Page 23 of Hit For Six (Balls and Banter #1)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Lola

What a weird but wonderful day. Of course, Lola wouldn’t have been thinking so if Fumiko hadn’t footed Squiffy’s annual check-up, which had come with a typically astronomical Bath price tag.

Thankfully, the little cat was given the paws up and Lola had dropped her off at the flat with a brand new catnip-infused toy mouse to celebrate.

Harry, in his permanently guilt-ridden state, had suggested that Lola roll in any time after eleven so she’d decided to treat herself to coffee and cake.

The last thing she’d expected was a run in with the man she was trying– and failing– to get out of her head.

He hadn’t even seen her in that queue when they’d both reached for the last cinnamon roll.

Would she have fled in the opposite direction before he’d turned around if she’d realised who he was?

She wasn’t so sure now. And that threw her after her determination just a few nights ago.

Lola also doubted that Monty read romance novels so he wouldn’t be aware of the significance of the cinnamon roll trope boyfriend.

This was weird enough, but that all of it should happen on the blimming sixth of the month was alarming.

Try as she might to ignore the plethora of signs, it was no longer possible.

They were flying at Lola from all directions.

Once they’d gone their separate ways and she’d wished Monty luck with the contract, Lola ran to the nearest bench and hit the Google search engine on her phone, terrified to look up six’s value in numerology.

She wished she hadn’t bothered. Amongst other things, apparently it stood for unconditional love.

She mustered up the energy to stand and carried on walking to the office in yet another daze, unsure of what had happened this morning or how her feet had carried her to her desk.

She’d been going to Roly Poly ever since it had opened its doors a few years ago and not once had she bumped into Monty.

Not only had she shared breakfast with him, but now she’d poured her heart out and accepted his knee-jerk offer to cat sit Squiffy.

This was bonkers. Especially since he had no experience!

A couple of hours was one thing but three nights was quite another.

Fumiko would evict her if she found out.

Or would she?

It was weird and Lola shouldn’t need an affirmation of her worth from anybody else, least of all a male, in light of recent events, but ever since Monday’s meeting with Harry, her confidence had grown.

Weirder still was Suzy depositing a tray of giant chocolate pretzels on the filing cabinet next to the water dispenser and making a song and dance of it the moment Lola entered the building.

‘To buoy you up for your Frankfurt trip!’

‘ Danke schon ,’ Lola replied, crisply and clearly this time, maintaining steady eye contact, not a mumble in evidence.

***

Monty rang the doorbell at seven on the dot that evening.

But Lola had already been watching out for his legs through the paint peeling railings from the kitchen window in the basement.

Which was a bit silly because now she needed to pelt up two mini staircases to open the door; a feat which would leave her gloriously sweaty and out of breath since it also involved a long hallway that could almost rival The Shining’s– thankfully minus the scary carpet.

‘Hey!’ she tried to sound casual as the godly vision of him in jeans, a polo shirt and a preppy sweater bombarded her senses. He looked like a male catalogue model for Beau-re-mi.

Lola had to admit that Monty dressed with far more style than Orlando.

Then again, by his own admission, he was apparently only nouveau riche .

He smelt divine too. An earthy punch of sandalwood and pheromones helixing into the hallway.

Then this was a good time to remind herself that theirs was simply a friendship.

She’d never have accepted Monty’s invitation to come here otherwise.

Lola lived in a dive and her flatshare was no way to impress a guy.

Not that those were the sole reasons for putting his visit back into perspective, of course.

There were myriad grounds to keep him off Fumiko’s property in normal circumstances.

‘Hey back! You look radiant.’

Lola ignored the compliment, knowing full well that she looked a hot mess.

‘You found it then?’

Durr. Obviously! No need to babble on for the sake of it. Give him a conveyor belt tour, reel off the instructions, then show him the front door again, and close it firmly with lock and bolt.

‘I did. Great part of the city… curiously nowhere near the university, though.’

‘It’s okay.’

Lola shrugged and decided to pretend she hadn’t heard Monty say that last bit.

‘It’s more than okay. You’ve got a pub just a few metres away, a cute little park further along, and I’m very partial to the deli around the corner.’

