Legally Addicted - By Lena Dowling Page 0,38

well you wouldn’t understand and that’s a good thing, but gaining the security of a live-in job that came with a ready-made family was priceless. I don’t think Bradley would mind me saying he’s almost like a son to me.’

‘The way you grew up — I don’t mean to pry. But were you poor?’

‘Desperately poor — but we didn’t need to be. My father had a reasonable job as a mechanic, but he was an alcoholic so we lived hand to mouth, as they say.’

‘I do know what that’s like. Exactly what that’s like.’

‘Oh, my poor dear. Well, you’ve fallen on your feet here. Bradley adores you.’

Bradley adored her? Her insides contracted, and not with hunger. She clasped a hand to her throat. The thought was terrifying.

The butler’s face clouded over.

‘Oh dear, I hope I haven’t said the wrong thing. Let me get you breakfast. Everything looks better on a full stomach. Nothing is too much trouble. Waffles? Full English? Continental?’

The old man was jabbering. She should put him out of his misery.

‘Do you have puffed wheat, the kind with honey on?’

‘Of course — come with me, dear.’

Jeffrey led the way out of the lounge into a large industrial style kitchen, a gleaming mass of stainless steel with two enormous fridges, four sinks and a ten ring gas burner.

‘Wow — this looks like a restaurant kitchen.’

‘In its heyday it almost was. The Spencers were great entertainers.’

Jeffrey pulled out a bar stool from underneath the bench and patted the seat, indicating she should sit down.

‘Actually, you sitting there takes me back. That’s exactly where Bradley used to sit when he got home from school. I’d make him a snack, and then he would usually do his homework right here in the kitchen. He was a good kid. Very placid. It usually took a lot to rile him. Apart from standing up to his parents to insist on becoming a lawyer, he pretty much went with the flow, which was perhaps to his detriment. If he had been a difficult child he might have received more attention from his parents.’

‘What were his parents like?’

Jeffrey moved swiftly around the kitchen, opening the refrigerator and various cupboards, answering her question as he went. ‘Brad’s father spent most of his time at the office, or at least that’s where he said he was, and Brad’s mother threw herself into charity work and entertaining. Evelyn is still alive, but she spends a lot of time in London. Even with her living overseas, I don’t think Bradley sees much less of her than he did when he was a child, and being an only child meant he was very much alone.’

He placed a bowl of puffed wheat and a small jug of milk down on the counter in front of her, then handed her a spoon.

‘Oh,’ Georgia said thoughtfully, digging in to her cereal.

So that is what Brad had meant about being left out. To an extent she could empathise, but at least Brad had someone when he was growing up. It was hard to feel too sorry for someone who had their own personal butler, even if that butler did have to act as a stand-in for his parents.

She ate the rest of her breakfast in silence, and Jeffrey returned to the lounge with his duster. Once she had finished the cereal she slipped out of the apartment, and took the train back home to change before returning to the city.

She got in to work an hour or so later to find Miriam had arrived before her. Spinning around in her chair to face Georgia’s tiny work area, she handed over Georgia’s messages, which she traded for the draft addiction centre proposal that needed to be typed.

‘Dayton’s secretary just told me that Spencer has negotiated his release from the partnership. Georgia, does this mean what I think it means?’

‘Presumably it means we get our corner office back,’ Georgia replied, deliberately misinterpreting Miriam’s question.

‘I meant, are you and Spencer officially seeing each other now? Is that why he’s leaving the partnership?’

‘Yes, I guess so.’

Brad’s comment that he had something to sort out at the office made sense now.

Miriam let out a squeal.

‘Keep it down. No need for the whole office to know. Dayton and Llewellyn are going to be seriously pissed off as it is.’

‘If he really loves you he’ll make the severance payment big enough to cover the disappointment.’

If he really loves you.

Bradley adores you.

The words fused, combining in force to jump up and smack Georgia