Page 32 of About Last Night
Why did she only ever become entangled with men that she had no future with? There had been Dan at university, who had been set on sleeping with every living female on the planet, and Scott during her late twenties, who had decided to take a job in China but leave her behind. And all the other disastrous relationships in between. No one had fit properly.
And now Tristan: business-like, marriage averse and totally focussed on getting back to his life in Scotland.
She could never be with someone who wasn’t prepared to make the ultimate commitment to her. Even if hewasas hot as hell. She needed stability in her life, the promise of a loving, concrete future. Not one where her partner could walk away easily if the whim took him.
It was understandable that he didn’t hold the sanctity of marriage in high regard if his father had made a mockery of it forhim, but it was important to her to find someone on her wavelength. Someone who understood where she was coming from.
She didn’t want to spend her life arguing and not feeling good enough.
Stretching back out on the sofa, she folded her forearms over her eyes, blocking out the rest of the world.
Ah well. Life went on and so would she. Just not in the same direction as Tristan.
Unfortunately.
‘So, my lovely listeners, if you could wish for a special skill, what would you choose? Be as creative as you like, but let’s keep it clean, okay?’
Tristan smiled as he listened to Lula’s show the following Monday. Since he’d taken over the running of Flash he liked to make sure he was there at the radio station in time to catch her show as it went out. He enjoyed listening to her dulcet tones as she teased and titillated her audience, keeping up the rapid momentum needed to capture busy people’s attention. He could see exactly why she was so popular with the listeners – she had a real skill at finding the interesting angle to a subject.
According to reports from the broadcast assistants there had been a huge increase in texts and tweets to the show since she’d taken over and listener numbers were already well up for the Breakfast Show.
He’d been surprised by just how much he was enjoying looking after the station too. The business he ran from Scotland was pretty dry in nature, although their turnover was substantially more than the radio station was making. Entertaining people certainly wasn’t as much of a money-spinner as installingindustrial kitchens and providing catering equipment to restaurants.
Still, at the end of the day, it had to be the money that mattered – it was his linchpin, the thing that kept him focussed and motivated. That kept his world turning – that made everything make sense.
As soon as Lula’s show was over, he caught up with her as she exited the studio.
‘We have our first interviewee coming in at two o’clock. Are you okay to sit in?’
She pressed her lips into an accommodating smile, although he guessed she must be pretty exhausted after her show and desperate to get home. She was a trooper all right. He really admired that about her.
‘Sure, no problem,’ she said, pulling the headphones that he’d bought her from around her neck and cradling them in her hands.
He nodded at them. ‘How are your headphones working out?’
She gave him her first genuine smile in days. ‘They’re great. I love them. Fantastic sound quality. You certainly know the way to a girl’s heart.’ She seemed to freeze as if realising she’d said something entirely inappropriate.
He stepped towards her, not sure exactly what he meant to do, but unable to stop himself. ‘Glad to hear I haven’t lost my touch,’ he said with a smile, continuing the move by leaning against the wall next to her.
His stomach plummeted when she took a quick step back.
These little rejections were starting to get to him. They reminded him of the small moves away that Marcy had started to do towards the end of their relationship.
He wished it didn’t have to be this way with her, but since they’d made that pact over dinner about keeping things professional, she’d been friendly, but stand-offish with him.
He could understand her reasoning for it, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.
‘Well, I’d better get on,’ she said, raising both eyebrows and smacking her lips together. ‘Don’t want the boss to catch me slacking off, who knows what sort of punishment he might dish out,’ she murmured in that seductive voice of hers. Flashing him a cheeky grin, she swivelled on the spot and walked off, leaving him staring after her retreating figure with a bemused smile on his face and a pressing concern in his trousers.
Okay, maybe professional and stand-offish was easier to handle.
The interview was a disaster. Tristan knew as soon as the guy walked in that he wouldn’t fit the ethos of the station. He was too straight, too stuffy, too jobs-worthy.
When Lula asked him some pointed questions about his vision for the station it was clear he thought she wasn’t important enough to engage with and addressed all his answers to Tristan instead.
No way was he going to hand over the running of the station to such a chauvinist idiot.
‘What did you think?’ Lula asked after the guy left, clearly hoping he hated him as much as it sounded like she did.
