waiter had to stifle a cough as he left.
‘So how have you been, Lydia?’ Jacob asked.
‘Fabulous, Jacob. And you?’
‘Fabulous.’ His urbane voice gave the casual word a whole different feel. Long, drawn out, smooth. Holly took a large gulp of her drink.
‘If you two are finished,’ Holly said, ‘let’s talk about the party.’ She stopped as Jacob held up his hands, his face contorted with mock apprehension.
‘You promised me I wouldn’t have to choose between pewter and bronze.’
‘But—’
‘No buts. Follow the notes if you must, but as I said on the phone you guys have carte blanche.’
It sounded perfect in theory, but Holly knew there was no way of pleasing a client without substantial input. One person’s pewter was another person’s bronze.
Obviously sensing the same looming disaster, Lydia whipped out the contract and gave it to Jacob. ‘If you could just look this over, fill in your details and the party date, sign away and we have a deal.’
Jacob did as he was told, then Holly signed alongside his name. Lydia clapped her hands together excitedly as she took the signed contract and placed it carefully in her pink attaché case.
‘Carte blanche,’ Lydia cooed. ‘My two favourite words in the whole English language.’
Jacob laughed aloud again. And Holly felt her skin resonating in response to the infectious sound.
‘So, Jacob,’ Lydia said, ‘since we can’t talk shop, tell me why you had to stop Holly from throwing her drink over you? ‘
His eyes crinkled. ‘Well, I just knew that she was expecting my sister and didn’t want her to freak out.’
‘Holly, freak out?’ Lydia scoffed. ‘She’s the coolest cucumber you could ever hope to meet.’
‘Do tell.’
‘Sure. I mean, take yesterday lunchtime; these expatriate English people who were having a British-Australian dinner. We’d spent three full days with the client finalising the seating arrangements. We had even printed up these lovely table number cards. Weren’t they lovely, Holly?’
‘They were lovely, Lydia,’ Holly agreed, flicking a quick apologetic smile to Jacob, who winked briefly before turning his rapt attention back to Lydia. Holly’s skin tingled as though that wink had crossed the table and brushed along her cheek. She crept a stealthy hand from her lap to her face and rubbed at the wayward spot.
‘Anyway,’ Lydia continued, ‘at the last minute the client realised that Joe was at table number three and Eunice was at table number four. They were both in the front row, both within spitting distance of the speaker, but Joe was sitting at a higher table number than Eunice. And this was cataclysmic. The client was ready to cancel the whole thing. In stepped Miss Cool Bananas here and said, Let’s just rename the tables; not numbers, not letters, but names of small English towns. The client hyperventilated her agreement. There went our Holly into her “magic” briefcase and found enough fancy paper and a black magic marker to rename every table. And within minutes of everyone’s arrival the whole room was in tears as they blabbed about the small English towns they all knew and loved and missed. Even Joe and Eunice were hugging each other and bawling their eyes out.’
Lydia took a deep breath and slumped back in her chair. ‘Jacob, can you look around the corner and see if my apple pie is coming? I’m starved!’
It took a moment for Jacob to latch onto Lydia’s sudden change of topic. He peeked. ‘Not just yet.’
‘Good. Holly, could you shove over for a sec? I have to take a pee before my pie comes.’
Holly obligingly moved out of her seat so Lydia could shuffle past. ‘Thanks, gorgeous.’ She flounced past Holly and skipped towards the ladies’ room.
Holly slid back down into her seat, slowly and deliberately, already marking the seconds until Lydia’s return.
‘Isn’t she exhausting?’ Jacob said.
Talk about Lydia. Excellent. Safe ground.
‘She’s enthusiastic and imaginative and the clients love her. I’ll probably end up working for her one day.’
After a moment’s pause, during which time his mind seemed to be ticking over, Jacob asked, ‘She called you “gorgeous”. Ben and Beth both refer to you in that way as well. Do you just get that particular compliment a lot?’
‘Hardly.’
Hardly a professional topic of conversation. Explain then change the subject.
‘My dad called me that since I was little. And then one day when I first met Ben he called out “Hey, gorgeous” to Beth and I answered without even thinking. And he and Beth have called me that ever since. The guys at work heard Ben call me that at the Christmas party a couple of years ago and never let it go. I barely notice it any more.’
Jacob smiled. ‘It suits you.’
‘Please,’ she scoffed, looking over her shoulder to check if Lydia was on her way back.
After another pregnant pause, Jacob thankfully changed the subject. ‘Did you really do all those things she said? Yesterday lunchtime?’
‘In a manner of speaking. Though she makes it seem much more exhilarating than it really was. It was a fairly simple fix and we’ve had worse problems closer to the final hour.’
‘There you go, selling yourself short again.’
‘Fine.’ She laughed. ‘I was brilliant. I saved the day.’
‘That’s better.’
‘But it’s my job to fix those things, to smooth the way and make the events seem effortless whilst the client sits back and takes the honour.’
Watch and learn, buddy. This party of Ana’s will blow your mind.
Jacob sat back and crossed his arms, mirroring her stance. ‘Do you see yourself branching out with your own firm?’
‘I love what I do and if I was the owner I wouldn’t be able to do it. I’d have to concentrate on finances and payroll and other such icky things. I’m happy to play with other people’s money.’
‘And this way you could more easily take time off if you needed it.’
‘I guess.’ She wondered why he would focus on that aspect. ‘But it would be decidedly more difficult to make the house payments if I was skipping off on cruises year round.’
‘You own a house?’ His eyes softened as he asked.
‘It will be a few years yet before I can claim that distinction from the bank.’
‘I see. But, if your circumstances changed, you could stop working altogether,’ Jacob added, his hazel eyes now boring into hers.
‘I guess I could.’
If I pick the right lottery numbers, or find a suitcase of money buried in my backyard.
And then it dawned on her. He was thinking that what she wanted most in a job was the flexibility to marry and have children as soon as possible.
How wrong he was! Or was he?
If she followed her plan through to its logical conclusion, wouldn’t that mean a wedding, a honeymoon, and some day children? Holly felt a comforting blush creep over her as these ideas filtered through and meshed with her original plan just to find someone nice and compatible to spend her time with. She loved her job but the thought of a full life with a real family was intoxicating.
But hang on. This was not Beth having an innocent chat, and not a prospective husband seeing