Daisy fingered the letter cautiously, turning it over yet again to examine the franking mark. It was from Caring Cards, posted yesterday. A part of her didn’t want to open it, guessing what it would contain. She’d already received her P45 and final wage slip, so it couldn’t be either of those, and she felt a little sick.
Should she phone Hazel Holmes? She checked the time – too late, the solicitors’ office was probably shut by now. Besides, what if it wasn’t what she thought it was, she’d look a right idiot phoning when it might be nothing to do with her appeal.
Taking a deep breath and bracing herself, she tore open the envelope and pulled the letter out. The top was embossed with the Caring Cards familiar logo and she ran her thumb across it, feeling an odd mixture of nostalgia and regret. She’d enjoyed working there, she really had. The job had been easy and had appealed to her creative side, and she’d liked her colleagues – most of them.
She wished none of this had happened, and that she could walk back into the office and sit at her desk and do what she was good at. She might have had a good first week at the builders’ merchants, but the euphoria had sluiced away, along with the dirt and dust in the shower, and she’d been left feeling a little flat.
Stop faffing about and read the goddamn thing, she told herself. How bad could it be? It was probably just a letter of acknowledgement anyway.
It wasn’t. Far from it.
Dear Miss Jones,
Further to your recent letter of appeal, regarding your dismissal from Caring Cards for gross misconduct, the company is prepared to offer you a settlement figure of £9,860.00. This offer is without prejudice and is non-negotiable…
…blah blah blah.
Daisy didn’t read any further, letting the letter slip from her numb fingers in shock. They were paying her off!
Amazed, she wondered how they had arrived at such an odd figure. Perhaps they’d calculated her earnings for so many months, or something, and had taken off the tax. Anyway, it didn’t matter – she’d won. She realised that “without prejudice” meant Caring Cards wasn’t admitting it had done anything wrong by dismissing her, but she felt vindicated all the same. Besides, if they’d thought they had a solid case against her, they would have fought her all the way.
Now she’d phone Hazel Holmes.
‘Should I accept it?’ she asked the solicitor.
‘My advice would be, yes. Well done, Miss Jones!’
‘I didn’t do anything,’ Daisy said. ‘It’s all down to you.’ And Zoe – she’d take her a bunch of flowers later. ‘Thank you so much.’
‘No need for thanks. I’m just pleased the case has been settled amicably.’
Amicably wasn’t the word Daisy would use, because she still felt very raw and upset, but she knew what the other woman meant: no tribunal, no having to stand up in front of a judge (or whoever ruled on such things), no having her character dragged through the courts. Okay, the last might be a bit of an exaggeration, she acknowledged, having no real idea what might have happened if the company hadn’t been willing to settle.
Never mind, it was all over now, and she could put the whole sorry mess behind her.
‘I can finally think about a home of my own,’ she said to Noah, later that evening. Yes – evening! A proper after-eight-pm dinner in a proper restaurant and everything, like a real date. And he didn’t have to go to work until tomorrow. Her heart did a little jig. They had all night…
‘That’s wonderful news.’ Noah reached across the table to squeeze her hand. ‘A new job, a new house – your luck has certainly turned.’
It had been nearly a week since she’d last seen Noah, because they simply hadn’t been able to match their work schedules. It felt a lot longer, and though they’d spoken on the phone every day, and Noah had begun a habit of texting her good morning and good night, it didn’t fill the need inside her.
And as for luck – yes, she believed she had eventually shaken off the bad and was now on the receiving end of some good luck. It also helped that people had finally taken down their Christmas decorations. Never had Daisy been more pleased to see the back of Christmas as she was this year.
Her mother had insisted on leaving them all in place, right up until the sixth of January, despite Daisy pleading for them to be taken down.
‘At least, get rid of the hanging foil things,’ she’d urged, but Sandra had shaken her head.
‘It’s bad luck,’ her mother had said.
Wrong, Daisy thought. It’s silver sixpences in Christmas puddings that were bad luck. Thank goodness the tradition had more or less died out, and if her great-gran suggested it next year, Daisy would pass the pudding bit and stick the coin straight where the sun don’t shine – up Gee-Gee’s backside, not her own! She’d had enough of those kinds of shenanigans to last her a lifetime.
Daisy had been dragged into putting the tree up the attic, but first, every decoration and every ornament had to be carefully wrapped in newspaper. If it was up to Daisy, she’d simply have shoved the tree up through the hatch, without removing a bauble, working on the theory that it would save time and hassle when the tree was brought down again next year.
‘I’ve had some of these decorations since before you were born,’ Elsie had said. ‘You be careful with them.’
They looked older than Methuselah, too, but Daisy did as she was told. Then she’d gone into work and did the same thing again, except this time she was allowed to shuffle the complete thing into a corner of the storage room and throw an old sheet over it to keep the dust off. If she could have done the same with December, she would have. It had been the worst Christmas ever, but it was all behind her now, and she had a totally new year to look forward to and a new man to share it with.
The new man in question was staring at her intently. ‘Where did you go?’ he asked. ‘You looked miles away.’
‘I was thinking how hard this past month has been, what with Freddie and Caring Cards, and Zoe and David, and that bloody sixpence. And now it’s all turned around and the future is looking so much brighter.’
