To the Moon and Back

Chapter 25




OK, was this sneaky? He didn’t resort to underhand tactics as a rule. But if they helped, why not?

Zack bent down, unclipped Elmo’s lead, and pushed the front door shut behind him. Elmo, tail wagging, trotted down the hallway to greet Ellie.

‘Hello, baby! Did you have a lovely walk?’

Wouldn’t it be great if she could be saying that to him?

‘Morning.’ By the time he reached the office, Elmo was up on her lap. ‘On a diet?’

‘No.’ She looked at him, mystified.

‘Good. You can have one of these, then.’ Zack opened the lid of the cake box to show her. ‘I had to get them. We were walking past the deli and they were in the window.’

‘Calling out to you.’ Ellie grinned. ‘Beckoning and whispering your name. They do that sometimes. Especially those naughty strawberry ones.’

He loved the way she instinctively mimed the beckoning and whispering as she said it, without having the remotest idea how irresistible it made her look. He could watch her forever.

‘You like them?’

‘Just a bit!’

‘I’ll get us a couple of plates.’

‘Thank you,’ said Ellie when he came back from the kitchen. She tipped Elmo off her lap and helped herself to one of the pastries, biting into a glazed strawberry with relish. ‘Mm, gorgeous.’

A little gentle bribery never hurt. Zack took another cake for himself and pulled out the chair opposite.

‘Just so you know, you won’t be seeing Louisa around here anymore. We broke up.’ He said it casually but kept a close eye on her reaction; wouldn’t it be fantastic if her face lit up, betraying the feelings she’d worked so hard to keep hidden from him all this time…

‘Oh no, I’m sorry.’ Ellie put down her cake. ‘Are you upset?’

So much for hidden feelings.

‘No.’

‘Was it her decision or yours?’

She looked genuinely concerned. For a split second he considered going for the sympathy vote. But no, that would be too underhanded. Zack smiled briefly and said, ‘Mine.’

‘Oh, well. In that case, I’m glad.’

‘Really?’ Hope flared.

‘She wasn’t right for you.’ Picking her cake back up, Ellie licked a swirl of cream. ‘She definitely wasn’t right for Elmo.’

‘I know.’

‘And she was suspicious of me too. Like, she didn’t trust me working with you.’ Ellie sucked strawberry glaze from her index finger. ‘I mean, that was just downright embarrassing.’

OK, you can stop now…

‘Anyway, she’s gone.’ Zack pulled the diary across the desk towards him. ‘So, if she wasn’t right for me, who would be?’ He sat back, feigning amused detachment. ‘What kind of girl should I go for next?’

‘Seriously? Someone fun. With a good sense of humor. Outgoing. Likes dogs. Doesn’t like Liquorice Allsorts.’

‘But… I like Liquorice Allsorts.’

‘Exactly. If she liked them too, you’d end up fighting over the good ones. Far better that she doesn’t.’

‘You’re really giving this some thought, aren’t you?’

Ellie swallowed another mouthful of puff pastry and cream. ‘It’s in my best interests to get you matched up with someone nice. Stop you being grumpy.’

‘I’m never grumpy,’ Zack protested. Cheek!

‘Ah, grumpy people always say that.’

‘Fine, then. I’ll look out for a liquorice-hating, dog-loving, fifty-years-younger version of Joan Rivers. But in the meantime…’ idly he turned over a few pages in the office diary. ‘I may need to ask you a favor.’

Ellie didn’t hesitate. ‘No problem. What kind of favor?’

Oh yes, he was brilliant. This could make all the difference. It had only occurred to him this morning that he might be able to use the situation to his advantage… maybe socializing with Ellie outside the office environment would enable her to view him in a different light.

Who knows, it could ignite the spark.

‘There are evening events I have to attend. Sometimes I need to take along a partner. It’s just that everyone else does, so it messes up the numbers if you go on your own… anyway, they’re usually OK, not too boring…’ Shut up, listen to yourself, you sound like an idiot. ‘So how about it? Does that seem like something you wouldn’t mind helping me out with sometimes?’ Jesus, never mind an idiot, you sound like a complete dick.

