Dear Diary, he’s not my man!
Bright sunlight slashed through the wide windows of the sixth floor law office, and cut across the conference table around which Maddie sat on a high back soft leather chair between Lisa and Mark, another producer from Return To New. Opposite them, Damien Wallbank’s representatives—two solicitors—gazed back.
“I thought we were here to sign the papers.” Maddie held her temper in check, but only just.
They’d arrived at Timpson & Felts thirty minutes ago with the understanding that they’d be finalizing the offer on Andalucía only to discover they had major competition. Competition that not only they hadn’t known existed, but who had practically finalized before Return To New even heard that Andalucía was up for sale.
The elder of the two solicitors, a man in his sixties with a thin angular face, slight body, and a head of thick white hair, shook his head.
“Mr Wallbank assures us he wasn’t aware of the previous deal between his brother and the development company before his brother’s accident, which forced him to take over Andalucía’s sale. Had he known the other company was already in negotiations he wouldn’t have entertained your offer.”
The younger Solicitor, Phillip, leaned forward, propped his forearms on the polished conference table in front of him, tapped his Visconti pen against his file.
“Unfortunately we currently have three businesses vying for the property, your TV production company included.” His suit fitted in a way that told Maddie it was both expensive and made especially for him. When he smiled, probably to soften the blow, it put her on edge. “We apologise for the miscommunication that has led to this situation, Ms de la Botella, but you must understand this matter has only just come to light, and we’re doing what we can to fix all misunderstandings.”
Maddie’s ears burned from barely held-in-check anger. She put it down to the steam that must be shooting from them.
“How could your client not know that his brother was negotiating with another company? Didn’t you just say Damien Wallbank took over from Frank after his accident? Wouldn’t Frank have mentioned this to him?”
The two men exchanged a glance. The older nodded.
Phillip offered up his charming smile. Maddie didn’t trust it one bit.
“Frank Wallbank’s accident left him in a coma for several weeks. It was only after he regained consciousness that we discovered the deal he’d made with CCP Development.”
“And what about you? Are you telling us you knew nothing about this either?” Unable to remain sitting a second longer, Maddie shot to her feet. “What brand of idiot do you take us for? Is this Damien Wallbank’s way of wheedling more money out of Return To New? Because let me tell you—”
“Maddie.” Lisa stood and took her arm in a placating clasp. She leaned close to Maddie’s ear. “You’re freaking out. Take a walk or something. Let me handle things from here.”
This was Lisa’s polite way of kicking her out of the meeting, and she knew it. Drawing in a calming breath, Maddie retook her seat.
“I’m not freaking out,” she whispered as she glanced at Lisa whose right eyebrow shot up in contradiction. Maddie smoothed her hands along the soft material of her black suit trousers. “I just want some answers.”
She patted Maddie’s shoulder. “We’ll get them.” Lisa sat, and Maddie had a moment of remorse.
Lisa didn’t need this stress. Her pregnancy may not be showing yet, but she had dark circles under her eyes, which her makeup didn’t cover completely, and Maddie knew she was having a tough time with morning sickness.
Breathing in a surreptitious, calming breath, Maddie focused on the Wallbank representatives. She was letting her personal attachment to the property colour her emotions. Things would work out. She had to believe it.
The elder of the two solicitors, she didn’t remember his name, shuffled the small stack of papers from the file in front of him. He looked up, meeting Maddie’s gaze with grey eyes that hid more than they revealed.
“When Damien retained our services he was unaware of any previous negotiations. Because of this, we allowed yourselves and another company interested in bidding for Andalucía to enter your bids. It wasn’t until after we informed you of your winning bid that we discovered another company had already agreed on a price with Frank Wallbank.”
“So what happens now?” Lisa asked.
“Andalucía’s sale goes ahead with CCP Development.”
“Just like that?” Maddie sat forward. Lisa placed a hand on her forearm as though she half-expected Maddie to leap across the table at the man. Maddie sat back. She wished they’d waited for their solicitor, but Beth had been running late and since both producers expected the meeting to go smoothly, they went ahead without representation.
