Authors: Alicia Hope
I should’
ve known
he’d live here
. After all, this complex is home to a number of RCL staff.
Verity took a deep breath
and
fixed what she hoped was a
polite
smile on her face
. She
shook
the agent’s
hand
,
saying
, ‘Thank you for your time
, Rosie
. As Royc
e seems to need your attention
,
’
and
she raised a sardonic eyebrow, ‘don’t worry about showing me the parking and other facilities now, there’ll be plenty of time for that later.’
‘Thanks
,
Verity
.’ Rosie returned the smile. ‘I
t’s been a pleasure meeting you. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say we’re looking forward to having you here.’
Verity
nodded a curt farewell to Royce, who returned the gesture
stiffly
and made way for her to pass
.
But
as she
was headi
ng out the gate
,
Rosie called after her
, ‘
Oh
and we have a ritual here. We hold a cockt
ail party to welcome each new tenant
to the complex
. It
give
s everyone a chance to get to know each other
. I’ll contact you to arrange a convenient date.’
Verity
threw her an uncertain
smil
e
before
striding purposefully
away.
Rosie
watch
e
d the gate close behind Verity before turning
her attention
to Royce
. When she not
iced a calculating look lingerin
g in his eyes, she
arched
a carefully sculptured eyebrow
and said softly,
‘Well, well. S
o that’s your new boss, hey?’
The
weeks
immediately
following Verity’s promotion
were
a hectic blur.
She closel
y shadowed Clyde until he left
, and then plunged
into
the complexities of the new role on her own.
And her
a
fter-
work
hours
were
n’t much more restful
,
with
the
relocation
to
Ocean Mews
commandeering
every spare moment
.
Thankfully
,
Claire’s newly
unattached
status meant she had time to help with the move.
‘Keeping busy stops me thinking to
o
much,’ she’d puffed when Verity suggested she take a break from
packing
boxes
and lugging gear
, ‘a
nd puts His N
ibs out of my mind, which is where he belongs.’
Claire didn’t have much luck with men, and her latest beau, Owen, an engineer
a few
years older
than she
, was no exception.
While he was
reasonably good-looking
, successful,
and had treated her like a
fairy
princ
ess at first, it
quickly
became clear
that nobody could compete with Owen for his own affections.
He’d
been a bachelor
for too long.
Claire once
laughed
dryly
to Verity
, ‘He only takes me to fancy restaurants
to read the menu
s
for him, ‘cos h
e’s too vain to put
on hi
s glasses
.’
The
Claire-n-Owen show ran for
a
mercifully brief
season
, and
as usual,
her
buoyant ‘glass
half full’ personality
helped
Clair
e
bounce
back
promptly
from
the break-up
.
While that was a blessing, i
t
did
mak
e Verity wonder
if Claire h
ad ever actually been in love.
At t
he same age, Verity had
already
been married.
Despite her friend’s cheeriness,
Verity
could see that
this
break, what Claire called her ‘latest
paper cut
’,
did sting
a little.
Verity
was
sorry her friend
’s soft heart had
yet again
been
, if
not
exactly
broken
,
then
harshly
pinched,
but
she
was gratef
ul
it meant s
he had some
company and help during the
move.
Taking a breather
from unpacking one day,
and
out in the courtyard enjoying a mug of coffee
, Verity
heard Royce’s voice
from a couple of
fence
s over
. She found herself
idly
wonderi
ng if he
was also
feeling
the
sting of disappointment
still, at m
issing out on the job
.
S
ince their chan
ce encounter outside the villa
that day, s
he
ha
dn
’t see
n
m
uch of him
.
In truth, she was a bit relieved that business commitments were keeping him occupied.
It gave her time to establish herself in the role and
reinforce her corporate armour.
S
he
did wonder though,
if Royce had
taken Travis’s words
at
the
now infamous
meeting to heart—the ones
about
him
assisting her to settle into the
job
.
She gave a wry smile.
Obviously not. T
oo busy sucking on sour grapes
,
I guess
.
Who needs him
anyhow?
I’m doing fine on my own.
