Page 66 of One Day and Forever
‘But I have two conditions.’
‘Pierre, put the cork back in that champagne,’ Calvin shouted, before resuming his telephone voice to Ollie. ‘I’m really sorry, Ollie, but I was joking about the hall pass. I’m not sleeping with you. At least not more than once.’
‘Good to know,’ Ollie chuckled, ‘but that wasn’t one of the conditions.’
‘Dammit. Okay, go for it.’
‘Was Corbin Jacobs part of this project?’
‘Yes. Although I just heard he got bumped fromThe Clydesidetoday, so there’s something going on there.’
Ollie didn’t elaborate. ‘I’ll match whatever he was contributing, but I want him to have nothing to do with it. He’s not using the school to get a single line of positive press. And while you’re at it, I want you to spread the word that I mentioned I’ll never work with the prick. No specifics. Just that. Spread it far and wide. I want a stink attached to his name that he won’t be able to wash off.’
‘Okay, I’m not going to ask why, but you’re the second person who’s said that to me today.’
Ollie got it immediately. ‘I’m thinking the first one was Casey Lowden, and I’m on her side all the way with this.’
‘I hear you.’ Calvin had been in the business long enough to give an educated guess as to what was going on, and he was discreet enough never to share it.
‘What’s the second condition?’
‘I’d like some part of the school to be dedicated to my mum and my gran. They both have the same name, so that makes it easier. The Moira Chiles Recording Studio. Or maybe the auditorium. I don’t care what it is. I just want them both to be part of it, so people will know that they’re special women.’
‘I could not love you more,’ Calvin said softly.
‘Right back at you.’
He spotted Drea waving at him from the gate. ‘Calvin, I need to go catch a flight – I’ll call you tomorrow to get everything organised. See ya, pal. Go drink that champagne.’
He’d just hung up when Kara came out of the loos. ‘Just in time, she’s about to come hunting for you,’ he said, nodding to Drea.
‘Okay, let’s do this,’ she said, with a sigh that didn’t correlate with how most people would be acting when they were setting off for Hawaii.
He stopped, put his hand on her arm. ‘You okay?’ he asked, searching her face for clues.
‘Yeah. I think it’s just hit me that I’m supposed to be going to my wedding, and now I’m not. I’ve spent almost three days being so bloody angry that it’s kind of numbed me to the bits that hurt. Josh keeps calling and I’m ignoring him, and?—’
With perfect timing, the phone rang again and there was that photo of Josh, on the beach, when she loved him…
‘Answer it,’ he suggested. ‘One way or another, just hear him out. It’ll either hurt or help.’
‘You’re really rubbish at this, you know that?’
‘I do.’
But still, she answered, and then she pulled him close so that he could listen. ‘Are you still going?’ were the first words out of Josh’s mouth.
‘I am,’ she replied.
‘With Ollie?’
‘And everyone else in my family,’ she retorted. Maybe it was her tone, but he suddenly flipped to a different energy.
‘I was going to come to the airport to see you, but since Drea cancelled my ticket, I knew I wouldn’t get past security.’
Ollie decided the first thing he was going to do in Hawaii was buy Drea a pina colada for protecting her sister. When Kara didn’t respond to that little nugget of information, Josh kept on going.
‘Kara, please don’t go. Please just come back. I’m so sorry. I know I fucked up, and I should have had your back from the start, but I fixed it…’
