Page 16 of The Payback Plan
Oliver glanced at said pad and grimaced. It was clearly an affront to his minimalist tendencies but hey, at least the offensive Arsenal merch was no more.
‘I already have Rice Krispies on my mental list,’ she added with a smile. ‘And Hobnobs because I cannot live without them and then I’ll come back here and get stuck into some work. Do you mind if I set up my laptop at the dining table?’
Paige had never had such a picturesque work view and had to admit that while committing acts of karma wasn’t her usual jam, the amazing vista before her would help soothe her conscience.
‘Not at all,’ he confirmed. ‘What do you do?’
‘I’m a VA.’
‘Virtual assistant?’
‘Yes.’ Paige nodded. A lot of people had never heard the term but she supposed he’d grown up in a world where personal assistants were common. ‘I’ve been running my own business for almost four years.’
A quick scan of his kitchen and a once-over of her very un-put-together appearance led to two raised eyebrows which left Paige in no doubt that Oliver had probably expected her to say she ran a clown-hire business.
‘There’s a lot of call for that, then?’
‘I have several dozen clients on my list, yes.’
Oliver’s eyes widened this time. ‘Really?’
‘Uh huh. Some only have occasional needs, others are more active but I have plenty to keep me busy and solvent.’
Of course, busy and solvent were hardly #girlpower goals. She’d certainly had loftier ones when she’d been accepted into Oxford to study law. But it was better than the deep dark pit of despair she’d found herself in after Harvey’s betrayal.
‘How’d you get into that?’
It was on the tip of Paige’s tongue to say,Because another bastard man whose ego couldn’t handle rejection decided to wake up one day and ruin my life. But she didn’t. She just shrugged. ‘I did a job for one of my father’s clients a few years back when I was… in between things and it kind of snowballed from there.’
Paige had never expected the online collating of old electronic files to blossom into a business but before she knew it word had spread and she’d been juggling a dozen clients.
‘Does it have a name?’
Unsure that she actually wanted to tell him, Paige hesitated. The name was polarising. Some people thought it was funny, others thought it wasn’tseriousenough. Not that Paige gave a rat’s ass what anyone thought, least of all the son of a dead British actor who’d never, according to what she’d read, done a hard day’s work in his entire life.
People’s judgement was just so damn tiresome.
She plastered a smile on her face. ‘What A Peach.’
Much to her surprise, Oliver just nodded as if he approved. ‘Is there some kind of story behind it?’
‘My first client called my dad and said what a peach I was and it just kinda stuck.’
‘Fair enough. And what sort of things do you do for a client? I mean, you can’t get them a coffee or anything right?’
‘Nope, but pretty much anything I can do remotely, I do. It’s what I love about it actually. The variety. Some clients just want some basic diary management, others want audio transcripts turned to text and don’t trust tech to do it for them. I help some clients with social media or run their newsletter campaigns. I’ve done market research or background information for a variety of different people from company CEOs to doctoral students to a couple of small publishing houses. Turns out I’m exceptionally good at organising.’
He glanced at the disorganised mess of the kitchen but didn’t say anything other than, ‘Sounds interesting.’
‘It is.’
Despite the reason behind the business existing, Paige was proud of what she’d created. What A Peach had been her silver lining in a very dark time and, bonus – the virtual world had allowed her to be anonymous after such humiliating exposure. Her logo and social media avatar was a peach emoji which she’d hidden behind ever since its inception.
But, thinking about the business genesis always raked over the not-quite-extinguished coals of her past life which was never easy and she was done talking about it as she delved under the sink for some washing up liquid.
‘Why don’t you head into town now?’ he suggested. ‘I’ll do the kitchen.’
Paige hadn’t expected that. Given the unholy mess she’d created, she’d expected to be on clean-up duties on her own. Was he afraid her cleaning skills were nowhere near as impressive as her ability to make an unholy mess? Or had her mentioning the wedding guilted him into it? If so she’d be sure to use it to her advantage over the next two months.