‘What did happen to that coin? I’m assuming it must have put in an appearance, because you haven’t mentioned having it surgically removed since New Year’s Day.’
Daisy blushed. She seriously didn’t want to talk about the mechanics of the coin’s reappearance. ‘I took it to Gee-Gee. She said she wanted it back, but when I gave it to her she changed her mind, so I left it on the table. I never want to set eyes on the damned thing again!’
‘You don’t intend putting it in next year’s pudding?’ he joked.
‘No way! Besides, it brought me nothing but bad luck.’
‘Isn’t that Freddie?’ Noah asked.
Daisy looked at the table Noah was staring at.
Damn, so it was.
Freddie waved to her, and Daisy waved back, trying to hide her dismay. Was that…? Yes, it was – Freddie was dining with Carl. She was also astonished to see that they were holding hands. She tried to grab a look at Freddie’s wrists, but his sleeves were pulled right down, but at least he was out and about and looking much better than the last time she saw him.
After a few minutes, Freddie sauntered over to their table.
‘Hi, Daisy.’
‘Freddie,’ she said, cautiously. ‘Do you remember Doctor Hartley?’
Freddie nodded sheepishly. ‘Sorry about all the trouble I caused,’ he said.
‘No trouble,’ Noah replied with a smile. ‘How are you feeling?’
Freddie pushed his sleeves back to reveal two plasters. ‘Much better, thanks to you.’
‘Just doing my job,’ Noah said.
‘You’re back with Carl, I see,’ Daisy said, and Freddie beamed.
‘We’re good. Carl was right, I wasn’t ready then, but I am now. Coming out was all a bit much, but doing what I did opened my eyes and made me realise that I have to be true to myself.’
‘How do your parents feel about that?’ Daisy asked.
Freddie grimaced. ‘Mum is okay, but it’ll take Dad a while yet.’ He brightened. ‘He’s invited Carl to lunch, so he must be coming around to the idea. I hope.’
Daisy was glad she wouldn’t be there. Lunch at Freddie’s parents was hard enough as it was. Good luck, Carl, she thought, you’re going to need it!
She smiled at Carl, and Carl smiled back, a nice smile this time, not the sneer Daisy remembered from the last (and only) time they’d met.
‘I’d better get back before Carl comes to find me,’ Freddie said. ‘I just wanted to say “hello”.’ He took a step back, then glanced at Noah and back to Daisy. ‘No hard feelings?’ he asked.
‘No hard feelings,’ Daisy confirmed, and she meant it. If it hadn’t been for Freddie, Daisy wouldn’t have met Noah, and she simply couldn’t imagine not having this wonderful, sexy man in her life.
Freddie returned to Carl, and Daisy realised Noah was staring at her again, and she put her fork down, suddenly no longer hungry. Or rather, she was hungry, but not for food. Did that make her a hussy? She gave a mental shrug. If it did, she didn’t care. This was technically their fourth date. If things went a bit further than kissing, then so be it.
At the thought of exactly how far things could go, Daisy’s tummy lurched, and so did other bits of her. What would Noah look like naked? His open-neck shirt was slim-fitting, the breadth of his chest and the flatness of his stomach clearly visible. His bum, though she couldn’t see it right now because he was sitting on it, had appeared firm and decidedly pinchable in his dark blue trousers. She’d had difficulty taking her eyes off it as he’d led her into the restaurant, and the trousers also showed off his long legs. Noah Hartley was all in proportion – she hoped! The wicked thought made her catch her breath.
Unspoken agreement saw them hastily finishing their meal, and Noah asking for the bill. When he’d paid (after a brief tussle, when she insisted on paying next time), they fled the restaurant.
‘Wanna come to mine for a coffee?’ he asked, his voice hoarse and throaty.
If they went back to his place, coffee would be the last thing on the agenda and both of them knew it.
‘Yes, please,’ she said, and he opened the car door for her, giving her a sultry smile.
She went all weak and decidedly girly.
‘I really do mean “coffee”,’ he said, unlocking the door to his flat, after a tense and sexually charged drive back to Worcester, during which she’d kept stealing glances at him, and he’d kept shooting her meaningful looks loaded with promise. ‘I’m not going to jump on you as soon as I get you alone.’
‘How do you know I don’t want you to jump on me?’ she asked, and her tongue came out to flick over her top lip, without her asking it to. It seemed to have a mind of its own, and so did the rest of her body.
‘Oh, God,’ he said, kicking the door shut behind her as he pulled her into the small hall, and pressed her up against the wall.
His mouth claimed hers with an intensity that drove all coherent thought out of her mind, and she met him passion for passion, as his hand found the buttons of her warm winter coat and began to undo them. Still kissing him, Daisy unwound the scarf from around her neck and let it drop, and his lips went straight to the soft flesh under her ear, and nuzzled her until she thought her knees were about to give way.
She’d not been idle either, unzipping his jacket and sliding her hands inside, feeling the solid muscles of his back tense as she stroked him.
He groaned, his tongue probing her mouth, one hand slipping inside her coat to caress her breast.
My God, she wanted this man more than she had wanted any other man before. Just a simple touch from him made her tremble from head to foot and—
She opened her eyes.
Noah was staring back at her from where he was standing in the doorway to the living room. A much younger Noah, a teenage version, and he looked seriously pissed off.
He opened his mouth and one word came out. ‘Dad.’