Chapter 18
Eighteen
S teph had returned to her office and immediately began to go over the Richards file again and after a couple of calls and some very specific online searches she knew that Jon had been right when he had thought that Richards were more desperate for the deal to go through than they had claimed. She then checked her emails and was pleased to see one from Sophie with details of the new deals due to close. She called Sonia Hansen and invited her to meet with her and Sophie that afternoon along with the accountant. Rosie had arranged for SuLyn to come in later in the week and Jon had called to say that he had passed her number onto Lucy. Steph was surprised when Rosie knocked on the door carrying more yellow roses, these were in a more elaborate arrangement though.
“Where would you like them?” asked Rosie.
“Anywhere other than in my office.” She sighed.
“Unwanted admirer?” Rosie looked unsure what she should do with the arrangement she currently held.
“Yeah, kind of, but I think I may have brought this on myself. Just put them next to the others please.” Steph decided she was going to have to put a stop to Chris and his flowers, for his sake as much as hers, or at least his career. Plus Jon’s were the only flowers she wanted.
“Are you going out for lunch or do you have something with you?” asked Rosie.
“Neither. In fact,” said Steph looking at her watch that showed the time as half one, “I have a meeting scheduled for now.”
Sonia suddenly appeared behind Rosie who was frowning at Steph’s lack of lunch.
“Sorry I’m late.” she smiled before she was joined by Rod, the accountant.
“Not a problem, you are bang on time, come in and Rosie, could you get us some tea or coffee please?”
Rosie nodded, scurrying off to get their drinks, leaving the three of them alone while Steph explained, “Miss Marley is late, but we should start without her if she can’t be bothered to be on time.”
The other two shrugged and then nodded before Rosie returned with drinks and some sandwiches for Steph. “Shall I call Miss Marley for you?”
“No thanks, she shouldn’t need unnecessary reminders and when she does arrive let me know please,” replied Steph.
It was another half an hour before Rosie phoned through to announce Miss Marley’s arrival and as Steph and the other two had already gone through the original deal and verified what would be possible in terms of negotiating, Steph thanked them for their time before allowing them to go back to their own offices and then she called for Sophie to come in.
Steph was surprised that as she entered her office Sophie immediately sat down and made no attempt at an apology for her lateness.
“Where have you been?”
“Yeah, sorry, my lunch date ran over,” replied Sophie.
“Your priority was here, with me, at the meeting you had agreed to attend,” said Steph firmly.
“As it was my deal we were discussing I thought you couldn’t start without me and lunch may have been more important,” she replied smugly.
Steph stared at her disbelievingly and was about to remove Sophie from the deal when she spoke again.
“Mr Brooker has to take priority over you and we enjoyed a lovely lunch in his office and it would have been rude to leave before dessert.” She grinned like the proverbial Cheshire cat.
Steph was beyond furious now, with her unprofessional counterpart and also with Jon. How dare he entertain this woman in his office with lunch, any woman for that matter. Steph considered exactly what to say but knew her face was betraying her feelings already by Sophie’s increasing smugness. She was fighting a near overpowering urge to launch herself at the other woman and wondered whether Sophie knew about her and Jon, such as it was or just suspected, but knew what? Steph herself had dumped Jon just weeks before and had introduced herself as his ex-girlfriend to his dad and step-mother, but they had both acknowledged that they still loved each other and remained determined to make things work. Would it always be this way, that every time Steph thought she’d gained clarity on their relationship, something or someone threw a spanner in the works and confused things again?
Steph fixed the other woman with a cold stare. “I will expect the Montague file within the hour and as of now you are off the account.”
“You can’t do that!” the other woman protested.
“I just did,” she replied triumphantly.
“I will be speaking to Mr Brooker about this. His father and mine are very close friends and there was always an understanding that we were perfect for each other so you may have to rethink your decision,” said Sophie almost snarling.
Steph found her even more annoying now and resented the fact that she not only used Daddy being friends with Jon’s dad, but also implied that they could be more, maybe had been more to each other. That had totally infuriated Steph in one way, but also reassured her that there was a reason for his familiarity with this woman. Steph got to her feet and opened the drawer containing the framed photo of her and Jon at Lindsay’s wedding looking every inch the couple.
