Flirting With Magick (19 page)

“All over,” Pippa answered. “She’s been planning it for the last
year. She’s starting out in Asia then moving on to Africa, Europe, and
America before coming home. Oh, hello.”

Sean had stuck his head in the doorway. “Pipsy, Absy. How’s it all going?”

“I only just got here,” I replied, cringing at my new nickname as Pippa winced at hers.

“Just wanted to let you know I can’t make it to lunch today.” He
directed his gaze at me and ignored Pippa’s curious stare as he leaned
against the door jamb. “Fucking dickhead from Lennon’s cancelled
Friday and shifted our meeting to today. How about tomorrow?”

“
Yeah, that’s cool,” I replied casually, opening my diary and scribbling
out that day’s entry and rewriting it for the next.

“Great! Love to stay and chat, but I’ve got shitloads of work to do.
I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Well, that works out well, because Laura and I were going to ask
you to lunch to welcome you to the team today,” Pippa said after Sea
n left. She narrowed her eyes. “So are you and he...?”

“No,” I stated firmly. “I knew you were going to ask. But no, we're not.”

“Well, that’s good. I was going to say you seem to have the monopoly
on the cute men at the moment.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, there was that gorgeous rock star guy at the pub who obviously
has a thing for you. They were fabulous the other night by the way,
and now Sean, whom we all know isn’t exactly hard on the eyes. An
d now Rachel tells me your ex wants you back."

“Oh, God.” I said, sighing and pulling at my hair in frustration.
“
Okay, to get it all out in the open, I’m no longer seeing Scott, not that
we were really dating anyway. Sean is just a workmate, and at this
stage, I have no plans to get back with my ex. So it’s actually all prett
y
boring really.” I made a mental note to not leave Rachel alone with
Dianne and Kate ever again.

“Okay then.” She turned back to her file.

“And he’s not a rock star yet, anyway. And he hasn’t got a thing for
me
,” I continued, facepalming.
I really should learn to shut up sometimes.

“Whatever.” Pippa, now bored, concentrated on the figures in the
file in front of her and made some corrections before bringing it to me
. “
So,” she slapped it down in front of me. “Here are all the debtors. Your
new job for today is to call them and find out where their money is.”

After an hour, I was still having no luck with even a “cheque is in
the mail’ lie from any of the debtors. Each time, the appropriate person
to speak to was on the phone, away, or otherwise unavailable to talk.

“Are they usually this hard to get a hold of?” I asked Pippa.

“Yep,” she answered without looking up.

“No wonder you’re handing this job over to me. Don’t worry, I’ll make
it my goal to have as much in as I can before I hand it back,” I promised.

“
Good stuff!” Laura appeared in the door, looking relaxed, as thoug
h her holiday had already started. “Sounds like everything is perfectly under control! Are you ladies ready for lunch?”

***

I didn’t realise how hungry I was until I smelt the cheesy aroma
of the chicken parmigiana placed in front of me at the pub. I picked u
p a bunch of chips and shoved them into my mouth.

“Ooh, Abby.“ Pippa waved her finger at me. “Maybe you should
be careful with what you eat before your big lunch date with Sean
tomorrow.” She smirked at me as Laura dropped her bag in surprise. I was beginning to understand what Rachel was talking about when it came to Pippa's bitchiness.

“Lunch date?” Laura picked up her bag again and replaced the folder
of travel documents she was going through. “With Sean?” She smiled
at me questioningly.

I glared at Pippa. “It’s nothing that exciting,” I explained to Laura
, irritated at having to explain at all.

“He’s a lovely guy.” Laura winked. “And very attractive. I shoul
d hope it gets exciting by the time I get back.”

I rolled my eyes and concentrated on my meal. Sean was lovely. An
d attractive. I thought of how I was almost certain he was going to ask
me out, and how I wasn’t entirely sure if I wanted him to
—
then the
slight disappointment when he didn’t. Where did that come from? I felt my heart drop lower in my chest when I thought of what he did
say; that he had seen Scott with someone else. I quickly pushed the
thought out of my head. It wasn't supposed to bother me now.

***

Sean arrived punctually at the accounts room the following day to
take me to lunch. To my surprise, rather than the local pub as I had
expected, he parked in front of a restaurant famous for its snobby
waiters and exorbitant prices, which were directly proportional to its minuscule servings.

“Is this where we’re going?” I asked, bewildered, as we got out
of the car.

“My shout,” he confirmed, holding the glass door open for me.

“Gosh, this is nice.” I looked around as we were seated at a table
by the wall, and the waiter (who incidentally wasn’t particularly rude
or snotty at all) poured water into our glasses and placed the serviettes
on our laps. “When you said we would go out to lunch, I was kind of
expecting just the usual pub meal,” I confessed. “I’ve never been here.”
I tried not to appear too awestruck as I took in the abundance of white and gold. The lunchtime crowd appeared to be mainly sophisticated suits, perhaps carrying out and winning business deals through the subconscious bribery of a high priced lunch.

“How do you like Accounts?” He sipped his beer and leaned back.

“Fine,” I replied, gazing at his deep blue eyes and observing that he
was looking at me in a way I hadn’t noticed before. We always had fun
together at work, but today he was taking on a more serious demeanour.

“How’s Pippa? Is she making you feel welcome?”

“She’s okay. What is it with her? Rachel warned me about her when
I started, but I haven’t really noticed anything to worry about.” I paused
before continuing. “Although she did make a snide remark about us having lunch today.”

 “She’s nice, but she can say things to cause trouble sometimes,” he explained. “She’s probably just bored while Carl’s away.”

“Yeah. It’s not like I’m going to divulge any deep, dark secrets to her.“

“Maybe not.“ He laughed, the Sean I knew at work was gradually
returning. “She doesn’t mind a bit of gossip. Don’t be surprised if the whole office has us married off when we get back, but don't worry, everyone knows what she's like.”

