Page 23 of Loving Jemima
Except she was a Darlington daughter. Even the most accomplished stalker couldn’t have arranged that, right?
And Alistair Darlington was looking at her, his eyes starting to cloud with doubt and Ellie knew she had to do something, so she did the only thing she could think of.
“Jemima, is it?” she said brightly, holding out her hand. “Lovely to meet you.”
“Call me Jem,” said Jemima, just as brightly, shaking her hand with cool fingers.
Ellie shuddered a little at the touch and wasn’t sure why.
“Well, I’ll leave the two of you to get acquainted,” Alistair said. “You should have all you need, Jemima will report back to me, and if there’s anything you don’t have just ask Toby.” He turned and for a second Ellie considered asking him not to go, asking not to be left with her potential stalker.
But how was that conversation supposed to go?
Just a coincidence, that was all it was, she told herself. And Jem had shown no signs of recognition. Mind you, she might have been expecting this meeting. Maybe she wasn’t a stalker, maybe this was some kind of industrial espionage or something,maybe she’d already known that Ellie was about to work here.
Ellie felt her chest growing tighter, felt her grip sliding. She took a deep breath. No, this was nothing other than fate. She was just going to pretend that nothing had happened, that was by far the simplest solution.
She managed a smile. “So, Jem, do you have any experience with event planning?”
“Event planning?” Jem said flicking through the brochure that Ellie had left on the table. “No. Events? Obviously.”
Her accent was cut glass and Ellie figured that of course it would be. She was rich, after all. Rich and spoiled by the looks of it. Which sort of made sense. Everything clicked into place. Darlington needed a role for his daughter, a daughter who by the looks of things wasn’t exactly the academic or financial type, so he’d fobbed her off onto the event planner.
She sighed.
“What?” Jem asked, looking up sharply, those deep china blue eyes narrowing.
“Nothing,” said Ellie, sticking with her plan to pretend that they didn’t know each other at all. That seemed safest. After all, Jem hadn’t brought up their unfortunate meeting either, had she?
In fact, now that she thought of it, Jem seemed sort of… nervous perhaps?
None of this sat right.
Ellie cleared her throat. “Alright, well, that shouldn’t be a problem. I’m sure you’re well acquainted with what needs to be done.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jem asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“Just that… well, I suppose you’ve been to a lot of the places we’re considering as venues and you know most of the guests, that sort of thing,” Ellie said. She really hadn’t meant to insult her. But Jem was looking disgruntled and like she didn’t want to be here at all.
“Right.” She flicked through the pages of the brochure again. “This your work?”
Ellie nodded.
Jem sniffed but didn’t comment. “So what happens now then?”
For a long minute, Ellie wondered if that was a challenge. If she was supposed to rise to it, say something. Maybe Jem thought circumstances had changed. Maybe she thought that because she was the boss’s daughter that Ellie would fall at her feet.
She was still flicking idly through the brochure though. That horrible chest tightening started to happen again and Ellie had to remind herself to breathe. What she really needed was to get out of here. She thought fast.
“Okay, well, if you’ll give me your email, I’d like to send you a few things.”
“Like what?” Jem asked, looking at her again.
Ellie shifted. Those blue eyes really were quite piercing. “Like décor ideas, a provisional entertainer list, things that you can look through at your leisure today to ensure that we’re on the same page about things.”
Her eyes widened a little, a curve of a smile appeared. “At my leisure? You mean you’re cutting me free?”
“I, uh, I mean, I suppose…”