Tell That to My Heart Page 11

  Anna-Lisa met her gaze, a hint of hurt in her eyes making Mim feel terribly guilty.

  ‘Tell me about it,’ Anna-Lisa said. ‘I’m not fooling myself about how things are with Caleb and me, and if I’m being brutally honest, I’d say we’re on borrowed time. But – and I know I’m going to sound like a right hardened cow – I’m not going to be gutted about it, and my heart won’t be broken, that’s still safe and sound in here.’ She patted her chest. ‘Not that I’m saying that’s a good thing; it’s because I intend to keep myself safe so I won’t let anyone in. I’m not as lovely and warm as you are, Mimbo.’ She reached across and rubbed her friend’s arm.

  Mim smiled and gave Anna-Lisa’s hand a squeeze. ‘You’re not a hardened cow, Anna; you’re the most kind-hearted person I know. You’ve had it tough, so it’s only natural you’re wary. I only wish I could be more like you. You’re the best friend anyone could ever have.’

  ‘Right back atcha, chick.’

  ‘What a pair we are, eh?’

  ‘Yep, just as well we’ve got Carly to keep us right.’

  Carly got to her feet. ‘Well, I think you’re both totally fabulous, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve got the munchies. I think it’s time I put the pizza and garlic bread in the oven.’

  ‘Good plan,’ said Mim.

  12

  As a rule, Mim usually despised Monday mornings with a passion, the dread for them starting as an annoying little niggle from early Sunday afternoon, building gradually through the day until it had begun to dominate her every thought, eventually manifesting itself into a troubled night’s sleep. But this Monday morning was different. This was a Monday morning she’d been looking forward to for the whole weekend for one simple reason: Caspar.

  ‘Morning.’ Her heart fluttered as she slipped into the heated leather seat which felt divine on her cold legs. The spicy scent of his cologne hit her nostrils and mingled with the aroma of new car, instantly catapulting her back to Friday night. She felt a frisson of excitement and looked across at him, unable to control the huge smile that was currently splitting her face in two. He looked unbelievably handsome in his crisp blue shirt, open at the neck, that set off his pale complexion and dark hair.

  ‘Morning.’ He leaned across, cupping her cheek with his hand and kissing her deeply, sending a host of butterflies running riot around her stomach. It took every ounce of her strength not to pounce on him and drag him back into the house for a hot and steamy replay of Friday night. ‘Mmm. That takes the sting out of a dreary Monday morning.’

  Oh, that voice! Oh, that kiss! Oh. My. Days! She pressed her lips together, running her tongue along them, savouring the taste of him. It sent a shiver of delight vibrating through her.

  ‘I missed you.’ He kissed her again, making her groan.

  He missed me? Caspar De Verre actually missed me? Her heart soared. ‘I missed you, too. Actually, you don’t fancy popping into the house for a few minutes, do you? I’m sure we’ve got time.’ She arched a suggestive eyebrow at him, making him smile.

  ‘Much as I love the sound of getting up close and personal with your hot little body again, I think I’d find it a considerable struggle to tear myself away from you. I don’t think it would go down too well if we’re late for work, do you? And it might make our bosses a tad suspicious, which is something we don’t want.’

  ‘Spoilsport!’

  He threw his head back and laughed. ‘It’ll make it all the more worthwhile when we get back tonight.’

  Mim hadn’t thought of that. She looked at him and grinned, her toes wiggling with happiness. ‘True.’

  ‘Right, now we’ve got that sorted, we’d best head off; the sooner we get started, the sooner we get finished.’ He winked at her.

  ‘So, did you have a good weekend? How did helping your parents go?’ she asked, buckling her seatbelt.

  ‘Well, I seem to recall the weekend started off amazingly well, but I’m afraid to say, after the delights of Friday night and Saturday morning, much as I love my parents, working for them was a little bit of an anti-climax.’ He cocked a knowing eyebrow at her before slipping the car into gear and pulling out onto the road. ‘How about you? How was your weekend, Mim Dewberry – did I ever tell you how I love your name?’

