Page 43 of Love or Your Money Back
CHAPTER
Freddy isn’t surprised to find Kat’s kitchen pin neat, with tea-making apparatus in a logical cupboard above the kettle, all neatly labelled. Books line the tops of the kitchen cupboards and there are also bookshelves above the doorframes and bi-fold windows.
‘Excuse the mess.’ Kat calls out. ‘I haven’t had much time to be domestic with the office move and everything.’
‘What mess?’
‘Just don’t look inside the lower cupboards,’ says Kat. Her voice sounds much more stable now she’s bossing him around.
This of course prompts Freddy to look inside the lower cupboards. He finds labelled Tupperware, with the odd mixer or blender stacked up neatly in pieces.
‘Are you looking inside my lower cupboards?’ Kat shouts.
‘No.’ Freddy sits at the breakfast bar while the kettle boils. It’s an excellent kettle with a smart red exterior and high-tech thermostatic controls inside. He looks around the kitchen.
There’s a giant sentence on one wall, made of orange metal, that says ‘You people with hearts have something to guide you.’
‘The Wizard of Oz
again?’ Freddy calls out.
‘My mother made that,’ Kat calls back. ‘She was a sculptress. A really good one. She helped build the Meeting Place Statue at St Pancras station.’
‘That giant metal statue of the man and woman?’ Freddy has seen the statue many times on his way to Paris. In his opinion, it is an utterly pointless object that creates congestion from selfie-taking tourists. And the woman’s high heels are frighteningly enormous.
‘That’s the one,’ says Kat.
‘Are the couple reuniting or saying goodbye?’ Freddy asks. ‘I’ve always wondered.’
‘There’s no definite answer to that question,’ says Kat. ‘Good art provokes different responses from everyone, based on their outlook and interpretations of the world. The real question is, what do you
think they’re doing?’
‘I suppose … they’re reuniting,’ Freddy calls. ‘One of them just got off the train and they’re happy to see each other.’
‘To me, they’re saying goodbye,’ says Kat. ‘That statue was the last thing my mother ever made. Her final embrace with the world she was leaving behind.’
‘That’s … rather poignant and lovely.’
‘Freddy?’
‘Yes, honey?’ Freddy clears his throat. ‘I mean, where’s the honey?’
‘First drawer under the kettle. DO NOT open the big drawer.’
Of course, Freddy pulls open the big drawer. It’s full of romance novels. The sort you find at airports with women in bodices and hunky men on the covers. This cheers him up immediately.
‘Wow. Kat,’ Freddy laughs. ‘You’re a secret romance fiend.’
‘I told you not to look!’
‘What do we have here? Regency Rogues
?’
‘SHUT UP.’ Kat yells.
Freddy grabs the most embarrassing selection of books and carries them through to the living room. ‘ The Dashing Duke
? Tempted by the Billionaire
? Well, well, Kat. Don’t tell the sisterhood.’
‘Look, romance novels induce good feelings in the body,’ says Kat. ‘It’s a science-driven fact. And good feelings are excellent for MS. So don’t judge.’
‘I’m not judging. We all have our little moral lapses from time to time.’
‘This isn’t a moral lapse –’
Freddy holds up other titles. ‘ The Servant Girl and the Arab Prince
? The Housemaid and the Duke
? Those women don’t sound empowered.’
‘There’s a historical element. Power dynamics between men and women were different years ago.’
‘ Her Italian Lover
looks pretty modern –’
‘Oh look. I’m a hypocrite. I admit it. I don’t think women should chase around after rich men in real life. Which is ironic, considering what I did today.’
‘You weren’t chasing anyone around. You were being chased. And for what it’s worth, you stick to your morals a lot more than most.’
‘Thank you.’
‘You’re welcome.’
‘Actually, I mean it,’ says Kat. ‘I appreciate you breaking into my house, going through my drawers and ordering me a meal. Inexplicably, this behaviour seems to have lowered my stress levels. I don’t hurt as much anymore. You can hear it in my voice, can’t you? I can berate you without slurring.’
‘I am very glad to hear that.’
‘You are a good person. Who’d have thought?’
‘I’ll tell you a secret,’ says Freddy. ‘It’s very hard to build an empire unless you’re a good person.
I mean, you can build it, but you can’t sustain it.
People don’t usually let arseholes have money and power for very long.
You might think I’m a horrible, exploitative capitalist. But what I am is a good partner.
Not in the romantic sense, obviously. But I can support and delegate.
That’s something you could learn from me, actually. ’
‘I have a question for you, Freddy.’ Kat pulls herself up. ‘Why don’t you use your money and power to influence the world positively? Instead of just selling razors and kettles?’
‘I’m not arrogant enough to think I have all the answers.’
‘But you’re so arrogant in other ways.’
‘Lucky I have you around to take me down a peg or two. I have a question for you too. What would you have done if I hadn’t broken and entered?’
Kat does a micro shrug. ‘Laid on the sofa until morning. Missed a lot of deadlines and stressed about it.’
‘Well, that explains the profit yoyo.’ Freddy smiles at Kat. Not his usual dashing one, but a genuine, warm smile that reaches all the way to his eyes.
The doorbell rings.
‘That’ll be the curry you told me how to order,’ says Freddy.
‘The plates are –’
‘I’ll find them. Stand down, darling. The millionaire tycoon will serve the housemaid on this occasion.’
‘Oh, shut up.’