Page 17 of The Payback Plan
‘Oh, are you sure?’ She stopped short of batting her eyelashes as she said, ‘I did make the mess…’
‘Absolutely.’ He made a shooing motion. ‘You can take my car if you want. It’s only a ten-minute walk but it’s easier when you have bags to carry and more rain is forecast.’
Taken aback by his offer, she said, ‘Oh… thanks.’ Oliver kept surprising her and she hadn’t even been here twenty-four hours yet.
Bella had said he wasn’t a bad person but Paige’s internal narrative had billed him as an entitled twat because that made it easier for her to carry out this little scheme. The fact he’d been nothing but polite and accommodating, despite being supremely irritated, was exceptionally irksome.
‘Ten minutes is a long time to be dripping wet.’
Belatedly, Paige realised the connotations of what she’d said and so had he if that lip twitch was any indication. She hoped like crazy he didn’t think she wasflirtingwith him.
Because she was here to wreak havoc not make goo-goo eyes with Bella’s exceptionally hot, bastard ex-fiancé.
3
It was good to get out of the house. The way Oliver’s mouth had twitched at her verbal faux pas was still playing over in her mind. Actually, the way she’d felt to see those lips twitch was still playing in her mind. The fact she could make him smile made her feel warm inside and that was twice today. Two times too many for someone who had felt cold and numb inside for what felt like forever.
So, some distance was a good idea and having to travel it in Oliver’s latest model Mini Cooper S in British racing green was no hardship. It was a sleek piece of machinery, perfect for a movie star’s son. Perfect for Oliver. Too many men, in her opinion, liked to drive around in grunt cars to prove their masculinity.
Horrible Harvey being a classic example.
Give her a man who was secure enough in his own masculinity to drive a small, iconic, quintessentially British motor any day.
Paige was excited to get into town so she could get the lay of the land and investigate what was available locally to make Oliver’s life as temporarily uncomfortable as she could. Thankfully, she discovered something almost immediately as she spied a battered-looking violin in an even more battered case for sale in an antique shop window. Smiling gleefully, Paige bought the instrument without blinking at the hundred-quid price tag.
She’d played violin for several years when she was a kid, eventually giving it up due to the clash in all her extracurricular activities. So, it’d been a while and might take her a while to get good again but, that wasn’t the plan.
She knew from the pained expressions on her parents’ faces when she’d first started out, that novice violin playing was a particular kind of hell. Her father’s right eye had always developed a very specific twitch any time he’d had to sit through yet another painful rendition of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’.
And it didn’t matter that by the time Paige had given up she could play the violin with a depth and clarity that could make her father weep, it still hadn’t stopped the family jokes about those dreadfulstrangled cat yearsas her sister had coined them.
So, death by strangled cat it would be.
With that purchase under her belt, she set out to find her next, buying a cheap burner phone and a dozen SIM cards before finding a café on the sea front to escape the chill. It had a large outdoor area that Paige could only imagine would be crowded on a summer day but that wasnottoday. There were very few people out on the streets and only one on the beach rugged up in a puffer jacket, beanie and scarf to ward off the cold and wind.
‘I’ll have a pot of English Breakfast,’ Paige asked the woman behind the counter who introduced herself as Jiya, the owner.
The broad Cornish accent was not what Paige had expected, which would teach her for making assumptions. Jiya might look South Asian but within a minute of her acquaintance, she’d proudly boasted about her family’s three-generation – about to be four with the arrival of her first grandchild in a few months – history in the West Country.
Paige took a seat by the big plate glass window and got to work immediately. She’d already trawled the internet for harmless pranks and had settled on playing a bot. She slid a SIM into the burner and sent her first text to Oliver, whose number Bella had shared.
Thank you for subscribing to HAMSTER FACTS! We’ll be sending you regular updates about hamsters from around the world. To STOP, reply with STOP. Standard messaging rates may apply.
Paige smiled to herself as she sat the phone down then shifted it out of the way as Jiya delivered her steaming pot of tea. The phone vibrated on the table and Paige picked it up.
STOP.
Grinning now, she consulted her list of facts she’d collated.
Thank you for continuing HAMSTER FACTS! Did you know that all hamsters belong to the family Cricetidae? To OPT OUT of these messages reply OPT OUT! Standard messaging rates may apply.
She hit send and set the phone aside as she poured herself a cup of tea. The phone vibrated against the table almost immediately and Paige grinned. She didn’t bother to look at it or reply just yet – it was important not to overplay her hand.
Taking a sip of her tea, she turned her attention back to the front to discover a skinny-looking dog sitting on the pavement outside the window looking at her with big brown eyes. It was some kind of Border Collie maybe, with brown and white colouring instead of black and white. Its nose was white with brown patches over his eyes that looked like a mask.
Well, theywouldhave been brown back in the dog’s heyday but now they were liberally streaked with grey. It looked at her longingly and Paige wondered who he or she belonged to. It was freezing out there and the dog appeared cold and miserable.
She looked across to ask Jiya if she knew the dog but she must have disappeared into the kitchen and, when Paige turned back to the window, the dog was gone. Sitting forward, Paige craned her neck in both directions to see if she could see the animal but it had vanished.
