The Price of Inertia (The Seven Sins #4) - Lily Zante Page 0,34
finding out how the first session went. It will be safer to do a post lesson catch up with Jamie out of the house.
I prepare Ward’s lunch; a healthy sandwich and a smoothie. He actually asked me for it. He’d left a printed off smoothie recipe on the island this morning.
My back is turned when I hear a knock on the kitchen door.
I turn around and see Jamie. “Good?” I ask him. He nods and doesn’t say anything because I’ve warned him not to.
“I need to get some groceries. Shall we get a coffee?”
“I need to shower,” he says, taking a big slug from his water bottle.
“I can put up with your stinky smell for an hour.” I’m desperate to escape this house. “Come on.” I scribble a note for Ward in case he wonders where I’ve gone. “I don’t have long.”
Twenty minutes later we’re sitting in a coffee shop and I’ve got my favorite iced cup of coffee. I giggle. “How was your first encounter with ‘sir’?”
“I almost had a heart attack,” says Jamie, opening his bottle of coconut water.
“He’s not usually so ...” I wave my hand in the air because I’m at a loss for how to describe him. “Funny, shall we say.”
“You think he’s funny?”
“Compared to what I’ve seen of him, yes, that was funny.” Though, the more I think about it, Ward is changing, or maybe I’m getting to know more about him. “How was the session? Did he do everything you asked?”
“He’s out of shape, but not too much. He’s got a pot belly, but it’s not too bad. I was expecting him to be in worse shape given what you’d told me.”
“He sits at his desk all day, and probably all night too.” I say. “He’s like a vampire. I’ve never seen him leave the house.”
“It shows. He’s sluggish. He says he wants to tone up and lose weight. Says he wants a six pack.”
“He said that?” I try to imagine Ward with a six pack but my imagination doesn’t stretch that far.
Jamie nods. “He’s not going to get a six-pack, but he can definitely lose the belly and tone up. It’s not going to be that difficult. He used to work out, he’s had a setback, that’s all.”
“Hmmmm.” I try not to dwell on the image of a toned up Ward.
“He was more talkative than I expected.”
This surprises me. “He was?”
“He was nothing like how you made him out to be.”
This really surprises me. “What did he talk about?”
“Me, and how I lost my job, and what I did before.”
“You sucking up to him about his books probably helped.”
“I didn’t suck up. I was being truthful,” Jamie says. “His books are brilliant. You should try and read one.”
“I can’t stand horror.”
“He’s brilliant. You’ll be amazed,” Jamie insists. Him suddenly becoming Ward’s biggest fan irritates the hell out of me.
“I’m not going to read horror. Ever.”
“Do you ever get a chance to see his current work in progress?”
“It’s on his desk. Along with his special pen.”
Jamie sniggers, yet I can’t help but think about Ward and his split personality. He leaves a mess in most places, yet his desk, in the middle is neat and tidy. There are splinters in his outward persona. I think about the joke he made when he asked Jamie to call him ‘sir’. Is that a chink in his armor?
“Most writers have a ritual,” Jamie states, matter-of-factly.
“How do you know?”
“I read about it somewhere.”
“You’re always full of trivia.”
He leans forward across the table and grins wickedly. “I’m more than just muscle, baby.” Then, “Lunch?” he asks.
“You said you needed to shower.” And I was supposed to be quick. I have yet to go and buy groceries.
“I’m here now. We’re here now. Come on Mari. It will be like in the good old days.” I recall the good old days when he and I would have lunch in my office. A take out from the hotel restaurant on some days, and other days we would go out and get something. Go for a walk. Complain and whine about our jobs. I had reached the highest position I could have in that place and had been thinking about changing jobs. I hadn’t expected my next career move to be this.
“How’s the job search going?” he asks.
“I haven’t found anything. I’ve been looking on and off, but I haven’t had a chance to look properly.”
“What do you do all day, stuck in that big house?”