"Good to know." We carried on our lunch with our usual banter. I also found my huge pasta dish contrary to the rumours.

“I can’t eat any more.” I groaned, pushing the plate away and
rubbing my stomach.

“Wuss,” he teased. “You left a prawn.” He stabbed it with his fork,
quickly eating it before I could object, then pushed the remaining penn
e around my plate in search of more. He licked his lips in mock ecstasy and offered me his rather empty plate of chicken risotto.

"You idiot!" I giggled unashamedly, enjoying the familiarity we
had acquired.

***

Back in the car, headed towards work, Sean’s subdued behaviour
returned, and he seemed deep in thought. At a slow set of traffic lights
, I
opened my mouth to ask what was wrong when something, or rath
er
someone, caught my eye, and my heart jumped into my throat. Josh was
walking along the shopping strip with a guy I recognised from his old job—Mick, I was sure his name was. Josh’s light brown hair was
slightly longer than I remembered, and my chest surprisingly ached wit
h
a strange longing as I gazed at his fit, broad-shouldered frame gesturing
at a table outside a trendy café. As I wasn’t sure whether Josh was
working, I assumed he could be trying to get his old job back. I watched
Mick's blonde head shake with laughter as he flirted with a waitress;
Josh merely looked bored as the waitress turned her attention to him
. I
was thankful that he didn’t have a euphoric look about him, as thoug
h he had received a phone call from someone like, say, Jemma. Maybe
she didn’t call. Or maybe she did, and he wasn’t interested. The ligh
ts
changed, and Sean drove off, oblivious to what I had just seen. A knot
formed in my stomach as I realised the very reason I'd been avoiding
any face to face contact with Josh; his hold on me had not waned as I had
hoped, and a part of me still cared for him. I guessed some of it
was due to lack of closure
—
it all happened so suddenly. I inadvertently
let
out a despondent sigh as Sean rolled into the carpark below our office.

“Are you alright?” He
spoke
for the first time since we left the restaurant.

“I was going to ask you the same thing. You’ve been very quiet.”

“Just work stuff,” he revealed, pulling to a stop in his usual spot. He kept his eyes downcast, in thought once more. I reached towards
the door handle. “Actually, Abby...” He placed his hand on mine to slow
my exit. “There’s something I was thinking about.” He gazed intently
into my eyes and leaned towards me slowly. I sat motionless as he brushed
my cheek softly with his thumb and placed a tender kiss on my lips.

I forced Josh's image away, refused to let Scott’s enter, and closed
my eyes, enjoying the moment, allowing my burgeoning attraction towards
Sean to dictate my response to the feel of his soft, warm lips and the light tickle of his stubble against my chin. I couldn’t think of a thing to say when we broke apart, and I opened my eyes.

“
So...” Red-faced, he moved away from me and bashfully fiddle
d
with the buttons on the dashboard “Are you doing anything Friday night?”

“RACHEL WILL BE HAPPY
about this.” I sat back in Sean’s dark
leather couch, careful not to spill my glass of wine as we wound down
from the week on Friday evening. “Did you know she’s been trying to set us up since I started at Avalon?”

“I had a feeling that was what was going on when she first tried to
get me to the pub.” Sean took a sip of his drink and resumed chopping
chicken. He had changed out of his work clothes into a casual T-shirt and jeans. The fitness of his body was more evident when out of his
formal shirt and tie, and watching him in the comfort of his executi
ve apartment, he had a cool, relaxed air about him. His cocky salesman
pretentiousness was missing, which made him sexier than usual. Sean’s n
eat, expensively furnished, one bedroom apartment on the eleventh
floor of a secured, inner city block, was the complete opposite of Sc
ott and Luke’s cluttered, seventies-built bungalow.

When he first opened the door, I had felt somewhat overdressed
in my strappy silver heels and cleavage enhancing cami top, which I had
underhandedly brought to the accounting course and secretly changed
into in my car, letting my hair loose before I drove to Sean’s. The lacy
pink silk under my jacket felt exquisite against my bare skin, as opposed
to the stiff collared cream shirt I had been wearing earlier.

“Why don’t you wear tops like that to work?” were the first word
s out of his mouth.

“And give Ray a heart attack?” I answered before he kissed me softly
. I found myself again enjoying his lips on mine, although admittedly still more out of politeness than passion.

“God, I’ve been waiting to do that all day.” He led me inside and offered me a drink. "I got that wine you said you like."

I watched him add some herbs to the chicken before placing it in
the oven and wondered why on earth it was taking me so long to lo
ok
at him as more than a colleague. The kissing was lovely, but there wa
s something missing. Maybe I was still a bit hung up on Scott. I didn’t think it had helped seeing Josh the other day, either. “Can I help you
with anything?” I got up, allowing the silver heels their full advantage
under the charcoal trousers and especially loving the extra height they
gave me as I stood next to him in the kitchen.

“Nope. All done,” he answered, leading me by the hand back to the
couch. “Sit. So how did the course go? Did you wear this?” He fingered
the lacework along the collar of my top, lightly tickling my collarbone
.

“No.” I laughed, swatting his hand away playfully. “It was alright
.
Just learning an accounting program. Got me out of the office at least.”

“I missed you,” he said soberly.

“You did not!” I teased back.

“Nah, you’re right. Stupid tender document was doing my head in
. Actually, it was probably a good thing you weren’t there. Pippa kept
dropping hints about you to me whenever anyone else was in earshot
.
Poor Rachel looked as though she would fall off her chair. I'm glad
the bosses are both away.” He placed his hand meaningfully on my knee. “You don’t mind keeping this quiet for now, do you?”