Maid for Advertising - Susie Tate Page 0,43
after the way you treated me on the boat. But it’s so obvious that you only paid me attention after you knew I would be useful to you.” My voice broke on the last few words and I looked away.
“Urvi no,” he groaned. “How can you believe that when I . . . when we . . .” He stepped towards me and took my face in his hands. My resolve wavered for a moment. He looked almost pained as he stared down at me. “Okay, look we don’t have to sort this all out now. I just need to know how you are. Is the monitor working? Are you-?”
“I’m fine,” I cut him off, stepping back from his grasp and pushing my hair behind my ears. “The monitor is helping no end.” I bit my lip and let it go, crossing my arms over my chest. “Thank you,” I muttered. “You don’t know how much it’s meant to me.”
His shoulders sagged. “I wasn’t bringing it up for you to thank me. I don’t want you feeling indebted to me. I –”
“I’ll pay you back,” I told him. “As soon as I can. It might not be for a little while but –”
“Urvi,” he snapped, and when I glanced up at him again I saw anger and frustration flash in his eyes. “You’re not going to pay me back. That was a gift. It was a few hundred quid, that’s pocket change to me.”
I stiffened and sank further into humiliation. Pocket change. An amount it would likely take months for me to pay back was pocket change to him. He must have noticed my discomfort because he groaned again.
“That was badly put. You know I don’t –”
“I’ve got to go,” I whispered, taking a step back from him towards the entrance of my building. His hand shot out to grab mine and stop my retreat. For a moment I felt a wave of contentment as his large, warm, dry hand enclosed mine. It felt so right it was terrifying. But I wasn’t falling for his bullshit charm again. I shook my head to clear it and snatched my hand away, darting into the building before he could stop me. I turned back to him before I let the door shut
“I’ll do the ad, okay. I’ll do it for me because I would be an idiot not to. But after that I never want to see you again.”
*****
“Hey!” I looked up from the mojito I was putting together to see Ben waving at me from the other side of the bar. “Drama queen, can I get a beer?”
“I’m not a drama queen,” I muttered, shooting him an irritated look. I hadn’t seen him since Saint-Tropez and I would rather not do it in a crowded bar.
He rolled his eyes as I poured out the three cocktails into tall glasses. “Could have fooled me,” he said. “Swooning all over the place –”
“I had a hypoglycaemic blackout!” I snapped. “That’s hardly dra –”
“Keeping your phone number so secret that I’d have more luck finding out the KFC recipe? Turning my friend into an over-emotional mess who makes bad business decisions?”
“What?” I asked as I moved down the bar to give out the cocktails to the waiting ladies. Ben moved with me and elbowed some people out of the way to draw level with me at the cash register. The cocktail girls eyed him with interest but moved away when he didn’t even spare them a glance.
“Can I speak to you? Please?”
“Gino,” I called. “I’m on break.”
“Break? There are no breaks!” the bar manager shouted.
“Well there is now,” I told him. “Check my contract. Check the European Working Time Directive.”
“We’ve left Europe!”
“Not yet, you prick.” I pushed past him and ducked under the bar before he had time to say anything else. Once I was out, Ben ushered me to a booth.
“Urvi, I know you know about the ad. I want that song and I’m prepared to make you a fair offer.”
“I . . . right, well yes of course I . . . Wait a minute – where’s Jack?”
“What do you mean?”
“Jack. I’ll be working with Jack’s company, won’t I?”
His lips twisted to the side before he smiled. “Jack turned me down.”
“He what?”
“He turned me down. Told me to get another agency and where to find you. Bastard wouldn’t tell me where you were without negotiating a ridiculous rate for a complete unknown, but he’s a stubborn twat.”
“Negotiating? But you just said –”
Ben’s