Page 100 of You Spin Me Round

‘OK, well, tell her that I heard something I thought she’d be interested in.’

‘Is it that Erin Porter’s doing panto next year?’

Alex’s face fell. ‘Oh man, scooped? I thought I was first on this. You know she’s not even the most famous person on the cast list. Third-billed as ever.’ Alex enjoyed a nasty chuckle before asking, ‘How did you find out?’

‘I still know people,’ Leigh told her.

‘You haven’t worked in PR for years now.’

‘Yes, but with Jack back at the old place, I still have a friend in the biz who gives me the gossip.’

‘How is his heart doing?’ Alex asked.

‘He got a trainer and gave up refined sugar, so it’s better. He said he’s decided he’s ok to die at his desk, as long as he can do it in his eighties.’ Leigh started chewing the inside of her mouth, a nervous habit that Alex adored. ‘He keeps asking me to come back. He can’t accept that I was fired.’

‘That’s ridiculous,’ Alex said. ‘You didn’t get fired; you quit in terrible disgrace.’

Leigh gave a surprised hoot of laughter, and Alex felt that same old delight when Leigh laughed at a risky joke. No one got her like Leigh did.

Once Leigh had gotten her breath back, she said, ‘Well, I had to quit. I had better things to do.’

‘You sure did. Like romancing me,’ Alex said, waggling her eyebrows. ‘It’s a full-time job.’

‘Once I’d organised my stamp collection, I had to fill my hours somehow,’ Leigh said with a half-smile.

‘Absolutely. And I guess now I’m locked down; it makes sense to fill the void by setting up a legal aid charity for exploited female workers.’

‘Iwasat a dreadful loose end,’ Leigh agreed. ‘We foundanothermaid, by the way. Apparently, Isabelle was pulling that shit during herlastmarriage as well. That brings the class-action suit total to eight. And the lawyers are confident that NDAs are worthless, given that they were signed as part of their employment as maids. The second they stopped cleaning windows, those things stopped counting. So Isabelle’sreallyup shit creek.’

‘I couldn’t wish future bankruptcy on a nicer person,’ Alex said. ‘I know you’re saving the world and everything now, but I still kind of wish you’d have come and worked here,’ Alex said, only half-serious. ‘I’m signing more clients than I know what to do what to do with. I can’t hire people fast enough. That slap chargereallybrought in the business.’

Leigh cocked her gorgeous head. ‘Part of me would have loved that, but you were right. That business wasn’t a fit for me.’

‘No,’ Alex agreed, loving hearing that. But there was another part of what Leigh had said that flicked her switch. ‘Hey, that first bit again,’ Alex said.

‘What, that you were right?’ Leigh asked.

‘Look at my hand,’ she said, holding it up. ‘Goosebumps.’

Leigh rolled her eyes. She leaned back and put her feet up on the desk. ‘Hey, you still taking me out later?’ she asked quietly.

Alex shooed her feet back out. ‘We can go out now if you want.’

Leigh was excited. ‘Are you serious?’

‘We’re the bosses. Who could stop us from taking off?’ Alex said.

‘I never thought I’d hearyousay that,’ Leigh smiled.

‘There’s more to life than work,’ Alex said.

Leigh’s mouth fell open in amazement. ‘Catch me, I think I’m about to faint,’ she said.

‘I wasn’tthatbad before,’ Alex said.

‘Youlivedfor work,’ Leigh told her. ‘You were like Jack, pre-pastry.’

‘Yeah, well. That was before I had you,’ Alex said, her lips curving into a smile.

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