United States of Love

Chapter Six

Anna awoke the next morning with a thumping headache. It felt as if the whole cast of Riverdance were performing in her head, and her mouth tasted like it had an old sock stuck in it. It was a few seconds before she remembered the events of the previous evening. She groaned inwardly as she began to put together fragmented memories that came to mind, not necessarily in the order of events, but it didn't take her long before she got to that moment on the sofa with Mark.

‘Shit,’ she said aloud as she remembered him saying that he had come back for her. That he missed her, and could they possibly give things another try? It had poleaxed her. She hadn't known what to say, but somehow through the haze of the alcohol she had managed some clarity and had suggested they talk about it when they were both sober. Okay, she was buying time, but she needed headspace.

She reached over for her mobile and saw a message from Luke. It had come in last night, after she had gone to bed. A simple message saying goodnight and that he loved her. Anna sent one back, asking if he was okay, and to let her know if he needed picking up later.

Tentatively, Anna swung her feet onto the floor. She needed a cup of tea. It was then she remembered she was supposed to be taking her nephews out that morning. ‘Oh no,’ she groaned, but knew she couldn’t let Zoe down.

Pulling on her dressing gown and making her way downstairs, Anna was relieved to find Mark had already left. She didn't want to face him yet.

Zoe opened the front door to a rather delicate looking Anna.

‘Blimey, you actually look worse than me,’ Zoe croaked through her soggy tissue. She stood to one side to let Anna come in. ‘I take it whatever you ended up doing, you had a good night?’

Anna grunted and began to shake her head but stopped abruptly. It hurt too much. Her barely intelligible response to Zoe reminded her of Luke. Hell! When did she morph into her teenage son? ‘My head is killing me,’ she groaned and looked at herself in the hall mirror. ‘God, my eyes look like burn holes in a blanket.’

‘I'll put the kettle on.’

The clattering of feet on the wooden floor and the shrieking of three excited boys pierced the air.

‘Aunty Anna! Aunty Anna!’

‘Yay! We're going to the park!’

‘Can we go now?’

Anna was nearly bowled over as Jake, Alex and Henry threw themselves at her for a group hug.

‘Sshhhh! Boys! Sssshhh!’ pleaded Zoe, trying to calm them down and prise them away from their aunt. ‘You're going to wake Emily up.’ Too late. Emily didn't want to be left out of the fun and began crying. ‘Thanks a lot, boys.’

Anna looked at Zoe who was now pulling a crumpled tissue from her sleeve. She wasn't sure if Zoe was dabbing her eyes and nose because of her cold or because she was upset. This wasn't good.

‘Come on, boys,’ cajoled Anna. ‘Why don't you go in the garden for ten minutes? I'm not quite ready yet. Come on. And you, Henry. Here, I'll carry you. There we go. Come on, Jake. Alex. Let's go outside for a bit.’

Zoe looked at her gratefully before disappearing upstairs.

‘There's a cup of tea for you,’ smiled Anna as Zoe came back down carrying Emily. ‘Ooh hello, Emily darling. Did those boys wake you up? Never mind. Come here for a cuddle while mummy has a cup of tea.’ Anna took Emily before either mother or daughter could protest, and gently bobbing the child up and down, she wandered over to the window. ‘Look, can you see your brothers? There's Alex and Jake and little Henry. Aren't they having fun?’ She turned to her sister-in-law. ‘You okay, Zoe?’

‘Thanks, Anna. That's the first time someone's made a cup of tea for me in ages.’

‘Why don't I take Emily out as well? She doesn't seem too full of cold this morning. As long as you wrap her up warm the fresh air will do her good. What do you think, Emily? Want to come to the park? Mummy can have a nice, long soak in the bath, or sleep in bed, do whatever she fancies. Veg out in front of some cooking show.’

Zoe didn't even pretend to make a ‘oh, you don't have to’ or ‘it'll be too much for you’ type of protest. She didn't have the energy or the inclination, it seemed.

Having spent a good couple of hours at the park with the children then walking into town, treating them all to a McDonald's, Anna was glad to be back home. She really could do with a sleep. A boozy night, followed by an early morning and all that running around in the park had worn her out.

Any notion she had of a quiet afternoon was shattered pretty much as soon as she walked through the front door to her house. Luke jumped up from the sofa and turned to face her angrily.

‘What did you say to Dad?’ he demanded.

‘Oh, hello, Mum. How are you? Want a cup of tea? Oh, I'm fine thanks, Luke. A bit tired but I'd love a cup of tea,’ she said, annoyed at the abruptness of Luke's greeting.

‘Sorry,’ mumbled Luke. He went out to the kitchen and reappeared a couple of minutes later with a cup of tea.

‘Thank you.’ She took the cup from Luke and put it on the coffee table in front of her. ‘Now, what’s up?’

