Page 64 of Too Busy for Love

‘Oh, umm, sorry. My phone must be on silent.’

The lie is no sooner out of my mouth than my phone pings loudly in my bag to remind me I have voice messages. Abby raises her eyebrows.

‘Fine,’ I admit. ‘I’ve been avoiding your calls.’

‘What? Why?’ She looks genuinely hurt.

‘Look, Abby,’ I say with a sigh. ‘I know you mean well, but it’s done. I don’t need to pick over the bones of the Mermaid project. It got shot down and, although I’m disappointed, I’ll live. You don’t need to come and check up on me.’

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ she says crossly. ‘I’m not checking up on you. Hurry up and let me in. We need to talk.’

I gaze at her. Her eyes are unusually bright and she seems even more revved up than usual. I open the door and guide her into the flat, where she perches on the sofa, drumming her fingers impatiently on her thighs while I put the kettle on for a cup of tea.

‘Are you all right, Abby?’ I ask her carefully. ‘You’re acting a little weird.’

‘I’m fine. I’m merely excited and trying to share some brilliant news with the one person I thought would be as excited as me, but you seem strangely uninterested in hearing it.’

Oh shit. I’ve called this completely wrong and I feel like a terrible person suddenly. This must be to do with the show and James, rather than the hotel. I sit down next to her and wrap her in a hug.

‘Oh, Abby, congratulations!’ I exclaim. ‘When did he pop the question?’

She stares at me like I’ve grown an extra head.

‘You think James proposed?’ she says slowly. ‘We’ve only just started going out. Why would he propose?’

‘Some people just know, don’t they?’ I reply lamely.

‘Let me set you straight. Contrary to popular opinion’ – she gives me the side-eye – ‘I’m not engaged. I’m here about TheMermaid. There are a couple of adjustments I need you to agree to but, assuming you’re happy, we can start work more or less straight away.’

‘But your father clearly said that he wasn’t going to go into the hotel business.’

‘No,’ she corrects me. ‘He said that AtkinsonConstructionwasn’t going to go into the hotel business. But that doesn’t mean that AtkinsonHotelscan’t.’

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‘I’m not following you,’ I tell Abby as she stares at me, her eyes sparkling. ‘He was very clear about it. He said he didn’t know anything about hotels and it wasn’t an industry he had any intention of entering.’

‘And he won’t be. Atkinson Hotels is my company. Well, it will be, once I file all the paperwork and stuff.’

‘I think you’d better start from the beginning,’ I say carefully.

‘Fine. After you left, Dad and I had a long chat. I knew he was up to something, because why bother grilling us on all the business plan and stuff if he had no intention of following through? Basically, there were three points he made. One, that the business plan was good and the best chance of getting a return on The Mermaid – congratulations, Beatrice. Two, that he didn’t want his core business to be distracted or put at risk by a venture he didn’t understand. Three, that there was one part of the model that he felt I needed to revisit – I’ll come on to that in a minute. So, the upshot is we set up a new subsidiary company with me as sole director. Atkinson Construction transfers ownership of The Mermaid to Atkinson Hotels, which refurbishes it and reopens it. There will need to be appropriategovernance and repayment clauses, obviously, but that’s the general gist.’

‘Why a subsidiary company?’ I ask. ‘Surely the risks are the same.’

‘No. As long as Dad stays firmly out of the picture and Atkinson Hotels is seen to be operating completely independently of the main company, they’re immune from liability if the hotel company goes belly up. It’s a way of protecting the main business. Dad will still advise me, us, informally if we ask for it, but he’ll have to be very much in the background.’

‘So that’s it? We’re good to go?’ It sounds too good to be true.

‘Nearly. I mentioned that there was something that Dad picked up on and, on reflection, I agree with him. It concerns the food.’

‘Go on.’

‘We both feel that we need a name people recognise in the kitchen. I’m sure your guy is good and everything, but he’s an unknown.’

My mind is whirling. Jock was a big part of my plan.

‘What if I could get him to come down? Give you and your dad a chance to try his food?’

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