Page 41 of Hit For Six
‘And what about your career, Lola?’ asked Frederick, as if he’d supplanted her response with a trick question. ‘What line of business are you in?’
‘I work in the stationery business.’
Helena looked her up and down as if she’d announced that she was a cashier in WHSmith. And what if she was? Monty wasa grown man and he could spend his time with whomever he chose.
‘Lola has a very important position as an international account manager for a local business, selling high end products all over the world,’ he interjected.
‘Fascinating, I’m sure.’
Behind the faux smile, Lola could tell that Helena was scrutinising her. She may think she’d detected an embellishment of the truth, and Monty might have given the impression that Lola traded in Montblanc fountain pens and gold leaf paper, but C and C’s greetings cards were, for the most part, on the pricier side.
Helena claimed Monty’s shoulder with her bejeweled hand, its stunning emerald engagement ring winking obsessively, and began to twitter away– rudely, Lola thought– about someone called Roddie and his ‘sweet attempts’ at horse riding.
Meanwhile, Frederick cornered Lola from their conversation, turning his own shoulder slightly inwards and shuffling across to the boutique’s window in his seriously long and lavish pair of brogues. He removed his glasses. ‘Excuse me, it must be the balmy evening air steaming them up.’
His brow creased momentarily as he rubbed their lenses on his jacket, holding his specs up in front of the street lamp to inspect them, before pushing them back onto his nose and blinking rapidly. All the while retaining a most impassive face. Lola could have sworn he was about to say something, but thankfully Monty caught wind of his parents’ segregation attempt and ensured that she was brought back into the fold. He wound his arm around her protectively and opened the conversation up so it included everybody.
‘Let’s catch up when you’re back from Provence. I haven’t forgotten about the orchids.’
Monty gave his mother a side-long glance.
‘Not the orchids, Monty!’ she cried. ‘You need to watereverything but the orchids!’
‘I’m only pulling your leg,’ Monty reparteed, but Lola wasn’t so sure.
‘You guys have to drive back to Upper Badminton and it’ll be getting properly dark soon,’ he continued.Wait, what?Their son played professional cricket and they lived in Upper Badminton? This was too funny but Lola daren’t titter. ‘It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the days get shorter once we pass the longest day in June, despite the fact we live through the occurrence annually,’ he burbled and swiftly changed course. ‘I’m cooking Lola a late supper before dropping her off at home so we must get going ourselves.’
His thumb inched its way sensually down Lola’s back and she suppressed a squeal as her body quivered. It was clear that he was an experienced lover.
‘Absolutely. But do tell us where you live before you go,’ Helena continued to probe, unperturbed. ‘Are you a local lady?’
‘Near the wonders of Pulteney Bridge and the Weir,’ Monty supplied, to which Lola nodded her head with a grateful smile, hoping that this would be the last of the inquisition and they wouldn’t request a rundown of her family tree.
Normally, such intervention would peeve her but who could blame her for letting Monty do all the talking in such an unexpectedly dire situation.
‘Gosh. A grand part of the city.’
Frederick arced a brow and Lola had visions of him planting some kind of tracking device in her bag when she wasn’t looking, just to check that she wasn’t lying. Well, once upon a time in the Regency period, it had been grand compared to other places in Bath. Nowadays most of the flats on her street had been snapped up by rich landlords and divided into overpriced student digs. But this was by the by.
‘It’s quite–’ Do not say that word again.Come on, Lola!You work for a company that prides itself on its kaleidoscopic verses. ‘Happy and wonderful,’ she heard herself reply. Oh, dear God. But at least she hadn’t come out with a fart joke from the wisecrack card range.
Frederick broke out in another weak smile.
‘As you wish. We shall leave you to it. I hope you haven’t left too much office work for the weekend once you’ve finished your entertaining,’ he turned pointedly to Monty, adding a strange wink and an awkward back pat of his own.
‘Your father doesn’t mean to mix business with pleasure,’ Helena attempted to diffuse the situation. ‘And it has been a pleasure.’ She moved in to kiss Lola on the cheek. Unfortunately, fresh back from Frankfurt where she’d greeted numerous customers from countries all over the world with a variety of acknowledgement styles, Lola misinterpreted the air kiss and bumped cheeks with Monty’s mother instead. Then she did exactly the same to his father. Major cringe! Her life was officially a series of neverending tailspins.
She said a polite goodbye as she and Monty forged ahead to an evening of less cooking, more coupling, and wondered if her wave would be inspected too, and found lacking for not living up to the late Queen’s classy twist of the wrist.
‘Jeez, that was cringe,’ Monty half-whispered, voicing Lola’s precise thoughts once they’d put some distance between themselves and his parents. ‘I’msosorry about my folks.’
‘Not at all. I thought they were perfectlynice.’
And snobby and judgemental.
‘They can’t help themselves,’ he replied. ‘They’ve always been that way. Let it go over the top of your head. That’s what I do. Come on… we’ve got lost time to make up for.’
Lola was too euphoric to give a toss about their reservations after making the bold decision to break down her self-imposedrelationship barriers. And it appeared that neither of Monty’s parents had recognised her from the jumbotron or television footage, which was a huge relief because Frederick had her going there for a while when he was cleaning his glasses. She definitely ought to quiz Monty about his father’s frosty work requests, though. Talk about a thorny, one-sided conversation. But not now. Lola couldn’t wait to see where Helena and Frederick’s son lived and then she couldn’t wait to devour him.
