Page 11 of Knotting Hill
She reaches out to squeeze my hand. “I’m glad you did come to me and didn’t try to get this information in an insidious or devious way. But you had better keep that woman away from mebecause if I lay eyes on her, I will flatten her for using you this way.”
She smiles, and I giggle. “Wish you’d done that to Daisy Marks’s mum.”
“I wasthisclose. Your father stopped me.”
“What?” I ask, horrified, as I was only joking.
She laughs, so now I’m not sure if she was kidding or not.
Moral of the story: don’t mess with Gloria Rivers.
“Now, let’s make this visit more pleasant,” she says. “You know that bookshop on Portobello Road?”
I nod, knowing the one. She adores it.
“Can you pop in later? You’re closer than me. I ordered a book for Synthia’s birthday, and it’s come in.”
“Yes, of course. It’s the least I can do after this…”
“We say no more about this…it never happened.”
“Sold.” I want nothing more than to forget this whole day. It’s been a shitshow from the beginning to now. It can only get better, right? “What is it?”
“A rare copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I’ve been waiting months for them to ring me to say they had sourced one, and they messaged me this morning.”
“Okay, how do I pay?”
She bends down and pulls her purse out of her bag. She takes out a black credit card and hands it to me. “Use this one. You remember the PIN?”
I nod. It’s my mum’s ‘spare’ card. It has my name on it so I can use it, but I gave it back to her when I moved out, not wanting to take anything from them, not even as a safety net.
“I’ll swing by probably tomorrow after work to pick it up. Will you be in?” she inquires.
“Yeah.” I don’t want to go into how I will have more nights in this month than I’d like due to coffee-stained clothes, coffees I didn’t get to drink and too much boozing last night.
Fun times.
I take the card and secure it in my purse before I rise and lean down to give her a quick kiss before I take my leave.
I hope Angela accepts my word that Mrs Johnson isn’t at this practice. Not that I have any idea what she would do even if she were. Try to poach her back, probably. One thing has become quite apparent through all of this, though. Angela is wildly jealous of my mother. I have a horrible feeling that this is going to rear its head again and bite me on the arse when I least expect it.
Nine
JP
Shovingopen the door to my bedroom, which takes up the entire top floor of the three-story townhouse, I yank my t-shirt over my head and chuck it over the back of the desk chair. I stink, so I will have to take a second shower, but that can wait.
I feel a pang when I see the bed has been stripped and replaced with a fresh set. That means Sharon, the housekeeper, has been in. I usually do it myself after a night or several with an omega in my bed, but I was so out of it this morning, I figured I’d do it later.
But it’s done now, so I flip up the laptop and sit in the chair.
I type Storm Rivers: Knotting Hill into the search engine and wait.
Nothing comes up with her specifically, but a doctor’s practice comes up called Rivers & Rivers.
I frown. She said she worked at Robb & Robb, but surely Rivers & Rivers are her parents. I find that amusing, and a part of her personality that tantalises me. Trying social mediainstead, I type in her name. Clicking on her profile, I follow her, wondering what she will make of that. There are a bunch of photos taken last night with her inelite, but it was definitely earlier on, not the debauched late-night howler that I hosted there. I wonder if she stayed. Not that it makes any difference. I wouldn’t remember, and I was too busy flirting with the omega I brought home, anyway.
I stare at the photos entranced by her. She is dressed in a short pink skirt and a pink top that shows off her cleavage and her stomach. She is clearly having the time of her life, smiling and laughing with her friends. I need to know more. I want to know what that drink in her hand is. I want to know what perfume she uses to accentuate that cherry scent. Her favourite film, book, tv show, colour. I need to know how she tastes when you kiss her. Everything. I will make it my mission to find out the answers to all of these questions, and I think I know where to start.
