Looking for Love (14 page)

Who would have thought Pauline
had it for him? He hadn’t noticed until her flirtatious ways on
Sunday had reached a crescendo. He’d
nearly resorted to telling her he wasn’t
interested but instead had made it pretty obvious by getting up and
excusing himself from the room. The shell-shocked expression on her
face had assured him she’d received the message loud and clear. He
felt bad, but really, what did Ella think? He could just move his
affections from her to someone else at the drop of a hat? How
shallow did she think his feelings for her really were?

His irritation only mounted when he found
the house empty and Pauline the only person in the
office.

“
Hi,” he said, surprised at how
clipped his voice sounded in his ears. “Where’s Ella?”

“
She went out to buy something quick. Shouldn’t be much
longer.” Pauline barely gave him eye contact. “Anything I can help
you with?”

“
I wanted to show Ella what I’d come up with for the
website.”

“
You finished it already?”

Pain crossed
her face. He should feel more compassion. Pauline was a sweet
person, but…she wasn’t Ella.

“
Yip, been working late. Thought Ella needed it in a hurry,” he
lied. Didn’t want to totally destroy her sense of self. “Look,
Pauline…”

“
You’re here. Thanks for coming on a Sunday, Ross.”

Ella spoke from behind him in
her usual upbeat, clear voice. He turned to her and his
breath
caught. What was it about Ella that as soon as she entered
a room, his whole world came alive? Colours became brighter and her
voice brought joy and a sense of ease to his being. He longed to
watch her every expression, every response. Crazy he still loved
her after the way she’d treated him. Love had no prejudice, so it
seemed. First time he’d actually really been in love. He chanced a
glance at Pauline and the hurt had tripled in her eyes. Had she
picked up his response to Ella’s presence?

“
I’ve got the website done and dusted.”

“
Really, so quick? I thought it
was a mammoth task.”
Ella began to unpack a grocery bag full of
stationery.

“
I worked hard on it, but no
worries, it was fun.” Another lie. Well, not quite. He liked the
sense of achievement of a job well done. Well, he hoped it was to
her requirements.

“
Pauline, do you want to check it
out for me?” Ella said, turning away, a stiffness in her shoulders.
“I have to contact some clients.”

What was her
problem? Sudden change in mood?

“
Sure.” Pauline moved slowly up
to him and sat down by ‘their’ computer. “Do you have a flash
drive?”

He nodded and
pressed on the power button of the computer. Once it had booted up,
he slotted in the flash drive, all the time aware of Ella’s back to
them while she ruffled in one of her cupboards.

Was she jealous? It suddenly
occurred to him. Ella felt jealous of Pauline and him? Despite the
fact that she orchestrated it. Silly girl. He clamped his hand over
his mouth to hide the big grin that came at the thought. He could
play along with it. Be friendly with Pauline
—no, not flirtatious, that would be
cruel, but he could stop being so indifferent and rather cold
towards Ella’s friend. He’d make it clear to Pauline later on that
he had no intentions for her.

“
How was your day yesterday?” he said in his kindest voice to
the woman next to him.

She gave a little gasp and then
straightened herself. “Good. I took a drive down to the beach with
my mum. She needed to get out for a while.” Pauline looked at Ella
who didn’t even turn around. “And I cooked a fancy supper for
her.”

“
Sounds good. The weather was perfect for the beach
yesterday—not too stuffy but sunny and bright.”

Pauline nodded
at him, a small amount of shock and awkwardness evident in her
stance. “This computer takes a while to boot up.”

Ella turned to grab some papers from on
top of her desk and gave them a quick glance.

Ross quickly averted his gaze
and placed it firmly onto Pauline, adding on a pleasant smile. “I
could have done with a break yesterday
, too. Been too busy doing up my
house.”

“
Really?” Pauline didn’t even look at him but continued to
stare at the computer screen while it went through the loading
process.

“
Yes, it’s a pain in the butt. I’ve painted the outside of the
house and the outside window frames, but still have to fix some
plumbing problems and paint all the rooms.”

Ella brushed past them hurriedly and
closed the door a little too loud behind her for comfort—not
exactly a slam, but not a comfortable click, either. He let out a
breath. Phew, that was tense.

“
Painting isn’t fun,” Pauline
said, her eyes a tiny bit brighter than they had been. “I helped my
mother paint her lounge a few years back and I hated every
minute.”

“
Yes, it’s soul-destroying. Never seems to end, what with the
sanding down of the old paint, washing the walls, then all the
coats, and lastly waiting for it to dry.”

“
I hate having newspaper all over the floors and that smell. It
makes me want to cough.”

“
Not to mention having to move all the furniture out the room
and finding another spot to store it.”

“
So, you’re going to do all of your own painting
then?”

Pauline hadn’t
warmed up totally yet but he could feel some of the tension between
them easing. Maybe being friendly made life a lot easier on many
fronts.

“
I’m afraid so. I can’t afford to
hire anyone at the moment. There’s just so much that needs fixing
that I—”

Ella opened
the door quite loudly again and stood over them. “So, let me see
this website.”

So much for
her suggestion that Pauline look at it.

“
As busy as I
am,
” she
continued, “I do need to make sure you’ve done it right.” She
winked at him, disarming all his plans to focus on
Pauline.

He opened it
up and typed in the links. “Here it is.”

With detail, he explained
everything he’d added—the tags, the forms, the pages, clicking on
each one and navigating around the site with ease. Ella hovered
ridiculously close to his back and bent down with her face inches
from his. Heat rippled through him and he
pressed his thighs together to hide
his body’s response to her nearness.

“
Is it what you expected? Better? Worse?”

