she couldn’t guarantee they would be free from her own ulterior motives, that the personal side of why she didn’t want Saffron to marry Alex might hijack her mouth and take over.
The taxi turned into Savoy Court and drew to a stop under the black-and-gold Art Deco canopy that shielded the entrance to the hotel. She paid the cabby and followed Saffron into the lobby, where they were met by a member of the hotel’s events team and were escorted to the Lancaster Ballroom. The man gave them a quick and informative rundown of the services they could offer, then left Saffron and Nicole to discuss matters in private.
It was odd, being in the centre of this grand old room, no tables, no chairs, no people. As if its soul were missing. Nicole turned to ask Saffron something, but she was tapping away on her phone.
‘It’s Alex…’ she said, ‘asking where I am.’ She shook her head. ‘He’s never been the clingy type. That’s one of the reasons that I like him. So easy-going, so relaxed…If I didn’t know any better I’d think he was being a little…’
‘A little what?’
Saffron shrugged one shoulder. ‘Well…jealous.’ Then she broke into one of her wide, dazzling grins. ‘Cute, huh? But it’s making it very difficult to meet up with you or even research anything on my phone. He keeps asking who I’m texting when I’m browsing the websites you recommended.’
Nicole’s stomach dived. Alex was jealous?
‘Are you sure that’s what it is?’
Saffron shrugged again. ‘What else could it be?’
Nicole swallowed. Suddenly her mouth was very dry and her words felt like they were dragging on the edges of her throat before they made it out.
‘He’s been very protective recently,’ Saffron added, nodding to herself. ‘Especially with all the mess that’s going on in the papers.’ She glanced at Nicole. ‘I expect you’ve seen it…Everybody has.’
Nicole wanted to say she hadn’t, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t have avoided it if she’d wanted to. And she seemed to have developed a special kind of radar for spotting her client’s image on the front of a magazine. The things that journalist had said hadn’t been kind. Or true. Okay, Saffron was a little impulsive and immature, but she wasn’t evil. As blasé as Saffron seemed about the whole thing, it had to have hurt, right?
She felt a sudden pang of sympathy for her client. And she suddenly understood why Alex had called his situation “complicated”.
Saffron needed him. That was what he’d been trying to say, wasn’t it? And, sap that she was, she liked him even more for doing that, for standing by Saffron. But it still wasn’t going to wave a magic wand over Saffron’s off-base proposal idea and guarantee a ‘yes’, would it?
What if he said no? It wouldn’t just be bad news for her, for Hopes & Dreams. The tabloids would have a field day when it came out. It would just cause Saffron to be even more of a laughing stock than she already was, and that was something she didn’t deserve. Just because she’d jumped into this proposal with both feet, it didn’t mean that she wasn’t being incredibly brave.
Nicole heaved in a breath. She needed to act on her client’s best interests, and suddenly it was really clear what she needed to do. If she’d got the same vibes from another prospective fiancé, she’d have said something, and it wasn’t as if she was going to tell Saffron to pull the plug, either, which made her feel less guilty, but there was something she could suggest that might help everyone involved.
She walked in a circle, taking in the powder-blue paintwork, th
e elaborate plaster moulding that covered the walls and ceiling, reminding her of a grand French palace. ‘What with everything going on in the media at the moment, are you sure it’s the right time to plan your proposal? We could always wait until the new year, you know…Maybe do something stupendous for Valentine’s Day?’
Alex and Saffron clearly were on very different pages about their relationship. A little extra time might help things become clear to both of them.
Saffron shook her head. ‘I’ve got Christmas lights in my mind when I think of this proposal and I can’t seem to shake them. Valentine’s would be all…well, wrong.’
Nicole nodded glumly. ‘Really? Because we—’
‘Really.’ Saffron was wearing a most determined expression. Then she looked round the room. ‘You know what? Even though this is fabulous, I think we should keep looking. I want somewhere with stairs…You can’t make a great entrance without a good flight of stairs, can you?’ She smiled her sparkly smile at Nicole.
