Page 33 of The First Mistake

He comes around to my side of the desk and sits on its leather top beside me.

‘What if I told you that the land and the project is still up for sale?’ he says, staring straight ahead, out of the window behind me.

‘What do you mean?’ I turn and look up at him, confused.

‘The sellers still want to sell – it’s just the buyers that have pulled out.’

‘O-kay,’ I say hesitantly. ‘How does any of that help us?’

‘What ifwebuy it?’ he says, his jawline tensing with every word he utters.

‘What?’ I almost screech. ‘Don’t be insane!’

‘Listen to me,’ he says, looking at me for the first time and taking hold of my hands. ‘We could do this project ourselves. We could buy the land, build the apartments, design the interiors and sell them on ourselves.’

‘Are you out of your mind?’ I ask, laughing.

‘We could do this, Al,’ he says, his voice getting louder. ‘Me and you. AT Designs. We could do this whole damn thing ourselves.’

I’m looking at him, shaking my head. ‘This is far too big for us to take on. We don’t have the experience, we don’t have the money ...’

‘A million buys it,’ he says. ‘We could get a loan, keep the repayments super-low.’

‘Okay, you’re scaring me now,’ I say, but the adrenaline is coursing its way around my body. Is this even a remote possibility?

‘I’ve just spoken with the vendors,’ he says, as if reading my mind. ‘They’re desperate. They were selling for £1.5 million, but they’ll drop if they can get a buyer now.’ He falls to his knees in front of me. ‘We can do this Alice. I know we can.’

‘We ... we can’t, I mean we can’t just ...’

‘You wanted to hit the big time,’ he says earnestly. ‘Well, now’s your chance.’

‘We need to talk about it ...’

‘We can’t wait around, Al – this offer’s not going to be there for long. They’ll have other developers biting their hand off – it’s right on the 2020 Olympics site. It’s a no-brainer.’

‘I need to think,’ I say. ‘I can’t think straight.’

‘We can do this,’ repeats Nathan excitedly. ‘It’s all there for the taking.’

‘I need some time to get my head around it,’ I say. ‘Give me twenty-four hours to think.’

‘This opportunity might not be there in twenty-four hours,’ he pleads. ‘We need to strike whilst the iron’s hot.’

‘I’m not going to make a rash decision now, Nathan.’ My voice surprises me – its tone tinged with calmness, belying the chaos that is raging through my head. ‘AT Designs was set up using Tom’s money. Almost every penny of his inheritance went into founding this company and I’m not about to blow all our hard work on a whimsical fancy thousands of miles away.’

‘When you say, “our” hard work, are you referring to mine and yours? Or yours and Tom’s?’ Nathan’s blue eyes are unflinching as he looks at me.

‘Both,’ I say.

‘I’ve given my all to this company,’ he says, ‘and yet ten years after Tom’s death, he still takes top billing.’

‘Oh, for God’s sake, you’re being ridiculous,’ I snap, closing the door in a futile attempt to stop the whole company listening in on our domestic.

‘But I’m right, aren’t I? No matter what I do or how much I achieve, I will never be able to escape Tom’s shadow.’

‘You’ve worked here for less than three years,’ I say. ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.’

I see him smart and wish that I could suck the words back in.

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