Page 7 of His Best Friend's Baby

Well aware there was every chance Polly would not want to see him, he chose not to answer this.

The girl’s smile turned somewhat coy. ‘She could do with cheering up.’

Seth blinked. ‘Really?’

The girl was looking rather serious now as she nodded. ‘Polly’s had a rough few months.’

Seth’s chest tightened. Might Polly be pregnantandout of work? He couldn’t quite bring himself to ask such searching personal questions of this hairdresser, so he tried a different tack. ‘You don’t know if Polly’s changed her phone number, do you?’

‘Yeah, she has a new number. She had to hand in her old phone when she left Stringtech.’

Damn. ‘I don’t suppose you could tell me her current—?’

Before Seth even finished asking this question, the hairdresser was shaking her head. ‘Sorry, that would be breaching client confidentiality.’

Unreasonable impatience flared. Seth drew a quick, sharp breath to curb it.

‘But I’ll tell you what I’ll do,’ the girl said, suddenly all sunny smiles again. ‘If you give me your name and contact details, I’ll let Polly know that you’ve been looking for her.’

It was the best he could hope for. He gave the girl his name and phone number—even though Polly already knew them—and with these details entered into her phone, she said, ‘I’m Celia, by the way.’ And she flashed Seth a smile as bright as her hair and held out her hand.

‘Hi, Celia.’ He returned the smile and made sure his grip was firm. ‘And thanks.’

‘No probs. I’ve always wanted to ask a perfect stranger for his phone number.’ With another cheeky smile, she added, ‘I’ll let Polly know that you’re keen to catch up.’

‘Thank you.’ He was sure the chances of Polly making contact were very slim indeed, but he resisted the temptation to wish Celia good luck.

‘I’d better get cracking,’ she said, after another glance at her phone.

As Seth watched Celia head off down the arcade, he told himself he probably wouldn’t hear from Polly, but at least he’d done his best. His conscience was clear and that should be enough, surely?

*

Polly was choppingvegetables to throw into a soup pot when Celia called.

‘Hi, Pollz, how are you?’

Resisting the temptation to sigh, Polly forced brightness into her voice. ‘I’m fine thanks. How are you?’

‘All good. Hey, listen, I can’t talk for long. I have a shop full of customers, but I ran into a guy hanging around the old Stringtech office. He said he was looking for you.’

For maybe half a second, Polly wondered if this person was planning to offer her work. But she wouldn’t allow herself to get her hopes up. They’d been dashed too many times in recent months.

‘He reckons he’s an old school friend,’ said Celia.

‘Oh?’ This time Polly couldn’t curb the sudden, unbidden lift in her spirits. But surely it couldn’t be Seth?

‘Rather easy on the eye,’ added Celia.

‘What’s his name?’ Polly asked, a little too impatiently.

‘Seth Ramsay ring a bell?’

Thud. So, it really was Seth. Here in Melbourne, outside Stringtech or, rather, what used to be Stringtech. And he was looking for her.

In a flash, Polly was remembering the last time she’d seen Seth in Wirralong, reliving the hot flare of anger in his eyes.Sorry, kiddo, you might be clever with computers… but when it comes to the real world, you’re still totally clueless.She could hear the sharp scrape of his chair on the timber floor as he jumped so abruptly to his feet, and she was experiencing yet again her burning shame as Seth turned on his heel and marched out on her.

‘Polly?’ Celia sounded worried now. ‘I told him I’d pass his phone number on to you. I hope that’s okay?’

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