Holiday with the Best Man

‘Have you actually done the Grand Tour?’ she asked.

‘I did think about doing it, the year I graduated,’ he admitted, ‘but a real Grand Tour could last anything from several months to several years. That wasn’t really an option if I wanted to get my career up and running, so I did the whistlestop version, concentrating on Italian architecture and pretty much missing out the art and sculpture.’

‘What was your favourite building? After the Pantheon, that is,’ she added.

‘The Coliseum’s a close second,’ he said, ‘and the Duomo in Florence is something else, especially if you go inside the dome.’

‘So would you think about building something with a dome?’

‘Maybe.’ He smiled at her. ‘I guess I could pitch to Dad and Will that we ought to have a folly—as in a mini Pantheon—in the grounds, but I have a feeling they’d both laugh until they collapsed.’

‘I thought your family supported your architecture?’

‘The serious stuff, they do. A mini Pantheon is pure fantasy.’ He laughed. ‘And if they actually let me do it, in two hundred years’ time people would point at it and refer to me as Roland “the Mad Architect” Devereux. Though I guess it’d make us stand out from the crowd if we could offer weddings held in the English Pantheon.’

‘I have a nasty feeling that I could be a bad influence on you,’ she said.

He tightened his fingers around hers. ‘And that’s probably a good thing.’

* * *

They’d planned to go to the cinema the following evening; but at lunchtime Grace found a text on her phone from Roland.

Sorry, something’s come up at work. I need to sort it out. Going to be late home. Can we take a rain check on the movie?

Sure, she texted back, burying her disappointment. She knew he wouldn’t cancel without a good reason, and he’d given her as much notice as he could.

She texted him just before she left the office.

Have makings of stir-fry in fridge, so if you don’t get time to eat I can cook you something in five minutes flat tonight.

It was a while before he replied to thank her, and he didn’t get home until almost nine.

‘Sit down and I’ll make you a drink. Have you eaten?’ she asked.

‘No. I’m too tired to eat,’ he admitted.

‘You need to eat,’ she said, and ushered him to the kitchen table. ‘Give me five minutes.’

As she’d promised, five minutes later, there was a plate of chicken, stir-fry veg, sweet chilli sauce and noodles in front of him.

‘Thank you. This is good,’ he said after the first mouthful.

‘You’re very welcome. Did you manage to get your problem sorted out?’ she asked.

He sighed. ‘We’re getting there. It’s a problem with an eco extension we’re doing. The team started digging foundations this morning and it turns out there’s an old well shaft right in the middle of the new build site. It wasn’t on any of the plans of the area, so we need to talk to the building regs inspector and the planning department about how we’re going to deal with it. We can cap it and build over it, or we can make a feature of it say with a partial glass floor, but either way it’s going to affect how we deal with the foundations.’ He grimaced. ‘I’m probably going to be tied up dealing with this until the weekend, and it means I’ll be working late as well. Sorry, Grace. It isn’t what we agreed and I feel bad that I’m letting you down.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ she said, ‘and it’s clearly not something you can delegate so it’s fine. I can amuse myself.’

‘Thank you.’ He reached over to take her hand and squeezed it. ‘I really appreciate you being so understanding. And don’t worry about cooking for me for the rest of the week. I’ll grab something with the team.’

‘If there’s anything you need, just tell me,’ she said.

* * *

The rest of the week dragged. Grace was shocked to realise how quickly she’d come to look forward to her dates with Roland. So maybe his problem at work was a good thing; it would bring her common sense back and stop her making a fool of herself by falling for him.

On Friday evening, she went to the flat after work to see how things were going and pick up any post, and discovered there was a letter waiting for her. The job she’d been interviewed for on the day of the flood was hers, and they wanted her to start the week after next.