Falling for you

Ruffling her hair – it was blonde, layered and responded well to a quick ruffle – Maddy smiled experimentally at her reflection, as she would soon be smiling at ... um, thingy.

Superman. Like an idiot she’d chucked her ruined white trousers in the bin on Sunday morning, forgetting that the business card he’d given her was still in the back pocket. Oh well, didn’t matter. She’d find out soon enough.

Another quick practice smile reassured Maddy that she was looking OK (God bless eyelash dye), her lip gloss was still intact and her nose hadn’t gone shiny in the heat. She was wearing a turquoise top, above-the-knee pink skirt and green and pink striped sandals – smarter than her usual T-shirt and jeans, but the staff at Callaghan and Fox wouldn’t know she was only doing it to impress their handsome boss –

well, hopefully handsome – ooh, traffic’s moving again. Nearly there now.

The offices were on the top floor of Claremont House. Having parked in the visitor’s car park, Maddy delivered the regular order to the accountants on the first floor before venturing on up the stairs. Through a glass door she saw a plump girl typing away behind a sleek yellow and white reception desk. As Maddy’s cool-box clunked against the door frame, the girl looked up. Maddy manoeuvred herself through the door and said, ‘Hi, I’m from the Peach Tree Deli, I was asked to—’

‘Oh brilliant, you’re here!’ The girl stopped typing and jumped to her feet. ‘We were told to expect you – I can’t tell you how excited we all are. Everyone’s so fed up with being messed around by Blunkett’s, but you just kind of get used to rubbish sandwiches after a while, don’t you? If they bring something you actually like, it’s a bonus ... oh, wow,’ she went on happily as Maddy began lifting out the contents of the cool-box, lining up the blue and white plates and deftly removing their cellophane wrappings. Within seconds they’d been joined by half a dozen other members of staff, all exclaiming greedily over the prospect of free food. But there was no sign of Superman.

‘Is ... um, your boss here?’

‘In his office, on the phone to a client. He’ll be out in a minute – ooh, is that smoked salmon?’ The receptionist looked as if she might start drooling. ‘And what’s in that one – some kind of chickeny stuff ?’

‘Chicken in tarragon mayonnaise. Here’s a list of some of the other things we do, and these are our prices.’ Maddy felt her heart break into a gallop as somewhere, out of view, an office door opened and shut. All of a sudden realising how much she was looking forward to seeing her rescuer again, she prayed she wouldn’t blush.

‘About time too,’ exclaimed the plump receptionist as footsteps grew louder down the corridor.

Glancing over her shoulder she sang out chirpily, ‘Food’s here! Any longer and we’d have started without you.’

Maddy looked up and saw him smiling at her. Her mouth went dry and her ears began to buzz.

No, it couldn’t be, it just couldn’t.

‘Hello there,’ said Kerr McKinnon, coming over to join them. He clearly hadn’t a clue who she was, other than the girl he had lifted over a high wall on Saturday night. Well, that was hardly surprising when you considered the evidence. His hair may have been a lot longer then, and he’d filled out generally, but otherwise he was more or less the same. She’d changed, far more than he had.

Oh God, this was horrible, horrible ..

‘ Kerr, you’ll have to break it to Blunkett’s.’ One of the other girls was greedily cramming a chilli tuna sandwich into her mouth. ‘We don’t want them any more, they’re sacked. Josh, you big pig, don’t eat both the prawn ones!’

‘Looks like you’ve got yourself some new clients,’ Kerr McKinnon told Maddy with a wink.

Turning to the receptionist he said, ‘See? Don’t say I never do anything for you.’

Kerr McKinnon.

‘ Excuse me.’ Maddy took an abrupt step backwards, her mind in such a whirl she almost couldn’t speak. Clumsily, she turned away from the receptionist’s desk.

‘Are you OK?’ Looking concerned, Kerr McKinnon reached out to put a hand on her arm.

Maddy pulled away, nodding and wondering if she might actually faint, which would be ridiculous .. .

Needing to get out, she left the offices and stumbled down the stairs. The sun had turned the inside of the car into a furnace. Maddy sat sideways in the driver’s seat with her feet outside the car and her head in her hands. The greatest shock wasn’t seeing Kerr McKinnon again; if she had passed him in a crowded street in Bath, say, her knee-jerk reaction would have been far more straightforward: initial recognition swiftly followed by a rush of disdain. Or hatred. Maybe anger, followed by contempt. And then within a few seconds it would have been over. She wouldn’t, for instance, have raced over and started attacking him. If he’d caught her eye she would simply have shot him a look of loathing, before walking on.

But this was completely different, and the greatest shock of all was realising how much, after meeting and talking to Kerr McKinnon on Saturday night, she had been looking forward to seeing him again.

Maddy let out a groan of despair. She’d really liked him, and he had seemed to like her. There had been a spark there, the chemistry of mutual attraction. She had spent all of Sunday thinking about him, hoping he was as nice as she thought he was and, ironically, wondering what his name was. If Marcella hadn’t emptied the contents of the Hoover bag into the dustbin, all over her chucked-away white trousers, she would have hauled them out and retrieved his business card from the back pocket.

Then she would have known.

Ah, but would she have come here today, to Kerr McKinnon’s offices, bringing carefully prepared food to impress him with?

Of course she wouldn’t. Absolutely not.

And now she’d left the cool-box upstairs.

‘Hey, are you all right?’