If the Shoe Fits (14 page)

Eleanor wasn't sure how to reply, so she smiled and continued eating instead. She wasn't a fan of Derek Leeming to be sure, but she didn't want him to get into any trouble. It looked like Charming was determined to intervene, though, so there wasn't much she could do about it.

“How's the foot now?” asked Charming, clearly ending the subject of Derek.

“Sore,” she replied truthfully. “It's not as bad as it was though, so I can't complain.”

“I noticed that you seemed to be well acquainted with that doctor earlier.”

“Yes, well, three trips to the A&E in as many weeks will do that,” she said dryly.

“He didn't seem very professional to me. In fact, I thought he was overly familiar.”

“He's nice enough. He offered me my own cubicle when I was there the last time. I think he thinks I should set up camp there or something.”

Charming scowled.

“He's really very nice,” said Eleanor. “Apart for being embarrassed every time I go there, I feel comfortable around him.”

“He didn't seem to make a very thorough examination,” said Charming shortly, still frowning. “At least, not with your foot at any rate. I noticed he seemed more than happy to spend extra time on your other injury though.”

“Don't be silly, he was just doing his job,” said Eleanor crossly.

“Still, I'm rather worried about your foot,” said Charming, shaking his head thoughtfully.

“Well, if a doctor's opinion isn't good enough for you, I don't know what is. Perhaps you'd like to take a look yourself?” she drawled sarcastically.

“Excellent idea,” he replied, face brightening. “Just to be sure, of course.”

Before she had chance to respond, Charming was kneeling down in front of her and was removing her socks. He gently lifted her injured foot and began to examine it, prodding it gently and smoothing his thumb across the injured area.

“Um, Mr. Charming?”

“You can call me Max.”

“Um, Max? I really don't think that's helping.”

“Does it hurt?” he asked quickly.

“Well, no. But that's not the point.”

“If it's not hurting, then it's not doing any harm,” he said firmly.

Eleanor closed her eyes. Truthfully, what Charming —
Max
— was doing was far from being painful, but she thought he should stop doing it all the same. She had tingles shooting up her leg, and she was pretty sure that they had nothing to do with the cut. A few blissful minutes passed, with Eleanor becoming more and more uncomfortable as the seconds ticked by, then suddenly the maddening strokes stopped. Eleanor blinked dazedly.

“That's much better, don't you think?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Now then, how do you feel about me examining your other injury?”

Eleanor's eyes widened. She looked at Charming —
Max!
— and saw him gazing at her with fierce intensity.

“Um, I don't know.”

“You're driving me crazy,” he said softly. “Did you know that? I knew you were going to be trouble as soon as I saw you. I'm looking at you, and all I can see are those damn pictures of you in that skimpy underwear.”

Max leaned back on his feet and run his fingers through his hair, causing it to stick up in a way that made Eleanor want to ruffle it up even more.

“I don't normally do this.”

“What? Come on to the office idiot?”

“You're not an idiot,” he said distractedly. “No, I mean I don't do the whole ‘dating the staff' thing. It usually spells trouble, and I don't like complications.”

Eleanor wasn't sure she liked being described as a “complication,” but the “dating the staff” thing sounded rather promising. She raised an eyebrow and looked at him expectantly.

“Am I misreading things?” he asked. “I mean, I have a feeling that I affect you as much as you affect me, but I might be wrong. Tell me to get lost if that's the case; I don't want to be compared to the Derek Leemings of this world.”

“Well, I wouldn't put you in the same group as Derek,” said Eleanor lightly.

“So?”

Eleanor looked at him carefully. It was rather thrilling to have a man accuse her of driving him crazy, and even more exciting when it happened out of the blue. Less than a month ago she had never even heard of Max Charming; yet here he was, kneeling at her feet, practically begging for her to be a little bit naughty. She stifled a smile, doing her best to maintain a thoughtful expression. Max was looking directly into her eyes, and Eleanor tried her best to look right back. She made herself recall Muse's advice about avoiding the sex situation, but she liked the idea even less at the moment than she had when Muse had first suggested it.