She had once stepped inside said foodie emporium and right back out.

You’d need to come from new money like the delectable Mr B-C to be shopping there.

Lola still couldn’t believe Monty was standing in front of her.

She closed her mouth and opened it again, remembering she ought to be polite whilst simultaneously batting away her curiosity over his exciting international career prospects.

It was just a bit thrilling to think that she might have a future Olympian standing on her doorstep, even if that fluffy-headed granny in the park’s newspaper had dropped a giant hint that Monty was hot stuff.

‘How did it go earlier?’

‘Yeah, great. I think you did me a favour eating half the cinnamon roll.’ Monty laughed. ‘The coffee just about kicked in but by the time the head coach arrived for the photoshoot with Seth, Sanjay, London and myself, I could barely keep my eyes open. I might have had a catnap.’

‘Ha ha. Well, I’m glad it’s all official now. What a feeling. Your family must be elated.’

Strictly business, no pleasure you said. Utterly hopeless, Lola.

‘I wish.’

Oh.

They both stood there for a moment, more than a little stupefied.

Until Lola snapped herself back to the reason for Monty’s visit, deciding this was not the time or the place to grill him on his snippy reply ref his folks.

She ushered him inside. She decided it would be best if she adopted an estate agent persona, rushing him along the rustic corridor and pointing out the two bedrooms en route, before giving him a whistle stop tour of everything else that was key to carrying out his job.

‘Did I detect a shrine to Prince in that one?’ asked Monty as they sped past her personal space, Lola realising that she’d made the rookie error of forgetting to shut her bedroom door. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to be nosey but the glare of purple was kind of hard to miss.’

Charming. Who didn’t love Prince’s music? But Lola was all about the queens and if she got onto the subject of musical theatre, Monty would be stuck here all night.

‘Luckily you won’t be going in there,’ she quipped, so that he had no idea whether it was her room or Fumiko’s.

‘Touché.’

Lola tried to restrain herself, but before she knew it, she’d thrown her head back over her shoulder to treat Monty to a withering look, only just remembering to turn around in time for the first mini flight of stairs, which faced the bathroom, whose entrance she almost flew into. Not mortifying at all.

Argh. Now Lola remembered Monty offering to stay over, and she supposed that was the way that some cat sitters operated.

But surely he’d prefer to nip in and out instead.

It was only a few nights. He probably slept on Egyptian cotton sheets.

Who’d want to give those up for Primark’s finest duvet set?

Squiffy just needed food, water and a litter tray change.

Okay, she’d probably appreciate some cuddles and the sound of a friendly voice.

But she had to be introduced to Monty first. Squiffs was used to mainly female company.

What if she hissed at him and it was hate at first sight?

It was majorly unfair to condemn their visitor before he’d introduced himself, but cats were super intuitive and for all Lola knew, Squiffy could have deduced from Lola’s recent moods that each and every male was the same bad news. Oh, heck. She hadn’t bargained on that.

Lola still couldn’t believe that Monty’s mother had been so strict as to refuse him a hamster. It seemed a bit mean when his sisters had owned horses. But it was all too easy to judge and, as she’d recently discovered, there were two sides to every story.

‘Now we’re passing the lounge,’ she announced, quite unnecessarily.

Lola had plumped up the cushions and run the vacuum cleaner over the carpet but there had been little time for anything else.

She’d not even thought about prepping dinner yet, which was probably a blessing as she didn’t want Monty inhaling the smell of her lasagne-for-one and trying to outstay his welcome.

Although, faced down with knobbly, chocolate-covered and salt-encrusted pretzels so soon after this morning’s cinnamon roll, her stomach was in rollercoaster mode.

The battalion of butterflies wasn’t helping.

‘Squiffy may be in there or she could have run down the next lot of stairs to the kitchen. She usually flits between the two. Let’s go down to the basement now to see if we can find her.

I’ll need to show you where all her food is in any case– as well as the back door to the garden…

although, you’ll be glad to know that she doesn’t tend to poop there, which is going to make your life so much easier. ’

‘I see. Erm… after you?’