by Fiona Harper
If that was the plan, it was clearly working.
And she was angry with him. Very, very angry with him.
How dared he make her love him even more when she was so desperately trying to get him out of her system? It just wasn’t right.
After three more days of the bag sitting on the step—and Alice giving very strict warnings to a hopeful-looking pair of housemates that they were dead meat if they touched it—there were no more deliveries. No more notes. No phone calls. Not even a text message. No more Cameron.
He’d given up. Just as she’d thought he would.
Now she hated him for proving her right.
Really hated him.
CHAPTER TEN
JENNIE breezed into her stepbrother’s office and blew him a kiss. ‘The place looks fab,’ she said, then perched on the end of his desk.
Cameron dropped the folder he was holding and stood up. ‘Where on earth have you been for the last month?’ he bellowed.
She waved an elegant hand. ‘Vegas…Here and there…’
Here and there? Give him strength! She’d abandoned him when she was supposed to be helping him with a key point in his career, and now she just wafted back in here as if nothing had happened? And what about this whole eloping thing? He’d been so worried about her he’d even toyed with the idea of hiring private detectives to find her. But she seemed fine to him—sitting on the edge of his desk, squashing a report from the marketing department. More than fine. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to drag her into a bear hug or wring her neck.
Brotherly concern triumphed over outrage. He circled the desk and came to stand in front of her, looked her over for any sign that something was wrong.
‘You’re okay? Nothing’s the matter?’
She gave him a bright smile. ‘Absolutely fine. Haven’t you noticed the wonderful tan? Got it in Acapulco.’
That was so Jennie. He’d been worried about her emotional well-being and she thought a great tan was evidence enough that things were all right. He gave her a rough squeeze and found he couldn’t let go. She might drive him insane, but he was really glad to have her back.
She laughed into his ear. ‘Hey! Are you okay, Cam? You’re on the verge of turning python here…’
‘Sorry,’ he mumbled, and loosened his grasp. After giving her a gruff kiss on the top of her head, he stepped away.
Jennie narrowed her eyes and looked at him. Despite her flighty nature, she could be horribly perceptive sometimes. He decided to sidetrack her, as he didn’t want a whole barrage of questions about the ball. Questions about the ball might lead to questions about Alice, and he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t give himself away.
After more than a week of coffee and croissants he’d realised that even that had been pushing, and he’d stopped. But doing nothing was killing him—even though Alice had made it clear she needed space. He was fed up with spending all day thinking about her, so when a thought popped into his head, providing a distraction, he latched onto it and looked his step-sister in the eye.
‘So…where’s this guy, then?’
She blinked innocently at him. ‘What guy?’
He could still rethink the whole neck-wringing idea…
‘The one you married?’ he said, with just a tiny trace of impatience in his voice.
For a second Jennie looked bleak, and then the bright smile was back in place. She made a dismissive noise and gave him a delicate shove in the chest.
‘Don’t tell me you bought that old chestnut!’ Then she started to laugh—right about the same time as Cameron’s blood pressure began to rise. ‘Really, Cam, you take things so literally sometimes!’
‘Jen,’ he said through clenched teeth, ‘a message on my voicemail saying, “Sorry, hon. I’m off to Vegas to get married”, combined with your sudden disappearance, would tend to make a man think that way.’
‘Something’s up with you, Cameron Hunter, and I want to know what it is.’ It seemed he wasn’t the only one who was good at using distraction techniques. She hopped off the desk and eyed him suspiciously. ‘You’ve gone all soft and mushy.’
Hah! Soft and mushy? Try telling that to Stephanie. He’d been so unbearable in the last week that he almost expected to find her hiding under her desk every time he walked past it.
‘It’s Alice, isn’t it?’
What…? When…? How did she do that? How did she see into his brain and know the things nobody else could see? He could have understood it if they’d been twins, or something, but they weren’t even blood relations!