Oh, sod it.

“Well, Dr. Charming, I do seem to have another injury that requires your attention,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes exaggeratedly.

Max grinned, and joined her on the sofa. Eleanor lifted her arms and put them around his neck, drawing him closer.

“Meeeooowww!”

“What the hell?”

“Muse!”

Max jumped back in shock, while Eleanor almost fell to the floor. They both stared at the cat that had just joined them.

“Yours, I presume?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

Muse glared at Eleanor pointedly, before jumping on to the sofa and settling herself firmly in the center. Max tried to edge a little closer to Eleanor and got hissed at for his trouble.

“I don't think your cat approves,” said Max, a smile teasing his lips.

Eleanor tried to shoo Muse away, but the cat wasn't having it, and dug her claws into the sofa.

“I'm really sorry about this,” said Eleanor, still trying to remove her pesky pet.

“Don't worry; things were probably moving along a little fast, anyway.”

“Not bloody fast enough, obviously,” muttered Eleanor, glaring at Muse.

Max laughed, braved a quick kiss on Eleanor's cheek, and stood up.

“You're not going?”

“I think I should. Why don't we try this again tomorrow?”

“We could try again tonight if my stupid cat would move her butt.”

“No, really,” laughed Max. “It's fine. It's probably better this way. At least you won't be able to accuse me of taking advantage. Look, sleep on it tonight, and hopefully you will still feel the same way tomorrow. Deal?”

“I suppose so,” said Eleanor, pouting in disappointment.

“Don't do that,” groaned Max. “That's what you did in those damned photos.”

“I'll have to remember that,” she replied. “You know, for future reference.”

“Minx.”

“Tease.”

“Meow!”

“And there's my cue to leave,” said Max, sighing. “Don't move, stay where you are. I'll see myself out. And don't forget, I don't want to see you at work. I'll see you around six tomorrow evening.”

Eleanor nodded and smiled. She had every intention of going to work the following morning, but she saw no reason to mention it. Max grabbed his jacket, threw her a parting wave, and left.

“That was a close call,” said Muse. “A few more minutes and you would have been engaging in activities totally unsuitable for a young lady.”

“A few more minutes and I would have been enjoying myself, thank you very much,” corrected Eleanor. “Anyway, go away. I don't think I'm talking to you at the moment.”

Muse chuckled — another accomplishment added to the ever-growing list of things a cat could apparently do — and sauntered off, safe in the knowledge that her work had been done.

• • •

After a fitful night's rest, Eleanor crawled out of bed the following morning questioning her decision to go into work that day. The entire night had been filled with dreams and images that had done little to help her gain a good night's sleep, and this morning she was paying the price.

“You look awful,” said Muse cheerfully.

“Thanks.”

“I hope this means you had trouble sleeping last night?”

“I'd say that was obvious.”

“Good.”

“How is that good?”

“Because it means you obviously felt guilty about almost abandoning your underwear last night.”

“Er, right,” snorted Eleanor. If anything, losing her underwear would have probably meant that she would have gotten a good night's sleep, but maybe it was better if Muse didn't know that. A blissfully ignorant cat was a happy cat, after all.

“You should go back to bed,” advised Muse.

“No, I'm going to work,” said Eleanor firmly.

“I thought Charming told you to take the rest of the week off?”

“He did, but that doesn't mean I have to listen to him. And hey, just how long did you eavesdrop for last night?”

“I don't eavesdrop,” sniffed Muse. “A cat just has excellent hearing, that's all.”

Eleanor stifled a snort and made herself a cup of coffee. Truly, she felt tired, sore, and a little confused this morning, and would have welcomed the idea of returning to her bed with open arms. She wasn't ready to be dictated to by Charming though, so she winced past the pain and doggedly continued with her usual morning ritual.

