‘Amazing.’ she gushes, dancing off to the kitchen. I quickly conclude that Sal’s love life must be back on track.
‘Where’s Patrick?’ I ask to no one in particular because there’s no one standing at my baby infested desk anymore. Tom is sulking across the office, obviously ignoring me, and Victoria is daydreaming, staring at me. ‘Hello.’ I wave my hand at her.
‘Oh, sorry! I was just wondering what shade you would call that’
‘What?’
‘Your tan. I’d say deep bronze.’ She scribbles something down, and I know it says deep bronze. ‘So, babies now?’
I take instant defence to her tone. ‘Yes.’ My short, snappy answer pulls her head quickly from her writing pad. The long blonde locks get flicked over her shoulder and she smiles. If it’s fake, then she’s doing a great job. ‘Congratulations, Ava.’
‘Thank you,’ I smile, doing a terrible job. ‘And thanks for all this.’ I gesture to the balloons wafting around my head.
‘Oh, that was Tom.’ She returns to her computer.
‘Thanks, Tom!’ I throw a pencil across the office, catching him a treat on the side of his head. It knocks his glasses off kilter, and he gasps in shock. ‘Sorry!’ I press my lips together to supress my laugh.
‘Workplace bullying!’ he squawks, and I lose the battle to keep quiet. I start jerking in my chair as Sally places my coffee in front of me on a frown, and then turns to see what I’m laughing at. She starts chuckling, too.
‘Where’s Patrick, Sal?’ I ask, having not gotten any answer from Victoria.
‘He’ll be in at noon.’ She answers. ‘He’s not been around much.’
‘No?’
She shakes her head, but says no more and returns to the pile of invoices at the filing cabinet.
‘Ava,’ Tom begins, straightening out his fashion specs. ‘You need to call that Ruth. She hounded the office phone yesterday, looking for you.’
My laughing abates fast. I’d forgotten about my admirer. ‘What did she say?’ I ask casually, riffling through my bag for my phone when it occurs to me that I’ve still not turned it on. It’s been off since Thursday morning when Jesse impounded it.
‘Not much.’ He straightens his aqua tie. ‘Everything’s fine with the works. I kept your appointment with her on Thursday, but she wasn’t impressed to see me.’
I shrink into my chair on a wince as my phone comes to life in my hand and immediately starts alerting me of dozens of missed calls, texts and emails. I filter through, responding to Kate’s Welcome home! Text, and my mum’s Call me when you’re settled text, before counting the missed calls from Ruth. There are eleven, but despite the bombardment of calls from my lesbian client, it’s the two missed calls from Mikael that start my heart pumping fast. I can’t avoid this any longer and for the first time, I sit and think hard about who could be responsible for drugging me and trying to run me off the road. And then there are the dead flowers. They were from a woman, I don’t doubt it for a moment, which leads me to the same conclusion: Mikael couldn’t possibly be responsible. He’s a businessman, and a respected one at that. But what about the CCTV footage? Maybe the incidents aren’t connected at all. My money is on Coral, or perhaps Sarah. The flowers came after Sarah’s apology, though. So did the car chase. Is she playing games still? I drop my phone to the desk. My brain aches.
I twiddle my pencil, scanning my mind for my next move. It doesn’t take long. I swipe my phone up and dial Mikael. I don’t even register it ringing before his smooth, mildly accented voice comes down the line. ‘Ava, how very good to hear from you.’
‘I’m sure.’ I reply dryly. ‘Did you manage to sort your divorce out?’ I go straight for the jugular and judging by the silent span to time that follows my question, I’ve succeeded in my strategy.
‘I did,’ he says cautiously.
‘Oh good. What can I do for you Mikael?’ I’m stunned by my own confidence. I could be dealing with a lunatic here, and I’m talking to him with absolutely no respect, as a client or as a potential lunatic.
He laughs lightly. ‘It’s time we met, don’t you think?’
‘No, I don’t.’ I retort briskly. ‘I think we both know that our business relationship is over, Mr Van Der Haus.’
‘Why ever would that be?’
His question stops me in my tracks, but I soon gather myself. ‘You said it was very interesting that I’d been seeing Jesse for a month-ish.’ I’m not shying away from this.