‘Why not? Sounds like fun. Yes, great.’ Ellie was smiling at him as if he wasn’t a dick. But sadly not as if she found him completely irresistible either.

‘Great.’ No, she just said great, you don’t say great too. ‘Right, well, this is the first one, let me tell you about it.’ He tapped the page he’d stopped at. ‘It’s being held at the Dorchester next Wednesday and—’

‘Wednesday?’ Ellie’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘I can’t do next Wednesday! Sorry!’

‘Oh. Shame.’ It wasn’t really vital to take along a partner but he was still disappointed. So much for the grand plan.

‘Isn’t that typical? The one thing I really can’t get out of. Any other evening and I could have done it.’

‘No problem, I’ll manage. So, something nice?’

Ellie hesitated. After a moment, as if debating whether or not to tell him, she said, ‘Hope so. It’s a party for my boyfriend’s mum.’

Well. That was a bolt from the blue. Taken aback, Zack wondered what had prompted it. Was she really coming clean after all this time about her relationship with Tony Weston?

Plus, if that was who she was talking about, how old must his mother be? A hundred and forty?

Aloud he said, ‘Well, you can’t miss that.’ OK, seeing as she’d raised the subject, he’d keep it going. ‘Where’s the party?’

‘In her garden. It’s a barbecue.’ Ellie was busy playing with Elmo’s lopsided ears. ‘Which means it’ll probably tip down with rain, but never mind.’

‘And is it a special birthday?’

‘Oh yes. She’s sixty.’

Not Tony Weston’s mother, then. Zack’s heart was hammering against his ribs. ‘So what’s this boyfriend’s name?’

She turned pink. ‘Todd.’

‘You’ve never mentioned him before.’ It was hard work, keeping his tone casual.

‘No. Well, it’s all pretty new. We’ve only been seeing each other for a couple of weeks.’

‘Going OK?’

Ellie nodded and said brightly, ‘Going great!’

Damn. Damn you, Todd, whoever you are.

‘And was there someone else before that?’ Was he asking too many personal questions now? Possibly, but he needed to know.

She hesitated. ‘What, you mean ever?’

‘I meant since you’ve been here in Primrose Hill.’

Ellie shook her head. ‘No, this is the first for a while.’ She looked puzzled. ‘Why?’

Always keep your lies as close as possible to the truth. Zack said, ‘It’s just that someone happened to mention they thought they’d seen you with Tony Weston.’

Ellie’s flush deepened significantly. ‘Oh.’

‘And then I realized, that time I called you at home a while back, he was the person who answered the phone.’

‘Right. Yes, it was.’ She clicked her fingers at Elmo, inviting him to jump back on to her lap. Classic distraction technique.

He’d started, so he may as well finish. ‘And you did say you were living rent-free in your friend’s flat.’

‘Oh God.’ Half laughing, half mortified, Ellie buried her face in Elmo’s furry ears. ‘He’s a friend. He’s not my boyfriend! I can’t believe you thought that!’

‘Sorry. I’m sorry.’ He’d jumped to conclusions and got it oh-so-wrong. Zack said, ‘I can’t believe I thought it either. Blame it on Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.’ Right, so the good news was that Ellie had never been romantically involved with Tony Weston. The bad news was that he appeared to have missed his window of opportunity and she was now ecstatically happy with someone else.

Seriously, did someone up there not like him?

‘He’s just a friend.’ Ellie was still cringing and shaking her head.

‘And what a great friend to have.’ To change the subject, Zack said, ‘How did you come to meet him?’

Ellie swallowed, then gazed out of the window, visibly psyching herself up. On the desk, the phone started to ring. ‘Well, er…’

‘Leave it,’ Zack stopped her as she moved to lift the receiver. ‘If it’s important they’ll call back.’ Too intrigued to give up now, he said, ‘Carry on with the story.’

Because there was a story, he knew that much for sure.