  She laughed. ‘Thanks. Well, mine was pretty much the same as yours, really. Friday night was totally amazing, as was Saturday morning! Then the rest of the weekend was good, but no comparison. After you’d left on Saturday I went for a long walk with Herbert—’

  Caspar gave a disapproving snort at the mention of the Labrador’s name, stopping Mim in her tracks. A spike of annoyance shot through her, taking her by surprise; she didn’t like him being dismissive about Herbert. She pushed the feeling away and continued. ‘Anyway, it was such a lovely afternoon, really sunny and bright, we met loads of people we knew on the walk. Then, when we got back, Anna-Lisa came round and we had lunch at—’

  Another disapproving snort from Caspar, cutting her off. Mim stole a quick look at him, but his face was impassive and his eyes were fixed on the road. Once more, she elbowed her annoyance away, pretending she hadn’t noticed it. ‘Then Anna went and suggested we tidy the house before my next Skyping session with Josie, so we did. Honestly, the place is gleaming; I’ve never seen it look so tidy since Josie left.’

  ‘Well that’s no bad thing.’ He turned to her and chuckled.

  ‘Hey, cheeky! Then later in the evening we went along to Carly’s for a catch up over a drink and some pizza. It was fun, but not as much fun as Friday night; that will definitely take some beating.’ She looked across at him, a beaming smile lighting up her face.

  He reached over and squeezed her knee. ‘I couldn’t agree more.’ He paused for a moment. ‘You didn’t mention anything about us to Anna-Lisa, did you? I know you’re best friends and I know how you women love to share, but I really think it’s the right thing to keep quiet about us at work for all the reasons I mentioned before – even from Anna-Lisa.’

  He said “us”! We’re an “us”! Mim was struggling not to tremble with excitement.

  ‘You know how easily these things have a habit of coming out and Anna might let something slip to Aidey – no matter how innocently – then he might let something slip to someone else. Though, granted, it might not be so innocently with him, especially if he continues to see me as a threat to him. I wouldn’t put it past him to do anything to stir up a bit of trouble behind my back.’

  ‘Aidey? Aidey wouldn’t do anything like that; he’s not malicious; he’s quiet, just gets on with his work. And he doesn’t have bad bone in his body.’ Though, she wasn’t so sure that he didn’t see Caspar as a threat after what had happened with his job. Still, she felt sure she could trust Aidey with her deepest, darkest secrets if ever the need arose.

  ‘Well, that’s what you think, but you didn’t hear him having a go about me when Catherine called him to her office on Thursday. I’d had to report some shoddy work he’d done as she was ready to heap the blame on my shoulders. Would you believe, he actually denied having done any of it? Said it was all down to me? I had to point out to Catherine that it wasn’t my style at all.’

  ‘So what happened?’

  ‘Well, she had to admit I was right and told Aidey it was the very reason I’d been brought in; said things needed to be slicker, cranked up several bloody notches now that the magazine was a serious contender and was playing with the big boys. He took it badly when she said it was time he pulled his socks up; but I have to say, she had a point.’

  ‘Oh, poor Aidey.’ Mim felt a wave of pity for her friend; his life at Yorkshire Portions had been turned upside down much more than hers had been. He hadn’t even shared this bollocking from Catherine that Caspar was speaking of; even so, it must have really upset him. No wonder he’d been quiet for the latter part of last week.

  A frown furrowed her brow as she thought about Caspar’s words; she couldn’t help but think that something didn’t seem right. Was h
e telling the truth? ‘I don’t get it. Aidey’s always been known for being excellent at his job. Clarissa knew him from when she ran the magazine as a blog and used to get him to design graphics for her, then other people started to ask him too; he’d built up a good reputation, was really in demand. It was what made the bosses offer him the job in the first place, before anyone else jumped in and snapped him up.’

  ‘Hmm. Well, something’s happened to make him take his eye off the ball. Between you and me, he’s lucky he’s still got a job at all. If it was down to me he’d be out on his ear; he’s lucky Catherine’s got a kind heart.’

  Mim’s eyes almost popped out of her head. Kind heart, my arse! She’s an evil old bag of the highest order! She turned to stare out of the window, at a loss for words.

  ‘Does he have a girlfriend?’

  ‘Not at the moment, no. He was going out with a girl called Hannah for a while, but they split up a few months ago.’

  ‘Hmm.’

  Mim wondered what “hmm” meant, but for some reason, discussing Aidey’s private life with Caspar made her feel inexplicably disloyal to her friend. She was relieved when Caspar was distracted by a call, and the conversation came to an end.

