Page 26 of Pillow Talk (Rally Romance #1)

She stood naked, deciding which was better: a quick shower or a long bath.

A quick shower would give her time to finish two veils before bedtime but a long bath was calling her name.

She opened her medicine cabinet and found a small bottle of bubble bath – one of the goodies from Anni’s bachelorette weekend away.

She emptied the bottle into the tub and opened the tap, standing back to breathe in the rich vanilla scent that filled her bathroom.

When there was a generous amount of water in the bath, Shona stepped in and sank indulgently into the bubbles.

She closed her eyes and, without warning or invitation, a miserable memory popped up.

It was the first time her grandmother had fired her from the shop.

Working at the shop wasn’t a paid job but her grandmother treated her and Aruna like employees and expected them to behave like she was their boss.

While everyone else’s grandmothers were baking cookies, having sleepovers and spoiling them, their grandmother kept a small notebook to record their wrongdoings.

The notebook was under lock and key in a drawer under the counter.

She would wave it around like a gun when she or Aruna stepped out of line.

At first, her mom had argued with Grandma over the threat, but without Shona’s dad backing her up, she’d simply given up.

He would say, ‘Your grandmother just wants to teach you both about work ethic. You’ll need it in the real working world.’

Now, years later, she knew that no one should ever feel afraid at work. That notebook had instilled fear and, even now when she thought about it, her heart ached for that little girl who’d been terrified of it.

She was about 10 when she got fired. It was a rainy day much like today.

Her mother couldn’t fetch her from school like she usually did on rainy days because she was in bed with a terrible cold, as was Aruna.

Her father had gone to the warehouse to choose new fabric and no one else could leave the shop.

Shona would be the first to admit that when she was a child, the shop was always busy.

But someone should at least have fetched her from school.

She waited for about 20minutes and, when no one showed up, she and Anni decided to brave the thunderstorm.

They held hands, fearing the roaring thunder with each step they took.

After saying goodbye to Anni at her house, Shona ran all the way home.

At one point, she just wanted to close her eyes and run because she was so scared.

The sky was dark with bulging rain clouds and the only sound was the heavy raindrops beating the tar.

She finally made it to her house. Her mother stumbled out of bed, coughing, sneezing and weak, and cursing Shona’s dad for not postponing his trip to the fabric supplier.

Shona remembered shivering, her teeth chattering as her mother ran her a hot bath. The air filled with a subtle vanilla scent as her mom poured in some bubble bath.

She missed work that day – and it went down in the notebook.

The next day was a Saturday. She had breakfast and got into the car to go to the shop with her dad. But her grandmother refused to let her enter.

‘She is fired. You want her to grow up thinking that it’s okay to miss a day at work?’

Her father tried to reason with his mother but she waved the notebook in his face. Drake didn’t even dare open his mouth. He was too afraid of losing his job. The other staff were horrified but they, too, remained silent. Their eyes were filled with pity.

Shona started to cry. After all, she was just a kid.

She shouldn’t have to be humiliated and shouted at, but that was her grandmother’s way.

Her father gave up and took her home. She remembered his fake smile when he dropped her off.

He joked that she could use this bonus time to watch cartoons all day.

She nodded, but her heart felt heavy – too heavy for a 10-year-old because, in that moment, she began to lose respect for him.

A couple of days later, her grandmother needed her back in the shop.

It was only now, years later, that she realised why.

At the time she’d thought the cruel old woman was sorry but now, lying in the tub in her bathroom, next to the bedroom where she’d explored every inch of his body, she realised she’d got her job back because of Sen.

His grandfather had a standing appointment at the shop every summer and he would bring Sen with him.

Sen would agree to everything as long as Shona was there.

He would say yes to anything the salespeople offered him just to get them off his back, so he could play with Shona in the back office.

And the longer he stayed, the more his grandfather bought.

That year she was 10 and he’d already turned 11.

