Public Property (6 page)

‘
I haven’t forgotten you cut up your mother’s store cards
.
I shall be keeping my American Express
close
to my chest,’
Jonathan assured her.

‘
If it’s really that important to you
,
you can get it its own chair and napkin
.’

‘
Your usual table
,
Mr
Sanders?
’

T
he manager of the restaurant
greeted them in the lobby.

‘
Please and could you arrange a bottle of your best cabernet sauvignon
,’
Jonathan
ordered.

‘
Certainly
,
Sir
.
G
ood afternoon
, Miss Johnson, how are you?’
the manager asked
, turning to
Freya.

‘
I’m fine thanks
,
Frank
. Can I have olives? You
know,
the Greek ones?’

‘Of course.
P
lease, come this way
.’
He led them into the dining room.

‘
Your
“
usual
”
table
?’
Freya remarked as she walked alongside Jonathan towards a table at the back of the room.

‘
Yes, I come
to Carlton
every three or four months.
I try to eat here as often as I can when I
’
m in town
.
T
hey do fantastic pasta
.’

‘
You eat pasta! I have to tell you
,
Jonny I
’
m finding this transformation of yours a little difficul
t to take in.
The smart clothes.
T
he business man’s car
.
The change in diet.
T
he goatee
.
N
ext you
’
ll be telling me you have a mansion in Beverley Hills
,’
Freya
said
.

‘
Just off of Santa Monica Boulevard
actually.’

‘
You live in America?
’
Freya questioned
.

She put the menu down
and
stared across at him. Ordering food could wait. She wanted to hear his story.

‘Some of the time.
I travel
,’
he answered. H
e poured some bottled water into Freya’s glass.

‘
So
,
what’s your business? What do you do?
’

‘
Business
es
.
My main occupation
– I’m a developer.
I see things with potential and I try to bring that out
,’
he stated.

‘
Please tell me you aren’t one of those
people
who evicts, demolishes and builds office towers
,’ Freya begged. She couldn’t think of anything worse. Well, perhaps someone who was paid to bang on about eating five-a-day.

‘
I try not to do that too often
.
B
ut sometimes it’s unavoidable
.’

‘
Oh my God, you are. Well now I know why you have
bullet-
proof glass on that car
.’

‘
I head up corporations
,
Freya
.
C
orporations with shareholders that want returns for their investment
.
T
hey
’
re my priority and
,
like I said, building office towers on reside
ntial areas really isn’t my bag.
H
otels and inns are more my
specialty
. Ha
ve you heard of the
Recuperation Inns?
’
he asked
.

‘
Yes of course,
they have billboards everywhere with a really cheesy slogan
.
S
omething like
the ultimate sleep sensation begins at
a Recuperation
. If that
’
s your company I would shoot your ad man
,’ she
replied.

‘
But you remembered it
,
so he’s done his job.
T
hat is one of my companies and it
’s my aim to have a
Recuperation Inn in every
major city
in the US by the time I retire
.
I’m hopeful for forty, so
I
’
ve
got
just under ten years
,’
he said
.
He smiled. It looked smug-
arsed
.

‘
My, my, what happened? Did you enter
The Apprentice
or something? If I remember
right,
you were studying mechanics at college
,’
Freya said.

‘
I can still change a
tyre
but I also learnt how to run a multi
-
million pound
organi
s
ation
.’

‘
Well good for you
.
I hope you and your hotels will be very happy together. I’ll have garlic bread, a pizza with everything on it and t
ell them not to hold back on those
olives
,’ Freya told him. She pushed the menu away.

‘
Fine and how about some
banof
fee
pie for dessert?’
he
suggested.

‘
Whatever
.’

She was cross. Why was she cross? Why didn’t she want him to be successful? Because he had left her and humiliated her and taken money from her father. But that was years ago and she had a great life now and a wonderful partner to share it with. Why did she want to think of Jonny back on that council estate amounting to nothing? When had she got so cruel?

Frank returned with the wine and Jonathan gave their order.

‘
You’re still angry with me
,
aren’t you?” Jonathan said
after
Frank left.

‘
And why would I be angry with you
,
Jonny?
’

‘
Freya, I have to say i
t makes me feel seventeen again, you calling me that. No one calls me that anymore
,’
he
admitted
. He laughed,
then
smiled, the brown eyes crinkling at the edges.

‘
Well
,
what
would
you rather I call you?
Money
-grabbing weasel?
Two-
faced hypocrite?
’

He
r
temper rose in her gut, her face flamed. She stared him down.

‘
I’m not either of those things
,’ he insisted. He took a sip of his wine. He looked cool and collected, unfazed by her name-calling.

‘
No? Well
,
what would you call someone who did what you did to me?
If there’s another name for it then hit me with it.’

‘
You don’t know the full story
.’

‘
Yes I do
.
Emma told me what happened. My father paid you off. He gave you money to stop seeing me and you took it
,’
Freya stated
through gritted teeth
.

It still stung. The memories burned.

‘
That isn’t strictly true
.’

‘
No? Well
,
what did I leave out? One minute you were telling me you didn’t care who I really was
,
or who my father was
.
Y
ou
said
you
wanted to marry me
.
T
he next minute you won’t answer my calls or see me
.
Then
Emma is telling me you
’
re leaving the area
,’
Freya continued.

‘
It wasn’t because I didn’t love you anymore
.
I
t was just complicated
.’

‘
You mean
I
was complicated.
I
was suddenly too complicated for you to deal with
.
So
,
it had nothing to do with
thirty thousand pounds?’
Freya asked
.

How was he going to squirm out of that one?

‘
No. It had nothing to do with
thirty thousand pounds.’

‘
Well
,
what was it then?
Fifty
?
A hundred thousand
?
My father is a very rich man, perhaps it was more than that
.
A million
?
No, I don’t think he would part with that much just to stop me seeing someone he didn’t approve of
,’
Freya carried on.

She was aware her voice had almost hit banshee heights and a table to their left was now paying more attention to them than the food. She didn’t care. She wanted to get this out. She needed him to know how much he had hurt her and find out why.

‘
Eric didn’t give me any money
,’
Jonathan told her.

She closed her lips, narrowed her eyes and waited for him to say something else. There had to be something else. He took another sip of his wine, his gaze not leaving hers.

If her father hadn
’
t given him money to leave her
,
then why
had
he le
ft
her? And why had Emma told her
that Jonathan had accepted money from her father to not see her again.

‘
I don’t understand
.
S
o
,
you just left because he told you to? You gave up what we had together
because my father asked you to?’ she stuttered.

‘
I left because my father got a new job on the other side of London
.
I
t was a good job, it paid well and it was a step up for
us
,’
he explained
.

‘
I don’t believe you. You don’t break up with someone just because you
’r
e moving a few miles away. The whole of London is connected by something
called The Tube for God’s sake. W
e could have met up, we could have carried on
.’

She didn’t believe this. All this time she had thought everything had come down to money again and he was here telling her something different. What did she believe?

‘
I didn’t want to carry on, like I said, it was too complicated
.’ There was strength to his tone, finality.

‘Hang on a minute here.
I
’
m old enough to be abl
e to take the truth that maybe
you
didn’t want to
date me
anymore
, although I find that a little difficult to believe
,
seeing a
s you
’
d got down on your knee
and proposed to me, albeit with a ring from Argos
.
B
ut why tell Emma my father paid you off?
’

‘
I don’t know
.
B
ecause I was seventeen and immature and I knew you would believe it. I was scared
,
Freya
.
M
eeting your parents and actually thinking properly about making a commitment and settling down,
it freaked me out.
I wasn’t really ready
,’ he admitted. He let out an audible sigh.