“As we’ve said, by the time we came on board negotiations had begun between CCP Development and our client’s brother. An offer had already been accepted,” Phillip said.
Maddie’s stomach gave a sick turn. As excited as she’d been to close the deal on Andalucía she was now equally disappointed. “So there’s nothing we can do?”
Both Phillip and what’s-his-name shook their heads.
~*~
“WE SHOULD have waited for Beth.” Maddie’s heels clicked at a rapid pace as she, Lisa, and Mark pushed through the wide glass doors exiting Timpson & Felts.
“What difference would it have made?” Lisa followed her into the afternoon heat and London’s hustle and bustle. Horns blasted, brakes screeched, drivers bravely nudged their way out of junctions and side roads in an effort to join traffic. “You heard Prescott—”
That was his name.
“—Frank Wallbank had virtually sold Andalucía before his accident. Not even Beth could make them reverse the sale now.”
“Lisa is right, Maddie, I think you have to accept defeat and let it go.” Mark’s wisdom only served to rile her a little more.
“You know what? You let it go!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mark glanced at her as though he thought she was being over-the-top crazy. And perhaps she was, but she didn’t relish having to tell her mum that she’d lost their last chance to ever set foot in their ancestral home again.
“Nothing.” She rubbed her forehead where a dull ache had started. “I’m sorry. I’m just”—she blew out a defeated breath—“really disappointed.”
Mark hugged her around the shoulders. “Understandable. How about we skive off the rest of the workday and have a late lunch. It seems a waste to come to London and not hang out for a bit.”
“Yeah,” Lisa chimed in, unbuttoning her grey suit jacket and shrugging out of it. “Food sounds like a great idea.” She dropped the jacket over her forearm then hooked her arm around Maddie’s. “Do you want me there when you break the news to Raquel?”
Maddie shook her head. Telling her mum about the squashed deal was something she preferred to do alone. “I’ve got this.”
“Sure?”
“Absolutely.” Airy and confident she may have sounded, but Maddie dreaded the task ahead.
“There looks good.” Mark pointed across the road to a cafe bistro.
Lisa inhaled. “Hmm, smells delicious ... if you disregard the exhaust fumes.”
Lisa fluctuated between any-minute-of-the-day sickness and ravenous hunger, so Maddie wasn’t surprised when Lisa stepped out into the road a second ahead of her.
A car’s heavy engine drew Maddie’s attention to their right just in time to see a black car close in on them. The sun’s glare bounced off the windshield, preventing Maddie from seeing the driver.
Pinpricks of horror broke out on Maddie’s skin. Time eluded thought, and she yanked Lisa’s arm at the same time Mark yanked her back onto the sidewalk. The sun must have blinded the driver because the car flew past them, as if its driver hadn’t even noticed two women directly in his or her path.
“Hey,” Lisa yelled. “Watch it, we’re walking here.”
“Are you okay?” Cold sweat broke out all over Maddie. Fear for Lisa’s unborn baby made her lightheaded, squeezed her chest around her lungs.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Where’s a cop when you want one?”
“Holy flying tomatoes, Lisa. That car almost ran you and Maddie over.”
“You don’t say.” Maddie threw Mark a glance. He appeared as shook-up as she felt. Her hand on Lisa’s arm made it easy for her to notice that Lisa was trembling too. Maddie double-checked the road before the three of them attempted to cross again. “I know you’re trying to cut swearing from your vocab, Mark, but perhaps you ought to consider drawing your inspiration from sources other than old reruns of Batman.”
Lisa laughed, easing Maddie’s tension. The near accident might have rattled them, but it’d been just a careless driver. In a vehicle-polluted city like London, there were more hasty drivers on the road than most other cities. The constant horn-blasts were an ever-present reminder.
“I tell ya what.” Maddie entered the cafe behind Lisa as Mark held the door open for them. “I can’t wait to get back to Surrey. London is a death-trap.”
“Are you sure London is the reason for your desire to get back home? Or could it be a certain hunk who lives next door and who you’re meeting up with tonight?”
“Maddie has a man?” Mark really didn’t need to sound so shocked. “Do tell.”
“He’s not my man.” She headed to a corner table, leaving Lisa and Mark to follow.