“
It’s great.” Her voice softened. “Just perfect.” She stood up
straight again, showing her sweet form in the tight-fitting blue
blouse she wore in a soft, cottony fabric. “Thanks so
much.”

“
You’ve decided not to put a
contact form?” Pauline asked him.

“
Oh, that. I wanted to ask you
about that, Ella.”

“
Let me pull up a chair, then.”
She fetched the chair from behind her desk and placed herself
closer to him than Pauline. At the sudden realisation that she’d
started to take an interest in him as more than a friend, all his
sexual feelings for Ella ballooned inside of him. Oh, heck, if only
Pauline could go away. But that would probably chase Ella away,
too.

“
What questions do you have?” Ella asked.

He fired away
and within twenty painful minutes, they’d put up a contact
form.

“
Let me work on it to make it live. You all ready? You may be
inundated with responses straight away.” He grinned.

“
I doubt it. It’s been rather
quiet lately.” She sighed and gazed at him, her pupils large and
her soft, beautiful skin crying to be touched, her small lips ready
to be tasted again. She looked at Pauline. “I don’t know what to do
about my one male client. Sorry, I suppose it’s confidential, Ross,
and I shouldn’t tell you about my clients, although you’re
basically an employee, anyway.” Her face turned a pretty pink.
“It’s weird thinking I’m your boss, in a way.”

She gave him an awkward look
like she felt guilty bossing him around. Right now, he could take
her waist between his hands and squeeze her tight, run his hands up
along those slender sides and bring
his palms to rest upon her silken cheeks,
then—

“
Well, I’m getting side-tracked. But I’m not going to talk
about anything he’s shared with me. Just that…well…he won’t match
with anyone. I’ve tried him with twenty women.”

Ross blinked
and tried to focus on what she said.

“
Maybe
he
has the problem,” Pauline said, breaking
the cloud of desire.

For a moment,
he’d forgotten she was in the room.

Ella pulled
away and moved her chair behind her desk. His surroundings came
into focus again. He tried to calm his rapid heartbeat and focused
on the screen instead of her.

“
Do you think that’s possible?” Ella sounded
distraught.

“
Why not?” Pauline said. “Look at Roan. Do you really think
he’ll ever have a successful relationship if he can’t stick to one
woman for long? As cute as he is.” She looked at Ross and gave a
high laugh. “Excuse the girl talk.”

“
Well, this guy doesn’t
particular have celebrity looks. He’s pretty plain. Surely, he has
some redeeming qualities. I mean, I thought everyone had someone
right for them somewhere in the world. If not one, a handful or
maybe a hundred. If you study the personality types, you see that
certain personalities complement others. You just have to
find—”

“
Maybe some people aren’t willing
to make the extra effort of making it work,” Ross said. “I can
think of a couple of people I know at work who have no desire to
make other people feel comfortable or to get on with them—for them,
it’s about making the money and they will push other people out the
way in the process. Sad, but true.”

Ella shrugged and didn’t look at
him. He must have hit a painful spot with his comments. She’d
always been an idealist, believing in perfection, that dreams
should come true for everyone in life. Pity, some people sabotaged
their own futures. And those of others. She needed to learn that.
Maybe
The
Album
would
show her.

“
Well, it doesn’t help my current situation. I can’t exactly
say to him, ‘Um, look, mister, I haven’t found a single suitable
candidate for you. Please take your business
elsewhere.’”

“
Why not?” Ross shrugged.

“
What? Are you nuts? One disgruntled customer can cause a whole
ripple-effect of people not willing to try me out. And I’m not
about to pair him with a woman who I know is going to get hurt in
the end.”

“
You’ve got a point there,”
Pauline said.

That’s what he loved about Ella.
As enthusiastic and quite reckless as she could be sometimes with
her words, she was very cautious in her decisions and never liked
to hurt other people or mess them around. That’s why, initially,
her matchmaking business had seemed wrong in so many ways. Until
he’d watched
The Album
play out its magic time and time again.

“
I respect that you don’t want to hurt him but maybe you need
to be straight with the guy. There really isn’t a suitable woman
for him on file and he must wait. Perhaps he’ll appreciate your
honesty.”

Ella nodded.
“I suppose. It’s better than matching him with some poor
unsuspecting woman who’ll get hurt along the line. I’m hopeful that
one day, I’ll find the right girl for him. Maybe I’m just like
him—that’s why I’ve never found anyone.”

She looked down at her papers
and Ross wanted to shout. He hated when she got like that. He was
right for her. Wish she’d see it. Oh
, but maybe he just wasn’t perfect enough
for her idealistic notions.

“
What about Dirk?” Pauline asked and turned to look at
Ross.

He didn’t
return the gaze but instead
studied Ella to see if this Dirk guy was anything to be concerned
about.

“
I don’t know.” Ella kept her
head down. “He’s nice. Maybe he’s the one.” Enthusiasm certainly
didn’t drip from her tone this time. “Look, guys, I have to do some
work now. I’m going to the living room. Can only work in silence,
as much as I like your company and that.”

“
Sure.”

Pauline seemed okay with Ella
leaving the room. He
wasn’t. He wished she would stay and tell him more about
this Dirk. Or just stay so he could look at her or hear her
voice.

Why had he
decided to help her with her business? She only tortured him. And
making her jealous hadn’t really worked. Maybe he’d imagined the
jealousy—his desperation had made him see things that weren’t
there.

He went back
to fixing up the last few tweaks of the website while Pauline
busied herself with a sketch for a logo or something. Within half
an hour, he was ready to leave. He stood up and Pauline spoke.

“
Where’re you going?”

“
I’m going to head on home now.”

“
Thanks for your help.” She
seemed more relaxed with him now.

“
Sure. Any time. Are you going to continue to help
Ella?”