‘I’m not talking to Zayn for what he did to you.’
‘Well, I didn’t appreciate it at the time but I get why he did what he did now. What if I spoke to him?’ James said, while not particularly relishing the thought, and he watched her guilty swallow.
‘I have something to tell you.’
Finally, James thought. ‘Please do,’ he said.
‘It is something that might make you cross.’
‘Do tell!’
‘It was Sophie who revealed our names to the press.’
‘Zayn’s wife?’
‘She had her reasons to do so, Zayn said. Something to do with Jasmine, but I was so cross that I told them I didn’t want to hear their excuses.’ He was putting on his tie and seemed as bothered with what she’d said as if she’d told him it had just started raining outside. ‘I’m worried what it will do to us,’ Leila admitted.
‘To us?’ James grinned. ‘Why would it affect us? Does the fact my father is, and I quote, “vile”, make you think less of me?’
‘Of course not.’
‘So, don’t worry about it. God, if you think we’re going to row every time one of our family members stuffs up, then marrying me might not be such a good idea.’
She smiled at his reaction. ‘You’re like no one I’ve ever met.’
‘Snap,’ James said.
‘Snap,’ replied Leila.
‘I was right though,’ James said as he finished his tie. ‘Isabelle did have someone on me. I knew it!’ he said. ‘I knew I was being followed.’
She laughed when he lifted the trousers of his immaculate suit a few inches. ‘Look, no socks.’
He gave her a lovely kiss before leaving and Leila lay back happily in his bed, looking out at the view of Central Park.
Surely she belonged now.
* * *
James and Manu had never really got on but he did accept that she knew her stuff.
They headed to the near-empty restaurant and to a table in the far corner, where they ordered breakfast, but five minutes into his meeting with her James started to question getting Manu involved.
‘Leila’s happy...’
‘Really?’
‘She is,’ James said ‘We’re happy. It’s just her parents that are proving a problem and her brother.’
‘I wonder why that might be!’
‘She hasn’t got on with her parents since her sister died. I’m thinking of approaching her brother...’ James attempted to explain, but again Manu shook her head.
‘Let’s get back to Leila...’
James actually had Leila Deficit Disorder because one hour out of bed and he needed contact, but he was aware of his own arrogance and also needed to be sure he was right.
Are you happy? James texted.
So, so happy! Leila replied, and James smiled and simply forgot that Manu was there.
Go and look at the bottom of the wardrobe.
Leila texted him back. A present?
Just go and look.
There was nothing there though. She looked up on the shelves and there were just cases and shoes and so she checked the bottom of the wardrobe again and there was nothing there either, save a shirt that had fallen from the hanger.
No, Leila realised, it hadn’t fallen from the hanger. It was wrinkled and hadn’t been laundered.
Her heart skipped in hope and she knew they had found love that night for he had kept it. She buried her face in it and smelled not just the musk of herself but the citrus note to the cologne that he wore and the masculine scent that was James.
I’m wearing it now!
Send me a picture! James replied as Manu droned on.
It was the tamest picture of a woman in bed that James had ever received but it was by far his favourite— Leila sitting up in bed wearing the shirt and smiling brightly for him and lightly he teased her. Undo the top button at least!
‘You are so insolent, James,’ Manu said, and James looked up and for a moment he wondered if she had been standing over his shoulder and reading his phone, but Manu didn’t need to read what was written. James realised that he had been very rudely ignoring her.
‘Look, I apologise, I honestly...’
He didn’t know how to explain that he was in love, in serious love, and just so open to Leila-distraction at the moment. How did he tell Manu, who was looking at him with such distaste, that he had never felt anything like it before?
‘You’re just a rich boy who is far too used to getting whatever it is that he wants,’ Manu sneered.
‘Not necessarily.’ James commenced a smart reply, but then he remembered why he was here and swallowed his retort down. ‘I just want Leila to be happy.’
‘You just said that she was.’
Well, apart from her wish for her parents to at least not take things out on their child and that she was estranged from her brother. Apart from the tears she sobbed each night, but since she’d been in his home they had stopped.