‘I hear she did a good job in my stead—that you worked very closely together.’
The smile was sweet as honey. It was the one she used when she thought she might be pushing things just a little bit too far.
‘I always thought she’d be much better for you than the likes of Jessica Fairly-Loves-Herself, or whatever her name is. So…’ She leant forward and her voice dropped to a whisper. ‘How are things going between you and the lovely Alice?’
Cameron flexed his knuckles.
‘That well, huh?’ she said in a dry tone. ‘What did you do?’
He walked round his desk and dropped into his chair. ‘I didn’t do anything. I’m still not doing anything…’ He launched into a bullet-pointed rundown of the whole sorry affair while Jen pulled up a chair and for once looked sympathetic, instead of like Little Miss Know-It-All.
‘She says she wants to be someone’s first choice,’ he said finally.
Jennie reached across and stroked his arm. ‘Nice cufflinks,’ she said, looking down at where his sleeves protruded from his jacket. ‘Unusual stones.’
He just nodded. He hadn’t worn anything else since the night of the ball.
Jennie’s voice was low and soft. ‘Is she your first choice?’
Cameron clamped his jaw together and nodded one more time.
‘Oh, Cam,’ she whispered, and came round behind him to give him a hug over the top of his office chair.
He stared into space and tried not to let the pain show in his voice. ‘Seems I’m not hers, though.’
Jennie’s arms squeezed a little tighter. ‘I bet you are. In fact I’ve become a bit of a gambler since my break in Vegas, and I’d lay good money on it. You just need to prove it to her.’
He rolled his eyes. ‘I’ve tried that.’
Jennie let go and gave him a soft clip round the head.
‘Ow!’
‘Not your way, you daft man! I could have told you that wouldn’t work.’ She walked over to the window and stared out into the atrium. ‘Hmm. I might just have an idea, though—although it’ll take a little setting up…’
Cameron put his head in his hands.
God help him.
Three weeks after the fashion show Alice and Coreen signed a lease for the first ever Coreen’s Closet boutique. Initially they’d been interested in one of the tiny shops that fringed Greenwich Market, and one had become available. It seemed that thirty pounds apiece for frilly white baby clothes that would ultimately get covered in pureed carrot had not been Annabel’s best business idea. Her children’s clothes shop had closed down a few days after the Orion ball.
The success of the auction that night had been astounding. Coreen and Alice had been inundated with e-mails and phone calls, asking when and where they were going to be selling their merchandise. People seemed happy to part with obscene amounts of money if the label or the fabric was right.
They were now going to open their shop on College Approach, one of the roads in central Greenwich that surrounded the market and was full of chic little boutiques. The plan was to still keep a section of the shop that appealed to their loyal market customers—funky retro clothes for good prices—but to expand the high-end section of the business, stocking designer labels from yesteryear and becoming a place serious collectors and fashionistas would seek out.
After they’d signed all the paperwork, Coreen convinced Alice to go for a drink in one of the local cafés. ‘Who cares if it’s only on
e o’clock in the afternoon?’ she said. They’d done it! Gladys and Glynis need never fear the elements again!
Alice smiled and nodded, even though she didn’t really feel like it.
All her dreams had come true. She’d left her IT business behind, passing it on to a friend of a friend who was happy to pick up new clients, and she was starting a new chapter in her life. One where she was her own boss, where every day would be filled with fabulous clothes, glitz and glamour. That was what she told herself every hour on the hour, anyway. Sooner or later it would work, and she would cheer up and remember how happy she was.
The café was busy—a favourite with local office workers on a Friday lunchtime—but under the hum of conversation there was a tone, a hint of a voice she recognised. She turned from where she was sitting on a stool at the bar, waiting for her table, and scanned the room. Just as she found the face she recognised, he turned to look at her.
