Chapter 19
19
POPPY
‘And, Poppy, you have an update on the… Sorry, what’s your case called again?’ Saskia asks, consulting her planner.
‘The Greta Davies case,’ I reply, right as George leaps in with, ‘Greta Expectations.’
I turn to George. ‘That’s pretty good,’ I say quietly and he gives me a pleased-with-himself smile. And it only took him six tries to find a case name that didn’t make me cringe – not that I’ll mention that part.
‘Greta Expectations,’ I say to the rest of the team. Saskia’s mouth twitches with amusement and Ursula nods approvingly. Beside me, George sits up taller, obviously proud that he has (finally) smashed the case name.
‘Right, so, Greta has now been on four dates, two of which she will write about in her “Dating Horrors of London” series.’
‘What about the other dates she went on?’ asks Saskia.
‘She’s writing one into her deeper dive into dating in the modern age. And the fourth, Ollie, will be omitted entirely.’
‘And why is that?’ Ursula asks, her chin angled defensively.
Ursula prides herself in assembling the perfect list of potential matches for any client; maybe she feels similarly about providing a list of duds. How do I diplomatically tell her that Ollie wasn’t enough of a dud?
‘He wasn’t a good fit,’ I say. Ursula purses her lips and huffs noisily. I forge ahead. ‘On a positive note, Greta can now draw a line under dating duds and move onto her first real potential, Harrison Reid.’
Freya, always the romantic, claps her hands together softly under her chin and, out of the corner of my eye, I see Ursula look my way. Hopefully, this news will appease her.
‘Excellent,’ says Saskia, ‘and, Nasrin, how’s your?—’
There’s a loud message notification and we all look around. It’s an unspoken rule that we silence our phones for staff meetings, even though we all place our phones face up on the conference table in case an urgent call or message comes through.
‘Apologies, everyone,’ says Paloma in a rare moment of humility. She reads the message, the crease between her brows intensifying as her eyes scan the screen. She lifts her gaze and gets up from the table, taking her phone to the other end where she shows it to Saskia. Saskia grimaces, then they both look at me.
‘Poppy, could you and George please see us after the staff meeting?’ Saskia asks.
‘In my office,’ Paloma adds.
‘Umm… sure.’ I glance at George, whose eyes are as big as saucers, and an uneasy feeling settles into my stomach.
The meeting concludes with Nasrin’s update, but I don’t hear a word of it. I’m too busy trying to figure out what that message could have said to warrant an impromptu meeting.
Ten minutes later, George and I shuffle out of the conference room behind the others, but before we head to Paloma’s office, we huddle.
‘Do you have any idea what this is about?’ he asks quietly.
‘Nope.’
‘Oh, hello, Poppy,’ says a nearby voice. I look over and Anita is leading Anjali Bennett across the open-plan office.
What’s she doing here? I wonder. I’m no longer posing as a contributor for Nouveau Life , so it must be about Greta’s case. Have I missed something or made a mistake? Whatever it is, she doesn’t look pleased.
‘Isn’t that…?’ whispers George.
‘Yep,’ I whisper back. ‘Hello, Anjali,’ I say, faking a smile.
‘Hello, lovely,’ says Saskia, meeting Anjali at the door to Paloma’s office. They exchange cheek kisses, then Saskia lets Anjali past. She looks at us, her expression inscrutable. ‘Are you joining us?’
It’s an instruction, not a question, and George and I hustle inside and get seated. Paloma introduces George and Anjali, then says. ‘So, Anji, tell us a bit more about why you’re here.’
I’d love to pretend this is a friendly catch-up between old school friends, rather than a meeting with a V -VIP client, but I’m a realist.
Anjali addresses me. ‘Greta submitted her first two articles this morning…’ she begins, her tone establishing that they weren’t what she had expected. ‘And I have concerns.’
A client with concerns is nothing new in matchmaking. We deal in matters of the heart, so the stakes are high – even when our actual client has engaged us on behalf of someone else, like in this instance. But being adept at managing client concerns is one thing; addressing them with my bosses looking on is another.
‘So, that would be the articles about the fitness fanatic and the man who lives with his mum?’ I ask.
The question seems to catch Anjali off-guard. ‘Yes. So, you’re aware that you set Greta up with inadequate matches?’
‘I am.’
‘But that’s not what we agreed,’ she says, her eyes narrowing to slits.
There’s a beat of silence before Paloma and I speak at once.
‘So, you didn’t approve this, Anji?’ she asks.
‘It was a deliberate tactic,’ I say.
Anjali looks between us. ‘No, definitely not,’ she says to Paloma. ‘And what do you mean “deliberate”?’ she asks me. ‘You deliberately set Greta up on rubbish dates?’
‘Yes,’ I reply steadily.
‘Poppy, when you asked for approval to set Greta up with unsuitable men, we assumed you had informed Anjali,’ says Saskia.
She and Paloma may have assumed that, but they didn’t mention it and I couldn’t have informed Anjali even if they’d outright instructed me to. That would have been betraying Greta’s trust; she didn’t want Anjali to know she was onto her. She still doesn’t, which leaves me in a precarious position, one that’s compounded by three forty-something, highly powerful women staring me down.
‘I understand how you may have reached that conclusion,’ I say to Saskia. Turning my attention to Anjali, I say, ‘But I assure you the primary objective remains the same. George and I are wholly committed to matching Greta with the perfect man for her.’
‘Next on the list is Harrison and he’s?—’
‘Have you read these articles?’ Anjali asks me, interrupting George.
