Chapter 7
“Hello, Lila, I must say you’re looking very…er…unique today.”
Seb was clearly amused to see me resplendent in front of his desk, still dressed in the scratchy lurid green number and tapping my foot impatiently in my high heels.
“Yes, thank you, Sebastian I know exactly what I look like. But it was all Jocasta’s fault. That woman has a real problem with me, and I honestly don’t know why.”
Seb closed the file he had been reading and sat comfortably back in his leather swivel chair, clasping his fingers together behind his head.
“I know I’m going to regret this, and I really shouldn’t ask, but go on then, tell me what’s happened now.”
With a heavy sigh I sank into the chair opposite him to recount my tale of woe.
“The toxic bint literally just threw two cups of coffee all over me, claiming she had stumbled. But I tell you, Seb, don’t believe that for a second. I saw the glint in her eye, and she did it on purpose. All just to ruin my day and my lovely outfit and force me to wear this knitwear nightmare.”
I pulled the offending garment off to display the huge coffee stain covering the décolletage area of my blouse and my ruined cashmere. I managed to give myself a jolting shock of static electricity in the process. It turned out that this outfit wasn’t just painful to the eyes; it could actually hurt.
“The woman is just a…a...”
I stuttered, desperately trying to find the right words to describe my dislike for my office subordinate.
“A nefarious nitwit!”
Seb was laughing now, clearly finding the situation highly amusing.
“I’m sorry, Lila, but I must say you’re the one that looks like the nitwit in that naff knitwear, not Jocasta.”
I felt my eyes narrowing dangerously. It wasn’t funny, well not to me anyway. I could see that Seb was eyeing me warily now, realising that I was not in the mood to be poked fun at, and he’d better try a different approach.
He sighed and reached over the desk towards me. For a second, I felt my stomach lurch, thinking he was going to take my hand again; but instead he helped himself to a boiled sweet from the glass bowl that he offered to clients, unwrapped it and popped a green one in his mouth, sucking on it thoughtfully for a few seconds.
A green sweet? I ask you, who chooses a lime-flavoured sweet out of all the delicious flavours he could pick? The man had no taste. We really didn’t have a thing in common.
“I really don’t think Jocasta would have thrown the coffee at you on purpose, Lila. She does wear some silly little shoes at times, so I think the chance of her stumbling is pretty high. The two of you just need to get to know each other better. You’re like two wary lionesses circling each other ready to pounce. I don’t know if its jealousy or insecurity or what, but…”
I was flabbergasted. Did he actually think I could be jealous of Jocasta? I most certainly wasn’t. Yes, she was younger; and yes, maybe she did have a manner which on occasion seemed to draw people to her more than my own brusque businesslike demeanour. However, I knew I was a good person and nice enough in my own way, but I was certainly harder around the edges and feistier than my colleague, with none of the fluffy bunny appeal that she seemed to have going on in abundance.
My voice was shrill when I finally managed to spit my words out.
“I’m most certainly not jealous of her!”
Oh dear, disappointingly my tone now had a definite screechy fishwife edge to it.
“I’m not insecure either. I’m telling you what happened, and she threw hot coffee right at me!”
Seb sighed deeply and helped himself to another sweet, lime again…yuck.
“I don’t know what you expect me to say, Lila. I think you’re just overreacting a bit.”
All the years I had known Seb, and clearly he had learned nothing about me. You never tell a woman she’s overreacting, especially not a woman like me.
My voice was low and steady.
“I just don’t trust her, that’s all I’m saying; and believe me, I’m a very good judge of character. It’s the way she looks at me, like she’s plotting and scheming all the time. She acts like little Miss Perfect, but I’m not buying it for a single second. I don’t know if she feels threatened by me because I’m more senior, or she just doesn’t like women in general; but I’m telling you, she’s a wrong ’un. She might dress faux from head to toe, but it’s not just her hair extensions and false eyelashes; I don’t think anything about the woman is genuine and real.”
Seb was shaking his head to himself; clearly, he’d had enough of the conversation.