They were no longer interested in running along the corridors from the shop into the workrooms. No.

That year, Sen had brought a few books from his school library to show her.

But they didn’t open any of the books even once.

Instead they sat opposite each other at her father’s desk, talking about school, their friends, the latest pop music, all the bad things they wished for Avi, and everything else.

When Sen’s grandfather finally called for Sen to leave, they realised they’d been talking for over two hours.

An unfamiliar flutter caught Shona off guard as she lay in the tub. A funny feeling tightened in her stomach. It wasn’t just a pang. It was something more. A tremble of nerves, a spark of excitement. And the realisation that the bad memory had been replaced with a good one – of Sen in the shop.

Sen rubbed his eyes. It was 11pm and he was still at the office.

Lawrence Jackard was a jackass. He knew this.

He reminded himself of it whenever he worked on anything that had to do with him and yet he kept him as a client.

And it had nothing to do with his stepdaughter, Tamira.

Tamira was a typical diva. She lived off her family’s wealth and her only job was to attend social functions.

Sen had been on a few dates with her, but there was no chemistry to prompt even having a fling with her. Truth be told, she bored him.

Now her stepfather was making his life miserable: Sen was having to correct all the errors the jackass’s previous lawyers had made and it was exhausting.

He hadn’t seen Shona since the morning after the wedding and he missed her.

Really missed her. He switched off his computer and got ready to leave.

It was too late to stop at her place – he’d see her tomorrow.

But he didn’t because he had to be in a court.

An investor had brought an urgent application against Lawrence the jackass.

‘Shona, I can’t believe how elegant this is,’ her mother beamed.

Felicity smiled approvingly.

‘I love it too, MrsShah. I can actually see Shona working here. The location is perfect,’ the wedding planner said.

Aruna walked to the store window.

‘The lighting is also perfect,’ she commented.

Shona had invited her mom and sister to accompany her to Durban to look at a rental space that an estate agent had contacted her about.

‘I think this is the one,’ she said.

The estate agent smiled. ‘I’ll send over the papers. You can sign them and have them back to me by the end of the week.’

Shona nodded and Felicity let out a squeal of delight. Her office was just one block away.

The estate agent locked up and the four women made their way back to Felicity’s office, while the estate agent went off in the opposite direction. They rounded the corner when Aruna said, ‘Look, there’s Senthil Aiyer.’

Shona gaze followed her sister’s pointed finger.

Sen had just stepped out of a restaurant and a woman he was with grabbed his collar and kissed him.

Shona stopped in her tracks. She felt sick to her stomach. Her mother put her arm around her.

‘Come, it’s getting late. Let’s head back to Rally,’ she said.

Shona nodded, not giving Sen a second glance.

When she got home that evening, she threw herself into designing the traditional bridal outfits that had been ordered. She also posted an advertisement for a seamstress.

Then she got into bed and cried herself to sleep.

Sen was furious. He drove to his office and as soon as he got there, he called Lawrence Jackard to tell him he was dropping him as a client.

Lawrence took it quite well; he was probably used to lawyers dropping him.

Sen then spoke to his father about his concerns and his dad applauded him for doing the right thing.

Earlier Lawrence had asked him to meet at a restaurant to discuss the latest court case.

Sen had assumed it was a working lunch, but Tamira was there with her stepfather.

A few minutes into the meeting, Lawrence got a phone call and said he urgently needed to head back to the office, leaving Sen and Tamira alone.

Sen told her he also had to leave and paid the bill.

But when they got outside, Tamira grabbed him and kissed him.

He pushed her away and told her that he expected their paths never to cross again.

Later that evening he drove to Rally. He stopped at Shona’s apartment, but she didn’t answer the door.

He tried calling her, but her phone went straight to voicemail.

Over the next few days he texted and called but couldn’t get hold of Shona.

What was going on?

Shona looked over the shopfitter’s plan again. When she’d told him what she wanted, she hadn’t really expected that he would see her vision too.