My Year of Saying No - Maxine Morrey Page 0,14

to repay him for introducing me to my fiancé.’

‘He did?’

She smiled and glanced down at her left hand. A huge sparkling solitaire diamond set in a platinum band caught the light as she moved it. ‘He did. Seb and I went out a few times, but it never came to anything. Just not the right chemistry for something to happen, I guess, but we had a fun time, so it was lovely to stay friends with him.’

‘He is a good friend,’ I replied, relieved to be back on more solid ground.

‘So then he calls me up and tells me he’s just had a meeting with this guy who’s planning on sponsoring the charity for something and thinks he’d be perfect for me and that he’d set up a dinner date for that evening.’

‘He didn’t?’

‘I know, right? I kind of wanted to be cross with him for barrelling ahead without asking me first, but there’s something about Seb. He’s a pretty good assessor of people. And, frankly, I had nothing better to do that night, so I went.’

I pointed at her left hand, grinning. ‘I guess it worked out.’

‘Perfectly. Of course, Seb did his best not to be smug about it when I told him, but he didn’t quite pull that off.’

‘No, well, he is a man.’

Carla laughed and glanced at the expensive watch on her wrist. ‘I’d better get on, but I just wanted to meet you and check everything was OK.’

‘And check out who Seb had pulled strings for?’ I grinned.

She wrinkled her nose. ‘Was I that obvious?’

I shook my head, still smiling. ‘Not at all. It was really nice to meet you. I wanted to thank you anyway. And I’d totally have done the same thing. It’s obvious that Seb means a lot to you, which is understandable. But don’t worry, we’re just friends. There’s absolutely no romance there, so I’m not about to break his heart or anything. I think I’d be just as upset as you if someone did that to him, so I totally get it.’

‘There was some aristocrat after him when we were going out. He didn’t seem interested at the time, but I did wonder…’

I nodded. ‘Yes. She’s still interested apparently.’

Carla pulled a face. ‘I know he’s Mr Tough Guy, but she’s already been through three husbands.’ She made a palms-up gesture. ‘I’d just hate for Seb to get hurt.’

‘I know. Me too.’

Carla touched my arm again. ‘I’m so glad he sent you here. It was lovely to meet you. I really hope you enjoy the rest of your stay, and don’t forget,’ she handed over her card, ‘anything you want, just let me know.’

‘Thanks, Carla. For everything.’

‘My pleasure. Keep an eye on that boy for me, won’t you?’

‘Will do.’

She gave me another full-wattage smile and then strode off across the foyer, heading for a door marked ‘Staff Only.’

‘Come on, Humph. Time to go upstairs and see what we might fancy from room service tonight.’

Humphrey looked up from where he’d flopped over on to his side and was now sprawled out like a very small, shaggy rug.

‘Come on, lazybones. There might even be a charcoal biccie in it for you.’

At this, his ears perked up and he scrabbled up onto all fours.

‘Thought that might help,’ I said, laughing at his antics as we headed towards the stairs. As we climbed, one sentence from my conversation with Carla kept twirling around in my head… the way he talked about you.

Back in the room, I settled Humphrey in his bed with his promised treat and switched on the mini kettle as I laid a turmeric teabag in the bone china mug. I’d turned my nose up at these when I first saw them, but, actually, they were surprisingly enjoyable.

It doesn’t mean anything, I told myself as I gave the teabag a few dunks. As Carla had said, and as he himself had admitted, that’s just how Seb was with people he cared about. And there was no reading into that caring any further than needed either. We were friends. That was it. He cared about me as a friend. Just as he did Carla. Which was great. Lovely, in fact.

I squished the pillows up behind me as I flicked on the telly with the remote control. With a bit of luck, he might be able to find someone to present me with a rock the size of my dog too.

‘I’m thinking you could do with another weekend at that spa,’ Seb said, frowning at me