She hadn’t seen Paul in months, and despite the fact she’d been really sore that he’d dumped her she’d hardly even thought about him during the last few weeks. He gave her a nervous smile. Alice’s gaze drifted a little to the right and she saw why. The dark-haired girl he was sitting with must be Felicity. It was hardly an easy situation.
But, to be honest, she really wasn’t bothered.
Paul leaned towards his new girlfriend—well, his old girlfriend, really—and said something in a hushed voice. She glanced up at Alice, then nodded at Paul, and kept a sharp eye on him as he got up and headed for where she was sitting at the bar.
‘Hi, Al.’
She smiled at him and discovered she didn’t even have to fake it. ‘Hi, Paul. How are you doing?’
He shot a nervous glance back at his table. ‘Oh, you know. Fine.’
Alice looked him up and down. Nope. She couldn’t remember what she’d seen in him. Not that he wasn’t okay-looking, in a very ordinary sort of way.
‘You look different,’ he said. ‘Nice.’
Did he have to have that faint edge of surprise in his voice? She did look nice today. Ever since she’d had to think about nicer clothes to wear to Cameron’s office she seemed to have discovered her own style—the old, comfortable clothes she loved mixed with a bit of vintage. Today she was even smarter than that, having had official business to attend to. She wore a forest-green jacket and a full knee-length skirt with a large funky floral print. Coreen had even produced a pair of green shoes from her famous wardrobe to match the jacket.
Paul squinted and rubbed the bridge of his nose. She’d found that quite endearing once.
‘I…uh…just wanted to check there were no…uh…hard feelings.’
Something struck Alice, and she decided she did want one last thing from Paul after all. ‘Paul?’
‘Uh-huh?’
‘Do you mind if I ask you something?’
He looked at her suspiciously. ‘Depends what it is.’
How did she put this without sounding too nosey—or scary?
‘Why did you decide to go back to Felicity? Really?’
Paul shuffled a little, and she could tell he was just about to say something very neutral to placate her.
‘Come on, Paul. You owe me at least this.’
He pulled a face and looked over his shoulder at Felicity. ‘I suppose I do.’
When he looked back at Alice she sensed he’d lost all notion of palming her off with a platitude.
‘Well…I don’t quite know how to say this without feeling a bit mean.’
She waved a hand. ‘Honestly, I don’t mind. Just spit it out.’
He blinked. ‘It’s not just your clothes you’ve changed, is it? Well, okay…You’re a great girl, Al, really nice and everything. But you never once looked at me the way she looks at me.’
‘Oh.’ That wasn’t what she’d been expecting at all. ‘How does she look at you?’
Paul looked over at his girlfriend again. He caught her eye, and instantly Alice saw her whole face soften and come alive.
‘Like she means it,’ he said, without looking back.
Like she means it.
Alice couldn’t get Paul’s words out of her head. Late that night she lay awake in bed and tried to make sense of them. She thought of the way Felicity had looked at Paul. Had she never even once shone like that when she’d looked at him?
No. No, she hadn’t.
Because she’d never felt that deeply for Paul, never felt he was her sun, moon and stars the way Felicity obviously did. She’d never felt that way about any of the men she’d been out with, not even with Tim, her first real serious relationship. She’d been devastated when he’d gone off with one of her friends without so much as an apology. But when she thought back on it now it seemed more that the rejection had stung rather than losing the man himself. After Tim she’d lowered her expectations, decided to play in her own league.
But that hadn’t helped either. They’d still left. And for the first time Alice considered that maybe she’d had something to do with that.
What if all of them, like Paul, had sensed that she’d settled for them? Because she had. She’d only been fooling herself when she’d pretended she hadn’t. They hadn’t been the fantasy, but they’d been attainable—or so she’d thought. She’d kidded herself that it had been good enough, close enough to love to last. Only she hadn’t fooled anyone but herself. Without exception her ex-boyfriends had moved on to girls who thought they were ‘the one’. Some of them were even married with kids now.