Luke flopped down into the chair by the fireplace. ‘Dad! He was supposed to be taking me out for a curry tonight and then we were coming back to watch the football.’

‘And now?’

‘He phoned to say he wasn’t coming back tonight because of you.’ Luke glanced up at Anna before reverting his gaze to the television.

‘Me? What have I done?’ What had she done to make Mark leave? She had no idea. ‘Did he say anything?’

Luke let out a sigh. ‘No, just that he thought it was best if he stayed out of your way for a bit.’

Anna could see the disappointment Luke was trying to hide behind his sullen expression. So it hadn’t taken Mark long to let Luke down. Selfish pig. And as for using her as an excuse! Right, where was her phone? She was going to phone Mark and get to the bottom of this.

He answered on the fifth ring.

‘Mark, I just wanted to check if you were coming back tonight or not? Only Luke doesn't seem to think so.’ She tried to sound as nonchalant as possible.

‘No, that's right. Thought I'd stay over here the night. Why, is there a problem? I didn't think I had to clear things with you these days.’ Mark's response was terse. Then, as if catching himself, he spoke more cordially. ‘I just thought I'd give you the headspace that you asked for. Give you time to think about us.’

Anna sighed, glancing at Luke before she walked into the kitchen and spoke in a quieter voice. ‘Mark, there hasn't been an “us” for a long time now.’

‘So last night was your way of getting a bit of revenge then?’ The terseness was back. ‘Giving me the green light then switching to red at the last minute. Is that your way of getting your own back at me?’

‘Do you really think I've been waiting all this time to get my own back? Besides, what happened last night could hardly be considered as like for like.’ God, now she was being drawn into an argument with him about their marriage. Hadn't they done all this a year ago?

‘Mark, please just listen to me a minute. This isn't getting us anywhere. Last night I had, well, we both had, too much to drink. I thought we could just have a nice evening out, which was at your suggestion. We were both a little worse for wear. We both knew it wasn't the right way to go. If you thought otherwise, I'm sorry.’ Damn, somehow she had ended up apologising. ‘We can't take our misunderstanding out on Luke. It's not his fault.’

‘Which is exactly why I'm giving us a bit of space,’ said Mark.

‘Perhaps you can spend some time with him tomorrow then. Give him a call later. It will cheer him up.’

‘Yeah, okay. I've got to go. Me and Gary are just on our way out. Gary says hello, by the way.’

‘Say hello back,’ said Anna, somehow feeling like the villain. ‘See you tomorrow. Do you know what time?’ Too late, Mark had hung up.

Anna leaned back against the worktop and closed her eyes. Her head was hurting again. At least tomorrow was a bank holiday so she would have a full day to recover before beginning her new job. She wanted to make sure she started off well, to impress not only Jamie but Tex also. She was going to be totally organised – her clothes, her work bag, check the directions, go over some basic building terms and procedures in case she needed to sort anything out. She wasn’t going to leave anything to chance.

Chapter Seven

It was not the best start to the first day in her new job. To begin with, Mark had extended his stay in Southampton, much to her annoyance and Luke's disappointment. It was now Tuesday, and because of Mark's change of plans, she didn't have her car today to drive to Arundel. She took the train instead and walked down from the station into the town to Tarrant Street. The walk itself wouldn't have been too bad had it not been raining, and even less had the wind not been so strong it had turned her umbrella inside out.

Peering out from under the hood of her parka coat, the old United Reformed Church stood back from the row of shops lining Tarrant Street, with a paved area at the front used as outside seating for when it was a coffee shop. Today, instead of tables and chairs were three vehicles: a white transit van, a Volvo estate and a Ford Ranger pick-up style truck. The builder, the architect and Tex, she concluded.

Anna wasn't sure if she should just go straight in, whether she should knock, or try to find a side door. However, her dilemma was solved when the door opened and out stepped a man.

‘Are you here for the meeting?’ he said, popping his glasses into his shirt pocket. He sidestepped her and sprinted over to the Volvo, from where he removed three large cardboard tubes from the back seat.

‘Yes, that's right,’ she called, holding the edge of her hood up a bit so she could see him properly.

He nipped past her, back through the door he’d left open and into the dry. ‘You'd better come in then,’ he said, gesturing. ‘You'll get soaked standing out there.’

‘Thanks.’ Anna was grateful to get in from the rain. She entered into a small hallway. Through a set of double glass doors she could see the main hall.

‘I'm Graeme Roberts, by the way,’ said the man, just managing to stick his hand out as he struggled to keep the cardboard tubes from falling. ‘Mr Garcia’s architect.’

‘Anna Barnes. Mr Garcia’s PA.’ Anna shook his hand, and then held one of the internal glass doors open for him to get through.

