Sushi for Beginners - Marian Keyes [126]
Lisa suddenly going into overdrive meant that by Thursday everyone was on a very short fuse. Lisa was quarrelling with Mrs Morley when Jack, looking distraught, catapulted from his office.
‘Mrs Morley, would you mind booking somewhere for me for lunch today? Two people.’
‘The usual?’ Whenever any of the number-crunchers came over from London, Jack reluctantly escorted them for rare steaks and blood-red wine in an oak-panelled, leather-lined club.
‘Christ, no! Somewhere nice, somewhere a woman would like.’ He seemed charmingly helpless. Bashfully he admitted, ‘Apparently it’s my six-month anniversary with Mai.’
Lisa couldn’t hide her dismay. Why was he being nice to Mai? Why hadn’t they had a fight when Mai had called into the office earlier in the week? With chilling dread she realized that a pattern might be developing, and the buoyant confidence that she’d cruised on since sleeping with Wayne evaporated without trace.
‘Thank God I remembered the anniversary!’ Jack grinned.
‘How did you manage to?’ Mrs Morley asked.
‘Actually, she as good as told me,’ Jack said vaguely. ‘Hey, what was that place you took me to, Lisa? She’d probably like it there.’
‘Halo,’ Lisa said, but her voice was so strangled that Jack said, ‘Sorry? Say again.’
‘Halo,’ she repeated, only marginally louder.
‘That’s right!’ Jack was cheerful. ‘Full of tossers! Tricksy food at outrageous prices, she’ll love it. If you give me the number I’ll book it.’
‘You will not.’ Mrs Morley became more bulldog-like than ever. ‘That’s my job.’
Physically trembling with anger, Lisa left, praying that it was too short notice to get a table.
Half an hour later Mai arrived, looking like Asian Barbie. When Lisa saw her, her anger slumped into hopeless depression.
‘Nice suit,’ Trix sucked up to Mai.
‘Thank you.’
‘Dunnes?’
‘Er, yeah.’
Mai had assumed a distance that she Hadn’t had the day of the champagne drinking. Somehow Jack’s recent devotion had changed things. She was gracious, pleasant, but very definitely their boss’s girlfriend.
Mrs Morley gave Mai the nod and she swayed her non-existent hips into Jack’s office. The door shut firmly behind her and the entire office ceased operations, their ears stretched off the sides of their heads as they hoped, longed, yearned for a row. But seconds later Jack and Mai emerged, smugly holding hands. Watched by a hungry-eyed throng they made their Brady-Bunch way to the exit, and then they were gone. Even after it was clear that nothing was going to happen, silence reigned.
‘I liked it better the other way,’ Trix observed forlornly, articulating everyone’s thoughts.
Lisa, about to leave for her love-bombing lunch with Marcus Valentine, tried to swallow away jealousy, hurt – and confusion. She hadn’t imagined Jack’s interest in her, she was sure of it. So what was he at? She couldn’t understand it. One minute it was non-stop shouting matches with Mai, the next it was lovey-dovey heaven. Why? Why? The fruitless, unanswerable thoughts circled in her head all the way to Mao.
A mere ten minutes late, Marcus arrived. Tall, good body, but… ugh, no! How could Ashling? Lisa plastered on a welcoming smile but found it uncharacteristically hard to dredge up her usual excess of charm.
‘Lunch, right?’ Marcus said almost aggressively as he swung into the seat opposite her. ‘What I mean is, let’s enjoy our food without you going on at me about doing the column.’
‘Yeah.’ Lisa managed a speedy upturn of her lips, but her spirits were suddenly dragging across the ocean floor. This job could be terribly humiliating. You had to be disgustingly pushy and have skin as thick as a rhino’s hide.
All at once she didn’t care if he didn’t do the column.