  The pair continued their journey to York, with Caspar frustrated at not being able to put his foot down and let his sporty car eat up the miles thanks to the thick, patchy autumnal fog that lasted for most of the way. Conscious that he was going out of his way to pick her up, Mim had asked if he minded and was relieved when he reassured her he didn’t; he said that he enjoyed spending the extra time with her. It made her heart sing in a way it wouldn’t normally do at eight-thirty on a grey and misty Monday morning.

  As soon as they arrived at the office Caspar slipped into work mode, though it didn’t stop him from hastily drawing her into his office and kissing her passionately, making her body ache with desire. He pulled himself away, his dark eyes twinkling at her. ‘There, that’ll keep us going for a little while.’

  ‘That’s so not fair. How am I supposed to concentrate on my work after that?’

  But Caspar didn’t have time to reply since Simon bowled into the room without bothering to knock. He looked shocked to see Mim there, but it still didn’t stop his eyes from travelling the full length of her long legs, a lecherous smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. It made Mim shudder. ‘What are you doing in here, Mim? I hope you’re not disturbing Caspar, he’s a very busy man, you know.’

  ‘No, I, er, I was just—’

  ‘I asked Mim to stop off here so I could explain about an idea I’d had for an advertising campaign, but it’s not urgent, I can do it later.’ He turned to her. ‘I’ll give you a buzz later and you can pop back so we can discuss it further; should be fairly straightforward but I’d still appreciate your input.’

  ‘Yep, that’s fine. See you later.’ She felt the heat of Simon’s gaze on her as she left the room; it made her skin crawl.

  Aidey was already at his desk when Mim arrived, and judging by the amount of work around him, he’d been there for quite a while. She regarded him for a moment; she was sure Caspar was wrong about his feelings for her, they were mates who went back a long way, that was all.

  ‘Morning, Aidey. Good weekend?’ Mim slipped of her chunky “new” leopard print faux fur coat and hung it on the back of the door. It was her latest charity shop purchase and she was rather thrilled with it, especially since it had been a steal.

  ‘Morning, Mim.’ His eyes brightened when he saw her. ‘It was okay, spent most of it working. How about you?’

  She felt a pang of guilt. Usually if Anna-Lisa was coming over to her house, she’d text Aidey and give him the option of joining them which he sometimes did. But for some reason, she hadn’t done that this weekend, and now felt a little mean for it.

  ‘I took Herbs for a couple of long walks, had a girly catch-up with Anna and Carly and even cleaned the house.’

  He looked surprised. ‘You cleaned the house?’

  ‘Yes, and you don’t have to look so shocked,’ she said, laughing. ‘I did it with Anna’s help, well, actually she forced me into it. But I’m kind of glad she did.’

  ‘What did I force you to do, Mimbo?’ Anna-Lisa swung through the door, wrapped up well against the cold in her tweed overcoat, a grey beret set at a jaunty angle on top of her sugar-pink hair.

  ‘I was just telling Aidey about our cleaning session.’

  ‘Ughh, don’t! I’m still recovering from it! Did she tell you about the mug we found, Aidey? I swear it had a new life-form growing in it; I’m totally convinced I saw a pair of beady eyes looking back at me from the deep, dark, depths.’ She gave a theatrical shudder.

  ‘Oh, ha-ha! Take no notice, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as Anna’s making out.’

  ‘It so was,’ Anna-Lisa mouthed at him, making them all laugh.

  ‘What’s the joke?’ Honey huffily pushed her way past Anna-Lisa.

  ‘Oh, nothing,’ said Anna. She pulled a face behind Honey’s back.

  The three of them watched as Honey stomped over to her desk, threw her bag down onto the floor and flopped heavily into her chair. She was in a bad mood and she wanted everyone to know about it.

  They stole furtive glances at one another. Mim was generally regarded as a tolerant person, but she had no time for the girl; she viewed her as an obnoxious attention seeker which was clearly what this latest display of histrionics was all about.

  ‘What’s up with you? How come you’ve got a face like a slapped arse?’ asked Anna-Lisa, bold as ever.

  ‘I have not. I’m fine. I don’t know what makes you think that. Don’t go pushing the fact that it’s Monday and you don’t like it onto somebody else. That’s a form of bullying, that is.’