“You speak to Mr Brooker if you feel the need, but I have made my decision and will not be reversing it.” She held the photo facing away from Sophie. “Mr Brooker will not approve of your poor time keeping and the fact that there were three people waiting on your attendance makes you tardy and unprofessional, both qualities that Mr Brooker despises professionally and personally.” She placed the photo on her desk, ensuring it was easily seen from both sides of the desk.
“Oh, I erm, look I didn’t mean to imply,” waffled Sophie, her glance flitting between the framed image and Steph herself, satisfying her hugely.
“I think you meant to imply completely, but unlike you I like to keep my work and home life separate. So the file is to be on my desk within the hour,” maintained Steph, “But feel free to discuss it with Jon if you prefer.”
“Are you sacking me?” Sophie asked concerned.
“No, not yet. I told you this morning I am a nice person, unless you try and put one over me, then I am not, so let’s hope this is the first and last time you try.”
“Yes, sorry,” said Sophie as Steph got to her feet and opened her office door signalling the end of the meeting.
“For the record, Sophie, the initial package was a good offer for Montague and you did some really good work securing their interest, but you were willing to give them a little too much, especially in shares,” said Steph.
“Could I discuss that with you further, please,” begged Sophie.
“I’ll see, maybe after I have seen the file and studied it in more detail.” Steph closed the door behind the other woman and came face to face with the photo of her and Jon. “Why did I just do that?” she asked Jon’s image. “Because you are mine and she needed to know that, except you’re not, are you, not really? But you are more mine than hers even with her daddy knowing your daddy.”
Steph had tidied the tea and coffee things out of her office and was putting her files away before Jon arrived when Rosie appeared holding the Montague file and more flowers,
“For you,” she said carrying an arrangement of crimson red roses.
“Thank you,” replied Steph and remembered that she hadn’t opened the card on the yellow roses from earlier.
She took the flowers and the file from Rosie and placed them both down on her desk. Turning, she pulled the card from the yellow roses she had received earlier and opening the envelope laughed.
You should know that I love my
mother very much, so why not
send you yellow roses. I also
thought that they would match
my cowardice in all things ‘wife’.
Jon x
Steph turned back and pulled the card from the red roses and smiled at the message.
After seeing your red blotchy face
this morning these seemed more
fitting darling. Or maybe for the
red mark you left on my face!
I am so sorry for the mess
I have made of things.
See you at 3.30
Jon x
Steph put the red roses on the opposite corner of her desk to the photo and picked up the wilting flowers she’d received from Chris over a week before and took them out to Rosie. “Could you do something with these please?”
Rosie nodded but didn’t question the reasons behind Steph’s request.
“I am expecting Mr Brooker at half three but I have a call to make first.”
“Oh there’s a message for you from Lucy Brooker, can you return her call?” Rosie handed Steph a piece of paper.
She returned to her desk and decided that she needed to call Chris as he too had left her a few messages and she now knew that they had never been just friends and never could be. He would always want more than she ever would and Jon would never allow that friendship to flourish, and if she was honest, she didn’t want it to. Her call went straight to voicemail so she left a message.
“Hi Chris, it’s Steph. I am really sorry, I’ve been out of town, thinking, and I have decided meeting up would be a really bad idea. You and I had some fun a long time ago. Sorry. I, erm, I’m sure I’ll see you around, well, I probably won’t, bye,” she said and hung up before cursing herself for such a rambling message. “You stupid cow!”
“I hope that’s not me you mean.”
Looking up she saw Jon filling the doorway. “No, me,” she replied seriously.
“Can I come in?” he asked her.
“Of course, it is your building.” She immediately regretted that it had sounded so petulant and argumentative.
“That’s really not helpful, Steph, can I come in?” he repeated.
“Yes, sorry,” she said smiling.
“Thank you.” He took the seat opposite her at the desk. “You look a little less red than earlier.”
Steph laughed and asked, “And blotchy?”
“That too.” He offered her a small smile.
“Thank you for the flowers, all of the white ones, the cowardly yellow and the blotchy red ones.”