The trestle table with the cross-section model of the restaurant had been moved to the side of the hall. Graeme scurried over to it, dumping his things on the floor before beginning to examine the plans.

Anna could hear the dull tones of voices coming from one of the rooms at the back and assumed it was Tex and the builder. She walked over to the table and took off her wet coat, which she hung on the handle of the window. Taking her phone from her bag, she switched it onto silent.

The door at the back of the hall opened and a large burly man, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, came out.

‘Hello, Rod. How are you?’ said Graeme. He turned to Anna. ‘This is Rod. He's one of the building contractors tendering for the project. Rod, this is Anna, works for Mr Garcia.’

Rod shook her hand. ‘Pleased to meet you. He won’t be a minute, he's just taking a phone call.’

‘Anna, would you mind giving me a hand with these?’ asked Graeme, indicating the large sheets of drawings for the renovation works he had removed from the tubes and was now attempting to lay out. ‘Got some more detailed plans to look at today. Could you hold the ends while I tape them down?’

‘Sure. It looks complicated,’ said Anna, popping her phone onto the windowsill. ‘I mean, the drawings, not the taping.’ She stretched her arms out and held down each edge of the drawing as Graeme unpicked the end of the masking tape.

He smiled and looked as if he were about to answer, when his attention was caught by the sound of one of the doors at the back of the hall opening and closing.

‘Good morning.’ The rich accented voice sounded out, flirting with Anna’s eardrums.

Still leaning over the table, arms outstretched while Graeme seemed to take an age finding the end of the tape, Anna looked back over her shoulder and smiled at Tex. ‘Hi!’

With more than a hint of amusement on his lips, Tex raised his eyebrows slightly. ‘Nice view.’ Then he seamlessly moved on to greet Graeme.

Anna felt her face burn hot with embarrassment and stood up abruptly, letting go of the drawing, which pinged back into a roll and fell to the floor. By now, Tex was by her side and stooped to pick up the drawing, placing it back on the table.

Anna was grateful for the few seconds to compose herself before Tex turned to her.

‘You okay?’ He cupped her upper arms with his hands and kissed her on the cheek.

‘Yes. Yes, I'm fine. Thank you.’ Right, she must remain professional and concentrate on the job in hand and stop acting like a lovestruck teenager. Briskly, she turned back to the table and resumed holding the large sheet of paper in place, this time by taking one edge in turn, while Graeme taped it down as he fell into discussion with Tex. Rod sauntered back across to join them. Meeting commenced, thought Anna. Good.

Initially, she made notes on her pad in case anything needed to be clarified afterwards. All the while she tried not to let her gaze linger on Tex for too long. It was hard though. She liked the way his hair casually fell forwards, not long enough to fall in his eyes, but enough to touch the top of his dark eyebrows. He had remarkably long, thick eyelashes for a man too, framing those deep brown eyes of his.

Anna wasn’t entirely sure what Tex was expecting her to do, so she continued taking notes as the three men discussed technical issues, such as beam splicing and loading, engineers’ reports and calculations.

‘I would like the staircase to start at this side and curve round to the first floor,’ explained Tex, walking over to the right-hand side of the hall. He made a sweeping motion with his arm to emphasise his point.

Anna couldn't help admiring him as he stood there explaining and gesturing. Dark trousers, expensive-looking, black shiny leather shoes, pale blue shirt open at the collar, his sleeves rolled up. That fresh showery, citrus smell of his aftershave tantalising her senses.

‘You would lose quite a bit of floor space downstairs if you want a curving staircase,’ said Rod, ‘and then you have to take into consideration the rise of each step and how far it carries. It will take a fair bit of working out.’

Rod went on to explain how each tread and riser was calculated and how much something like that would cost. He rambled about kites and winders, newels, spindles and strings. Graeme was furiously pecking at his calculator as Rod reeled off numbers and measurements.

Anna had no idea what they were talking about. She looked over at Tex and had to stifle a giggle as he gave an exaggerated, confused look, unnoticed by the others. Rod carried on, more or less discussing it with himself, correcting and contradicting himself along the way, and Graeme continued to tap at the calculator like some sort of demented woodpecker.

She stole another glance at Tex who, catching her eye, mimed a yawn, tapping his mouth with his hand, which just made Anna want to giggle again. When he silently acted out a noose round his neck and then made out to shoot himself in the temple with his fingers, Anna couldn’t hold the burst of laughter in. Rod and Graeme stopped and stared at her. She quickly fashioned the laugh into a small series of coughs.

‘Sorry, tickly throat,’ she said apologetically, not daring to look at Tex.

‘Hey, come out back and I’ll get you a glass of water,’ Tex piped up, and before she could protest, he was gently leading her away by the arm. Once inside the kitchen he closed the door and they both laughed quietly.

