Chapter 42
The Present
Nathalie sent a message on her mobile as soon as she was out of the building. She had felt claustrophobic being that close to Jonathan, but she could do this, she would do this. Dinner is on around eight, half past xx I’ve just left. He won’t be going anywhere for a while. You know Jonathan the man of routine xx she added a couple of laughing emojis and waited for the response.
Great! Every day is closer! XX Came the reply.
Nathalie could only smile. Thank God, for that she told herself. The sooner this ordeal was over and Jonathan had what was coming to him; they could all get on with having a normal life.
She thought about Lauren, they had not heard from her for a long time, Clare had stopped messaging Lauren; the trust had been broken as soon as she had found out from Tim, that she was in Glenveal. Even to this day, neither one of them could figure out why Lauren had even gone there.
She had planned everything to the very last detail for Clare. There had been no way that Jonathan should have been able to get to her that quickly. She shook her head; Clare’s decision was final and they had had to revise everything they were doing.
She heard the car door slam and turned to see as Billie made his way back into the building. “Hi.” Nathalie held her hand up to wave. He hesitated as he reached the entrance. “Hello Nathalie. How are you?” He asked.
Billie knew he had to remain calm, they had a large project on the go with this firm and an awful lot of money tied up in it. An awful lot of money. It gave him heart palpitations just thinking about their investment in this project. He walked towards the stunning woman and held out his hand. “Sorry I could not be at the meeting today; I had some urgent family business to attend to!”
“Gosh Billie that’s fine. I hope everything is ok.” Nathalie smiled; she had no issue with this man. If anything, she felt sorry for him, she knew their history and that no matter what Jonathan said or did, Billie was not ever going anywhere.
“Yes, yes everything is fine. Just you know family crisis. All sorted now.” He lied. Nathalie sensed his discomfort and knew when a man was being evasive or downright telling a lie. “Are you sure Billie?”
He wished he could tell her but he could not, he would have to keep this to himself. All he knew from Jonathan was that Nathalie had been a friend of Clare’s a long time ago in their student days. She was their project manager; he could not start talking to her about anything related to Jonathan and Clare. He had to simply carry this around until he could figure out exactly what was going on.
“Yes. I’m sure Nathalie. We’re all good.” He realised he was still holding on to her hand and let it go. Odd he thought, her hands seemed somewhat larger for her petite body. He shook his head, what he needed was a damn stiff brandy. “What I need is a good old-fashioned stalker.” He tried to laugh at his own joke, only he wasn’t’ joking.
Nathalie cocked her head to the side and raised her already arched eyebrows even further. “Really!” She paused. “I guess you could ask Jonathan, he’s a man with many skeletons in his closest. I’m sure he could pull one of those out for you.” She pressed her key fob and the car opened. “See you soon Billie. Jonathan will run through the new proposal with you, I guess you’re across all the new updates. Look forward to seeing you in a few days.”
He was taken aback by her comments, how did Nathalie know anything about Jonathan’s skeletons? He definitely needed that brandy, the thing was that he wasn’t actually sure if Nathalie had meant it or not, but the tone she used, told him that Nathalie knew an awful lot more about Jonathan than they knew about her.
Billie’s day was getting out of control. He had to get back in, speak with Jonathan, and start doing some digging of his own. For a start, he told himself who exactly is this Nathalie with her long swishing hair, high heels and cut out of Vogue look.