Total pages in book: 214
Estimated words: 202638 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1013(@200wpm)___ 811(@250wpm)___ 675(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 202638 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1013(@200wpm)___ 811(@250wpm)___ 675(@300wpm)
I arrive at the office on time to a huge bunch of calla lilies lay across my desk. I sigh. How does he arrange flowers so quickly?
I find the card.
You’re a savage and a tease.
You drive me crazy,
I love you.
Jx
I drive him crazy? The man is delusional. I fire a quick text to him;
I know u do. Flowers r beautiful. Thank u for the ride…2 work. Ax
I settle at my desk and bring up my email and list of things to do, but I’m quickly distracted from my work when I remember that I’ve not taken my pill. I grab my bag from the floor and rummage through.
After a good few minutes of searching, I have my bag turned upside down on the desk and everything sprawled all over the place.
‘Shit shit shit!’ I curse. Please, not again.
‘Morning, flower.’ Patrick strolls into the office.
‘Morning,’ I don’t look up from my futile searching. I deserve a medal for being so bloody careless. ‘Did you have a good weekend?’ I ask, scrunching up a handful of loose receipts and chucking them in my wastepaper bin.
Patrick grunts a few times. ‘No, I bloody didn’t. Look!’
I drag my attention from the pile of handbag crap all over my desk to see what I’m supposed to be looking at. ‘What?’ I ask. He points to his head, so I get out of my chair and lean up on my tiptoes, but I can’t see anything. ‘Patrick, what?’
‘That, there, look!’ He bends slightly.
‘Patrick, what am I looking at?’
‘There, that ruddy great bald patch!’ he says, his voice annoyed.
I scan his mop of thick silver hair looking for a bald patch, but I’m damned if I can see one. ‘Patrick, there is no bald patch.’ I appease him.
‘Damn well would be if I didn’t take my vitamins.’ he grumbles. ‘Nice flowers.’
‘Oh yes. My brother.’ I blurt out quickly. I need to have a word with Jesse about this.
‘How lovely.’ He smiles, making his way to his office.
My phone starts dancing across my desk, alerting me of a text.
YOU are beautiful and I know you know. Cheeky! I miss you. Jx
He misses me. I melt all over my handbag contents. I miss him too, but I’m now dreading having to go back to Doctor Monroe for the third time. This is ridiculous.
With my phone in my hand, I decide I may as well get the one call I really don’t want to make out of the way. I dial Matt, and it rings twice before he answers.
‘Ava?’ He sounds pleased to hear from me. I want to smash his face in immediately.
‘Hi, I could do with picking those bits up.’ I get straight to the point. If I didn’t need my things, I wouldn’t call him at all. Just thinking of him makes my skin crawl; talking to him has me physically itching. I was with him for four years. How did this happen?
‘Of course.’ He’s too eager and it doesn’t sit well.
‘Can I swing by after work? Say, six-ish?’ I ask.
‘Sure, I look forward to it.’ he replies cheerfully.
I want to hiss down the phone at him, tell him exactly what I think of him, but I know he is probably expecting some sort of backlash from me. I’m not going to indulge him. What I do and who I do it with has nothing to do with him.
Why did you ring my parents, you worm?
‘Great, see you then.’ Why did I say that for? It’s not great at all. He may be looking forward to it, but I’m certainly not. Once I have the rest of my things, I won’t ever be seeing him again.
‘Yeah, see you later.’ he sings. He sounds almost smug.
I shudder and hang up. If I could, I would send Kate around to get my things, but I know that will just end in tears and possible police intervention. I’ll be in and out in ten minutes. I can resist the urge to pound on him for the short amount of time it’s going to take me to gather my stuff and retreat.
‘You want a coffee, Ava?’
I look up and see Sally fiddling with her ponytail. There’s something different about her. ‘Please. Did you have a good weekend, Sal?’ I ask. Why does she look different? She shuffles on the spot and blushes ten shades of crimson, and then I notice that her high necked blouses have been replaced with a scoop neck top. Wow! Sal has great tits! Who would have thought?
‘I did. Thank you for asking, Ava.’ She scuttles off to the kitchen.
I grin to myself. Our dull, dreary Sal may have had some male action at the weekend. I put my phone down and start working through my files, ready for my appointment with Mr Van Der Haus on Wednesday.