Page 30 of The Promise of Tomorrow
A wide smile crossed his face. ‘You’re a good lass.’
Whistling again, Elena strutted up her drive. She put her key in the lock and as soon as she entered, saw Rory to her left, in the lounge, frowning as he paced up and down. Elena took off her coat, hat and scarf and hung them on one of the hooks by the front door. ‘Rory? Is your dad okay?’ she said and joined him in the lounge. ‘What’s up? You look worried.’
‘Elena? You’re back? Good. I mean…’ The lines disappeared from his brow and he exhaled. ‘I didn’t hear you come in.’ He dropped onto the sofa and picked up her Kindle, studying it, even though it wasn’t turned on. ‘Oh… nothing. Just thinking about… about work.’
She sat down next to him and yawned. ‘But…’ A puzzled look crossed her face. ‘The pressure is off for a while now. The board and product development both love the broken biscuit idea. A lot’s riding on the campaign and there won’t be as long a wait as usual for a new product to come to fruition, because the biscuits themselves aren’t different to ones that we’re already manufacturing… But certainly until Christmas, we’ll go back to working on other campaigns until everything’s been signed off and we get the official go-ahead on paper.’ She smiled. ‘We can ease off and refuel after our many late nights brainstorming. So how was your dad?’
‘He thrashed me at Risk,’ he replied in a monotone voice. ‘I miss the days when he used to let me win.’
Something was off. But then it can’t have been easy, facing a quarter of a century without one parent.
‘How about a hot chocolate?’ she suggested. ‘I never even got dessert tonight and my taste buds are lobbying me for a sugar hit.’
‘Not the best evening, then?’
‘You’ll laugh at the rubbish this guy spouted. It was going so well until Carl did his best to persuade me the earth was flat. He’s a chef and had just served an amazing ratatouille at his place when?—’
‘Wait, what?Athis place?’ The frown lines came back.
‘The oven broke down in the restaurant we booked and he happened to live around the corner from it,’ she said, not giving him eye contact.
Rory tossed the Kindle to one side. ‘But he was practically a stranger, Elena.’
She met his eyes again. ‘He was entertaining company! Offered to help his friend, the chef in the restaurant.’
‘It was a friend of his who said the oven wasn’t working? Did all the other customers leave, then?’
‘No idea, he didn’t announce it to everyone whilst we were still there.’
‘Convenient.’ Rory stood up and shook his head.
‘Don’t be a dick… It wasn’t like that. You weren’t there.’ Irritated, she got up. ‘Don’t you trust my judgement? You wouldn’t be saying this stuff if I was a man.’
‘Wow. I’m a dickanda misogynist?’
‘Well, would you?’
‘I’m wary of anyone who rushes things. Women are very vulnerable, but they’re not actually the only ones. A mate of mine, Johnny, we used to work together – he went on a first date, and the woman said she’d love to cook him dinner. But when he got there it was clear she wanted a threesome. Her partner was there, twice the size of Johnny, and got threatening when he said no. Johnny managed to get out, but it really shook him up.’ Rory threw his hands in the air. ‘You could have ended up in a risky situation.’
‘But Carl turned up early, was super polite, asked me about me. Honestly, leave it, Rory. I knew what I was doing. Let’s not argue, especially as tomorrow is Christmas.’
‘What?’
She grinned. ‘It’s the first of December. Tahoor is coming around. I’m putting up the tree, cooking a roast, I’ll buy crackers and?—’
‘Wait, stop… Last year you groaned when the tree went up in the office, right at the beginning of December. You never put yours up until the week before the big day. What’s the rush this year?’
‘Because…’ His directness had caught her off-guard. ‘Tahoor was saying he’d like a practice run before the big day, to get the upset out about Isha not being there. He doesn’t want to break down in front of his family and ruin their Christmas, and… anything could happen before the twenty-fifth.’ Her voice wavered. ‘Celebrating Christmas now means… means no one misses out.’
‘What are you talking about?’
He wouldn’t understand. He’d really doubt her judgement if she told him the truth. Why couldn’t he just see the fun in her idea? ‘If you don’t want to take part then go out,’ she found herself snapping. ‘Tahoor will be around at four.’
She strode out of the lounge and headed straight upstairs, tears running down her cheeks, as if determined to wash away her good humour. She’d had a great night out, one that had provided her with another entertaining, dramatic story that proved she lived life on the edge, and to the full. Damn Rory and his hypocritical reservations. She changed for bed, didn’t bother cleaning her teeth, half-heartedly took off her make-up and turned off her phone.
By the time Rory came up, thirty minutes later, and knocked on her door, she didn’t reply.
Because Elena wasn’t there.
