7.
Ada
Getting to work early and showering without anyone noticing made me feel fractionally better than I did yesterday. I still had to rely on my cane, though, and Rina, alongside several other members of staff, had expressed their concern. Thankfully, I was able to put it down to lost sleep due to grief rather than the fact that I hadn’t slept in an actual bed for five nights.
Remembering my encounter with Jonathan Oaks the day before, I bristled with discomfort and lingering shame. It was the single most humiliating moment of my life. He’d opened the car door, looked inside and known instantly how bad things were for me. He knew I’d been living in my car. I hadn’t expected him to demand I go back inside and sleep in his mother’s house for the night. I still remembered his furious cadence and couldn’t tell who he’d been angrier at—himself or me.
My embarrassment had me acting out of instinct, and I’d driven away from him without a word.
Almost a day later and the discomfort still lingered. I never wanted to face him again. He could keep Dad’s stuff. I’d rather lose a few precious items than undergo the shame I’d felt when he’d discovered the truth.
I was lost in thought, staring blankly at my computer screen, when someone knocked twice on my office door.
“Come in,” I called a moment before Hannah dipped her head in.
“Hi, Ada, sorry to interrupt you. Sally out in reception said there’s a man looking to see you. His name is Mr Oaks.”
Time froze, and everything inside me recoiled. What on earth was he doing here? I intensely regretted mentioning my place of work to him yesterday. Whatever he’d come for, I needed to get rid of him fast. I didn’t need him letting slip in front of anyone about my living situation.
“Thanks, Hannah. I’ll go see him now.”
I stood from my desk, smoothing my hands down my pale grey cotton dress. I rarely wore it because it was a little too smug around the hips. Unfortunately, it was my last clean item of clothing. I hadn’t found an opportunity to use the laundry room yet. There was always someone around. I was probably going to have to visit a laundromat in town.
Hannah was still idling in the doorway when I reached for my cane. “He’s very, um,” she started then seemed to think better of whatever she’d been about to say. “Who is he?”
“My late stepmother’s son,” I answered, moving by her and shutting my office door as I headed towards reception.
“Oh, so he’s like your stepbrother, then?”
“No, he’s not my stepbrother. He and his mother weren’t close. I hardly know him.”
“Alf said he arrived in a Porsche with a driver,” she went on, eyebrows raised, and I cast her a glance.
“If you’re trying to ask if he’s rich, then the answer is yes, Hannah,” I told her impatiently. I wasn’t normally so snappish, but my leg ached, and I currently had to face the only person in the world who knew I was sleeping in my car.
“I wasn’t trying to pry. We just don’t see a lot of people like him around here.”
“No, we don’t,” I agreed, imagining that not many places held individuals like Jonathan Oaks. He was certainly a rare type of man, considering he was both wealthy and strikingly attractive. It was too bad his about uppity personality, though he had offered me a glimpse of his softer side yesterday. Right before I’d endured the most humiliating moment of my life.
And I’d thought him walking in on me standing naked in the bath had been the worst that could happen.
Hannah hurried off, eager to tell the others who the mysterious stranger waiting in reception was. I was almost there when I saw him through the tinted glass doors. Jonathan stood tall and confident in a charcoal grey suit. The colour contrasted with his pale eyes and light hair. He stared down at his phone for a moment before slipping the slim device into his pocket. Drawing in a deep breath for courage, I pushed open the doors and stepped out.
Sally, our receptionist, sat in front of her computer pretending to work as she watched me approach Jonathan out the corner of her eye. She tapped away at the keyboard, feigning focus, but I suspected her screen looked something like:
ghdkbnykdaldobngndoesvmfgawught
“Mr Oaks,” I said, and he turned. His gaze travelled over me, lingering on the tight parts of my dress before landing on my cane. Something flickered in his jaw as he stared at it before his eyes lifted to mine. They were gentler than normal, and I didn’t like it, made me feel like he felt sorry for me now. Some part of me wished for him to continue to be a hard-nosed, ruthless snob like the first time we’d met.
“Miss Rose. I was hoping we could speak. Have you had lunch yet? Perhaps I could take you to—”
“I’ve already eaten,” I lied. “And if you wish to speak with me, you can do so here.”
Jonathan’s gaze flicked to Sally a moment then back to me. “Very well. Is there somewhere private we might talk?”
I stiffened. He clearly wanted to speak about my living situation and didn’t want to do it with Sally listening. I didn’t want to talk to him at all, but I had a feeling he wouldn’t leave until I heard him out, so I nodded and motioned for him to follow me.