‘Okay, then,’ Nicole said, looking down at the list she’d written in her book as they’d been talking. Her handwriting was appalling and she hadn’t even managed to stay on the ruled lines. ‘Stairs it is. In that case, what do you think about the Hamilton?’
CHAPTER THIRTY
As Nicole walked through Victoria Embankment Gardens towards the Tube station, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out, but when she saw the message alert on the screen, she almost put it straight back.
Alex.
Was he trying to torture her?
Here she was, trying to remember all the very good reasons she should forget he even existed, and everywhere she went, everyone she spoke to, it was Alex, Alex, Alex…
Got a job 4 u if u want it?
Oh, flip.
Amidst all the other Alex-related problems going on, she’d completely forgotten about the fake job—and the cover story that wouldn’t die.
She’d just exited the park and reached the entrance to Embankment Tube station. She stopped in the midst of the chequered ticket hall, about ten feet short of the barriers. Not sure, she texted back. Perhaps, if she was vague enough, he’d get tired of tapping in questions with his thumbs and give up. But when another message arrived, she had to admit it didn’t look as if that approach was working.
Next Sat. Big wedding. Great for your article.
Someone bumped into her in their rush to get down the stairs and catch their Tube, but Nicole hardly felt it.
She typed another wishy-washy message. Not sure I can make it.
??? he texted back.
Why? she screamed inside her head. You know why! Or at least he knew one of the very good reasons why. She scowled at her phone and replied:
I’ve got a…She paused while she searched for the right word…thing to go to.
Well, the right word hadn’t come and that was the best she’d been able to do.
She waited for her phone to ding again, but it stayed silent. Had it worked? Had she finally put him off? She was starting to assume she had, when it started to ring. Peggy said she was going to call after the Savoy for an update on the Saffron situation. Nicole was so flustered she picked it up without thinking.
‘Hi,’ a voice on the other end of the line said. Deep and rich with a hint of gravel. Definitely not Peggy. She didn’t know how, but she could hear him smiling.
‘Hi’ was all she could manage back. And why did her voice have to sound so soft and breathy? Couldn’t she even maintain some much-needed professional distance from this man when he was miles away?
‘I’ve been speaking to a contact of mine who caters big weddings,’ he finally said. ‘He’s got a job for you, if you want it. Just the sort of thing that would be perfect for your article.’
‘Alex…You don’t have to do that.’
‘Yes,’ he said very firmly. ‘I do. It’s my fault you didn’t get your in-depth look at wedding photography.’
Ah. He hadn’t bought her pathetic excuse for pulling out of the rest of the weddings she was going to do with him. She didn’t really blame him.
‘The least I can do is make sure the rest of the articles go well,’ he added.
She closed her eyes and told herself not to fight him. Arguing would only prolong the conversation.
When she didn’t answer, he added, ‘How’s it coming along, by the way? I hope you haven’t trashed my character too thoroughly.’
Now she couldn’t just hear the smile; she could hear the dimple too. Which was just plain ridiculous. ‘Erm…fine,’ she replied, finding it hard to squeeze the air out of her lungs.
‘Good,’ he said. ‘Well, it’s a big society affair—around three hundred guests, silver service. If you want to really find out how waitressing is done at these things it’s a perfect opportunity.’
It would be. If she was even writing a flipping article. But she couldn’t tell Alex that. He’d want to know why she’d been lying, and that was something else she couldn’t tell him. She rubbed the palm of her hand over her forehead as the commuters flowed round her. She didn’t want to talk to him any more. Not that she didn’t want to hear his voice, because she stupidly did, but because she was just so tired of the empty words she’d been spouting, all the lies.
‘I’ll see if I can rejig my schedule,’ she replied wearily. And then she couldn’t help feeling just a little bit warm inside. He’d gone to the trouble of setting this up for her. It was very sweet of him. ‘Thank you,’ she said, her voice softening.