  Anna-Lisa splayed her palms at Honey. ‘Woah! You can just stop right there. From the way you pushed past me and stormed over to your desk, it’s pretty obvious to the rest of us that you’ve got a bad case of Monday-itis – which is absolutely fine as long as you don’t try and push the blame of how you’re feeling onto other people. None of us like Mondays, but we’re grown up enough to just get on with it. But I’ll tell you what, we’ll leave you alone until you feel like being civil, okay?’ She rolled her eyes at Mim and Aidey as she headed to her desk.

  Mim looked at her friend with a feeling of admiration; she wished she had the balls to stand up to Honey’s sort like Anna-Lisa did.

  Sensing she was being watched, Mim turned to see Honey looking daggers at her. It made her feel uneasy. Why was she getting the dirty look when it was Anna-Lisa who’d just put her in her place? She caught Aidey’s eye; he’d clearly noticed it, too.

  An hour later, the phone on Mim’s desk buzzed with an internal call. It had the Pavlovian effect of making her heart sink; such calls usually meant Catherine, something that was never a pleasant experience, least of all on a Monday morning. She picked the handset up with trepidation. ‘Hello.’

  ‘You do know you have an incredibly sexy voice, don’t you?’ It was Caspar, his voice smooth and chocolatey.

  Mim giggled. ‘Do I?’ She sensed three pairs of eyes on her and tried her hardest to stop smiling.

  ‘Oh, you most certainly do, you hot little minx.’

  She caught sight of Honey’s intense glare. ‘Right, okay, yes, I’ll do that,’ she said, hoping she sounded work-like.

  ‘I’m guessing the others are listening?’

  ‘Yes, that’s right.’

  ‘So I’d probably better not tell you how much I’d like to lay you over my desk and peel down your—’

  Gulp! That definitely wasn’t work-talk and was making her feel all of a dither. She steadied herself. ‘That sounds great. I’ve got some ideas you might like, too. I’ll just grab my notebook and I’ll pop down to your office straight away.’

  Caspar gave a dirty laugh. ‘Mmm. I like the way you’re talking. I’ll be waiting for you, don’t be long.’

  ‘I’ll be there in a moment.’

 
; ‘Who was that?’ asked Honey.

  ‘Caspar; he’s got an idea for an advertising campaign he wants to discuss with me. We were going to do it first thing, but Simon needed to talk to him so we had to put it off, but Caspar’s keen to get it moving.’ Mim could feel the intensity coming from Anna-Lisa’s side of the room, but knew better than to meet her friend’s gaze; one glance and she’d be rumbled.

  ‘Well, I should be there as well; it’s not fair if he only wants your input, we’re equals, my opinion’s just as important as yours.’ Honey pushed her mouth into its now familiar pout.

  ‘He didn’t ask for you, he just wants to discuss it with me. I can share the details with you afterwards and we can go over it together then.’ Mim’s words gave her a little fizz of pleasure.

  Honey huffed and shook her head. But before she could say anything further, Mim pushed her chair back, snatched up her notebook and a pen, and disappeared through the door as quickly as possible.

  ‘Sorry I took so long, Honey wanted to come, too, I had all on not to—’ Before she knew it, Caspar was standing before her, his lips pressing against hers, his eager hands pushing their way up inside her top and underneath her bra, making her whole body pulse with lust. ‘You’re driving me crazy, Mim Dewberry.’

  She groaned, returning his kisses with equal ardour. ‘We’d best be quick.’

  Seconds later the pair jumped apart when an assertive knock at the door took them by surprise. Mim gasped. ‘Oh my God!’ She hurriedly straightened her top and grabbed her notebook. Caspar scooped up a handful of papers from his desk. ‘Come in,’ he said.

  The door opened and Honey appeared. Mim’s heart fell. What the hell? That bloody girl!

  ‘Honey, what’s the problem?’ asked Caspar, not hiding the impatience in his voice.

  ‘I just thought that if you were discussing a new ad campaign, that I should be here, too. Save Mim having to repeat what you’ve said in case she gets it wrong or something. And I’ve got some really good ideas of my own I’ve been desperate to share but nobody seems to want to listen.’ She spoke in the now familiar little-girl voice she used when speaking to Caspar and her bosses.