Quietly, I led him to my office. We had to walk through the main lounge area to get there and Hannah stood with Lewis, the two of them murmuring to one another as they eyed us. Cathal was also there. Bloody hell, I’d forgotten he was in today. I was dealing with a packed audience, not an empty seat in the house.
Cathal sat on a stool next to Patricia, one of the residents who was diabetic, in the middle of taking her blood sugar level. His gaze flicked up, meeting mine for a moment then moving to Jonathan in question. His eyebrows drew together in a curious expression before we exited the lounge and walked down the hallway to my office. As soon as we were inside with the door closed, I started talking.
“Listen, I know how things must’ve looked last night, but I promise you—”
“Miss Rose, please don’t feel like you have to explain. What’s going on with you right now is my fault. I’m not here to embarrass you or make you any more uncomfortable than I’ve already done. But I do have a solution, and if you’re open to it, I believe it could benefit us both.”
I studied him, tilting my head. “A solution?”
“Do you remember the woman who attended the funeral with me?” he asked, and I nodded. “That’s my half sister, Maggie. We share the same father. She works for me as the building manager at my investment firm now, but she used to clean my apartment.”
“Your half sister was your cleaner?” I asked in disbelief.
Jonathan exhaled a gruff breath. “It’s a long story. She, um, she didn’t know she was my sister at the time. But anyway, I haven’t had the chance to find someone new to clean for me, and I own two penthouses that need occasional upkeep. You said Mam charged you low rent in exchange for maintaining the house, and the place is in immaculate condition. Even Therese said so. I thought that perhaps you could live in my empty penthouse in exchange for cleaning and light maintenance and reduced rent. Basically, it can be the same arrangement you had with my mother. It would give you a chance to get back on your feet.”
I stared at him, gobsmacked by the very generous offer. I didn’t know what to say, so instead, I went with, “You own two penthouses?”
Jonathan nodded as though it were perfectly normal. “They’re right next to each other on the top floor of the Malton Building, but I only live in one of them. Honestly, you’d be doing me a favour—”
“Why do you have two if you only need one?”
I swear the tips of his ears reddened slightly at my question while he rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, this is going to sound rather eccentric, but I had this really insufferable neighbour in the last place I lived, and I didn’t want to have to endure a situation like that again, so I—”
“So, you bought the place next door?” I almost laughed. We really did live in different worlds. What would it be like to have the money to just buy an extra apartment simply to avoid having any neighbours?
“Yes,” Jonathan sighed. “Look, I feel terrible for putting you out of Mam’s place, and I know I could just suggest you move back in there, but I grew up in that house and losing Mam is bringing up a lot of old … stuff. I’m feeling unusually possessive of the place. I just …” His words fell off as he sighed, and I was shocked by how much he was revealing. Jonathan Oaks was being unexpectedly candid, not to mention vulnerable, and I was rapt.
He stared at the floor for a moment before his eyes flicked up. “I feel this irrational need to preserve the place.”
“Creating a mausoleum for your mother isn’t going to bring her back,” I said, speaking gently.
Jonathan’s stare turned probing. “You loved her, didn’t you?”
His question had my throat thickening with emotion. “Yes. We became close over the years. She was my friend.”
His jaw did that weird flickering thing again before he cleared his throat. “Thank you for loving her when I couldn’t.”
For a second, it felt like the world stood still. I found myself taking a step towards him, my heart pounding. After our first meeting, I never thought I could feel this level of empathy for Jonathan, but he was clearly in agony over his mam.
“She loved you,” I said, placing my hand on his arm. “She spoke about you all the time.”
His eyes met mine and held. He looked on the verge of tears, but they never came. Instead, he stepped away from my touch. Turning, he took a moment to survey my office. It was small and neat, lined with filing cabinets and with a window that looked out onto the residents’ garden.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been in one of these places,” he said.
“A care home?”
Jonathan nodded then stepped closer to the window, peering out. “I always imagined them to be lonely and depressing, but it’s not like that here. It feels like, well, as close as one could get to a home.”
“We try our best,” I spoke quietly, and he continued peering out at the garden. “So, this empty apartment, it’s right next to yours?” I asked.
At last, Jonathan turned back around, seeming to have gathered his scattered emotions. “Yes, but I’m rarely there. You wouldn’t have to see much of me.”
“Oh, right,” I said, not mentioning how I hated living alone and had been hoping to find a house share. Still, I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. I could stay in Jonathan’s apartment until my search for a room turned up something suitable. “This is incredibly generous of you.”