‘No problem.’
Such ‘Alex’ kind of words. On the surface so laid-back, so simple, but she heard the answering warmth in his tone. A warmth that said way more than the syllables ever could.
Their business was done. She should hang up now. Or he should. They both knew it, but neither of them did. Just hearing silence from him was better than hearing a thousand words from someone else.
She stared at her phone for a good thirty seconds and guessed Alex was doing the same. Then she took a deep breath. There was something she needed to know, even if she was going to phone his catering guy up and wriggle her way out of whatever he’d set up for her.
‘Will you be there?’ she asked. ‘At this wedding?’
The silence continued, and then he said, ‘Yes.’
Her heart flipped, despite the fact she wasn’t going. Despite the fact that even if she was telling the truth about writing the article, she probably shouldn’t. Nothing had changed. Alex and Saffron were still together. She should not be getting excited at the thought of him possibly wanting to see her.
She closed her eyes and shook her head as he answered. Once again, Alex had eaten through her defences like acid, and all she had left was as much truth as she could tell him. ‘Is that why you’re keen for me to do it?’
More silence.
She sighed. ‘I thought we both said this…us…wasn’t a good idea. Not now.’
His voice was low when he answered. ‘I know.’ There was another pause, but when he continued he sounded much more like his normal, nothing-gets-to-me self. ‘But you know first-hand how busy I get at these things. Between me snapping away and you serving a zillion guests, we probably won’t even catch a glimpse of each other, let alone have time to interact.’
She nodded, even though he couldn’t see her.
‘If that’s the case, why are you so intent that I do this?’
She could almost imagine him running his hand through his shaggy dark hair as he thought about his answer. ‘Because it sounded like this article was a big thing and, like I said, I don’t want your career to suffer because of me. Especially when neither of us has done anything wrong.’
Nicole didn’t know about that. Okay, she hadn’t slept with him, hadn’t even kissed him, but that dance at the steampunk wedding…The way they’d communicated just because their bodies had been close, even though they hadn’t spoken a word, even though they’d hardly looked at each other. It felt as if a betrayal of some kind had taken place
.
‘Okay,’ she told him. ‘I won’t let it ruin my career.’ At least that was the truth. By not going, she was doing her career, and him, a huge great favour.
‘You’ll think about it?’
She let out a soft breath. ‘Yes.’ Another truth. She wouldn’t stop thinking about it, but that didn’t mean she was going to go.
It was time to rip the plaster off, end this painfully long conversation that shouldn’t have been, that should have been left to her voicemail. She waved her hand in the air. ‘I should probably…’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘So should I.’
But as she was drawing the phone away from her face, ready to end the call, she heard him speak again and held it back to her ear. ‘I ran into an old friend and his wife the other day. She works at Beautiful Weddings too. What was her name? Sharon? No…Shona, that’s it. But when I mentioned your name, she said she’d never heard of you. That is where you said you worked, right?’
Nicole gulped. Never, ever was she going to say she was a journalist ever again when scoping out a potential target. ‘I don’t know if those were exactly my words,’ she said, brain whirring away in search of an excuse. ‘I’m…I’m a freelancer.’ And then the rest of the explanation rolled easily off her tongue, tasting bitter as it went. ‘There’s an editor over at Beautiful Weddings who really liked my idea and we’re trying to make it work.’
He didn’t say anything, which was what she’d wanted a moment ago, but now it was making her nervous.
‘Maybe I didn’t make it clear when we met at your exhibition. I was a little…thrown…by seeing you again. It must have just come out wrong.’
‘Me too,’ he said. And he was smiling again. ‘Thrown, that is…’
She let go of a breath she hadn’t been aware she’d been holding.
‘Nic…? I know this thing between us is complicated, but—’
‘Alex?’ she said loudly, saving them both the only way she knew how. She couldn’t let him finish that sentence. ‘You’re breaking up. What did you say?’
