Page 39 of Daydreams at the Farm on Muddypuddle Lane
Maisie frowned: she felt certain he’d said he was having a meal at his parents’ house, yet here he was, in The Wild Side. He was sitting next to a woman who was half-turned around in her seat and gazing up at him with a love-struck expression on her face. She was also very pretty.
Adam dipped his head towards her and she said something in his ear. It looked incredibly intimate, and when the woman put a hand on his thigh, Maisie gasped in disbelief.
Ignoring the impulse to march over there and demand to know what was going on, she dashed to the ladies’ loos. There was probably a perfectly good explanation, but she needed to compose herself before she heard it. She would take a minute, then she would go back out there and casually saunter up to the table and askwhether anyone needed anything. She would try to act normally and wait for Adam to…What?Introduce her? Explain? Ignore her?
But as Maisie dithered, wondering what to do for the best, the outer door to the ladies’ loos opened, and on hearing voices she scurried into a cubicle, bolted the door and leant her forehead against it. She wasn’t ready to face anyone just yet.
Two sets of heels tapped on the tiles, and the doors to the cubicle to either side of her clicked shut.
She would give it a minute before flushing (so she sounded like a proper loo-user and not some saddo lurking in the toilets), then she would leave.
But what if Adam did ignore her? How was she supposed to react to that?
Nah, don’t be silly – he wouldn’t do that.
But what if—?
‘Adam and Verity make a lovely couple, don’t they Sue?’ a voice to her left said, breaking into her worried thoughts.
Maisie froze. She straightened up slowly, the blood draining from her face. Surely she had heard incorrectly?
‘They do,’ the woman on her right replied. ‘I’m hoping he’ll pop the question before too long, but Adam has still got a few wild oats to sow. I don’t think he’squiteready to settle down yet.’ She tutted. ‘When he does, I hope Verity can persuade him to do something about hishair and remove that unsightly hoop he’s got in his eyebrow.’
‘Oh, I don’t know, I think it suits him. And it’ll be nice to have some young blood in the boardroom, especially one as good-looking as your son. You must be so proud. He is a real credit to you, and Martin must be thrilled to have Adam follow him into the family business. Let me tell you, John very much wants this merger to go ahead. With Karl intending to step down, the atmosphere in the company has been a bit fraught. It will be nice to know it’s in safe hands, especially with Adam ready to step into the driving seat when Martin retires. It’s given everyone a real confidence boost.’
A toilet flushed and a door opened, quickly followed by a second flush andthe sound of taps being run and hands being washed.
Maisie held her breath. An uncomfortable pressure was building in her chest and she was terrified she might be about to sob. Adam and a woman called Verity? About to pop the question?
How could he?He hadmade loveto her, for pity’s sake! Had she meant nothing to him?
There was the click of a clasp and she assumed the two women were reapplying their makeup and fluffing up their hair. She prayed for them to leave, before she broke down. This couldn’t be happening, she wailed silently. She thought he cared for her, that they had something special.
Adam’s betrayal stabbed her in the gut and she felt sick. Not only was she just a ‘wild oat to be sown’, but he clearly had a girlfriend who was soon to be his fiancée. And he had also lied to her about who he was. Mergers? Boardrooms? Family business? What the hell?!
Maisie realised that she knew nothing about the man she had been sleeping with, the man she had given her heart to, the man she loved.
She had to get out of there right now, before she made a fool of herself in public, and she might have managed to escape with her dignity intact if it hadn’t been for one final comment.
‘It will be nice to keep it in the family, and Verity is such a lovely young woman,’ Adam’s mother said.
Maisie lost it. With an anguished cry, she snapped the bolt back and yanked thedoor open, making the women jump. One of them let out a yelp and placed a hand on her chest, the other backed up a pace or two as Maisie burst out of the cubicle.
She caught sight of her wild eyes and red face in the mirror as she ripped off her apron and threw it at the nearest woman.
‘She’s sodding welcome to him,’ Maisie yelled. ‘The two-timing, lying ratbag. I refuse to be anyone’s wild oats, and you can tell him that from me!’
Whirling on her heel, she stormed out of the ladies’ toilets, ignoring the gasps and a cry of ‘Well, I never!’ which followed her out.
Tears blurring her vision, she dashed into the kitchen, ran to the office and grabbed her coat and bag. On the way out, shebrushed past Otto, who was carrying a couple of plates of food.
‘Maisie, where—?’
‘Gotta go. Sorry.’
‘Are you—?’
She didn’t hear the rest of the sentence as she rushed out of the restaurant, because she was too busy trying not to break down completely.
