If You Could See Me Now (21 page)

Elizabeth’s mouth dropped open; she felt offended.

“Do you think,” he continued, ignoring her reaction, “that you could work with Poppy? You know, water down her ideas ...a lot?”

Elizabeth had been prepared once again for a stealth attack, but he was here to help her. She cleared her throat, which didn’t need clearing, and pulled at the end of her suit jacket, feeling awkward. Once she had composed herself, she spoke. “Well, I’m glad we’re on the same page here.” She signaled to Joe for another coffee and thought about fusing her natural colors with Poppy’s. Benjamin shook his head wildly to Joe’s offer of another coffee, still with a full untouched mug in front of him.

“You drink a lot of coffee,” Benjamin commented as Joe placed her third mug on the table before her.

“It helps me think,” she said, taking a sip.

There was a silence for a moment.

“OK, I’ve an idea.” Elizabeth snapped out of her trance.

“Wow, that worked fast.” Benjamin smiled.

“What?” Elizabeth frowned.

“I said it—”

“OK,” Elizabeth interrupted, not hearing him in her rush of ideas. “Let’s say Mr. Taylor is right and the legend lives on and people see this place as a place of love, bla dee bla.” She made a face, clearly not impressed by that belief. “So there’s a market there we need to cater to, which is where Poppy’s ideas will work, but we’ll keep it just to a minimum. Maybe a honeymoon suite and a snug thrown in here and there, the rest can be my designs,” she said happily. “With a bit more color,” she added with less enthusiasm.

Benjamin smiled when she’d
finished. “I’ll run it by Vincent. Look, when I said earlier about you pulling it off in the meeting, I didn’t mean you hadn’t the talent to back it up. I meant doing that whole
crazy
thing.” He circled his dirty
fingers beside his temples.

Elizabeth’s good mood vanished. “Excuse me?”

“You know.” Benjamin smiled broadly. “The whole I-see-dead-people thing.” He laughed.

Elizabeth stared at him blankly.

“You know, the
guy
at the table. The one you were talking to? Is this ringing any bells with you?”

“Ivan?” Elizabeth asked uncertainly.

“That’s the name!” Benjamin snapped his
fingers and bounced back in his chair laughing. “That’s it, Ivan the very, very silent partner.” He laughed.

Elizabeth’s eyebrows almost lifted off her forehead. “Partner?”

Benjamin laughed even harder. “Yeah that’s it, but don’t tell him I couldn’t remember his name, will you? I’d be so embarrassed if he ever found out.”

“Don’t worry,” Elizabeth said drily, shocked by this information. “I’ll be seeing him later and I won’t mention a word.”

“Neither will he.” Benjamin chuckled.

“Well, we’ll see about that,” Elizabeth huffed. “Although I was with him last night and he didn’t say a word about being a partner.”

Benjamin looked shocked. “I don’t think that kind of thing is allowed in Taylor constructions. Office dating is strictly frowned upon. I mean you never know, Ivan could be the reason you got the job in the
first
place.” He wiped his eyes wearily and his laughter calmed. “When you think about it, isn’t it amazing what we do to get jobs these days?”

Her mouth dropped.

“But it shows how much you love your job to be able to do a thing like that.” He looked at her in admiration. “I don’t think I could.” His shoulders shook again.

Elizabeth’s mouth gaped even wider. Was he accusing her of sleeping with Ivan to get the job? She was rendered speechless.

“Anyway,” Benjamin said, standing up, “it’s been great meeting you, I’m glad we got the
Moulin Rouge
thing
fixed up. I’ll run it by Vincent and give you a call as soon as I know more. Do you have my number?” he asked, patting down his pockets. He reached into his front breast pocket and pulled out a leaking Biro that had left a blob of ink at the bottom of his pocket. He grabbed a napkin from the dispenser and messily scrawled his name and number across the tissue.

“That’s my cell number and the office number.” He handed it to her and pushed forward his leaking pen and a ripped napkin damp from his spilled coffee. “Can I have yours? Saves me having to go through the
files.”

Elizabeth was still angry and offended but reached into her bag, retrieved her leather-bound card holder, and held out one of her gold-trimmed business cards. She would refrain from hitting him just this once; she needed this job. For Luke’s and her business’s sake, she would hold her tongue.

Benjamin
flushed
slightly. “Oh, right.” He retracted his torn napkin and leaking Biro and took her card. “That’s a better idea, I guess.” He held out his hand to her.

She took one look at his hand, stained with blue ink, and dirty
fingernails and she instantly sat on her hands.

After he had left, Elizabeth looked around in confusion, wondering if anyone else had witnessed what she had. Joe met her eyes, winked, and tapped his nose as though they were sharing some sort of secret. After work, she planned to collect Luke from Sam’s house. Although she knew Ivan and Sam’s mother were no longer together, she was hoping, the entire day, that she would see him there.

To give him a piece of her mind, naturally.

Chapter Eighteen

Mistake number one:
Going to Elizabeth’s meeting. I shouldn’t have done it. It was the same as not going into school with our younger friends and I should have had the sense to realize that Luke’s school is the equivalent of Elizabeth’s workplace. I could have kicked myself. Actually I did, but Luke thought it looked so funny that he started doing it to himself and now both his shins are bruised. So I stopped.

After I left the meeting I walked back to Sam’s house to see Luke. I sat on the grass in the back garden, keeping an eye on them wrestling, hoping it wouldn’t end in tears and also doing my favorite mental sport. Thinking.

