Minding Frankie - Maeve Binchy [31]
His mother lived abroad, his father lived in the country and his sister lived in London. He spoke well of everyone and badly of no one. She mustn’t ask him about Kevin’s niece. She must hassle him about nothing. She knew that he was totally right—this place was going to be a huge success and she wanted to be part of it and in at the very start.
She gave a sigh of pure pleasure.
“It’s good, that wine, isn’t it?” he said.
It might as well have been turpentine. She couldn’t taste it. But she mustn’t let him know at this early stage that she was sighing with pleasure at the thought of a future with him.
It would be lovely to have someone to tell—someone who would listen and ask, What did you do then? What did he say to that? But Lisa had few close friends.
She couldn’t tell anyone at work, that was for sure. When she left Kevin’s studio she wanted no one to suspect why. Kevin might become difficult and say she had met Anton on his time and that he had stood them the glasses of champagne that had clinched the deal.
Once or twice he had asked her if “Anton pretty boy” had got any further along the line in his decision-making. Lisa shrugged. It was impossible to know, she had said vaguely. You couldn’t rush people.
Kevin agreed. “Just so long as he’s not getting anything for free,” he warned several times.
“Free? You must be joking!” Lisa said, outraged at the very idea.
Kevin would have been astonished had he known just how long Lisa had spent with Anton and how many drawings she had shown him to establish a logo for his new venture. At that moment she had concentrated on the colors of the French flag, and the A of Anton was a big curly, showy letter. It could not be mistaken for anything else. She had done drawings and projections, shown him how this image would appear on a restaurant sign, on business cards, menus, table napkins and even china.
She had spent every single evening with Anton—sometimes sitting on the packing cases, sometimes in small restaurants around Dublin, where he was busy seeing what worked and what didn’t. One night, he did a shift at Quentins to help them out and invited Lisa to have a meal there at a staff discount. She sat proudly, looking out from her booth, grateful that she had met this man who was now quite simply the center of her whole life. Then and there she had definitely decided to leave Kevin’s office and set up business on her own.
She would shortly leave the cold, friendless home where she lived now, but would wait until Anton suggested that she move in with him. He would ask her soon.
The whole business had been brought up for discussion. As early as their fifth date he had made the first move.
“It’s a great pity to go back alone to my narrow bed …,” he had said, his voice full of meaning as he ran his hands through her long hair.
“I know, but what are the alternatives?” Lisa had asked playfully.
“I suppose you could invite me home to your narrow bed?” he offered as a solution.
“Ah, but I live with my parents, you see. That kind of thing couldn’t happen,” she said.
“Unless you were to get your own place, of course,” he grumbled.
“Or we were to explore your place?” Lisa said.
But he didn’t go down that road. Yet.
When he brought the matter up again it was in connection with a hotel. A place thirty miles from Dublin where they might have dinner, steal some ideas for the new restaurant and stay the night.
Lisa saw nothing wrong with this plan, and it all worked out perfectly. As she lay in Anton’s arms she knew she was the luckiest girl in the whole world. Soon she was going to be living and working with the man she loved. Wasn’t this what every woman in the world wanted?
And it was going to happen to her, Lisa Kelly.
“I always knew you would fly the coop one day,” Kevin said. “And you have been restless for the last couple of weeks. I guessed you were planning something.”
“I was very happy here,” Lisa said.
“Of course you were. You’re very good. You’ll be good anywhere. Have you decided where to go yet?”
“On my own,” Lisa said simply.
“Not a good idea in this