Page 27 of You Only Live Once
‘Do you have enough room upstairs to do everything you need to do? Paperwork and so on?’
‘Yeah, it’s good.’
A thought had been swimming about in my brain over the last couple of days and it now came to the surface. ‘I’ve been thinking.’
‘Oh?’
‘The studio is all kitted out with heat, light, power, et cetera, and it’s just sitting there unused. Why don’t you take that over as an office? Then you could separate your work life and home life.’
‘I couldn’t do that. I’d be effectively renting two places off you then and somehow I doubt you’re going to take money for that either.’
‘Don’t be silly. I’d rather it was used. It’s a bit of a white elephant just sat there as it is.’
He shifted in the seat again, brushing my thigh with his own as he did so. I kept my focus on the garden.
‘Are you really sure?’
‘I am. The only thing I would ask was, if you’re going to have clients come in, whether we could sort out some sort of screening material, whether that’s plants or willow fencing or some other thing that I saw onGardener’s World, just so that it wouldn’t be quite so easy for them to look over towards the house, or the rest of the garden. I know that sounds ridiculous, probably.’
‘Of course it doesn’t. It’s your home. It’s natural that you, or anyone, would want to protect their privacy. But don’t worry, I wouldn’t hold any meetings there, but I can still put some screening up if you’d prefer.’
‘No, that’s OK. Although perhaps we could plant around it a bit, soften the edges. That sort of thing?’
He grinned. ‘Great minds think alike. Anything in particular you had in mind?’
‘You’re the designer.’ I laughed.
‘That doesn’t mean you don’t have good ideas. As you said, you were already thinking about the lavender.’
‘True. OK, I quite like some of those tropical looking plants, you know, with the big leaves? But it might be nice to have some colour dotted around down there too. Does that make sense?’
‘It does. I’m sure we can achieve that pretty easily.’
‘But only if I pay for the plants. That’s the deal,’ I said, giving him my hardest Paddington stare.
‘You drive a hard bargain.’
‘Don’t you forget it.’
He clinked his glass against mine and rested back against the sofa, filling the space, with almost the entire length of his body now resting against the side of mine, but there was no tension in it. He was completely relaxed and something about that seemed to permeate its way into me, unfurling the knots of earlier and making my own limbs feel loose and rested. Of course, that could just be the champagne. Whatever it was it felt good, and for once I tried not to overthink and just absorb and sink into the moment.
9
The next morning, I woke up fully clothed under my duvet with no recollection of how I got there. Rolling over, I looked at the clock. It was nearly half past ten and I should have been at my desk an hour ago. I sat up quickly and immediately regretted the movement, a hand going to my forehead as the inevitable hangover from last night’s champagne made itself known. Jack Coulsdon-Hart was a bad influence.
Half an hour later, I’d showered, washed my hair, tentatively eaten some breakfast and was now sitting at my desk, gazing out of my study window. There were hints of blue in the sky, but a steady spring rain was falling and, through the slightly open window, I could hear it tap-tap-tapping on the leaves. It was a gentle, soothing sound and I sat listening to it for a few minutes, taking it all in before I fired up my laptop and dived back into my current work in progress.
I wandered in and out of the kitchen a couple of times to get much required cups of tea and a snack but, having hit a good stride, the next time I looked up, twilight had settled over the garden, and my stomach made a loud growl. Closing the lid of my laptop, I stood up, stretched and wandered over to the full-length patio doors that lead out into the garden from my study. Looking across, I could see a light on in the studio. It seemed that Jack had already started to set up shop down there, and I was glad. There had long been a niggle at the back of my mind that I’d spent a lot of money on something that was just sitting empty after my original plan didn’t work out, so it was good that it was finally being put to use. I switched the light off in my study and pootled out to the kitchen to find something for dinner. A short time later, Jack entered through the back door.
‘Hi,’ I said, pulling a pizza from the oven. ‘I was just about to call you. Do you want some of this?’
‘Looks great. I’ll just wash my hands.’
‘I saw the light on down there. Are you settling in OK? Is there anything you need?’
‘No, it’s great! Are you definitely sure you don’t want to use it for work?’
‘Positive,’ I said. ‘I like listening to the rain but I’m not such a fan of scooting down the garden in it. I’m cosy in my study.’