He almost smiled. “Better snap up the offer while you can, Miss Rose. I’m not often generous.”
I blew out a breath, placed a hand on my hip, thought about it for another second and then finally held my hand out to him. “All right, then. You have yourself a deal.”
He actually smiled, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about the level of handsomeness being directed at me. He was surely aware of how good looking he was. With that in mind, I refused to let it affect me.
We shook hands, his palm warm and smooth against mine, and I endeavoured to ignore the zing of awareness that shot through me. So, I found him attractive. Big deal. If he was rarely home then we probably wouldn’t bump into each other very often.
When he let go, I stepped back and surveyed my desk, a little light-headed. “So, um, maybe you can have Therese send me the address, and I’ll drive over when I’m finished here for the day.”
“No need. I’ll write it down for you now,” Jonathan said, selecting a pen from the mug on my desk alongside a small memo card. I stared at this profile while he bent to write before rising to hand me the card.
“Here. I’ll meet you out front tonight at seven-thirty. Is that okay for you?”
I nodded, glancing down at the address. It was in a very upscale part of the city, not too far from Jonathan’s office building. My commute to work in the mornings would be longer, but it was better than the alternative.
“Okay, yes, I can meet you there,” I replied just as a knock sounded on the door. “Come in,” I called.
My eyebrows shot up when Cathal appeared. What did he want? He rarely came to my office these days, not unless there was an emergency with one of the residents.
“Cathal, is everything okay?”
He shot me an easy-going smile, his gaze flicking to Jonathan for a moment. He wore the same curious expression he’d had when we’d walked by out in the lounge a few minutes ago.
“Everything’s fine. I just wanted to let you know we’re running low on sterilising wipes in the supply closet, so you might want to add those to your next order.”
Okay, that was … weird. If we were running low on medical supplies Cathal normally mentioned it to Hannah or Rina, who would then pass the information on to me. The fact he’d come into my office to tell me while Jonathan was there made me suspect he was being nosy. And that made me vaguely irritable because we’d broken up three years ago, and my life was none of his business anymore.
“Thanks for letting me know. I’ll do that,” I told him, stepping forward and moving to close the door. His expression fell, like he’d hoped to be introduced to Jonathan, though why he’d want that was beyond me. He had Hannah now. He shouldn’t care who I spoke with in the privacy of my own office.
“You all right?” Jonathan asked once Cathal was gone. He obviously noticed my annoyance.
“It’s nothing. So, I’ll meet you tonight at—”
“It’s clearly something. Is that man troubling you? I have experience dealing with bothersome employees.”
“He’s not an employee. Well, technically, he is, but he doesn’t work here full time. He’s the area nurse who visits throughout the week to administer medical care to the residents.” I exhaled and shook my head. Cathal had barely spoken to me in three years, but now that I had a handsome older man in my office, suddenly he was poking his head in. Sure. “He’s also my ex.”
“Ah,” Jonathan said, as though suddenly understanding. “Was the breakup recent?”
I scoffed. “No. We split three years ago. He’s with Hannah now. The blonde out front in the purple smock? I’m pretty sure they had an affair right before he broke up with me. And he barely talks to me. Now, suddenly, he’s telling me directly about low supplies.” I paused to roll my eyes. “He’s obviously just being nosy because you’re here.”
Jonathan arched an eyebrow. “Why would he be nosy about me?”
“I don’t know. He shouldn’t be, but people are weird sometimes. Anyway—”
“Perhaps he still holds a candle,” Jonathan suggested with a smirk, and I rolled my eyes even harder.
“I highly doubt it. A man with a perky twenty-six-year-old in his bed is hardly going to be holding a candle for his thirty-seven-year-old ex who, it could be argued, is past her prime,” I said with a heavy dose of self-deprecation.
Jonathan stared at me for so long it made my stomach do a little flip. His eyes never left my face, and something hot began to burn under my skin.
“Agree to disagree on that one, Miss Rose,” he said at last, and I barely had time to digest the statement before he strode to the door while glancing at his watch. “Well, I have a meeting in half an hour, so I need to get going, but I’ll see you later, yes?”
I nodded dumbly and grabbed my cane. “I’ll walk you out.”
We reached the reception, and Jonathan exited the building, his driver waiting in the shiny black Porsche idling out front. I stood watching through the window as he lowered into the car before it drove away, his statement echoing in my head the entire time.
Agree to disagree, huh?
A shiver tiptoed down my spine, and I began to wonder if living in Leonora’s estranged son’s spare apartment wasn’t such a smart idea.