You hope,
a re
bellious inner voice whispered maliciously.
F
ollowing their not-so-pleasant last exchanges
,
Verity
wasn’t sure what to expect
of her next meeting with
Royce
.
At work she received his operational updates via email or inter-office memos, and although they
’d
had
no
need
for
face-to-face
discussions as yet
,
she knew
it
would
n’t last. He was
RCL’s
operatio
ns manager and
she, his CEO. T
hey had
to stay in
close
contact
,
to maintain her
knowledge
of
the company’s operational status
,
and his
awareness
of
production targets,
executive directives
,
budgetary realignments, and
industry
and market
variations
.
With this in mind, s
he
’d
entered a reminder for herself
in her
schedule
, on a date b
y which he should, at least,
have
mad
e a
n appointment to meet with her.
That done, s
he
refused to
dwell on it
any
further
.
Too many other
issue
s called
for her attention, both at the office
and at home.
She’d
simply
wait
, although not indefinitely,
in the
hope Royce’
s professionalism would override his sour grapes.
When s
he’d
finished unpacking
the last
of her gear into
her new
villa, Verity
was at first surprised and then excited to find it still looked half empty.
Well, we can’t have that, can we? Look
out
home
ware
stores, here I come!
She and Claire
had
a wonderful weekend of shopping,
decorating,
and
trying to master
—with varying levels of success—the villa’s state-of-the
-art espresso machine. In th
e
evenings,
they adjourned to
the terrace and celebrated with chilled glasses of bubbly and Verity’s
home-made pizza
s
.
Jack was a
llowed outside for a pr
ance in the afternoons, and he sat,
smiling benevolently at them, watching for any dropped morsels of flavoursome salami or, better still, salty anchovies.
Claire
was
gratifyingly awestruck
, not only by
th
e delicious
food
V
erity
was
taking delight in
producing
from
her kitchen, but also
by the villa
itself
, which now sparkled with Verity’s
indiv
idual style.
Indoors, she’d succeeded in making the combination of
rain
forest and Mediterranean themes complement
each other.
Black wrought iron occasional furniture rubbed shoulders with fabric sofas, deep-pile rugs,
decorative wall sconces
,
and
shiny-leafed fig and
palm trees in glazed pots.
I
n the
kitchen,
she’d toned down the whiteness
a little
by introducing brightly coloured mug
s, candles of varying sizes, scents and colours in wrought iron
holders, and white-washed
wicker
baskets.
* * *
And now i
t was the evening of her ‘welcome to the mews’ cocktail party.
Although Rosie had
arranged
for
the
complex’s
central
square to be
the venue
, Claire had pressed Ve
rity to have
everyone at her villa first, for pre-party drinks
and nibbles
.
‘I’
ll come early in the day so we can
get everything ready, a
nd
afterwards I’ll help with
the clean-up. Hey, maybe I should
stay
over, as
your first
official
house guest
?
And i
t won’t be the last time I stay in
“
Plush Mews
”
, I’ll give you the tip!’
Verity grinned. ‘And yo
u’ll always be welcome, you
budding
snob
, even if you are
a
pushy so-n-so.’
Claire
brushed off the teasing dig
with a snort
, and carri
ed
on with unrestrained enthusiasm
, ‘
A
s guest of honour, you’ll need to work the room, so I’ll take care of the drinks
—m
ight have one or two myself
while I’m at it
.
’
Sh
e
smirk
ed
,
‘
Knowing
you
, you’ll
want to offer
your house guests
nibbles
... er ...
hors d’oeuvres
,’ she said, plum-in-mouth,
‘
with their drinks,
to show off your
skills in that
to-die-for-kitchen
.’
When Verity didn’t
object
, C
laire raised one eyebrow and said
lofti
ly
, ‘Yeah, I thought so. Well
,
we
’ll
apply the KISS principle
to the food
and
keep it simpl
e, stupid
.
’
At the sight of her friend’s
expression
, she giggled, ‘
W
e
’ll
serve finger food with
napkins
, and not bother with
crockery or cutlery
.
Agreed?
’