But I wasn't going to let her go, just slip away. So I thought I ought to engineer something.'
Rob took out a cigarette and lit it. I hardly ever saw him smoke; never at work, and only occasionally outside, when he was worked up about something. 'I sent her a fax,' he went on. 'I said I was impressed with her ideas on the treasury market, but that before doing business with her, I and my colleagues wanted to meet her properly. So I suggested dinner at Bibendum in Chelsea.'
Rob saw my puzzled expression and laughed. 'I signed it John Curtis of Albion Insurance.'
'You did what?' I exclaimed.
'She had told me that Albion Insurance was her biggest prospective customer. She had to come. I gave her De Jong & Co.'s fax number to reply to, so that Curtis wouldn't find out what was going on. Sure enough, she replied.
'Well, I booked two tables for eight, one in the name of Curtis for four, and one in my name for two. I arrived ten minutes early, and propped up the bar. I don't know whether you have ever been to Bibendum?'
I shook my head. 'No, but I've heard of it.'
'It's quite stylish. It's in the old Michelin Building, 1920s architecture, great service, delicious food. A good choice. Anyway, Cathy arrived ten minutes late. She looked stunning in a black dress that showed everything off. The waiter led her past me to her empty table, which was right by where I was standing. She made a half-hearted attempt to ignore me, but couldn't really get away with it; she was only ten feet away.
'She caught my eye and I walked over to her table. We both discovered we were waiting for someone-I told her I was waiting for my uncle. She agreed to have a drink with me at the bar. She was nervous, and looked like she needed one.
'I ordered a bottle of Taittinger, saying that my uncle always drank it, and would order one anyway. We had a glass and then another glass. Cathy took a while to relax. She told me she was very keen to make a good impression on Curtis. After a while she wound down.
'By nine o'clock neither my uncle nor Curtis had turned up. I suggested that if they didn't show up in the next ten minutes, we should have dinner together. She agreed. Not surprisingly, nobody showed. The dinner was marvellous. The champagne flowed. We had a great evening.'
'So far, so good,' I said.
Rob smiled to himself as he took a swig of his beer. 'We had just finished a terrific summer pudding, and were sitting back replete, when Cathy said that she was glad that Curtis hadn't made it. We agreed it had been a wonderful evening. And then
'Don't tell me,' I said, seeking refuge in my pint. But there was no escape.
'Then I told her that I had set the whole thing up. My uncle wasn't coming. Curtis and his colleagues weren't coming.'
'And she didn't like that?'
'She didn't like that,' Rob admitted. 'She didn't like that one little bit.'
'What did she do?'
'She went wild,' Rob said. 'She went bright red. She said she had never been made such a fool of. She said I was devious and totally untrustworthy.' Rob paused, clearly uncomfortable at the memory of the scene. 'I told her that I loved her, and I knew she loved me.'
'What did she say?' I asked.
'She told me to go to hell,' Rob answered miserably. 'She said I was an idiot, and I should make sure I never bothered her again. Then she got up, and left.'
'Bibendum, eh? That must have set you back a bit,' I said.
'It did. It would have been worth it if she had stayed. I can't work out why she didn't. I mean, we got on so well. I know we had a good time together, she would have to admit that.'
I shrugged my shoulders. 'Well, there is not much you can do now.'
'I don't know,' said Rob. 'Maybe if I did something dramatic. You know, really romantic. Something that would make her realise how important she is to me. Women like that sort of thing, you know.'
I raised my eyebrows, but didn't say anything. I dreaded to think what Rob would classify as 'dramatic'. I thought about trying to talk him out of it, but decided it was a waste of time. When Rob's mind was made up, his mind was made up.
It was extraordinary the way he was able to switch his affections from one woman to another, and within a week or so form a passionate attachment to someone completely new. Almost the mirror opposite of myself, I thought. I remembered Debbie's encouragement to me to get involved with women again.
It was hard to think of Debbie and Rob together. Debbie's bubbly repartee and Rob's earnest declarations of devotion didn't seem to me to mix very well. Perhaps that is why the relationship had not lasted very long.
Almost without thinking I said, 'I miss Debbie.'
Rob looked at me. 'Yes,' he said, his voice firmly in neutral.
'You and she saw a lot of each other at one stage, didn't you?' I asked.
'Yes, we did,' Rob answered. He clenched his pint in front of him. His face reddened noticeably.
'It's funny, I never would have guessed,' I said.
'We were very professional about it. We never let it interfere with work. Anyway, once it was over, it was over.'
That wasn't what Felicity had said. I remembered what she had told me about Rob pestering Debbie just before she died, to ask her to marry him. I needed to know what had happened.
'I saw Felicity the other day. You know, Debbie's flatmate.'
Rob didn't say anything so I ploughed on. 'She said that you asked Debbie to marry you the week before she died.'
Rob stiffened, and looked at me sharply. He was bright red now, the blood had spread out from his cheeks to his ears and his neck. He breathed deeply, his whole body racked with emotion. His chin shook, and his eyes blinked. For a long, painful moment he couldn't bring himself to say anything.
I had gone too far, and I regretted it, but there was nothing I could do to take my words back.
Finally it all came out in a torrent of words. 'The stupid, stupid, stupid bitch. I loved her. She knew that. Why didn't she say yes? If she had only said yes, she…'
He broke off and stared at me through watery eyes. He bit his lip, slammed down his beer on the table with such force that I was surprised the glass did not shatter, turned away from me and left the pub.
I sat there for several minutes, stunned by the heat of Rob's outburst. I had never seen anyone so emotional. It had seemed to me to be a mixture of anger, regret, with a vicious undercurrent of pure misery. I felt terrible that I had been responsible for setting him off. I had never taken Rob's passion for women seriously, I couldn't quite believe that it was for real. I now knew it was. I should treat it with much more respect in future.
I drained my glass and left the pub. I was beginning to see what Claire had meant when she had said there was something strange about Rob. No normal person would behave as he did. His outburst had frightened me. I wondered what those phone calls to Debbie must have been like. No wonder she had been shaken by them.
And now, less than a month later, his attentions had turned to Cathy. Still, she looked like she could take care of herself. They probably deserved each other.
It was a nice warm evening, and the glow of the beer slowly restored my spirits. It had rained heavily earlier in the day, and the headlights of passing vehicles danced with the streetlamps in the puddles, occasionally joined by the darting orange of the indicator of a turning car. A group of youths were shouting incoherently outside a pub on the other side of the road. I turned to look at them as they began to make their unsteady way up the street. As I turned away from them, I caught something in the corner of my eye.
Joe.
He was there, sitting by the window of the pub, watching me.
Or was he?
I looked more closely, and saw a lean figure inside the pub stand up and move away from the window. It was his size, but I couldn't be sure it was him. I had only caught a glimpse of him. Perhaps I was imagining it. Or perhaps…
I hurried down the road and suddenly turned right into a mews. It was dark. Too dark. My feet splashed through the newly formed puddles lurking against the side of the road.
I stopped for a second. I thought I could hear a rustle behind me. I felt as much as heard footsteps, but I
