Love to Hate You: Three's a Crowd

Chapter 5 - Surprise!

Xander had been living in his Godmother's pool house (yes, Aunt Vee had a pool house to go with her indoor-outdoor stainless steel infinity pool) for the past six days. He'd returned from Italy on Saturday, but instead of going back to his high-end bachelor pad in London, he'd spent the weekend "catching up" with his Godmother. She'd insisted on regular "catch-ups" ever since he'd come back into her life after the Millennial magazine fiasco, and as he had no family of his own, he had quite appreciated her interference. Vee was the strong-minded, independent-yet-doting kind of woman he could only but admire, and her maternal instincts were strong enough to make him feel like her adopted son, rather than her errant, fully-gown Godson. A weekend spent in the designer home she shared with her mild-mannered husband Carl, was no hardship, so he'd settled into their best guest bedroom, accepted their top-end wine and liquors, and allowed Aunt Vee to bring him up to speed on all the latest gossip.

He'd learnt that Mattie was still keen to have a third child (a ghastly notion), and that Rafe was adamant that no such thing would occur. "It won't be a girl anyway. I've got so much testosterone that I'm probably incapable of fathering daughters!" He'd learnt that Crisis Chris was concocting new crises at Paxton and Colville, and that if Xander wanted to, he could probably use it to his advantage and wangle some additional consultancy work from them. He'd decided not to bother, however, on account of his having hated working with the left-wing, ultra-PC Justin at Millennial, and Crisis Chris – despite voting Tory all his life – was trying to appear (the key word being "appear") to be of the same mindset. Xander didn't think he could cope with a man who was right-wing pretending to be left wing for the sake of red tape.

It was whilst learning all of this, that Xander had dropped into conversation that he was starting a new contract on the Wednesday, with the University of Surrey. Naturally, this had prompted Vee to offer up their pool house.

'Stay here darling! In the pool house if you want your own space; if you need to spread out your work. I know how you work late into the night. But stay here. It'll be a short commute and we'd be able to see more of you.' So, he'd agreed because really, they had very good wine and the pool house; it was almost as impressive as the main house itself.

Thus, Xander found himself working through the initial notes he'd taken at the university when Aunt Vee knocked on the door to his pool house.

'Are you okay?' she asked, stepping inside.

'Why wouldn't I be?' because she hadn't said it in a polite tone of voice, but rather, an enquiring one, so as to suppose that he ought not to be okay.

'No reason. Just checking, love,' she replied, but her lips were tight; the smile forced. She was an impressive woman, but a woeful liar.

'Vee?' he asked, brow lifted knowingly. And here was the conundrum. To tell, or not to tell? Rudy had told her not to, and she happened to agree. Just this once. But yet she couldn't say nothing. Not Verity Anderson. Not when she had something so important and explosive to share. But fate was on her side, it seemed, preventing her from doing or saying something which Rudy might have subsequently scolded her for, as before she could answer the unspoken question, Xander's phone began to ring. He looked at it, frowning. Amy, he mused. He'd not spoken to her since he'd left for Italy. He supposed he should have, but they weren't a couple, so messaging from abroad seemed inappropriate, somehow. As did dropping her a line upon his return to say, "I'm in your area. I've got a pool house to myself. Fancy coming over?"

'Excuse me,' he told Vee, holding up one finger, before lifting his phone to his ear. 'Amy?' he said, unsure what to say, because he was happy to keep sleeping with her, but they weren't dating and he didn't want to say something which might imply that they were. Vee heard the name, realised who he must be speaking to, and felt aghast at the thought that the woman might be in the process of telling him over the phone.