Special Relationship (28 page)

“No boyfriends?”

“Of course. But Sunday was my day. And that's how I liked to spend it. Better than sex, or at least better than sex with the guys I was dating at the time,” she smiled as she recalled them.

“And what were you doing for work?”

“At the time I was doing business studies and statistics. I got by with the help of grants and family handouts, and then I got a job at the Financial Data Organisation. Hence Anderson Financial Support.”

He squeezed her leg. “I'm just going for a cigarette. You stay here and listen to the music and reminisce.”

While he was gone she turned on her phone. The first text message in her list was from Kerry. “Hope you had a great time, babe, tell me all about it tomorrow, x”

The second was from 'Unknown'. “You do know that Nick has slept with his last two
PA's, don't you?”

She rushed to the bathroom, locked the door and sat on the closed seat of the toilet to read the message again.
This time she was more astonished and angry than tearful although she still had to splash her face with water before going back to the lounge.

He was sitting on the sofa and she took a deep breath before sitting next to him.

Why shouldn't he have slept with his last two PA's, she thought. And she was after all already aware of his past with Olivia by her remark after the races. But Katherine?

“So what have you got on for the week?” she asked him.

“Oh, quiet day tomorrow, meetings with some staff on Tuesday and after that I don't really know. I know there is a Frankfurt trip coming up but not sure if it's for this week or next.”

“Good job you have got Katherine,” she remarked.

“Yep, couldn't cope without her.”

“I think I'll go home tonight,” she said more sharply than intended.

He looked at her surprised. “Why?”

“Oh I've got a pitch in the morning and I need to be in the office early,” she lied.

“But it's barely any farther from here than your place.”

“Yes, but I've got some stuff to pick up and a bit of preparation to do.”

“OK.” He paused. “Sorry, I'm disappointed but we'll catch up in the week?”

“Sure,” she said, packing her phone and some makeup into her bag.

“I'll call Christos,” he offered.

“No, don't worry, I'll take a cab, if you can help me down with the bags.”

They went down in the lift and, much to Nick's irritation, a black cab with an illuminated orange light came along almost immediately.

She put her hand up and the cab pulled up alongside them. “Thanks for a lovely weekend,” she said, kissing him on the cheek but without the warmth that he'd felt in Paris.

“Thanks too,” replied a bemused Nick. He went back to his flat and the sofa and idly flicked through the TV channels, wondering what it was about Alex Anderson that so enticed him and so worried him.

By the time she got home it was too late to call Kerry. She looked in the fridge for some wine but there was only diet Coke and a pizza past its 'use-by' date. She stripped to just her knickers and went to bed with her phone and the Sunday paper.

She looked at the message sent to her that night and those from the same 'unknown' that had come before, as though if she looked long enough some explanation would be forthcoming, but there was none.

She skipped the paper and, after finally conquering her busy mind, drifted in
to sleep. The last thought she had was that she couldn't risk putting her life on the line again, and this time she would fight before anything terrible happened.

The next day in the office Kerry came in bright and breezy looking forward to hearing the gossip from the Paris trip. Alex was already in but looked laboured with her smile as her friend and colleague kicked open the door. Kerry tried to hide her immediate thought that the weekend trip had not gone well.

"The tube was hell today," she said. "Sardines would have been pissed off."

"You should get yourself a bike," Adrian remarked.

"Mmm...terrified of the traffic, I suppose," she replied, looking at Alex who had her head down, apparently browsing some paperwork. She went to her PC and sent her an email, typing "Fancy coffee, babe?" in the subject line and just an 'x' in the content space.

She watched patiently as her sombre-looking boss continued to shuffle letters and documents on her desk before finally looking up at her computer. "Yes please, café in ten?" came the reply.

Kerry went first, ordering two coffees and waited anxiously to find out what might have gone wrong in Paris. "Hi, honey, how was it?" she asked, moderating her smile in preparation for the news that she feared would not be as good as expected.

"Paris was great. We had a good time and I loved the city," she said with little enthusiasm.

"So why am I thinking that you are not as chirpy as you should be?"

"Another fucking text."

"You are kidding?"

“You do know that Nick has slept with his last two
PA's, don't you?”

"Oh fucking hell," said Kerry. "Who is this mad person?"

"Doubt he or she is mad, Kels. Just think the person might be quite sane, or even clever, albeit one who is playing a game for what reasons I don't understand. Or just simply someone who has my interests at heart."

"And have you told Nick about it?"

"No, I nearly called him last night. I was going to stay at his place, then the text came through while he was there and I made my excuses and left.

"But you know what? I need to find out for myself, the absolute facts and not take just his word for it. I know – or I'm pretty sure – that he slept with Olivia, but Katherine? She still works for him and they went to New York together and no doubt they'll be going on other business trips together." She had raised her hands and wiggled fingers to indicate quotes around the term 'business trips'.

"And Nick says he loves me, and I guess I am...was...falling for him as well."

"You slept with him in Paris?"

"Yep, I lost count," she replied with a half-hearted smile and regretful look.

"Fuck, Alex, I don't know what to say. I feel I've sort of encouraged you to get involved with him – but only because I wanted you to find happiness – or at least as much happiness as possible, considering – and now I'm feeling guilty. And yes I suppose I was enjoying the excitement of my friend dating one of the country's most desirable men. And for that I'm really sorry."