‘I haven’t, but Greta gave me a run-down on her unsuccessful dates.’
Anjali’s lips press together. ‘How many unsuitable men has she gone out with in the past few weeks?’ she asks.
‘Four,’ I reply.
‘I see.’ She looks at George. ‘And from what you’re saying, fifth time’s a charm? Is that it?’
‘Oh, er…’
She comes back to me. ‘I think you should read the articles, because it doesn’t seem like they were written by someone who’s keen to fall in love. It’s quite the opposite.’
She takes out her phone and taps and scrolls. My eyes flick towards Paloma, but her expression gives nothing away.
‘Here we are,’ says Anjali. ‘And I quote: “This may be my first proper date in some time but when did it become okay for a man to fat shame his date for her choice of beverage? I would rather eat shards of glass than endure spending another minute with someone like Marcel. I can’t believe people actively choose to date when they could be at home rearranging their sock drawer.” End quote .’
She lifts her gaze and pins me with a piercing look. Her displeasure is understandable. She engaged the agency for an HEA, likely not even considering the ‘kissing frogs’ part.
‘Greta comes across as cynical, bordering on bitter,’ she says. ‘How on earth do you intend to help this Greta find love when she’d rather be eating shards of glass?’
‘Poppy, perhaps if you explained your tactic to Anjali, so she can better understand?’ says Saskia helpfully.
‘I’d be happy to,’ I say with a smile. I meet Anjali’s eyes, knowing I can’t throw Greta under the bus by revealing she knows about Anjali’s plan, but I also need to offer a plausible explanation. Thankfully, something comes to me from the annals of my psychology practice.
‘Sometimes, when a client is outwardly resistant to love,’ I say, ‘we need to provide them with a way of… well, essentially, saving face. The first of the four men we set Greta up with was Marcus – AKA Marcel. He was the worst of the unsuitable men, and our intention was for Greta to come away from that experience feeling vindicated. Dating is awful and trying to find love is a waste of time.
‘Enter Aman, who doesn’t fat shame her but – let’s just say – has vastly different life goals from Greta. Greta continues to feel vindicated about her feelings towards dating, but there are diminishing returns on her self-satisfaction, as he simply isn’t as awful as Marcus. Then she went out with Travis. I know for a fact that she’s not including Travis in this series?—’
‘You mean, “Dating Horrors of London”?’ Anjali interjects, a persistent edge in her voice.
‘Yes – Travis isn’t a bad person, just desperate to find love and Greta was empathetic to his situation; she’s mentioned writing about him in a more in-depth, one-off article. Which leads us to Ollie – a lovely man, but for other reasons, not a good fit for Greta. She’s not planning on writing about him at all.’
‘I still don’t see how this helps achieve our primary objective, to help Greta find love.’
‘Because, over the course of these experiences, Greta is softening on the concept of dating. Each of these men gets her closer to what we know she wants, even if she isn’t quite there yet herself.’
‘Huh.’ Anjali sits back against her chair, maintaining eye contact as thoughts play behind her eyes.
‘What do you think, Anji?’ asks Saskia.
I glance in her direction, then over at Paloma, who gives me a subtle nod.
Anjali shakes her head as if to clear her thoughts and adopts a chastened smile.
‘I really don’t know what to say… other than I’m sorry I doubted you, Poppy. You clearly know exactly what you’re doing, and I just need to stand back and give you the space to do it.’
I smile at her, relieved that I’ve presented a plausible explanation for the dud dates without revealing it was Greta’s idea.
‘It’s completely understandable that you’d be confused – and concerned. Especially after the issue with the advice column… It’s been an intense few weeks.’
She huffs out a sigh. ‘It has.’ She looks to her friends. ‘Soz, lovelies. I didn’t mean to derail your morning.’
Paloma stands. ‘It’s all right. You’re a valued client and were right to bring this to us.’
‘ Ish – I mean, who am I to question the methods of the best matchmaking agency in London?’
‘Oh, Anji, now you’re just sucking up,’ says Saskia with a laugh, which shocks the hell out of me. Saskia never says anything like that.
‘Right, well, I’d better let you get back to your day,’ says Anjali, standing.
While Saskia walks Anjali out, Paloma joins me and George.
‘You handled that very well, Poppy,’ she says.
‘Thanks.’
There was a time when I steered clear of Paloma, as I found her quite intimidating, but we worked closely on a case about six months ago and formed a solid professional bond. I gained a new appreciation for the talents she brings to the table, and she affords me the freedom to ‘go off piste’ – her words – when needed.
‘I need a cappuccino,’ blurts George as he beelines for the door.
‘What?’ I ask him, bemused.
He pauses in the doorway. ‘I could go for a stiff drink – that was far too intense for an AM meeting – but as it’s nowhere close to noon, I’ll settle for a frothy coffee with extra chocolate,’ he explains.
‘Oh, if you’re popping downstairs…’ says Paloma with a cock of her head.
‘Yes, yes, I know: a skinny flat white. Poppy? Cappuccino?’
‘Yes, please, George – that’d be great.’
He leaves and Paloma skirts around her desk and sits in her high-backed chair, then logs onto her laptop. I linger, wondering if I need to explain anything further. Paloma is head of client relations and maybe I should fill her in about Greta and what she knows.
‘Was there something else, Poppy?’ asks Paloma without lifting her gaze.
‘No, all good,’ I reply, then I slip out of her office and head to my desk. I need to update Greta on Anjali’s visit – immediately .