‘I thought you were supposed to be on holiday.’
Tess closed her eyes and cursed. She had been trying to sneak past Patty Shackleton’s door unnoticed. Most mornings it was her first port of call on her way to her own office, but today she didn’t feel like seeing anyone, least of all shrewd, intuitive Patty, who had an uncanny ability to read people’s moods.
‘Sorry, Pats,’ said Tess, standing in the doorway awkwardly. ‘Just in a bit of a rush. I’ve got a few urgent calls coming in—’
‘So how was the trip?’ interrupted Patty.
‘Great. Nice. Not much of a holiday, really.’ She thumbed towards the door. ‘I’d better get on.’
‘So everything went okay with Sean?’ said Patty, not letting her go. ‘He didn’t screw the new Miss Asgill Hawaiian Glo?’
‘Yes, everything went well. No, he didn’t have sex with Candy Cooper.’
Patty lowered her chin and raised her brow. ‘Tess? I know that expression.’
‘What expression?’ said Tess, feeling her cheeks prickle. Don’t blush, she scolded herself, don’t blush.
Patty pointed at Tess’s face. ‘That expression. In the legal profession, we call it guilt.’
Flustered now, Tess touched her face, as if she could feel her own expression.
Patty’s eyes opened wide. ‘Shit, Tess, no!’ she gasped. ‘Tell me nothing happened.’
‘What are you talking about?’ said Tess, stepping into Patty’s office and casually shutting the door.
‘You and Sean Asgill, in Hawaii.’
Tess frowned. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she said, trying to bluff it out. ‘The man’s an ape. An under-evolved, cocksure, brain-dead primate.’
Patty clapped her hands together gleefully. ‘You dark horse. You had sex with him!’ Patty broke down into helpless giggles.
‘As if!’ snorted Tess. ‘My opinion of him as a self-centred prick has not changed since before the trip,’ she said. ‘Anyway. Did you want something?’
Patty covered her mouth to stifle her sniggers.
‘What I wanted to discuss before this revelation,’ she said, once she had regained control, ‘is the great news about Kevin and Jack.’
‘What news?’ asked Tess eagerly, taking a seat opposite her.
‘I take it you haven’t spoken to Jemma? I know she tried to call you in Hawaii.’
Ah, those must have been the missed calls she had seen on the phone when Meredith called in Hana, thought Tess, suddenly furious that Sean bloody Asgill’s seduction had got in the way of something this important. Tess hadn’t had time to speak to her flatmate yet, having only got back to New York late the night before.
‘Well, Jemma took a trip up to Greenwich and did some digging around,’ said Patty, a pleased look on her face. ‘She followed Jack’s mum, Melissa, to some swanky dinner party and crawled around the back with her long lens. She got some lovely shots of Melissa taking cocaine through the conservatory window. Turns out Mel and Steven the boyfriend have a real taste for the white stuff.’
‘What?’ said Tess, with amazement. ‘That’s incredible.’
Patty was nodding. ‘When Jemma couldn’t get hold of you, she called me. I faxed the photographs over to Melissa’s house, then called her up and asked her what Steven’s very conservative bank would think of his coke habit.’
‘What did she say?’ asked Tess, thinking that Patty would have made a very good tabloid journalist.
‘She slammed the phone down,’ smiled Patty. ‘But she obviously called her own lawyer soon afterwards, because, a few hours later, she was back on the phone, and suddenly they are happy with the existing custody arrangement.’
‘So Jack stays with Kevin?’
‘Yes!’ squealed Patty, drumming her hands on the table, her usual cool, composed façade completely gone.
‘Kevin must be overjoyed,’ said Tess.
‘I’ve never seen a man down a bottle of champagne so quickly.’
‘You had champagne?’ She didn’t want her voice to come out all brittle, but it did. Her first rush of happiness was now replaced by a hollow sense of somehow missing out.
‘We just had a little celebratory supper at Ryan’s on Bleeker Street,’ replied Patty.
‘The four of you? Kevin, Jem, and Jack.’
Patty looked embarrassed. ‘Jack was staying at a friend’s and Jemma was working. I think Kevin just wanted someone to celebrate with.’
‘Of course,’ said Tess. ‘I’ll call him right now. It’s brilliant news.’
Her secretary Annie popped her head around the door.
‘Sean Asgill is on the line for you.’
‘I’m busy,’ said Tess, not looking up.
‘He says it’s important.’
Patty had a playful smile on her lips. ‘So take the call …’
‘I’m busy,’ said Tess firmly. She had no desire to speak to Sean Asgill ever again if she could help it.
‘Well, I’ve got some emails to send,’ she said, heading for the door. ‘Thanks so much for everything with Kevin and Jack, Patty. It’s way beyond the call of duty.’
‘My pleasure,’ said Patty, and Tess knew she meant it.
Back in her office, she sank back into her chair and switched on her computer.
There were dozens of emails since she’d last checked her BlackBerry.
Distractedly, she clicked on the most recent. With a lurch, she spotted the address it had come from: Sean@Asgills.com. She sat up and quickly read it.
It’s not that complicated. Let’s at least talk about it. Back in NYC in two weeks.
Tess angrily clicked the ‘delete’ button. ‘In your dreams,’ she whispered.
‘What dreams would these be?’ said a voice.
She looked up and saw Meredith standing there.
‘Meredith,’ said Tess, a little flustered, wondering how long she had been there. It was a company joke that Meredith was so thin and dainty she could enter the room like a ghost.
‘Is everything all right?’ she asked, her eyes searching Tess’s.
‘Of course,’ said Tess, thinking that, when her son was involved, nothing was ever all right.
‘In which case,’ said Meredith smoothly, ‘can we talk?’ She closed the door and moved across to sit elegantly on the chair opposite Tess’s desk. She opened her handbag and pulled out a blue letter.
‘Because I’ve just received another one of these.’