“You are welcome and I am glad to see that my flowers are the only ones in attendance,” he said seriously.
“I had no idea that those flowers were off Chris and I did panic this morning when I had more yellow roses,” she admitted.
“I know, Steph, but I still don’t like Dr Smarmy.” His face contorted, reaffirming his feelings that his terse tone had indicated.
“I do wish you wouldn’t call him that. He is a nice man, he really is,” she insisted.
“Yeah, I’m sure he gives every relative the hand holding, knee touching, floral arrangement treatment,” he snapped, his mood shifting again to one of irritation.
Steph could see what Jon had meant earlier about gaining some normality because every comment either of them made was becoming some bone of contention.
“You are so fucking judgemental and you really have no right to be. He is a nice man and I was very glad of his support after we . . .” She stopped dead now.
“You are kidding! Tell me that you did not go running off to him. I can’t think why I don’t like him when he thinks it’s okay to touch you, to support you at the hospital and now to offer a shoulder to cry on, assuming that it was only a shoulder he offered,” spat Jon venomously.
“It wasn’t like that,” she protested. “I didn’t know where to go, where I could go where you wouldn’t turn up so I went to visit my dad, but they wouldn’t let me see him and Chris was working and made me a cup of tea and fed me Jammie Dodgers if you must know.”
“And what precisely did you tell him?” Jon spoke with more of an even tone now, accepting some responsibility for her being in the position of needing somewhere to go.
“Nothing really, just that we had fallen out and that you had lied to me, then I felt disloyal, but I did agree to meet him later. I felt I owed him that after he had been so kind,” she said quietly.
“Do you think I am ever going to let you meet him?” he asked annoyed again.
“No, although I am not a child and you do not have a veto on who I see,” she said, taking a very deep breath, then continued, “But I had already decided against meeting and I have called him to say as much. Do you still want to meet later?”
“Of course. Now, I was going to ask you where you’d gone that first night as I couldn’t track you down and you were ignoring my texts, calls and messages, but I know the answer to that now. So, if we’re meeting tonight to talk everything else through can we talk business now?” he asked changing tack.
“Of course.” She pulled a couple of files from her desk.
“Did you look over the Richards’ file?”
“Yes and I have done a little bit of digging, but I could do with another day or two to put it all together,” she admitted.
“I’ll get Andrea to call Rosie and schedule a meeting before we meet with Isaac. How did your meeting with Sophie go?”
His smile annoyed her. “Marvellous. I invited Sonia and the accountant to join us, but unfortunately they arrived on time and your friend Soph was very late so I removed her from the deal,” Steph announced proudly.
“You didn’t?” cried Jon disbelievingly.
“I did. And she was almost as surprised by that as you appear to be.” Steph allowed herself a short laugh.
“But . . .” started Jon.
“But she was being entertained by you.”
“She told you that?”
“More than that. She taunted me with the details and she told me about her dad and your dad and what a wonderful union you and she would be. She also told me that she was going to tell on me,” said Steph.
“What did you say?” asked Jon curiously.
“I told her that she could tell whoever she wanted, but my decision was final even though she had done some good work. She was going to give them too many shares,” Steph revealed.
“Would you consider allowing her back on board with the deal?” Jon adopted an air of caution.
“No, she needs to learn that being gorgeous is not enough to succeed and she also needs to stop batting her eyelids at you or going out of her way to annoy me,” said Steph, allowing the jealousy she felt about Sophie to become apparent.
“She is nothing to me Steph and lunch was to see if Sophie had listened at all to you earlier. To check if she understood your position and respected it,” he admitted.
“Well, it would appear she either didn’t hear or didn’t care and I won’t undermine myself. I have agreed to work through how much flexibility she should have allowed for and if she backs off and stops pissing me off I may allow her to observe Sonia sealing the deal because as soon as the deal goes through, Sonia will take responsibility for Montague as new retail. Unless you’re about to tell me I have to take her back.”
“And if I did, hypothetically?” His half-smile lifted his earlier frown and worry lines.
“I would walk, right now,” she replied bluntly.
“Professionally?” he queried making her smile slightly.