"Don't be Kels, they were all my decisions. But one thing's for sure, I'm going to find out exactly what Nick Hensen is up to. This time I'm going to raise the barricades before it's too late."

"What are you going to do?"

"Leave it with me. I'm just going to find out for sure whether he is the nice, charming man whose declaration of love is genuine, or whether he is a womaniser who uses his wealth and power to get any girl who takes his fancy into bed.

"Oh, and I hit him."

"You what?"

Alex explained her night terror and how she had hit out at Nick while fending off an attacker in her sleep. Kerry held her hand, knowing the attacker she might have envisaged. "Don't worry, babe, we'll get everything sorted."

"Thanks, Kels, but this is something I have to do myself."

Back in the office they had been working for no more than hour when his name flashed up on her mobile. She hurried to Kerry's desk and asked her to answer it and tell him that she was out.

"Err, she's just gone out, Nick, I'll get her to call you when she gets back?"

"OK, thanks, it's Kerry isn't it?"

"Yeah, she left her phone here. I think she just went for a sandwich or something. She shouldn't be long," closing her eyes as if to make her lies easier. Afterwards, she went straight to the stock room with Alex following her. "He sounded fine, like natural. Don't think he thinks there is anything wrong."

"I just don't know, Kerry."

"Are you going to call him?"

"Maybe later. Right now I'm going on an errand. I'll call you later." She went back to her desk and bundled some of her belongings into her bag, put on her jacket and her mobile in the inside top pocket. "See you later, guys," she said sullenly.

"Is she OK?" Adrian asked after she had left.

"Yeah, just a bit tired, I think," Kerry replied.

When she got off the tube at Lancaster Gate she turned on her phone to use her maps application, and found four missed calls from Nick. Not now, she thought, turning it off again. Instead she asked a seller of the Evening Standard for directions.

It wasn't until she was back home in the evening that she finally answered. "Alex, where have you been? I've been trying you all day."

"Oh, sorry Nick, Kerry gave me the message but I just got busy in the afternoon, and I was like on the subway and everything and have just seen the missed calls."

"You're OK?"

"Yes, of course."

There was something in her tone that convinced him otherwise. He told her that he was going to Frankfurt on Wednesday but it would be just an overnight trip. She didn't bother to ask whether Ka
therine was going with him.

"So, maybe, I'll see you at the weekend?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure," she said, unconvincingly.

"Maybe you could invite me over for some of your chips in curry sauce – I'd like to experience Chez Anderson?"

"Yeah, we'll catch up, definitely."

"You sound deflated."

"Just tired."

"OK, well I'll call when I get back, and, Alex, I do love you. Please believe that."

"You don't know me but, hey, let's see what happens."

He hung up thinking she might be absolutely right and it was him who had read everything wrong. The beautiful girl with problems he couldn't work out was perhaps beyond help. Whatever had damaged her in the past might be irreparable. She burst into tears frequently; she had hit him in her sleep and one moment she was bright and bubbly and the next she seemed distant and morose.

To compound his problems, Tavis called later, the CCTV from the New York apartment finally having been fully reviewed. "There is nothing Nick. The place wasn't bugged."

"Impossible," he said.

"How come?"

"Oh shit, I slept with Katherine and we were the only two people there and I didn't tell anyone about it, and she says she didn't tell anyone, yet she received a text message from someone knowing that we did – I mean, sleep together."

"You slept with Katherine, as in sex?" he asked, doing his best to sound surprised.

"Yes,
Tavis, is that such a big deal? Thousands of people who work together have sex with each other every day. It's not, like, we tortured a kitten or anything."

Tavis
revealed that he'd seen the footage of the two of them entering the apartment and confessed that he was not as surprised as he had tried to imply. But, he repeated, the apartment couldn't have been wired because if someone had removed the bug between them leaving for the airport and the security company carrying out its scan they would have appeared on the CCTV. "No one entered the apartment after you left and the company doing its scan."

"So you are saying that Katherine told someone?"

"Or you," he said bluntly.

"I didn't tell a fucking soul,
Tavis."

"Who did you contact while you were there?"

"No one outside work stuff...oh, a text or two to Alex that was all. But I'm hardly like to send her a message saying that I'd just fucked my PA."

"Leave it with me. There must be another explanation that we haven't thought of yet."

Nick continued to call her throughout the week, even from Frankfurt, and on one occasion Alex thought she'd heard Katherine laughing in the background. She lied to herself that it didn't bother her.

Then on Thursday evening, he rang to say that he was back in London and "it would be good" if they could meet up. "Nick, I'm really sorry, I'm going to have to cancel this weekend, I totally forgot I had arranged to see a friend."

"I thought you didn't have any friends, bar Kerry?"

"Well, she's not really a friend, we met ages ago, when I first arrived in England, and we've met up a couple of times since. Just that I forgot I'd already arranged this one – and I don't want to let her down at such short notice."

There was a long pause. "Oh, right...OK then...well, have a nice time and maybe we'll meet up next week?"

"Yeah, look forward to it," she replied, trying to sound enthusiastic.

He paused again. "Alex...I need to say something...oh don't worry. I'll call you next week," he said, throwing in what seemed to be a very bad hand. Then adding: "We'll always have Paris", with sarcasm, before hanging up.

If she was honest, she was desperate to see him and hug him but she wanted to hold the seemingly perfect, funny Nick of her experience, not the one portrayed by the sender of the messages. She was exhausted by thinking about it and, after turning off her phone, went to bed with her book.