short while later, Michael had just stepped out to take a call and was returning when my own phone, still tucked in my bag, began to ring. Engaged in trying to find all the parts of a cutlery set, I had my head down, knowing for sure that I’d seen a bunch of teaspoons around here somewhere.
‘Do you want me to grab that?’ Michael called from the hallway.
‘If you like,’ I answered, distractedly. ‘Aha! There you are!’ I said, fishing out four teaspoons from under an upturned clay flowerpot.
‘Holy shit!’
I looked up at his exclamation.
‘Whatever’s the…Oh no! No no no!’ My horrified expression met his amused one as he entered the kitchen. In one hand he held my phone, which had by now stopped ringing, and in the other the bag I’d taken from Mrs B for safekeeping.
I snapped out of my shock and scrambled over, snatching the bag from his hand.
‘It fell out when I grabbed the phone. Sorry.’ He didn’t sound sorry. At all. ‘It’s always the quiet ones, they say.’
‘They’re not mine.’ I faced him and drew myself up. ‘And even if they were, I’d have nothing to be ashamed about.’
‘That’s true. You’re a modern, emancipated woman. Who looks ever so cute when she blushes.’
‘Arrgh!’ I gave him a shove to move him from the doorway and rammed the plastic bag down to the bottom of my tote. His laughter followed me out to the hallway and I couldn’t help the smile that formed at the sound of it.
Returning to the kitchen, I went back to what I had been doing. Two minutes later, Michael spoke.
‘Seriously?’
‘Seriously, what?’ I asked, looking up at him.
He gave a nod towards the hallway. ‘You’re not going to explain that?’
‘Nope.’
‘Oh, come on!’
‘What?’
‘Are they yours?’
‘I already told you they weren’t.’
‘I know, but I thought you were maybe just being defensive, being caught on the hop, so to speak.’
‘No, they’re not. But even so, if I want to tote around a bag full of Ann Summers’ best, then surely that’s up to me?’ I was doing my best to keep a straight face, but the odd thing was, contrary to what I had ever believed possible at our first meeting, I was enjoying the banter with him.
‘Absolutely. And it certainly explains one thing?’
‘What’s that?’
‘Why you’re not so bothered about the fact you don’t see your boyfriend all that much.’
I narrowed my eyes at him.
‘Perhaps I could leave one of them here. You know, just in case? We wouldn’t want any of your “visitors”,’ I made the quotes in the air with my fingers, ‘leaving disappointed.’
His mouth pulled to the side a little, amused. ‘Oh, don’t you be worrying about that.’
‘Just trying to help.’
‘Of course you are.’
I smiled and put my head down to get back to work.
Michael was emptying the taller cupboards, as instructed. His height meant he didn’t have to use a stepladder like I did, so the process was much quicker. But two minutes later he broke the silence again.
‘Oh come on Katie! This is killing me!’
I turned from wiping out the now empty cutlery drawer to where Michael was now leaning on his worktop, piles of crockery surrounding him.
‘What is?’
‘Why you’re carrying all that…stuff. Do you have another job I’m unaware of?’
I rolled my eyes. ‘Why do you care?’
‘Because I’m interested in you.’
The smile on my face faltered for a moment. ‘Why?’
‘What do you mean, why? It’s not every day a woman walks into my house, secretly armed for combat.’
Why I thought he was being anything than intrigued at the situation, I don’t know. Although the bigger question currently bouncing around my brain was about the weird feeling I’d got when he’d clarified his area of interest. If I didn’t know better, I’d have called it disappointment, which was ridiculous. Of course, I wasn’t disappointed that my client’s interest in me didn’t go any deeper…It was fine. More than fine. Ideal, in fact. And hardly surprising, anyway. All right, Michael O’Farrell and I were definitely in a better place than we had been, but we weren’t exactly best buddies, and he certainly wouldn’t be interested in me. It was clear that his interests, when it came to women, were of the knockout stunning kind and although I did OK, I definitely wasn’t anywhere near that category. And I generally liked my relationships to last more than one night which was another thing we disagreed on, apparently. And he drove me nuts. And I drove him nuts. So…what was I even doing thinking about all this stuff?
‘Katie?’
‘Huh?’
‘You were miles away.’ He almost looked concerned.
‘Oh…no. I was just thinking of…um…’
Michael raised an eyebrow and I could see the grin he was struggling to stifle.
‘For goodness’ sake. They are a client’s, OK? Sometimes, when people can’t quite decide as to whether there is something they should throw away, I’ll keep it for a few weeks until their head is a little clearer on it and then they decide. Admittedly, it’s usually something like a wedding album or a bunch of old love letters, but I am nothing if not adaptable.’
‘So I see.’
‘Do you think you can focus on something else now?’
‘I don’t know. I have to say it was all quite shocking for a man of my delicate disposition. I might need a lie down. If you could see yourself to placing a cool flannel on my head and saying “there, there” occasionally, I might just recover.’
‘I can see myself saying a lot more than that if you don’t get your backside in gear in the next thirty seconds.’
‘A man’s got to try,’ he said, opening another cupboard and reaching in to begin emptying it. ‘I wouldn’t want you to say I wasn’t trying.’
‘Somehow, I highly doubt anyone would ever say that about you.’
***
‘Is
