Page 41 of A Wedding Negotiation with Her Boss

‘Don’t worry,’ he said drily. ‘You don’t have to stock up on the tissues because there’s a chance I’m going to break down and start crying.’

‘No, I can’t imagine you doing that...’

‘And for the record? I’ve never appreciated girlfriends who go down the psychoanalysing route.’

‘But I’m not agirlfriend, am I?’

‘Touché.’

Helen reddened and wondered, if she wasn’t a girlfriend, then what was she exactly? A temporary plaything? That didn’t feel good, but wasn’t it a role she had volunteered for? She’d known from the start that he didn’t do love, just as she’d known that that was what she wanted from any relationship. But things were changing for her and she was slowly starting to realise how much he could hurt her, how muchthiscould hurt her.

‘Does X mark the spot on the map?’ She abruptly changed the subject.

Gabriel was silent for a few seconds. He thought of that map. It had been given to him by his father years ago. It had been a rare occasion when his parents had been around for a sustained period, something like three months, and he had seen more of them than he ever had before.

He must have been not quite a teenager, before he had begun closing down, forming hard and fast judgements on the nature of relationships that were so all-consuming they left no room for anything else. Before he had begun building his life along the lines of one where control would always trump spontaneity.

He could remember his father trailing his finger over the little icons, chatting about things in the city, the sights and landmarks there. They had both come from sufficient wealth that they’d individually been raised in small palaces although, he had confided to Gabriel, ruffling his hair, his mother had come with the bigger bag of gold.

‘There are no spots marked,’ he said, withdrawing, because it suddenly felt safer. ‘But, I assure you, there will be many things of interest to see.’

‘Including where your parents lived?’

‘Let’s ditch the questions,’ Gabriel said softly. ‘They bore me. Look at the scenery instead. It’s incomparable.’

Helen recognised this for what it was—she was being reminded of her place.

As she gazed out, however, she saw the scenery was as incomparable as he’d said and he relaxed and became an informative guide, pointing out all sorts of things and filling her head with so many pieces of information about the country that she wondered whether he’d made it his mission to read up all about the place his parents had decided to leave behind.

Sepia fortresses rubbed shoulders with clusters of brightly coloured houses, and everything seemed to be embedded into the terrain, a wonderful mix of earthy tones mixed with the greens, greys and blues of undulating hills.

The car weaved through villages and towns at a leisurely pace. Inside it was cool from the air-conditioning but it was easy to feel the heat blasting down from cloudless blue skies. The sea was a constant presence, although it was hard to get a feel for how close or far away they were from it at any given time.

There was a sense of cliffs plunging into ocean, glimpsed here and there as they took a corner, and of entire villages clinging precariously to them, although they were surely in no imminent danger of erosion, because they all looked as though they’d been perched on the same spot for centuries.

She wanted to ask him how he felt, being here, even if he wasn’t familiar with the place, but she’d been warned off and she knew how to recognise those boundary lines.

Watching her as she gazed in rapt appreciation out of the window, Gabriel was filled with a sense of well-being.

He actually hadn’t got such a kick from sealing any deal in a long time. He was glad that he had branched out to make his own fortune, independent of the wealth he had inherited from his parents, which had still been considerable, even though much diminished from years of profligate spending. But nothing had felt as risky as opening up to Arturio and recognising family members he hadn’t even known existed.

And his secretary had been with him for the ride from the very beginning. He’d told her that she was a good listener, and he’d meant it, and when he looked back to before they had become lovers he could see that he’d always found her relaxing to talk to. She didn’t demand. She didn’t nag. In return, he confided. It was a trade-off that had happened without him even really noticing.

He was looking forward to watching her various expressions of delight at the hotel he had chosen, for once doing his own legwork and sourcing somewhere suitably lavish, not to mention the various places they would visit during their brief stay.

He’d mentally made a list. He wondered what, if anything, she had seen of the world. Her father had been protective, but surely she would have done some travelling, if only to safe, touristy destinations?

‘I know your engagement was broken off but where had you planned on going on honeymoon?’ he asked curiously, and Helen dragged her attention away from the passing panorama to look at him.

‘Nowhere.’

Gabriel’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. ‘Is that normal? I thought every young married couple was eager to make elaborate plans about where they would go on their honeymoon. The one time to throw financial caution to the winds!’

Helen reddened and she sighed.

‘We thought it was more sensible to put the money aside to buy somewhere.’ Of course, warning bells should have rung for her at the time for that very reason, she thought. She looked at Gabriel from under her lashes and thought that, for someone who wasn’t interested in meaningful relationships, he was pretty emotionally shrewd.

‘Don’t forget that I was conditioned to be sensible, and maybe George simply fell into line because he was so mild mannered and really quite sensible as well. We both thought buying a house made more sense than frittering away what savings we had on going abroad for a fortnight in the sun. My dad couldn’t afford to give that to us as a wedding present, not when he’d paid for the wedding, and George’s parents were no better off financially.’

---