Wanting to avoid both Charming and Derek, Eleanor arranged for Jake to meet her outside the Cardiff Mode building. She arrived a little after eight o'clock, almost an hour earlier than normal, in the hopes that she could sneak in before being seen. Feeling a little stupid, and rather glad that there was no one around to see her, she poked her head through the main door of the building and quickly glanced around the foyer.

“Jake!” she called softly, “Over here!”

Jake spotted her hiding and made his way over to her, looking over his shoulder.

“What happened to you yesterday?” he hissed at her as he ushered her inside. “I tried to phone your mobile and it was switched off. And your home phone seems to be broken, too.”

“Didn't Max tell you?” she said.

“It's
Max
now, is it?”

Damn! Now I can say his bloody name without any problems, apparently.

“Yeah, you know, Charming,” she said quickly. “I had a little accident yesterday, and he took me to the hospital. I switched my phone off when we got there and must have forgotten to put it back on.”

“Well, I can see that you've hurt yourself because you're limping,” said Jake. “But that doesn't explain why you didn't let me know.”

“I'm sorry, Jake. It was a bit of a crazy afternoon, what with one thing and another. And I'll get an engineer out to look at my phone, I promise. I don't understand why it isn't working.”

“You do that, sweetie. I don't like not being able to get hold of you.”

“You could have come over, you know,” she pointed out dryly.

“On a Monday?” cried Jake in horror. “When that woman would be there? Not on your life!”

Eleanor stopped mid-limp. Christie had missed her weekly meeting, which was slightly disturbing. That woman never missed an opportunity to annoy Eleanor.

“What's wrong, love?”

“Christie didn't call last night.”

“What, and you only just noticed?” snorted Jake.

Eleanor glared at him as he pushed her into the elevator. Jake arranged his face into a suitably grave expression and pressed the button for the doors to close.

“She's up to something,” said Eleanor, biting her lip. “She's probably holed up with her solicitor plotting my father's downfall.”

“That wouldn't surprise me,” said Jake darkly. “That woman makes Attila the Hun look like a pussycat. I'll tell you what
does
surprise me, though.”

“What?”

“You not noticing that the Wicked Witch of the West didn't turn up for her weekly misery meeting.”

“Well,” said Eleanor, hoping the evasion didn't show in her tone. “I did say that I'd had a bit of a crazy afternoon.”

“I'll tell you what,” said Jake, as he escorted her into his office. “You give me all the juicy details from yesterday, and I'll forgive you for not telling me where you were when you went AWOL.”

Seeing as Eleanor would have told him all about the previous day's events anyway, this seemed more than fair, so she swiftly agreed to the suggestion.

“Just give me ten minutes,” ordered Jake. “I need to make a couple of quick phone calls.”

“This time of the morning?” said Eleanor incredulously.

“Yes,” nodded Jake firmly. “First I need to phone Danny and get him to pick up a double order of muffins on his way in. You can tell us both what happened yesterday, which will save me having to do the job myself.”

“Fair enough,” snorted Eleanor. “What's the second call for?”

“I need to get a glazier in. Some idiot smashed the six foot mirror in the studio and neglected to let me know about it. I've got a shoot tomorrow so I need to get it replaced before then.”

Eleanor winced.

“Er, about that mirror,” she said awkwardly.

Jake paused in the act of picking the phone up. He took one look at Eleanor's face and rolled his eyes. He punched a number into the phone and tapped his fingers impatiently on the desk.

“Danny? Get here as fast as you can, and get a double order of coffee and muffins,” he said quickly, glaring at Eleanor the entire time. After a quick goodbye, he put the phone down and sat on the edge of his desk, folding his arms and raising his eyebrows.

“Don't look at me like that. It was an accident,” muttered Eleanor, avoiding her friend's eyes.

“Oh, I'm not suggesting it wasn't an accident, Ella, but I think you need to tell me exactly what happened, don't you?”

“I was planning to,” she said defensively.

“Sweetie, I'm not angry; accidents
do
happen, after all. I'm just really curious about how you managed to break a six foot mirror.”