Special Relationship

by Fox, Alessandra

  “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 into 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.

  Chapter twenty-two: Slept with her, as in sex?

  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 Katherine 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.

  After hours of thought, Nick decided to give her time and space to sort out her problems. His supply of sympathy was not limitless, he thought, especially as he could only guess at why she might be so troubled.

  Katherine called him that evening, to remind him of the charity event she had organised for the following Monday. "Do I have to?" he asked.

  "Yes, we haven't done anything on the charity front for ages. All we have to do is enjoy dinner, talk to a few boring people and in the auction bid several times as much for a signed photo of Frank Sinatra than it's actually worth. It's only at The Savoy, so not far to travel, and you should be home by midnight.

  "Look forward to it," he said. "Anything else next week?"

  "No, a few meetings on home soil but not leaving the country.

  "You sound down?"

  "A few things on my mind, Kath, I'll see you tomorrow."

  "No, you won't...I've got a long weekend, don't forget, that's why I'm reminding you about the charity bash now."

  "What's the charity?"

  "Mental health."

  "I might need them myself soon," he said.

  Chapter twenty-three: The stables and The Savoy.

  Nick resisted the temptation to call Alex all weekend. He decided it would look juvenile if he interrupted her and the mysterious friend, if she did indeed have one, and he also held back on the Monday, so as not to look too keen. Instead he and Katherine spent the day visiting Manarola at the racing stables.

  "Where's Jamie?" he said as she drove them to the yard.

  "Behind us," she replied.

  "I thought I spotted his car earlier. Is it really necessary, Kath?"

  "Of course it is. You know what happened last year," referring to a warning they had received from the police about a kidnap plot.

  "It was just internet chatter," he said. "Nothing happened."

  "Better safe than sorry."

  A couple of stable hands were in the main yard, shovelling hay. But otherwise the place looked quiet, though some of the horses pricked their ears as Katherine drove in and the tyres of the car crunched against the gravel and threw up a cloud of dust. "Guess, this is their lunch break," she said when the mist of pebble crumbs had cleared enough to see several inquisitive-looking horses watching them.

  "Yep, they were galloping at dawn," he replied.

  Marilyn Strauss greeted them at the door to the impressive Georgian house to the side of the stables. "Hello, Nick...Katherine, I've just put the kettle on, did you have an easy trip?"

  "Yes, once we got out of London," Katherine said.

  "James will be here soon, he is in the office working on entering up some horses for the races next week. I think Manarola might be one of them."

  She showed them to the lounge and came back with tea and sandwiches. She was a small. rotund women in her late fifties, with grey hair and a cheery reddish face. Nick knew how happy she was spending the day looking after the stable's staff, entertaining owners on their visits, and ordering the feed and other requisites for the horses.

  "Nick, Katherine, great to see you," James said warmly as he entered the room. "Come on let's go and see him."

  "They are just having lunch, James, hold on a while," Marilyn protested.

  "Nonsense, the sandwiches won't go cold."

  They looked at her apologetically and went out to see Manarola. His box had his name plate on the front and inside the radio played. "Radio One, he won't listen to anything else," the trainer told them.

  Nick knew the story about the day they had put on a talk station and Manarola spent the day weaving, swinging his head from side to side and rocking on his feet. It was a sign of boredom or the feeling of confinement that he'd never shown before but once one of the lads had changed back to his regular station he was back to his usual self.

  "Watch this," said the lad who had accompanied them with a small soft black-and-white chequered football. "Here Manny," he said and threw the ball gently towards the horse. Manarola bobbed his head in perfect timing and it bounced back towards them.

  "He should be playing for Manchester United," Katherine laughed.

  "Arsenal," said Nick, who had seen the party trick before.

  "Jack, get him out of the box and walk him around," said James.

  "He looks in fantastic shape," Nick said.

  "Yep he has put on weight and muscle since Ascot and he will be even better next time," Jame
s promised.

  "Can't wait. Where's he running?"

  "Well, there's Newmarket in five days or Haydock the week after. I was studying the likely opposition before you arrived."

  "Well, I'll leave it to you...whatever you think."

  After pats and mints, Manarola was being led by the lad back into his box when Katherine's phone went and the colt immediately sprang on to his toes and his big bulging eyes looked to his rear as best they could.

  Katherine walked away to take the call. "Hi Kath, it's Jamie. I just wanted to let you know that there is some guy hanging around outside the stables and I noticed his car a couple of junctions back before we turned off. Do you want to tell the boss?"

  "Where is he?"

  "Parked right outside the stables, about fifty yards in front of me."

  "Just one guy?"

  "Yep."

  "Are you worried?"

  "No, not greatly, probably just coincidence, but doing my job."

  "OK, thanks...leave it for now but stay close and keep in touch."

  There were a lot of horses in the James Strauss stable and Katherine and Nick patted and treated most of them to mints before going back to the house and finishing the sandwiches and tea. She didn't let anyone know about the mystery lurker outside.

  Marilyn fussed after them, anxious to please, but they explained their evening charity event and left the stables in good time to get back to London.

  "Black tie tonight?" he asked her in the car on the way home.

  "Yep, but you should be pleased, means you don't have to worry what to wear," said Katherine, breaking the law to glance at her phone to see if there were any updates from Jamie.

  She was reassured by the lack of any messages, but looked in the mirror constantly on the motorway. She spotted Jamie's SUV travelling behind but all the other cars seemed to leave junctions just as she started to worry about them.

  "What are you doing?" Nick asked.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Looking in the mirror all the time."

  "Just checking Jamie's with us," she replied reassuringly.

  When they got back to his apartment, Nick said he needed a nap before getting ready for the evening event and Katherine entertained herself watching the least worst of what afternoon TV was offering, which gave her the choice of game shows and cooking programmes, before scribbling him a note to say she was going home to shower and change, and that she would be back at seven thirty.