“Yes, professionally.”
“Then your decision is final, always was, but she is okay, if a little overzealous,” said Jon.
“Possibly, but she is old enough to contain that at work. She is older than I am and if nothing else I am a team player and she needs to be too,” said Steph firmly. “Now, why don’t you tell me how the hell you came to employ her? Was it a favour to her daddy?” Steph was unable to hide her sarcasm.
“You really have nothing to be worried about where Sophie is concerned and I didn’t employ her as a favour to anyone, not really. She had worked in sales for a big European company and she was struggling after a doomed relationship with her boss.”
“Relatable,” muttered Steph.
“Except ours isn’t doomed,” he shot back. “But I did think she would be better equipped to act as one of my new business managers from the off, as did her boss and Grant who interviewed her, however I may have overestimated her on that level. Maybe with a mentor she’d raise her game,” he suggested.
“You don’t mean me, please say you don’t mean me. She pisses me off by walking through the door at the moment so get her line manager to oversee what she’s doing, but I will walk her through how much to offer up in a deal,” conceded Steph.
“Okay, darling, whatever you want, but keep me posted. In fact, I will observe Sonia sealing the deal too, so email me the date and time or call Andrea. Look, I should go but come to mine for dinner and we can talk about us.”
Steph nodded and got up to see Jon to the door, but once there, standing before him she suddenly felt nervous and apprehensive at being so close, close enough to touch, to smell, to taste almost and she really was desperate to taste him.
“You have to know that I have a very strong desire to kiss you,” said Jon bluntly.
“Do you?” Her tone and slightly lowered eyes seemed coy.
“I think you know I do.” Jon brushed some loose hair off Steph’s face.
“I think we should talk later,” said Steph.
“I wasn’t suggesting talking, darling, I was thinking kissing and touching,” he said lowly, slowly moving his face towards hers.
“We should talk first,” she insisted. “I am still really mad with you about everything and I am a bit confused about where we’re at.”
“So you don’t want me to kiss you?” he asked still moving closer towards her.
“Sex has never been a problem for us, but I don’t think we should until we’ve talked,” replied Steph.
“That wasn’t what I asked, darling. Do you want me to kiss you?” He knew that she did.
“I am so weak where you’re concerned.” Steph felt her resolve melting.
“Maybe you should build up some resistance,” he said so close that she really could almost feel and taste his lips now. “I seem to remember you once confessing to wanting to resist my advances, to put up a fight and just how much you enjoyed it when you did.” He tilted her head up slightly.
“Jon.” His name was no more than a gasp. She felt breathless, claustrophobic and certain she wouldn’t be able to resist him much longer.
“Ssh, maybe we should start again and pretend we’re just starting out and I remember that very first meeting and every one since. I also remember telling you that I wanted to strip you off, spread your legs and kiss you everywhere.”
“No,” she murmured half-heartedly.
She wasn’t sure whether he had heard her or whether he was choosing to ignore her, but before she could repeat herself she was under the pressure of his body against hers. His lips had taken hers, his tongue invading her mouth, her breathless gasps doing no more than spurring him on. She was delirious and disorientated but as she considered his words and her current feelings towards him, she began to resist his ministrations. She began by stopping herself from being so receptive to his tongue’s invasion, then she put her hands on his, moving them from her bottom, back and hair. Suddenly, he released her and looked down at her breathlessly, watching the rise and fall of her heaving breasts and smiled at the effect their brief episode had triggered in her. She felt dishevelled, but seriously turned on and was glad that she had kept her jacket on so that her aching nipples were still hidden from him. The sense of relief she felt at wearing trousers was immense because she had no doubt that if she had been in a skirt or a dress, Jon’s hands would have found their way beneath it, into her knickers, leaving him in no doubt of her desire for him judging by the wetness she could feel seeping from between her thighs.
“I won’t be your mistress,” she blurted out. She knew she needed more than that and no amount of panty wetting and toe curling sex was going to change that and he needed to know it.
“That’s not what either of us wants or needs. I will see you later,” said Jon seriously as he kissed her gently on the top of her head and stepped around her to exit her office leaving her flustered and confused.