Page 71 of The One That I Want

‘She physically recoiled,’ retorts Poppy dryly.

I giggle. ‘I suppose it’s been a while since she was in the magazine trenches. If she only knew how younger colleagues behaved these days… They’re effusive abouteverything; whereas I suspect Anjali entered adulthood fully formed, serious, and single-minded. That would certainly explain her meteoric rise in the world of magazines. And here’s me – thirty-five and a massive Swiftie. I saw Taylor Swift twice last year – in the same week!’

‘Impressive.’

‘I know you don’t like her.’

‘I never said that,’ she says with a shake of her head. ‘I just… She’s not my favourite.’

‘Fair,’ I concede.

‘Can you imagine Anjali at a Taylor Swift concert?’ she asks with a smirk.

‘Don’t laugh, but she took her eldest last year.’

‘Anjali Bennett?’ Poppy asks, incredulous. ‘At a Taylor Swift concert?’

‘Well, her son’s a fan,andshe said she went with an old school chum and her daughter. Saskia, I think – the mum, not the daughter.’

Poppy’s eyes go wide, then she bursts out laughing.

‘What? What’s so funny?’

‘Saskia…’ she says through her laughter. She points to herself. ‘She’smyboss.’

‘What?’

She nods. ‘And she’s just like Anjali – we call her “The Swan”. Oh my god…’ She flaps her hand in front of her face, barely getting out, ‘Can you imagine?’ Then she launches into a mime of a very posh woman at a pop concert, one who bops along to the music, but in an extremely reserved way, and instantly has me in hysterics.

I amsoglad to be working with Poppy on this assignment – she’s become a bit of a fairy-godmother. I wonder if we’ll stay friends after it’s over.When it’s over, I think with a jolt. When I’m either matched or deemed unmatchable. And it’s unclear which of those outcomes triggers the roaring inside my head.

19

POPPY

‘And, Poppy, you have an update on the… Sorry, what’s your case called again?’ Saskia asks, consulting her planner.

‘The Greta Davies case,’ I reply, right as George leaps in with, ‘Greta Expectations.’

I turn to George. ‘That’s pretty good,’ I say quietly and he gives me a pleased-with-himself smile. And it only took him six tries to find a case name that didn’t make me cringe – not that I’ll mention that part.

‘Greta Expectations,’ I say to the rest of the team. Saskia’s mouth twitches with amusement and Ursula nods approvingly. Beside me, George sits up taller, obviously proud that he has (finally) smashed the case name.

‘Right, so, Greta has now been on four dates, two of which she will write about in her “Dating Horrors of London” series.’

‘What about the other dates she went on?’ asks Saskia.

‘She’s writing one into her deeper dive into dating in the modern age. And the fourth, Ollie, will be omitted entirely.’

‘And why is that?’ Ursula asks, her chin angled defensively.

Ursula prides herself in assembling the perfect list of potential matches for any client; maybe she feels similarly aboutproviding a list of duds. How do I diplomatically tell her that Ollie wasn’tenoughof a dud?

‘He wasn’t a good fit,’ I say. Ursula purses her lips and huffs noisily. I forge ahead. ‘On a positive note, Greta can now draw a line under dating duds and move onto her first real potential, Harrison Reid.’

Freya, always the romantic, claps her hands together softly under her chin and, out of the corner of my eye, I see Ursula look my way. Hopefully, this news will appease her.

‘Excellent,’ says Saskia, ‘and, Nasrin, how’s your?—’

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