am not lower middle class,’ Grace gritted immediately. ‘I come from Worthing and my grandfather was a bank manager, for God’s sake.’ Vaughn laughed again and being mad at him made the nerves and the awkwardness melt away. ‘I’m sorry, did I ask you out for a drink? I must have taken huge amounts of drugs at some point during the evening.’
It would have been easier to just hang up the phone instead of walking into the lounge/bedroom/ecosystem for mould and flinging herself down on the sofa, which creaked in protest, but Grace still hadn’t figured out how to do easy. She also wished she hadn’t got undressed because this wasn’t the kind of conversation she wanted to have while she was wearing a pair of rainbow-patterned knickers and a bra that had been through the wash too many times.
‘Are you pouting?’ he asked.
‘No,’ Grace lied. ‘And I take back the drink thing. Revoked. Never happened.’
‘You can’t take it back,’ Vaughn said smugly. ‘You said it, it’s out there. I’m checking my BlackBerry right now.’
‘Well, I’m going to New York the week after next so I’m very, very bu—’
‘I’m in New York then too.’ Of course Vaughn would be in New York too. He probably spent loads of time in New York; it was like a second home to him and he had a favourite deli, bought his cufflinks in Barney’s, and he’d go to a New York version of the club he’d taken Grace to where all the staff knew his name and his favourite brand of champagne.
‘I’ve never been to New York before,’ Grace heard herself confess haltingly, because there was something about Vaughn that made her feel so nervous that she just blurted out the first thing that came into her head.
‘Well, how fortunate that our schedules have us there at the same time,’ he said smoothly. ‘Fine, we’ll do drinks there if you can find a window in between doing the Circle Line tour and trying to find the Empire State Building. Where are you staying?’
And Grace had just been imagining that her gaucheness was going to pass unnoticed. ‘Did you hear what I just said about the drinks thing being totally revoked?’
‘Give me your exact dates.’
‘God, you’re pushy.’ Grace sighed without much bite, because there was something to be said for a man who got what he wanted and didn’t just wheedle and whine until she did it for him. Like, say, Liam.
‘Determined,’ Vaughn corrected firmly. ‘Dates: sometime before the end of the year would be preferable.’
Grace rattled off the relevant information after a few false starts because Kiki had been changing the dates and times on an hourly basis. ‘I probably won’t return your calls,’ she warned him. ‘Just so you know.’
‘Of course you won’t,’ he agreed cheerfully. ‘It’s very late, you should get some sleep. Being tired obviously makes you cranky.’
And then he rang off before Grace could give him an example of just how cranky it made her.
chapter five
When she was little, Grace used to think that there really was a big apple hidden somewhere in New York. She imagined a maze in Central Park, and glowing somewhere right at the very heart of it was a golden apple waiting for her to take great, sweet bites of it.
But she was older now. Not wiser, but definitely jaded. She knew that the golden apple of her childhood was false advertising, but still it would have been nice to get to Central Park and see for herself. And it would have been even nicer to do all the touristy things that Vaughn had sneered at, like taking the Circle Line tour or falling down on her knees and kissing the ground outside Bergdorf Goodman and eating cupcakes at the Magnolia Bakery and going drinking at this bar that was styled like a fifties beauty parlour and all the million other things that Grace had promised herself she’d do when she finally took Manhattan. But the only remotely touristy
It would have been easier to just hang up the phone instead of walking into the lounge/bedroom/ecosystem for mould and flinging herself down on the sofa, which creaked in protest, but Grace still hadn’t figured out how to do easy. She also wished she hadn’t got undressed because this wasn’t the kind of conversation she wanted to have while she was wearing a pair of rainbow-patterned knickers and a bra that had been through the wash too many times.
‘Are you pouting?’ he asked.
‘No,’ Grace lied. ‘And I take back the drink thing. Revoked. Never happened.’
‘You can’t take it back,’ Vaughn said smugly. ‘You said it, it’s out there. I’m checking my BlackBerry right now.’
‘Well, I’m going to New York the week after next so I’m very, very bu—’
‘I’m in New York then too.’ Of course Vaughn would be in New York too. He probably spent loads of time in New York; it was like a second home to him and he had a favourite deli, bought his cufflinks in Barney’s, and he’d go to a New York version of the club he’d taken Grace to where all the staff knew his name and his favourite brand of champagne.
‘I’ve never been to New York before,’ Grace heard herself confess haltingly, because there was something about Vaughn that made her feel so nervous that she just blurted out the first thing that came into her head.
‘Well, how fortunate that our schedules have us there at the same time,’ he said smoothly. ‘Fine, we’ll do drinks there if you can find a window in between doing the Circle Line tour and trying to find the Empire State Building. Where are you staying?’
And Grace had just been imagining that her gaucheness was going to pass unnoticed. ‘Did you hear what I just said about the drinks thing being totally revoked?’
‘Give me your exact dates.’
‘God, you’re pushy.’ Grace sighed without much bite, because there was something to be said for a man who got what he wanted and didn’t just wheedle and whine until she did it for him. Like, say, Liam.
‘Determined,’ Vaughn corrected firmly. ‘Dates: sometime before the end of the year would be preferable.’
Grace rattled off the relevant information after a few false starts because Kiki had been changing the dates and times on an hourly basis. ‘I probably won’t return your calls,’ she warned him. ‘Just so you know.’
‘Of course you won’t,’ he agreed cheerfully. ‘It’s very late, you should get some sleep. Being tired obviously makes you cranky.’
And then he rang off before Grace could give him an example of just how cranky it made her.
chapter five
When she was little, Grace used to think that there really was a big apple hidden somewhere in New York. She imagined a maze in Central Park, and glowing somewhere right at the very heart of it was a golden apple waiting for her to take great, sweet bites of it.
But she was older now. Not wiser, but definitely jaded. She knew that the golden apple of her childhood was false advertising, but still it would have been nice to get to Central Park and see for herself. And it would have been even nicer to do all the touristy things that Vaughn had sneered at, like taking the Circle Line tour or falling down on her knees and kissing the ground outside Bergdorf Goodman and eating cupcakes at the Magnolia Bakery and going drinking at this bar that was styled like a fifties beauty parlour and all the million other things that Grace had promised herself she’d do when she finally took Manhattan. But the only remotely touristy
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