“Lunch tomorrow then?” I said hopefully.
She smiled at that. “Won’t we be meeting at the office in the morning?”
I looked at her. “It’s Sunday tomorrow.”
“Oh.” She sounded vague. “I never knew what day it was.” She shrugged. “Okay then. Lunch.” I wished she sounded a bit more enthusiastic, but maybe she would be after a good night’s sleep.
* * *
It broke my heart to leave her there, but at least she was safe and protected. She didn’t need to know about the security I’d put around the place. And I’d see her tomorrow. I got in the car feeling more relaxed than I had for a long time. Idly, I put my hand in the glove compartment, and my hand closed around her phone. I grinned and tucked it in my shirt pocket, close to my heart, sentimental fool that I was.
We’d had lunch on the plane, so I sat down to work on my neglected business before dinner. There was an email from Tom. He wanted to talk. I raised my eyebrows. It was unlike him to be so terse.
I called him. “What’s up, Tom?”
“For fuck’s sake, James, you can’t just abandon your business and not talk to me!”
“Sure I can. That’s what I employ you for.” Nothing could faze me now, I had Toni back.
“Yeah, well. I need to come around and talk right now.”
“What’s it about, Tom? Can’t it wait until Monday?”
“No, I need to talk to you. Something Paul’s told me about the app he’s working on with Antonia.”
That had my attention. “Okay, I’ll wait here for you, Tom. And it had better be good stuff.” I felt cold. What other bad news might I have to give her?
Tom breezed in half an hour later. “Glad we can do this here, mate. It’s better to talk it out quietly away from the office.”
“Well, let’s get on with it then.” I led him into my own office.
He glanced around. “I’m glad you’ve got her back, James. But can you be sure she won’t overhear us?”
“She’s not here. She’s staying elsewhere at the moment. But I won’t be a party to any shady deals with her work. So what’s Paul said?” If he’d betrayed her trust, then he was for the high jump, whether he knew it or not.
“That’s the problem.” Tom gulped down the whiskey I’d given him. He put the glass down and stared at me. “Paul’s bloody good. I knew it would be a waste when he went onto that project. He’s got this sort of sense of what’ll work or won’t.” He shifted uncomfortably. “He said ages ago that there’d be other chess apps coming out with the new world championship coming up. I didn’t believe him, but he was right. Ours is going to tank unless we can keep up with updates and the new releases as well.” He scratched his head. “But we’ve nothing earth-shattering in the pipeline. Then last week, I was talking to Paul on the phone — he was down with you, obviously. He let slip that he’s going to be asking for the media team to start soon. He said it’s a fucking good app, and it’s the first in its field.” His eyes held mine. “He said that it could be the start of a whole new franchise of similar stuff. It needs its own website and is going to be huge. I don’t know what it is, but we want it in our name. We really do. We could put her in, give her a really good royalty income. Then she won’t have to worry about the marketing and stuff. We’ll do it in-house.”
He sat back. “James, this is important for your business.” He smiled. “And you can tell her from me that I’m sorry I didn’t believe in it from the beginning.”
I twirled my own whiskey glass. I wasn’t actually going to drink it. I needed a clear head.
“So, did he say that she’s got the ideas for the run-on apps?”
“Yup. They’re all mapped out for the first year. I tell you, James, we need to get onto this quick.”
He glared at me. “Why are you grinning?”
I felt like the cat who’d swallowed the cream. “I’m so glad this is working for her.” I had to pull myself together. “Look, Tom. I know you’ve the best interests of the company at heart, and I’m grateful for that. But, between you and me, if this takes off for her, you’ll get exactly the same bonus as if it was in the company.”
“It wasn’t that,” he blustered, although I could see it was. The relief on his face was palpable. I made a mental note to spend more time with him, get beside him more and see what I could do. I knew he had a sick child and things could get very expensive, even though I made sure all my staff had really good medical plans.