going to plan a wedding when you’re working the hours you are?”
“I can do it,” she assured him. “Lots of girls in the office juggle both.”
“But I don’t want you to ‘juggle’ it. I want you to have time to do it properly rather than just jamming phone calls and menus in at spare moments.”
“Are you saying you want me to give work up now?”
“Yes, I guess I am,” he declared bluntly. “And you can forget all that nonsense about doing law too. You’ll never use it; it’s a complete waste of our time and money.”
Alex turned away and gazed blindly out across the view, taking in nothing.
“We’re going to start a family soon anyway,” Simon continued, unmoved by her silence. “We always agreed we would.”
“No, Simon,” Alex replied coldly, “You agreed we would. I’m far from being ready to start a family.”
Alex watched transfixed as his face turned pink with anger. “This is ridiculous,” he scoffed, shaking his head. “You’re a secretary. You earn a fraction of the profits I’ll be taking out of my next business. You’ll make no contribution to our financial position at all.”
“That’s not the point,” Alex argued, reeling from his dismissal. “I enjoy it. I enjoy the challenge and the friendships. I enjoy having a shape to my day when I wake up every morning. And I … I think I’m pretty good at it.”
“Okay,” Simon announced, suddenly brighter as though thinking a great idea through. “If you really want to work for awhile you can come and be a secretary at my business, part-time.”
Alex swallowed. His expression told her he was clearly struck by the sense and logic of his suggestion. How could she explain that it was not enough?
“I don’t want to work part-time. And I don’t think it’s a good idea for a husband and wife to work together anyway.”
“This is all because that boss of yours has done a job on your ego about doing law, isn’t it?”
“No, that’s not fair, Simon. What you don’t know is that I’ve wanted to do law for a long time and certainly before JP arrived. He made the offer, that’s true, but my real failure is that I should have discussed it with you and Mum and Dad ages ago. I was wrong not to.”
“God help me, all of a sudden you’re thinking about no one but yourself!”
“Sorry to interrupt,” Robert had approached Alex and Simon without their noticing. He’d clearly heard much of their recent exchange. “I have to show another place shortly but I can meet you back here later today if you’d like to see it again.”
“Alex here has to go back to work on a very important job,” Simon explained sulkily. “But I’d like to look at it again.”
Not another word passed between them as minutes later she and Simon walked to the car.
“I can phone for a cab if that’s easier,” Alex offered, knowing he would never agree.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Get in,” he ordered and they were the last words he uttered to her that day.
When he pulled over at the drop-off zone outside the hotel he glared straight ahead through the front windscreen, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.
“Si, can we please not leave things like this. This is awful,” Alex pleaded but he didn’t flinch. The second she stepped onto the footpath and closed the car door he sped off in a fury of rubber tyre friction on tarmac.
Alex stood there motionless, watching as his black car weaved recklessly through the long line of cabs and other vehicles in the traffic. In a daze of mortification and heartache she then walked into the foyer of the hotel.
JP was waiting for her.
He was sitting on a lounge chair with one foot propped up on his other leg, balancing his laptop precariously on his knee and typing very badly with only two fingers involved in the process. Alex stood there frozen, almost insensible of what she would do or say to him.
As though sensing her presence he looked up and then straight across at her. His smile was heart meltingly gentle as he shifted his computer onto the seat next to him and climbed to his feet. Watching her closely he walked slowly to where she stood rooted to the ground.
“You came,” he murmured quietly, running a hand through his hair in a clear gesture of relief. “I had the strongest feeling you wouldn’t; I fully expected to get a call from you at any minute …