Charlotte Phillips – The Plus-One Agreement (страница 8)

‘But I really wanted you to be there, to meet my family.’

‘Sorry, honey, no can do.’

Alistair turned to the waiter to order a drink. She noticed that Dan was looking at her with sympathy and she looked away. Everything was unravelling and it was a million times worse because he was here to witness it. She tried to muster up an attitude that might smother the churning disappointment in her stomach as her high hopes plummeted.

From the moment she’d met Alistair he had made her feel special, as if nothing was too much trouble for him. But it occurred to her that it had only related to peripheral things, like flowers and restaurants and which hotel they might stay in. Now it had come down to something that was truly important to her he hadn’t delivered the goods. It wasn’t even up for discussion. Because it clashed with his own plans.

Disappointment mingled hideously with exasperated disbelief. She felt like crashing her head down despairingly on the table. Would she ever, at any point in her life, meet someone who might actually put her first on their agenda? Or was this her lot? To make her way through life as some lower down priority?

‘Look, I don’t want to interfere,’ Dan said suddenly, leaning forward. ‘But how about I step in?’

* * *

‘What do you mean, step in?’ she asked, eyes narrowed.

Suspicion. Not a good sign, Dan thought. On the other hand Alistair was looking more than open to the suggestion.

Dispensing with Alistair to some swanky party on a different continent was far too good an opportunity to pass up. All he needed to do was step into Alistair’s shoes as Emma’s date and he’d have a whole weekend to make her rethink her actions and to get the situation working for him again.

‘I got my invitation to the wedding this morning,’ he said, thinking of the gaudy card that had arrived in the post, with ‘Groom & Groom!’ plastered across the front in bright yellow, very much in keeping with Adam’s usual in-your-face style.

‘You’ve been invited?’ she asked with obvious surprise, as if their interaction had been so fake that all the connections he’d made with her family were counterfeit, too. But he genuinely liked Adam—they’d always had a laugh.

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘So if Alistair is away working I can fill in if you like—escort you. It’s not as if I haven’t done it before. What do you think?’

She stared at him.

‘For old times’ sake?’ he pressed. ‘I’m sure Alistair won’t mind.’

He glanced at the ex-cyclist, who held his hands up.

‘Great idea!’ he said. ‘Problem solved.’

Emma’s face was inscrutable.

‘That won’t be necessary,’ she snapped. ‘And actually, Dan, if you don’t mind, we could do with a bit of time to talk this over.’

She looked at him expectantly and when he didn’t move raised impatient eyebrows and nodded her head imperceptibly towards the door.

All was no longer peachy with her and Mr Perfect and that meant opportunity. He should be ecstatic. All he needed to do was leave them be and let the idiot drive a wedge between them, because one thing he knew about Emma was that her parents might drive her up the pole but Adam meant the world to her. Yet his triumph was somehow diluted by a surge of protectiveness towards Emma at Alistair’s easy dismissal of her. He had to force himself not to give the smug idiot a piece of his mind.

He made himself stand up and excused himself from the table.

Give the guy enough leeway and he would alienate Emma all by himself. Dan could call her up later in the role of concerned friend and reinstate their agreement on his own terms.

* * *

Bumped to make room for Alistair’s career?

Her mind insisted on recycling Adam’s comments from the day before. ‘Don’t you think he ought to prove himself before you take that kind of plunge?’ Was it really so much to ask?

The insistent ‘case closed’ way Alistair had refused her suggestion told her far more about him than just his words alone, and it occurred to her in a crushing blow of clarity. How had she ever thought she would come first with someone who had an ego the size of Alistair’s? An ego which was still growing, by the sound of it, if he was trying to break into the movies.

The waiter brought their food and she watched as Alistair tucked in with gusto to an enormous steak and side salad, oblivious to the fact that there was anything wrong between them. He’d got his own way. For him it was business as usual. His whole attitude now irked her. It was as if she should be somehow grateful for being invited along for the ride. She’d been too busy being swept away by the excitement of someone like him actually taking an interest in her to comprehend that being with him would mean giving up her life in favour of his. Where the hell did she come first in all of that?

It dawned on her that he’d have a lot of contractual issues coming his way with his broadening career. Was that what made her attractive to him? The way she dealt so efficiently with legal red tape on his behalf? Had he earmarked her as his own live-in source of legal advice?

This wasn’t a relationship; it was an agreement. All she’d done was swap one for another. She could be Dan’s platonic plus-one or Alistair’s live-in lawyer. Where the hell was the place for what she wanted in any of that?

‘It’s all off, Alistair,’ she said dully. It felt as if her voice was coming from somewhere else.

He peered at her hardly touched plate of food.

‘What is, honey? The fish?’

He looked around for a waiter while she marvelled at his self-assurance that her sentence couldn’t possibly relate to their relationship. Not in his universe. Alistair probably had a queue of women desperate to date him, all of them a zillion times more attractive than Emma. He had international travel, a beach home in Malibu, a little getaway in the Balearics, his own restaurant and a glittering media career in his corner. What the hell did she have that could compete with that? Interfering parents and a tiny flat in Putney? Why the hell would he think she might want to back out?

‘Us,’ she said. ‘You and me. It’s not going to work out.’

He gaped at her.

‘Is this because I won’t come to your gay brother’s wedding? Honey, have you any idea how much is riding on this new contract? This is the next stage of my career we’re talking about.’ He shook his head at her in a gesture of amazement. ‘The effort that’s gone into lining up this meeting. I’m not cancelling that so you can show me off to your relatives at some small-town pink wedding. And it’s not as if I’m stopping you going. That Neanderthal platonic pal of yours has said he’ll step up to the plate.’

She was vaguely aware of people staring with interest from the surrounding tables. His slight about Dan irked her. Neanderthal? Hardly. He looked like an Adonis, and he was smart, sharp and funny. She clenched her teeth defensively on his behalf.

‘I want you to come with me. I want you to meet my family.’

‘And I will, honey. When the time’s right.’

‘It’s a family wedding. Everyone who knows me will be in one place for the first time in years. When could the time possibly be more right than that?’

His face changed. Subtly but instantly. Like the turning of a switch. The easy, open look that had really taken her in when she’d first met him, the way he’d listened to her as if she mattered and showed her real, genuine interest, was gone. That look was now replaced by a sulky, petulant frown.

‘Because it’s all about you, of course,’ he said. ‘No regard for my career. You have to make these opportunities, Emma, and then follow them up. You don’t mess people like this about, because there are no second chances. I can’t believe you’re being so selfish.’

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