The phone stopped ringing. Ellie was still holding on to Elmo for dear life. Elmo, reveling in the attention, was now reclining like a hairy mini-Cleopatra in her arms.

‘Tony’s my father-in-law. Well,’ Ellie amended, ‘he was my father-in-law.’

‘So you were married.’ The moment the words were out of his mouth, Zack made the connection. He knew. Hadn’t he Googled Tony Weston that very first day, after seeing the two of them together at the Ivy? Hadn’t he read on Wikipedia that Tony Weston’s real name was Tony Something-else? But back then, the fact that his surname was Kendall hadn’t been significant enough to remember, which was why it hadn’t rung any bells when Ellie had eventually come into his life.

And hadn’t he also read in the same entry about the tragic loss of Tony’s only son in a car accident?

Oh God.

‘I was married.’ Ellie dipped her head in agreement, acknowledging the fact that he’d figured it out. ‘His name was Jamie. He was… lovely.’ She carried on gently stroking Elmo’s head. ‘But he died.’

‘I’m so sorry.’ Zack couldn’t begin to imagine what she’d been through. ‘I didn’t know.’ He watched the play of her fingers against Elmo’s ears.

She shrugged. ‘I’m sorry too. I should have told you. I kind of wanted to start off with a clean slate.’

‘Understandable.’ Did this explain her lack of reaction towards him, or was he just not her type anyway?

‘Can I just say something? I don’t want you to start being nice to me now.’

‘You don’t want me to start? Does that mean I’ve never been nice to you?’

Ellie glanced at her empty plate and smiled briefly. ‘You know what I mean. I’d just like everything to carry on like before.’

‘OK.’ More than anything, Zack hoped everything wouldn’t always carry on like before. At some stage in their future, please God, their situation would change. Because now, knowing what he did about her history, he was daring to allow himself the first faint flicker of hope.

It was still a shame, though, about Todd.

‘So, does this father-in-law approve of this new chap of yours?’

Say no, say no.

‘Tony? Oh, he’s delighted. You’d think he’d planned it himself. He couldn’t be happier.’ Ellie’s eyes were shining.

‘Right. Excellent.’ Zack nodded as if he was delighted too.

Damn.

‘Look, you need to get to your meeting.’ Bringing the subject to a close, Ellie said, ‘But about next Wednesday, I could ask Roo if she’s free to come with you to the Dorchester. Would that help you out?’

The mad friend with the risqué past and outrageous taste in T-shirts?

‘I don’t think so,’ Zack said firmly. ‘But thanks.’

***

Phew. Well, that was that cat out of the bag. When Zack had left the office, Ellie heaved a sigh of relief. She hadn’t planned for it to happen, but now that it had, she was glad. Hopefully, she and Zack had evolved a strong enough working relationship by this stage that his discovering the truth about her past wouldn’t alter the way he treated her. Plus, two other good things had happened. She hadn’t cried, which was a definite step forward.

And she’d described Todd as her boyfriend. This had been a bit of an experiment, saying it out loud, feeling how the word felt on her tongue. And it had felt, frankly, weird. But it was bound to, the first time. Call it a practice run for next week, when she would be meeting so many of Todd’s relatives. After being introduced as his girlfriend and casually dropping the b-word into conversation, it would—hopefully—start to sound normal and no longer as weird as, say, banana.

‘As I was saying the other day to my banana…’

‘Oh, I know, my banana’s mad about rugby too…’

‘My banana and I loved that film…’

‘Oh yes, I bought my banana a new shirt on Saturday…’

Anyway, the point was, she’d get used to saying boyfriend soon. Stop thinking about it.

Shame about the timing, though. A night out at the Dorchester with Zack would have been fun. Still, it couldn’t be helped.

The birthday barbecue would be good too.

Abruptly Ellie’s eyes stung and she blinked back tears. Sometimes it still happened without warning.

Don’t cry, don’t cry.

Oh, Jamie, where are you? Are you still there? Am I doing OK?