Page 13 of Strictly Friends
Griffin walked back with his newly acquired chair and placed it next to Fi, giving her a cheeky wink as he sat down. He unbuttoned his suit jacket and crossed his legs, resting an ankle on his knee and looking supremely relaxed.
Fi’s blue eyes were alight with laughter. ‘You’re such a charmer! How the hell did you manage that, then?’
‘He is so annoying,’ Ruby huffed. ‘I bet that woman wouldn’t have offered me her chair if I’d begged on bended knee.’
‘Let’s just say I made her an offer she couldn’t refuse,’ Griffin said, dropping his voice to sound sinister. When Ruby simply looked sceptical, he reverted to his normal tones. ‘Okay, I might have mentioned that I suffer terribly with a dodgy back and that standing for too long could cause me irreparable damage.’
‘And she actually fell for that load of rubbish?’ Ruby snorted.
‘Well, that and the bottle of champagne I offered in exchange for the chair.’ He grinned, and then, gesturing to a passing waiter, mouthed some instructions in his ear with a nod towards the women at the table. Pulling out his wallet, he slipped a couple of notes into the waiter’s hand, adding, ‘And keep the change.’
‘Do you really have back problems, Griffin?’ Fi asked curiously. ‘You know I trained as a masseuse before setting up the business.’
‘Truthfully, my back is fine, but please don’t let that stop you from giving me a massage any time you feel like it,’ he teased.
Fi roared with laughter and slapped his shoulder. ‘If I was twenty years younger, you might have tempted me to consider marriage number three.’
Griffin snorted and Ruby looked from one to the other, unable to decide which of them was worse. ‘Fi, if you were ever daft enough to marry him, I’d lay bets on you being back in the divorce courts within six months.’
‘As you can see, ladies,’ Griffin said sorrowfully, ‘Rubes has absolutely no faith in me when it comes to women.’
‘Can you blame me? I’m only pointing out what half the female population of London has learned the hard way.’
Priya had scarcely taken her eyes off Griffin since his appearance, and two strong cocktails had loosened her tongue. Without warning, she burst out, ‘Oh my God, Ruby, your boyfriend issooamazing!’
‘I don’t know how many times I have to tell you he isnotmy boyfriend!’ Ruby said testily.
‘Can’t say I blame you, Priya, love,’ Fi remarked. ‘I’ve been watching The Ruby and Griffin Show for years, and quite frankly they make it awfully hard for us to tell the difference.’
Ruby looked visibly irritated, while Griffin’s lips twitched in amusement. After a moment of silence he said, ‘I’m sensing this might be a good time to get another round in. What’s everyone drinking?’
After taking their orders, he twinkled at Priya. ‘And now we’ve established that I’m blissfully single, why don’t you come and, er, give me a hand with the drinks?’
Blushing a deep crimson beneath her dusky complexion, Priya didn’t need to be asked twice. Jumping out of her chair, she led the way to the bar, elbowing aside anyone in her way.
The moment they were out of earshot, Ruby groaned. ‘He’d better not mess her around. She’s a great employee, and I’d like to keep her.’
‘Ah, give it a rest. Priya’s a big girl.’ Fi swallowed the last drops in her glass and delicately licked the corners of her lips. Following Ruby’s gaze to where Griffin and Priya stood chatting in the queue for drinks, Fi’s eyes crinkled in amusement.
‘You always insist Griffin’s just a friend, so why do you even care what he does?’ She cackled wickedly. ‘Or who?’
Ruby shrugged and turned away from the couple at the bar. ‘I don’t. What Griffin gets up to doesn’t matter to me in the slightest.’
Fi’s grin widened, and she placed her empty glass on the table with a murmured, ‘If you say so, Ruby.’
PART TWO
PARADISE
8
The small plane circled the island below and then dipped sharply, sending Ruby’s clenched stomach muscles into spasm.What the hell possessed me to do this?Taking deep breaths, she gripped the arm of her seat and tried not to imagine the aircraft plummeting nose first into the dark green forests visible through the windows. The first leg of their journey on the modern long-haul commercial jet from London to Jamaica had been fine, notwithstanding the occasional patch of turbulence. It was only when she spotted the small plane taking them from Montego Bay to Sorrel Island that Ruby’s nerves had kicked in, intensified by the restricted leg room on the plane and seats scarcely bigger than those in Fi’s office.
Jake, on the other hand, had spent most of the almost two-hour flight with his nose glued to the window. Bubbling with excitement, he would have leaped from his seat when the captain announced they were twenty minutes from landing if he hadn’t been restrained by his seatbelt.
‘Mum,look! There’s Sorrel Island! It’s shaped just like a heart – isn’t that socool?’ His high-pitched voice carried above the sound of the engines, and as Ruby glanced around the cabin to check he wasn’t disturbing the other passengers, her eyes met those of an elderly Black woman sitting across the aisle. Something about the woman’s smile reminded her of Auntie Pearl, and Ruby felt a pang of sadness at thethought of not seeing her beloved aunt for the next couple of weeks – or longer, depending on how things went with Kenny.
With their destination literally in sight, Ruby’s apprehension at how Kenny would react to the appearance of his ex-girlfriend and their son was increasing by the minute. Griffin and Fi had been right to question the wisdom of just showing up on Sorrel Island with Jake, she thought, mentally kicking herself for losing her nerve and hanging up the phone after calling Kenny’s workplace. On one hand, the fact he hadn’t been in touch to tell her not to come was reassuring, in so far as she knew Jake wouldn’t be rejected by his father. But, on the other hand, if she hadn’t bottled it, she would at least have come better prepared. Leaving the message on his office phone would have given Kenny time to prep whoever needed to know – for all she knew, the man was happily married with a family who knew nothing about his past – but it didn’t giveherany information about his circumstances to help her deal with what was undoubtedly going to be a very awkward reunion.
