The Mysterious Miss Mayhew by Hazel Osmond

Author:Hazel Osmond [Osmond, Hazel]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9781780873725
Google: CFZzAwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00IS05LHG
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2014-08-27T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 32

If Tom had been acting in a film about a magazine, the day when it got put to bed would have been depicted as a dramatic race against time. And as he and Liz finally solved a terrible last-minute hitch, an office-wide cheer would have greeted the file winging its way to the printer.

In reality, most of the last-minute problems usually got sorted out during the marathon session the night before, where everyone worked late and ate takeaways. It was only Tom, Liz and Felix, just before lunch, giving the magazine the traditional last once-over. They rarely found anything wrong – although, famously, Liz had once picked up a typo – ‘Mr Rossiter, a keen strumpet player …’

Today there were no such hiccups. July’s magazine was sent off without any fanfare and now, as far as the writers and creative staff were concerned, it was August’s edition that they were thinking about.

Thinking about, but perhaps not acting on – after working flat out the day before, there was a tradition of having a very long lunch and then sloping off early and Tom tended to turn a blind eye to it.

He wasn’t turning a blind eye to Fran though, and when he saw her get up and with her bag swinging from one hand leave the office, he waited a few minutes and went out too. He ‘bumped’ into her in the market square. Was she going home? No, just for lunch.

Well, in that case, could she spare an hour, just to discuss what the likelihood of her doing some more work for them would be? Possibly over a drink and a spot of food?

In the pub garden, they sat in the shade and discussed some of Felix’s ideas and she said they were interesting, but could she wait until after the weekend before she made a decision?

Tom wished she would take off her sunglasses, because they hid too much of her face. He had to settle for guessing what expression there was in her eyes as he watched her talk and drink and eat, and as he did, he felt sad that they couldn’t be doing this as a couple. That he couldn’t just lean across, whisper in her ear and then they would get up and leave and end up in a bed somewhere.

‘Can I ask you a question?’ Fran suddenly said and did take off her sunglasses. There was a sideways glance at him that stirred up even more thoughts of being in a bedroom with her, tangled up in each other and the bedding.

‘Only if I can ask you some too. Afterwards.’ He knew he’d used his flirting voice, although when it had last had an outing he couldn’t remember.

‘Didn’t you ask me enough at my interview?’ She grinned. ‘Almost as many as Hattie asked when I was babysitting.’

‘Ah, but she’s an expert, I’m just an amateur. And it wasn’t an interview.’

Fran was still grinning, so he grinned back and it felt to him like some kind of connection had been made.

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