Page 53 of All I Want for Christmas

‘You do not.’

‘Oh.’

‘I had my meeting with Otto this morning and let’s just say, I’m not his star pupil right now.’

‘Oh.’ Freja dropped some oranges into the fruit bowl, then jumped up onto the counter. ‘...And how did it go at Max the Lawyer’s yesterday?’

Darcy swallowed, stirring faster. ‘...It went.’

‘Nothing to report?’

She shrugged. ‘No breakthroughs.’

‘That’s not what I’m asking and you know it.’

Darcy stopped stirring and looked back at her. She bit her lip. ‘...Did you know Geranium does takeout?’

‘Huh?’

‘Yeah. He ordered it for lunch.’

‘He ordered Geranium for takeaway lunch?’ Freja’s tone was incredulous. ‘Wait till I tell Tristan.’

‘I wouldn’t. Apparently Max has a friend who works there. I think he was just showing off because I mentioned we’d gone to Noma the night before.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘He’s such a narcissist.’

‘Well, we knew that on sight,’ Freja said, watching closely as Darcy chopped some peppers with careful savagery. ‘So he was actually around, then, yesterday?’

‘Yep.’

‘Was the girlfriend there too?’

‘No. At least, not till much later. And it was a different girlfriend that turned up. Seems like she broke the date schedule or something. He was pretty pissed off.’

‘He has a date schedule?’

‘But of course, Freja! How else could he possibly manage all these models otherwise?’ Sarcasm dripped from the words as Darcy lifted the chopping board and scraped the vegetables into the pan.

‘Sounds like you really dodged a bullet, deciding to keep things strictly professional.’

‘Mm.’ She looked away quickly, but something in the movement alerted her friend.

‘Youdidkeep things professional, didn’t you? Darcy?’

Darcy swallowed, knowing she couldn’t keep this from her friend. Knowing she didn’t want to. ‘Okay fine – we kissed. But that was it.’

‘Oh my God, you kissed him?’

‘But that was all.’

‘Because...?’ Freja asked in a leading tone. ‘You stopped it? He did? What happened? I need the details.’

‘The model turned up. Unannounced. It rather threw a spanner in the works.’

‘Shit.’

‘Yeah. So I left, obviously.’

‘Obviously.’

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