Sue Fortin - United States of Love

‘Are you here for the meeting?’ he said, popping his glasses into his shirt pocket. He sidestepped her and sprinted over to the Volvo, from where he removed three large cardboard tubes from the back seat.

‘Yes, that's right,’ she called, holding the edge of her hood up a bit so she could see him properly.

He nipped past her, back through the door he’d left open and into the dry. ‘You'd better come in then,’ he said, gesturing. ‘You'll get soaked standing out there.’

‘Thanks.’ Anna was grateful to get in from the rain. She entered into a small hallway. Through a set of double glass doors she could see the main hall.

‘I'm Graeme Roberts, by the way,’ said the man, just managing to stick his hand out as he struggled to keep the cardboard tubes from falling. ‘Mr Garcia’s architect.’

‘Anna Barnes. Mr Garcia’s PA.’ Anna shook his hand, and then held one of the internal glass doors open for him to get through.

The trestle table with the cross-section model of the restaurant had been moved to the side of the hall. Graeme scurried over to it, dumping his things on the floor before beginning to examine the plans.

Anna could hear the dull tones of voices coming from one of the rooms at the back and assumed it was Tex and the builder. She walked over to the table and took off her wet coat, which she hung on the handle of the window. Taking her phone from her bag, she switched it onto silent.

The door at the back of the hall opened and a large burly man, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, came out.

‘Hello, Rod. How are you?’ said Graeme. He turned to Anna. ‘This is Rod. He's one of the building contractors tendering for the project. Rod, this is Anna, works for Mr Garcia.’

Rod shook her hand. ‘Pleased to meet you. He won’t be a minute, he's just taking a phone call.’

‘Anna, would you mind giving me a hand with these?’ asked Graeme, indicating the large sheets of drawings for the renovation works he had removed from the tubes and was now attempting to lay out. ‘Got some more detailed plans to look at today. Could you hold the ends while I tape them down?’

‘Sure. It looks complicated,’ said Anna, popping her phone onto the windowsill. ‘I mean, the drawings, not the taping.’ She stretched her arms out and held down each edge of the drawing as Graeme unpicked the end of the masking tape.

He smiled and looked as if he were about to answer, when his attention was caught by the sound of one of the doors at the back of the hall opening and closing.

‘Good morning.’ The rich accented voice sounded out, flirting with Anna’s eardrums.

Still leaning over the table, arms outstretched while Graeme seemed to take an age finding the end of the tape, Anna looked back over her shoulder and smiled at Tex. ‘Hi!’

With more than a hint of amusement on his lips, Tex raised his eyebrows slightly. ‘Nice view.’ Then he seamlessly moved on to greet Graeme.

Anna felt her face burn hot with embarrassment and stood up abruptly, letting go of the drawing, which pinged back into a roll and fell to the floor. By now, Tex was by her side and stooped to pick up the drawing, placing it back on the table.

Anna was grateful for the few seconds to compose herself before Tex turned to her.

‘You okay?’ He cupped her upper arms with his hands and kissed her on the cheek.

‘Yes. Yes, I'm fine. Thank you.’ Right, she must remain professional and concentrate on the job in hand and stop acting like a lovestruck teenager. Briskly, she turned back to the table and resumed holding the large sheet of paper in place, this time by taking one edge in turn, while Graeme taped it down as he fell into discussion with Tex. Rod sauntered back across to join them. Meeting commenced, thought Anna. Good.

Initially, she made notes on her pad in case anything needed to be clarified afterwards. All the while she tried not to let her gaze linger on Tex for too long. It was hard though. She liked the way his hair casually fell forwards, not long enough to fall in his eyes, but enough to touch the top of his dark eyebrows. He had remarkably long, thick eyelashes for a man too, framing those deep brown eyes of his.

Anna wasn’t entirely sure what Tex was expecting her to do, so she continued taking notes as the three men discussed technical issues, such as beam splicing and loading, engineers’ reports and calculations.

‘I would like the staircase to start at this side and curve round to the first floor,’ explained Tex, walking over to the right-hand side of the hall. He made a sweeping motion with his arm to emphasise his point.

Anna couldn't help admiring him as he stood there explaining and gesturing. Dark trousers, expensive-looking, black shiny leather shoes, pale blue shirt open at the collar, his sleeves rolled up. That fresh showery, citrus smell of his aftershave tantalising her senses.

‘You would lose quite a bit of floor space downstairs if you want a curving staircase,’ said Rod, ‘and then you have to take into consideration the rise of each step and how far it carries. It will take a fair bit of working out.’

Rod went on to explain how each tread and riser was calculated and how much something like that would cost. He rambled about kites and winders, newels, spindles and strings. Graeme was furiously pecking at his calculator as Rod reeled off numbers and measurements.

Anna had no idea what they were talking about. She looked over at Tex and had to stifle a giggle as he gave an exaggerated, confused look, unnoticed by the others. Rod carried on, more or less discussing it with himself, correcting and contradicting himself along the way, and Graeme continued to tap at the calculator like some sort of demented woodpecker.

She stole another glance at Tex who, catching her eye, mimed a yawn, tapping his mouth with his hand, which just made Anna want to giggle again. When he silently acted out a noose round his neck and then made out to shoot himself in the temple with his fingers, Anna couldn’t hold the burst of laughter in. Rod and Graeme stopped and stared at her. She quickly fashioned the laugh into a small series of coughs.

‘Sorry, tickly throat,’ she said apologetically, not daring to look at Tex.

‘Hey, come out back and I’ll get you a glass of water,’ Tex piped up, and before she could protest, he was gently leading her away by the arm. Once inside the kitchen he closed the door and they both laughed quietly.

‘Jeez,’ groaned Tex. ‘Death by numbers.’ He took a step closer. ‘Now, where did we leave off the other night?’

Anna took a step back. Oh, this was hard. ‘I think it’s best to leave it there,’ she said.

He was standing in front of her. ‘Huh?’

‘I’m sorry, Tex, but I think it’s best if we just keep things professional now that I’m working for Jamie which, by default, now means you. It’s a rule of mine never to mix business with pleasure.’

‘You serious? Damn it, you are!’ Tex cursed. This wasn’t going to plan. ‘What about if I fire you then? Tell Jamie I’ve changed my mind.’ He saw the alarm on her face. ‘I was only joking. I wouldn’t really.’

‘Good, because I could do with this job,’ replied Anna.

‘What about if you give me a chance to change your mind?’ He fixed her with his killer smile, the one that he usually got his way with. She was shaking her head. She wasn’t buying it.

Before he could plan his next move, there was a knock at the door and a female voice calling his name. It was Christine.

The door opened and in she wiggled, smiling widely at him. Then she clocked Anna, and instantly Christine’s smile disappeared. ‘Oh, hello.’

‘Anna, this is Christine,’ said Tex. ‘She works in the art gallery across the way. Christine, this is Anna, she’s my PA.’ He watched Christine’s hostile eyes look Anna up and down. Anna would have to be downright stupid to miss that, he thought.