It was constructive thinking too because I realized a few things. One of the things I learned was that I went to the meeting that morning because my gut instincts were telling me to. I couldn’t
figure out how my being there would possibly help Elizabeth, but I had to go with my gut feeling and I just presumed she wouldn’t see me. My meeting her the previous night had been so dream-like and unexpected that I started the day feeling as if it were all in my imagination. And yes, I am aware of the irony there.

I was so happy she saw me. When I saw her swinging on that garden bench looking so lost, I knew that if she was ever going to see me, that was going to be the time. I felt it in the air. I knew she needed to see me and I had prepared myself for the fact that one day she would, but I hadn’t prepared myself for the shiver that ran up my spine when our eyes
first
locked together. It was odd because I’d been looking at Elizabeth for the past four days and I was used to her face, knew it inside out, could see it clearly even when I shut my eyes, knew that there was a tiny mole on her left temple, that one cheekbone was slightly higher than the other, that her bottom lip was larger than her top, that she had
fine baby hair at the edge of her hairline. I knew it so well, but isn’t it strange how different people can look when you actually look them in the eyes? They suddenly appear to be someone else. If you ask me, it’s true what they say about eyes being the windows to your soul.

I had never felt that way before, but I put it down to not having been in the position before. I had never had a friendship with someone of Elizabeth’s age and I supposed it was nerves. It was all a new experience for me but one I was immediately willing to take on.

There are two things that I am rarely. The
first
is confused and the second is worried, but while I waited in Sam’s back garden on that sunny day, I was worried. And that confused me and because I was confused, that worried me even more. I was hoping I hadn’t caused trouble for her at work, but later that evening, as the sun and I were playing hide-and-seek, I soon found out.

The sun was trying to hide behind Sam’s house, covering me in a blanket of shadow. I was moving around the garden, trying to sit in the very last patches of sunny areas before the light disappeared completely. Sam’s mom was having a bath after doing a dance workout video in her back room that looked out onto the garden, which had been hugely entertaining, so when the doorbell rang, Sam answered it. He was under strict instructions not to answer to anyone except Elizabeth.

“Hello, Sam,” I heard her say, stepping into the hall. “Is your dad here?”

“No,” Sam replied, “he’s at work. Me and Luke are playing in the garden.”

I heard footsteps coming down the hall, the sound of heels on wood, and then an angry voice as she stepped out into the garden. “Oh, he’s at work is he?” Elizabeth said, standing at the top of the garden with her hands on her hips, looking down at me.

“Yeah, he is,” Sam said, confused, and ran off to play with Luke.

There was something so endearing about the sight of Elizabeth looking so bossy that it made me smile.

“Is something funny, Ivan?”

“Lots of things are,” I replied, sitting down on the only part of the grass that still had sun on it. I guess I won the hide-and-seek game. “People getting splashed by puddles by passing cars, being tickled right here”—I gestured to my side—“Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy in the second
Beverly Hills Cop,
an—”

“What are you talking about?” She frowned, moving closer.

“Things that are funny.”

“What are you doing?” She stepped closer.

“Trying to remember how to make a daisy chain. Opal’s looked nice.” I looked up at her. “Opal’s my boss and she had them in her hair,” I explained. “The grass is dry, if you want to sit down.” I continued pulling daisies from the ground.

It took Elizabeth a moment to settle herself on the grass. She looked uncomfortable and made faces as though she were sitting on pins. After brushing invisible dirt off her trousers and attempting to sit on her hands so her bum wouldn’t get grass stains, she resumed glaring at me.

“Is something the matter, Elizabeth? I sense that there is.”

“How acutely aware of you.”

“Thank you. It’s part of my job, but nice of you to compliment me.” I also sensed her sarcasm.

“I’ve a bone to pick with you, Ivan.”

“A funny one, I hope.” I threaded one stalk through the other. “There’s another thing that’s funny, funny bones. They hurt, but they also make you laugh. Like lots of things in life, I suppose, or even life itself. Life is like a funny bone. Hmmm.”

She looked at me in confusion. “Ivan, I’ve come to give you a piece of my mind. I spoke to Benjamin today after you left and he told me you were a partner in the company. He also accused me of something else, but I won’t even get into that,” she fumed.

“You’ve come to give me a piece of your mind,” I repeated, looking at her. “You know that phrase is really beautiful. The mind is the most powerful thing in the body, you know, whatever the mind believes, the body can achieve. So to give someone a piece of it...well, thank you, Elizabeth. Funny how people are always intent on giving it to the people they dislike when it really should be for the ones they love. There’s another funny thing. But a piece of your mind . . . what a gift that would be.” I looped the last stalk and formed a chain. “I’ll give you a daisy chain in return for a piece of your mind.” I slid the bracelet onto her arm.

She sat on the grass. Didn’t move, didn’t say anything, just looked at her daisy chain. Then she smiled and when she spoke her voice was soft. “Has anyone ever been mad at you for more than
five
minutes?”

I looked at my watch. “Yes. You, from ten o’clock this morning until now.”

She laughed. “Why didn’t you tell me that you worked with Vincent Taylor?”

“Because I don’t.”

She frowned. “But Benjamin said that you did.”

“Who’s Benjamin?”

“The project manager. He said you were a silent partner.”

I smiled. “I suppose I am. He was being ironic, Elizabeth. I’ve nothing to do with the company. I’m so silent that I don’t say anything at all.”