Freya North 3-Book Collection: Love Rules, Home Truths, Pillow Talk. Freya North

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СКАЧАТЬ when Mark flew off to Singapore and Tokyo on business, then the phone sex began. In the house alone, with no intention of asking Thea’s approval, permission or advice, Alice phoned Paul. And the outright dirtiness of the text messaging was replaced with naughty giggles and coy referencing and then, surprisingly, five minutes of chit-chat. On a nightly basis.

      ‘He’s just a friend,’ Alice justified to Thea, having thrust her mobile phone at her friend’s ear so she could hear his voice. ‘We’re just mates.’

      ‘“Mate” being the operative word,’ Thea couldn’t resist saying. ‘You fucked, remember.’

      Alice physically swiped the air dismissively. ‘He lives in Fucksville France!’ Alice breezed, as if Thea’s insinuation was ludicrous.

       u awake? can u spk? u alone?

      Yes, Alice was awake but no she couldn’t speak because Mark and she were just about to sit down to supper.

      ‘I’m just going to the loo,’ Alice told Mark, surreptitiously slipping her phone into her back pocket. ‘Can you stir the sauce and switch the rice off in a couple of minutes?’

      ‘Wine? White?’ Mark asked, starting the interminable search for the sodding corkscrew.

      Alice locks the toilet door.

       not alone – hows u, big boy?

      coming the reply announces.

      Alice laughs as she sends her reply: u dirty boy – u’ll go blind!

      coming over he sends back.

      Before Alice has the chance to absorb the information let alone formulate a response, a barrage of messages arrives on her phone.

       to london

       next tues

       3 nights

       get ready, baby – gonna make u sore

      Oh

      My

      God

      Sitting on the closed toilet seat, Alice is utterly stuck for text words.

      She switches off her phone without replying and leaves it on top of the cistern in irrational fear of Paul suddenly materializing from it like a genie from the lamp.

      Oh

      My

      God

Table for Four

      ‘I can’t remember it being this much hassle when I bought my flat five years ago,’ Thea declared with a sorry pout around the table.

      ‘You were a first-time buyer,’ Mark said soothingly, asking the wine waiter to bring whichever red he’d recommend.

      ‘But it’s not like I’m in a chain,’ Thea protested, ‘my problem is that my buyer is a bloody lawyer and he’s being exasperatingly finicky. We could be on the verge of exchanging contracts but he’s not going to unless a structural surveyor has checked some minor detail or other.’

      ‘Has your offer been accepted on the place you like?’ Mark asked Saul.

      ‘No – we’ve upped it but they’re sitting on it,’ Saul told him, squeezing Thea’s wrist supportively.

      ‘It’s Sod’s Law – and it’s down to the bloody postcode fiasco. Thea’s trying to sell in a buyer’s market and yet you’re trying to buy in a seller’s market. All in the same city,’ Mark observed. ‘Thea darling, if you sell before you buy, you can always store your stuff at ours.’

      ‘Thanks,’ said Thea glumly because it was of little consolation just then. ‘They say that moving house is the most stressful thing we encounter after death and divorce.’

      ‘Better not die then – and keep cohabiting, rather than marrying,’ Mark laughed. He looked over at Alice who was gazing at her lap. ‘Are you OK, darling?’

      ‘What?’ She looked up and around the table as if she was startled to find herself there with them. ‘I’m fine. I’m fine. Just hassles at work – just had to text one of my editors.’ She brandished her mobile phone and then dropped it into her bag. Thea looked away from Alice’s fleeting smirk. ‘Have you exchanged yet?’ Alice asked her. ‘Wasn’t it meant to be this week?’

      Thea groaned, put her head in her hands, looked up and glugged gratefully at the glass of wine. ‘Don’t ask!’ she said hoarsely, and then proceeded to repeat in great detail the stress and minutiae.

      ‘Did you get my text?’ Alice asked her, as if she’d not heard a word of Thea’s rant.

      ‘What text?’

      ‘About my client?’ Alice said.

      Thea checked her phone. ‘Oh, it’s here – I hadn’t seen it.’

       lover boy’s coming 2 UK nxt wk ! ! ! ! ! ! !

      Thea read it and read it again. What on earth was she meant to say? Right then? Right there? In an upmarket restaurant with her best friend’s husband in eyeshot of her mobile phone. ‘Right,’ she faltered, ‘right.’

      ‘He’d like to see you,’ Alice carried on blithely while Thea prayed that Alice’s expression of triumphant glee was legible to her alone.

      ‘OK,’ Thea nodded slowly, ‘OK.’

      ‘Who’s this?’ Mark asked.

      ‘Paul,’ Alice announced lightly, as if jogging Mark’s memory that he knew him too. ‘I think Thea should assess him.’

      ‘Paul Who?’ Saul asked.

      ‘He’s not part of the Adam team,’ Alice replied dismissively, ‘different department.’

      ‘What’s his problem?’ Mark asked politely.

      Thea couldn’t believe it was she who was starting to redden. Surely it should be Alice. But Alice was having great fun with her hidden meanings. ‘I’ve told him to be careful. I’ve told him he’ll be flat on his back by next week – so I really think he’d benefit from Thea’s evaluation.’

      Thea’s appetite slumped. Luckily for Alice, Mark and Saul presumed Thea had lost it under the pile of faxes and hassle swamping her from the sale of her property.

      ‘Alice was in high spirits,’ Saul remarks, peeling off his clothes and slinging them onto the floor.

      ‘Manic, I’d say,’ Thea asserts, picking up Saul’s clothes and adding them to a pile she’s sorted to be washed.

      ‘Are СКАЧАТЬ