door at the back of the shop.
Alex turned to follow Andrea but as she did a price tag on the outfit flipped over into full view. Four figures appeared after the dollar sign and behind Andrea’s back Alex turned and shot a look of sheer alarm at JP, pointing to the price tag. He looked at it, nodded and then raised his eyebrows and pointed his finger at her as if to say, ‘we had a deal, remember?’ then that same finger rested against his lips to silence her protests.
“There’s some shampoo in the shower recess,” Andrea continued, unaware of the wordless exchange going on behind her before tossing at Alex with breathtaking directness, “Oh, and you’ll find some heels out there as well. I’m afraid those shoes you’re wearing just won’t do at all—mud or no mud!”
JP McKenzie rose from the comfort of Andrea’s lounge chair with jerky movements. He knew that if he didn’t get up and walk about he’d soon slip into a deep, intoxicating sleep.
God he hated that flight from London. It absolutely killed him every time. He’d flown in three days ago and the jet lag was still eating away at his brain. And the problem was he needed his wits about him that morning, particularly as Alex Farrer had let it slip that every member of his new litigation section was dreading his arrival that day.
“Where on earth did you find that little poppet?” Andrea crooned from her large table, busy entering information into a laptop as they waited for Alex to return.
JP couldn’t help but smile to himself. Andrea had only just met Alex yet she’d immediately relegated her to the level of ‘poppet’.
How did women like Andrea know with such certainty who was in their social stratosphere and who wasn’t? Caroline had been like that too; swift and brutal had been his ex-girlfriend’s assessments of the women she associated with. You were either on her ‘A-list’ or you weren’t, and once you were off the list there were no second round offers.
“I found her on the edge of George Street just after the mud thing.” JP was wandering around the boutique, casting his eyes over the limited range of outfits on display. But he wasn’t thinking about clothing right then, he was thanking his lucky stars fate had intervened on his side that morning.
But for the old man in front of him at the cash machine, struggling to master the challenges of modern banking, he would never have stood still long enough to notice Alex Farrer standing motionless at the pedestrian crossing.
She would have been so easy to miss too. Grey was the colour she’d conjured up in his mind: from a distance she’d been almost invisible against the backdrop of mist and city paving. If she hadn’t turned at the very moment he was looking her way he would never have felt the lightning bolt of familiarity.
Once he’d captured a glimpse of her he’d been able to place her immediately. Quite a few times over the last couple of days he’d glanced at her photograph on the firm’s website. And although he’d only had her profile before him as he’d waited for the cash machine he’d known instantly that the drowned rat standing at the lights was his new Assistant PA.
“You found her on the edge of the road and are now buying her a four figure outfit!” Andrea tinkled lightly. “I didn’t know that inside that brash exterior was a knight in shining armour!”
“I have an ulterior motive,” he explained in a low voice as he approached the table and rested his hands on it to lean closer to Andrea.
Andrea’s eyes shone with conspiratorial pleasure. “And what would that be?”
“What that young lady doesn’t know is she’s my new PA and I’m her new boss and I’ve decided to have some fun in what is building up to be a day from hell.”
“I see, but buying your PA a new outfit is an expensive way to have fun. Clearly you’ve got too much time on your hands, JP McKenzie,” Andrea finished with a coquettish tilt to her head.
Andrea couldn’t have been more wrong. JP had never been busier in his life. For months he’d been drowning in the logistics of merging his London law firm with the one partnered by his two best mates, Adam and Justin. Just to complicate things he’d also had to negotiate a torrid break-up of his two year relationship with Caroline, and that had drained