At the time she’d just thought they were rats who’d gone where the grass was greener, but perhaps she’d been uncharitable. At least all but Tim had been decent enough to break up with her before they’d started something with the new women in their lives. Maybe they’d just fallen in love and then realised that their undemanding, safe relationship with Alice wasn’t all it had been cracked up to be.
She didn’t grieve for the loss of any of them. Not any more.
But Cameron was a different matter.
She’d loved him. Still did. He was the one man who, when she looked at him, she meant it. And she’d sent him away. Too scared to see if maybe he meant it too.
While she’d stayed in her safe little bubble, being baggy-jumpered Alice who nobody ever looked at twice, she’d had hope. Hope that maybe she had the potential to be more, the potential to be really loved. But if she’d tried—stripped off all her defences and really tried—and Cameron had still moved on, then she’d have been crushed, knowing that if it didn’t happen with him it wouldn’t happen with anyone.
Had she hardened herself too much? Pushed him away too hard?
If he’d kept on sending her breakfast she might have had had the courage to ring him up right now, no matter what time it was. But the croissants and warm coffee had stopped coming, and she had no idea what he felt or what he was doing now. If she really wanted to find out she was going to have to dig up some strength from somewhere.
I’ll be waiting…
The line from Cameron’s note replaced Paul’s words on the loop in her head.
Was it too late? Was he still waiting? Suddenly she really needed to know.
Coreen’s voice was so loud that Alice had to hold her mobile phone away from her ear.
‘You need to get your butt up to the V&A, pronto. They’ve got a new exhibit in the fashion collection. It’s fabulous—right up your street—and there’s a little drinks thing and a private showing tonight, before it goes on public display tomorrow. Just give your name at the side entrance and they’ll let you in.’
Alice had wondered where Coreen had been all afternoon, and now it was all starting to make sense. Until the shop opened just after Christmas they were continuing to run Coreen’s Closet as an open-air enterprise. Monday was their day off after all the weekend markets. Personally, she’d already spent a long afternoon doing absolutely nothing, and could really use a distraction from staring out of the window and thinking about Cameron.
She’d composed an e-m
ail to him ten times. She’d deleted it ten times.
Perhaps these things needed to be said in person. In that case she’d have to wait until tomorrow and see if she could wangle an appointment out of Stephanie.
Her heart went into overdrive at the thought. What if she’d been right? What if Cameron had moved on to someone else? Someone even more elegant and stunning than Jessica—if that were possible.
‘Erm…hello? Earth to Alice!’
Alice jumped. ‘Sorry! Just drifted off for a bit. Thinking about this V&A thing…’
‘Of course that’s what you were thinking about.’ Coreen didn’t sound convinced.
Alice decided to ignore the sarcasm and talk clothes. They’d rehashed the whole Cameron thing so many times now that even Alice was getting sick of hearing herself talk about it.
‘What will people be wearing?’
‘Pff! People…Who cares what anyone else is wearing? But vintage would be a good choice, given the opportunity to mingle with like-minded people.’
Alice picked up a stack of the business cards they’d had printed for the new shop. At least her professional life was going right; it was only her love life that had disappeared down the drain.
‘I know,’ Coreen said. ‘The little blue mini-dress. The one with the matching jacket.’
It was a good choice, but Alice had something else in mind. It was high time she listened to her instincts and learned to choose outfits without Coreen’s input. Coreen might sulk about that for a bit, but she had known this day would come. In the end she’d be pleased to see her protégé had spread her wings and learned to fly.
The Christmas lights were twinkling as Alice stepped out of South Kensington tube station. There was a Victorian tiled underpass that led to the cluster of museums situated on and around Cromwell Road, but she’d decided on fresh air instead. It was seven o’clock on a clear night. Alice hadn’t needed to check opening times or consult a map. Her grandmother had brought her to the Victoria and Albert museum many times as a child, and she’d loved to see all the fabulous jewellery, the things from far-flung places around the globe and the massive sculptures.