‘Jeez,’ groaned Tex. ‘Death by numbers.’ He took a step closer. ‘Now, where did we leave off the other night?’

Anna took a step back. Oh, this was hard. ‘I think it’s best to leave it there,’ she said.

He was standing in front of her. ‘Huh?’

‘I’m sorry, Tex, but I think it’s best if we just keep things professional now that I’m working for Jamie which, by default, now means you. It’s a rule of mine never to mix business with pleasure.’

‘You serious? Damn it, you are!’ Tex cursed. This wasn’t going to plan. ‘What about if I fire you then? Tell Jamie I’ve changed my mind.’ He saw the alarm on her face. ‘I was only joking. I wouldn’t really.’

‘Good, because I could do with this job,’ replied Anna.

‘What about if you give me a chance to change your mind?’ He fixed her with his killer smile, the one that he usually got his way with. She was shaking her head. She wasn’t buying it.

Before he could plan his next move, there was a knock at the door and a female voice calling his name. It was Christine.

The door opened and in she wiggled, smiling widely at him. Then she clocked Anna, and instantly Christine’s smile disappeared. ‘Oh, hello.’

‘Anna, this is Christine,’ said Tex. ‘She works in the art gallery across the way. Christine, this is Anna, she’s my PA.’ He watched Christine’s hostile eyes look Anna up and down. Anna would have to be downright stupid to miss that, he thought.

‘Hmm, I see,’ responded Christine.

Tex had been so busy checking Anna’s reaction to this unfavourable greeting that he was totally caught out when Christine draped herself over his shoulder and kissed him on the cheek. Without barely moving her mouth away from him, she said, ‘I just came over to see if you were free for lunch, but I don’t want to interrupt anything.’

‘You weren’t,’ said Anna tersely. ‘I’d better get back to Graeme and Rod. Don’t want to miss anything.’

Tex cursed to himself yet again as Anna left the room.

‘Sorry, did I upset someone?’ cooed Christine.

‘Hmmm,’ grunted Tex, then gathering himself, ‘I’m sorry, but I’ll take a rain check on lunch. I’ve already got a meeting.’

‘Oh, come over later then. I’ve got some pictures that I thought would look good in the restaurant.’ She smiled sweetly and wiggled her way back out.

The rest of the meeting ran smoothly without any problems, although Tex noted that Anna didn’t look at him once this time. She definitely had a businesslike air about her. Professional, almost to the point of being curt. She really did mean it when she said she wasn’t mixing business with pleasure.

‘Okay, that's me done,’ said Rod as the meeting drew to a close. ‘I'll need a couple of days to price this, so I will get back to you by the end of the week.’

As Rod left, Graeme looked expectantly at Anna. When it appeared she wasn't taking the hint, he said to Tex, ‘Have you got a minute? I wondered if I could have a quick word.’

‘Sure, but I do have another appointment at midday,’ replied Tex, glancing at his watch.

‘I'll leave you to it,’ said Anna, still avoiding eye contact with him. ‘If there's anything you need to clarify, you can get hold of me through Jamie.’

‘Anna…’ began Tex.

‘I've got to go, my train will be here soon. Nice to have met you, Graeme.’ Anna walked towards the door.

‘Anna! One moment please,’ called Tex.

‘Sorry, got to go,’ she called back, as Graeme anxiously tried to retain Tex’s attention.

Chapter Eight

‘Tex. It's about my daughter's wedding. Would you give her some advice on the menu?’

Tex looked from Graeme to the door and back again. Much as he wanted to tell Graeme that his daughter's wedding menu was the last thing on his mind at that moment, and that it was something he really should be asking the caterers, he couldn't be rude.

Making polite but short work of discussing the best dishes for large parties, Tex managed to usher Graeme out of the building in ten minutes with the promise of putting some ideas down on an email for him. As soon as the door closed behind the architect, Tex took out his cell phone and called Anna's.

She wasn’t answering it. Perhaps it was in her handbag and she hadn't been able to get to it in time. Listening to the ringing tone and willing her to answer, Tex wandered over to the trestle table where Graeme had left a revised set of drawings taped to the table. It was then that he heard a vibrating sound coming from the direction of the window. He looked over and saw a phone jiggling away on the windowsill. Anna’s.

Tex checked his watch. She could only have just made it to the station by now. If he was quick he could be there in five minutes, hopefully before her train arrived. He patted his back pocket. Yes, his keys were there. Without looking for his jacket, Tex dashed out to his car.

It was still raining as he drove out of Tarrant Street and over the bridge towards the train station. Within a few minutes, he pulled up outside the ticket office, and abandoning his car, sprinted through the unmanned office and out on to the platform. Tex scanned the deserted platform up and down; there was no sign of Anna there or in the waiting room. He looked over at platform two on the other side of the tracks. That appeared empty too.