“Lauren Day, interior designer.”
We head off to his office for a coffee and he gives me a tour and a rundown of what rooms are ready for me to work on, which is basically all of them, except the kitchen and the pool house, The Palmers decided to have the entire house renovated all at once and instead of just a refurb of the pool house, they have had a whole new fully self-contained unit built down there, along with a standalone kitchen, wet bar and full bathroom, the unit itself has two double bedrooms with full en suite and a luxury kitchen, this is a guest house, in a holiday home, there’s a good chance it could get used maybe once or twice a year but hey, I’ve seen people with money spend it on worse things for their homes and I know from past dealings with Karen, she likes everyone to know she has money, she doesn’t have particularly good taste…that’s where I come in …and she doesn’t have particularly good morals…which is where Gabe came in…her apparently…several times. I shake my head at that thought as I walk back to my car to get my crap that I left in there earlier, as I pull my bag from the boot, I hear a car door slam and I look around to see Karen staring at my number plate. Okay let’s get this over with, If I can take on a six feet five inch hairy arsed Scotsman, I can certainly take on Karen Palmer and her big back combed hair and sparkly Louboutin heels…Which she is so going to regret wearing when she sees the state of the driveway she needs to cross before getting into the house, and I bet they’re not toe capped…my heart is hammering in my throat and my mouth has gone dry…
“Lauren, good morning, how are you?”
I watch her ankle twist and tilt to the side as she stumbles towards me and have to turn quickly back to my bag that I’m retrieving from the car so she doesn’t see me grin…Deep breath
“Morning Karen”
She takes off her sunnies and stands next to me as I gather some fabric swatches I have brought to show her for the pool house. There’s an awkward silence
“The house is packed full of builders so I’m glad I’ve seen you out here, Gabe has told me everything about what went on between you two.”
“Oh but th…”
“Let me finish please Karen, as far as I’m concerned, it was a long time ago and quite frankly none of my business, I hope this isn’t going to cause any issues in our professional relationship, we’ve always worked well together and I hope that can continue through this and any future projects.”
Wow, I had no idea what I was going to say when I opened my mouth.
Well I did but it went along the lines of, “Fuck you, you fuckin whore, keep your fuckin claws away from my man, else I will rip your scrawny throat out.”…But I didn’t think that would be good for working relations. So all in all, I think I did well. She’s looking down at the floor, obviously embarrassed, finally bringing her eyes up to meet mine.
“Thanks Lauren, You can’t imagine how embarrassed I feel over all of this, as you say, it was a long time ago and something I’m not very proud of, can we just forget about the whole thing?”
“Sure,” I shrug.
She eyes my car again.
“New car?”
Bitch is judging me.
“Yeah, I um, I needed a car for work, Jay hasn’t let me have anything other than a few personal bits so Gabe has bought this through the business for me.”
“So it’s serious then, between you two?”
“About as serious as it gets, I’ve moved in with him.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, wow.”
“So there’s no chance of getting back together with Jason then?”
“No, no chance, I have an intervention order out on Jay, he assaulted me.”
I don’t know why I’m telling her this, she seems genuinely interested.
“Oh really? It’s a shame it had to come to that; is he angry? That you left him for Gabe I mean.”
“What? No, I didn’t, I’d only known Gabe a few hours when I left Jay. I left him because he assaulted me.”
This is probably what the whole world is thinking. Poor Jay, who can blame him for lashing out. Lauren was shagging a younger man, deserved a back hander. I’m pissed off now and don’t want to talk about my private life anymore, especially with a client.
“Well I wouldn’t blame you, he was good looking when he was young, he’s quite spectacular now and the family have done very well for themselves, he must be loaded.”
Is she for real?
“Karen, let’s get a few things clear; I never left Jason for Gabe, I am not with Gabe for his money and if you talk about him like that again, I will punch your lights out, keep your eyes and your hands to your fucking self and you and me will get along grand.”
I am shaking from head to toe, who the fuck does she think she is.