“I think she’d like him to be.” Just about everyone in the cafe must’ve heard Lisa’s stage whisper to Mark as the two of them joined Maddie at the table.
“He isn’t, nor do I want him to be.” Maddie forced her expression to reveal nothing except what she intended—absolute indifference. Knowing Lisa, she’d tease Maddie unmercifully if she got so much as a hint that Maddie secretly wanted Zach to notice her as a desirable woman. Maddie was not about to give her the opportunity.
“Hmm...” Mark stroked his clean-shaven chin. “Sounds like a little too much protesting to me. What do you think, Lisa?”
“You could be right, Mark.” Lisa grinned, reached for the menu. “You could be right.”
~*~
“THERE MUST be something we can do.” Her mum’s relentless tone reached down the phone line into Maddie’s ear.
She hooked the receiver between her ear and shoulder to free her hands. The dress Sasha had chosen for her to wear tonight lay on the foot of Maddie’s bed. Although she’d preferred to stay home and mope after her abysmal day and losing Andalucía, the girls had refused to take no for an answer and nagged her into keeping their plans to meet up at the new Jazz club in Sutton.
Zach had said he’d meet them there.
A bubble of excitement fizzled through her. She didn’t want to experience such a teenage reaction to the prospect of seeing him. Frankly, she was dreading having to face him so soon after last night—after he’d made sure she knew that he still saw her as his buddy. Clearly, whatever silly chemistry she thought she felt between them was one-sided and probably the result of her previous crush on him. She lifted the red number and slipped it on with an awkward wriggle as she listened to her mum. Several minutes had passed since she broke the news that Return To New wasn’t going to be renovating Andalucía after all. Her mother had taken the news better than Maddie had imagined. She hadn’t gotten mad ... well not as mad as expected.
After the initial ‘Did you tell them that house has been in your family for decades?’ Raquel had switched to fighting mode and Maddie was having a hard time getting her to let go.
“Mum, I’ve told you, there’s nothing. The deal was well in process before we got wind that the Wallbanks were selling. Short of chaining ourselves to the property in the hope of annoying the developers, there’s nothing we can do.” Not that she was suggesting such a thing. She just wanted her mum to see the futility of the whole situation.
“I have a friend.” Raquel’s tentative opening set Maddie’s calamity radar to full alert. “She used to be a radical conservationist back in the day. Maybe I can contact her ... ask her a few questions, see—”
“Mum, tell me you aren’t thinking what I think you are?”
“Listen to me, Maddison.”
She should never have told her mum what she discovered after the meeting at Timpson & Felts today. “Mum, just let it go.”
“So we just take it? Let them tear down Andalucía and build some Spa resort for the rich and famous? Maddie, do you expect me to sit back and do nothing?”
Yep ... she should never have told her mum about the planned resort.
“Yes, Mum, I expect you to accept it. I had to. Andalucía hasn’t been in your family for a long time.” Maddie sucked in a breath and ran her hand through her hair. “I know it’s hard. You have memories that are important to you. It must feel like you’re losing a big part of your family’s history, but you have to let it go.”
It broke her heart to give her mum that advice.
While Maddie was growing up, Raquel had told her so many stories about Andalucía that she’d developed affection for the old family home. But since Grandfather Teófilo had remarried and cut the family from his life, it could no longer be seen as a part of her ancestry. Maddie had wanted Return To New to acquire the house because her mother loved it so much, and she wanted to restore it to its former beauty, but even then, the house would never belong to the de la Botellas again with Return To New’s name on the deeds.
“So you don’t wish to hear about my friend?”
“No. I don’t want to hear because you aren’t going to talk to her, right?” Maddie had no idea what advice her mother’s friend would give her, but her mum had been a bit radical in her day. Maddie was sure any friend of Raquel’s would only be trouble.
Raquel remained obstinately silent on the other end of the line. The only sound that of the slow rhythmic tap of a long acrylic nail.
“Right, Mum?”
Her mother huffed. The tap-tap-tap stopped. “Fine... ‘right’.”
As Maddie ended the call, she got the feeling she’d be revisiting this subject again soon.