“Look, Lila, I’ve got a meeting with Fluck in ten minutes, so we’re going to have to talk about this later. But I honestly don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about; you’re just being a bit paranoid.”
This really wasn’t getting any better. First, I was overreacting; and now I was paranoid. The bloody cheek of the man.
“Seb, sometimes you need to pick a side, you know. People get killed loitering in the middle of the road.”
He sighed deeply and twisted the sweet wrapper around his long fingers.
“Lila, all I’m saying is just rein in your Rottweiler for a minute and let the softer version of you out. I think there might be a bit of good old female rivalry going on here. A younger woman has come along and upset the apple cart a little. She’s finding her feet and establishing herself in a firm you’ve worked in for years, and you’re just a bit put out. But you’ve got nothing to worry about with Jocasta. She’s going to be an asset to the firm, and that can only be a good thing for all of us.”
I huffed away to myself for a few minutes. But maybe he had a point, and I was being rather unreasonable. Maybe Jocasta and I could start again; bury the hatchet, preferably between her satin-clad shoulder pads.
Seb stood up from his desk and slipped his suit jacket onto his broad shoulders. He gave me a flirty wink.
“And don’t you worry, Lila. She may be pretty, but you, my dear, are simply magnificent.”
I disregarded his compliment to me entirely and homed straight in on one single word ? pretty. It had made my tummy feel strange again.
“Pretty? You think Jocasta is pretty?”
Yes, she was obviously attractive, I couldn’t deny that, but I hadn’t realised that Seb thought so too. I had seen him staring after her at the bar on Saturday, but I had decided to shrug that off. Told myself he had just been checking out the peach cobbler dessert in the rotating glass display, not checking out her peachy derrière.
Well, she might look attractive for now, but I knew good bone structure, and she wasn’t going to age well, that was for sure.
“Well, yes…obviously she’s pretty.”
Seb straightened his tie and ran his hands through his hair, hoping to make himself look more presentable for his meeting, but instead ensuring he resembled something that had been spat out by a hurricane.
“But it’s not just that she’s good-looking, she’s also sweet and kind and can’t do enough to help around the office. She’s happy to muck in with all the admin tasks none of us want to do, and she’s an absolute asset to the secretaries. She’s even hoovered the offices when the cleaner was sick, so she’s not stuck up either, which is great.”
I muttered incoherently to myself. I really didn’t like the way this conversation was going. I couldn’t agree with him, I just couldn’t. I didn’t trust her. I had serious reservations about Jocasta, but it seemed I was in the lonely minority of one. It was clear I was going to need to keep my counsel, so to speak. I was going to have to bide my time and watch and wait. No, I didn’t trust the woman, I just couldn’t.
I laughed, trying to lighten the mood between us.
“Well let’s face it, Seb, you’re just too flaming nice. You like everyone; you even grudgingly respect Fluck, and he’s about as appealing as a fart at a funeral.”
I helped myself to a sweet from his bowl. A strawberry one, like normal people.
“You couldn’t hate anyone, even if you tried. You’re just a people pleaser. If you had a spirit animal, it would probably be a chicken.”
Seb threw back his head and laughed: a lovely warm, low rumble.
“That’s more like it, Lila, back to your acerbic best.”
He set off towards his office door, and I followed in his wake. He turned to face me before we departed.
“Just don’t let Jocasta get under your skin too much. You’ve got off to a rocky start, the pair of you, and you’ll be fine once you get to know each other better. You could be the bigger person, you know, and make the first move to build a friendship.”
He gave my arm an affectionate rub, which sent a little tingle coursing through my body. Probably the polyester again.
I smiled indulgently at my friend. He really could be the sweetest man.
“You know what, Seb, I think you’re right. I’m going to make a coffee right now, and I’m going to ask Jocasta if she’d like one too, that’s what a lovely forgiving person I am.”
Seb winked at me affectionately as we made our way down the gloomy corridor: him to go into his meeting, and me towards the kettle.
“That’s my girl.”