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think
about Tony. Or sex. But it’s funny how you miss things once they’re gone.
Although she wasn’t sure which she missed more right now: her husband or sex.
    She
wondered how old Josh was. Etienne was thirty and they were friends but Josh
looked older than that. She would have said around the forty mark. Was he
single? Had his niece, Joanna mentioned that? She couldn’t remember. Hmm, she
thought, perhaps I’ll enjoy working here more than I expected.
    Working
here! Josh had found her in bed at eleven o’clock in the morning – and he
clearly wasn’t happy about it. Was she about to lose another job? This time it
would be her fault she realised, suddenly remembering what she’d said to him.
    She
wasn’t sure what to do. She needed a shower but should she just throw on some
clothes and face the music? She could have a shower later – if he didn’t send
her packing. Perhaps he’d just give her a warning.
    She
dashed into the bathroom and almost died when she saw her reflection. Tufts of
hair were sticking out at odd angles and her mascara was smudged. She looked
like a cartoon burglar ... with jaundice ... and she’d have to pay excess
baggage on the bags under her eyes. What must he have thought?
    Her
stomach made unpleasant gurgling sounds and she could feel the bile rising in
her throat. She stumbled back into the bedroom and searched through her
handbag. Where were those tablets? Why hadn’t she listened to her mother and
Lucy and bought herself a smaller bag? Taking several deep breaths, she waited
until the queasiness passed.
    A
few minutes later, feeling slightly better, she returned to the bathroom and
washed her face, brushed her hair and tidied her make-up. She threw on a pair
of jeans and a sweater, slipped on a pair of shoes and mustered all her courage
to face Josh. She made her way into the sitting room via the kitchen and dining
room, just as Lucy entered from the hall.
    ‘Hi
Mum. You’re feeling better I see. Is that Etienne’s car outside? It’s–’
    ‘It’s
mine,’ Josh interrupted, getting to his feet. He and Etienne had been sitting
by the fire.
    ‘Oh!’
Lucy said, clearly surprised. ‘And you are ...?’
    He
shot a look at Verity. ‘A bit of a miserable git, according to your mother.’
    Verity
wanted the earth to open up and swallow her. Yep, she’d definitely lost her
job. She met Lucy’s bewildered look with a wry smile.
    ‘This
is Mr Calder, darling. We ... we had a bit of a misunderstanding.’
    ‘To
say the least,’ Josh said.
    His
eyes raked over Verity’s body as if she were still wearing just her T-shirt –
or even less, and she could feel her temper rising again.
    ‘Well
perhaps if you’d introduced yourself instead of just barging into my bedroom,
sorry, your bedroom, things might have been different. I thought you
were abroad and I wasn’t expecting you for another few days. If I’d known you
were going to travel overnight so that you could check up on us today, I
wouldn’t have gone out last night, obviously.’
    Josh
looked as if she’d just slapped his face. ‘Check up on you! I did no such
thing. Although clearly someone needs to. I just came to say hello and to
welcome you on board but I didn’t expect to find you in bed! Are you trying to
say that this was my fault in some way? I wasn’t the one pouring ... toffee
vodka down your throat last night.’
    ‘I
didn’t say you were!’
    ‘So
surely it’s your fault, not mine? You got drunk with absolutely no assistance
from me.’
    ‘Well,
you wouldn’t have been much help anyway. You couldn’t even manage to close the
curtains or pass me my handbag this morning.’
    ‘Forgive
me! But I was under the misguided impression that you worked for me ,
not the other way around.’
    Verity
was seething. ‘And I was under the misguided impression that you would be a gentleman, not some lech who couldn’t take his eyes off my body!’
    Josh
glowered at her. ‘Well you shouldn’t have flaunted it