Something From Tiffany’s (29 page)

Instead, Rachel rolled her eyes and sighed. ‘Gary, come on. Last time I checked you were an adult. It’s hardly Terri’s fault that you got drunk. Didn’t you tell me yourself you were drinking all day yesterday? Besides, how could she have possibly moved you? And I can’t imagine she’d want to put you up upstairs either.’ She put her hands on her hips. ‘The problem is that I need to open up soon and I can’t have you in here looking and smelling like you do. It wouldn’t be good for business. So scoot.’

Was she really kicking him out? Couldn’t she at least offer him some coffee to help him wake up first? Or maybe a bite to eat, while she was at it? What had got into her?

He started to open his mouth to ask these questions, but Rachel held up her hand. ‘Gary, please, just get a move on. I don’t have time for any of this right now. It’s after seven and I have too much to do. Go out the back way.’

So now she was making him exit through the back, like she was ashamed of him or something? What the hell?

Shaking her head in irritation, Rachel started to clean up around him, taking away the shot glasses and placing the whiskey bottle back on the shelf. Gary sat there, confused and unsure of what to say. She had never acted this way around him before; usually she was all over him.

He started to panic, wondering if Terri had in the meantime told her the truth about the engagement; but she wasn’t saying anything, expecting him to just guess why she was cheesed off, like women often did. He glanced at her left hand for the diamond but thankfully it was still there. He breathed an inward sigh of relief. OK, that wasn’t the problem. Nice one. At least he didn’t have to face all that now too.

Rachel came back over and starting making shooing motions. ‘Come on, come on. What are you waiting for?’

She herded him through the doors that led to the kitchen and then to the back service door. When he reached it, he turned around and tried to summon his most charming grin. ‘Don’t I get a goodbye kiss?’

Rachel made a face. ‘Gary, you stink. Just go and maybe I’ll talk to you later.’ She pushed him out of the door and closed it behind him.

Alone in the back alley, Gary sniffed inside his shirt. She was right: he did smell bad. He felt a growing sense of unease in the pit of his stomach. He seriously wished he could remember more about last night, what he’d said to Terri or more importantly what he didn’t say. He didn’t think he’d been drunk enough to blab everything, or shoot himself in the foot, not at this stage. Yet who could tell? One thing was for sure, he didn’t like this – having Rachel mad at him, that was. Usually, she was delighted to see him and so happy to be around him. Should he try to make it up to her? Buy her flowers or something?

Walking around the front of the building, he peered in the windows to the inside of the bistro, where Rachel bustled among the tables, getting ready for business. He waited for her to look in his direction, but she didn’t. It was as if she was purposely ignoring him.

He stepped out into the road, looking to hail a taxi home. He just hoped he could make it all the way there without puking.

As a cab pulled up, he got in and tried to rid himself of the worry that was starting to creep up on him big time. It wasn’t so much that Rachel was mad at him; he’d had many women mad at him over the years.

But if she was this annoyed at finding him passed out on the table, what would she be like if Terri told her about the ring?

Chapter 25

Rachel could practically feel Gary’s eyes on her from the other side of the window.

She knew he was looking in, but she’d already decided that there was no way she was acknowledging him. She felt as if she were holding her breath, waiting for him to leave. She had never treated him that way before; she had never cajoled or been angry with him. It was a completely new feeling.

She felt a little out of kilter today and she tried to convince herself it was only because she’d walked in to find her fiancé passed out after a drunken night.

But regardless of how much she tried to convince herself of that, a little voice in the back of her mind was telling her something else. She felt differently towards Gary today, and the scary thing was that she figured it might be related to last night’s dinner with Ethan.

He was so different to Gary, so warm and easy to talk to. Last night, they’d stayed on for a very long time after dinner and had talked for ages over coffee. She still couldn’t believe she’d opened up to him like that about her desire to have a real family and to create real traditions. She was sure he’d thought she was some kind of loon, but no, he actually seemed to understand perfectly what she meant. After all, he was hoping for the very same thing with his soon-to-be fiancée.

Despite herself, Rachel couldn’t help wondering what the woman was like. She would no doubt be intelligent, stylish and definitely very beautiful, considering that Ethan was himself an incredibly handsome man. He was also gentle and courteous with impeccable manners, insisting after their meal that he saw Rachel safely off in the taxi.

Taking a wet rag she wiped down the area of the table where Gary had been drooling all night. Talk about a stark contrast . . .

She went through to the kitchen to start on making bread and pastries for their breakfast offerings, which of course immediately reminded her of the subject matter of Ethan’s book. Damn it, no matter what she did this morning, her thoughts kept drifting back to him. What was wrong with her?

For some reason she felt uneasy. Not because of the dinner with Ethan – far from it. Actually that was the first time in a long time that a man had sat down and showed a real interest in her and her life. Ethan had asked questions and listened patiently to the answers. He wanted to know everything about her life and business – even her dreams – and for once she had no problem sharing.

It wasn’t as if she didn’t share things with Gary; it was just different. Their relationship was one of extremes and excitement. He made her laugh, even when he was being ridiculous, and normally she loved the fact that she never really knew what he was going to say or do. But she thought again about what Ethan had said last night about sharing her hopes and dreams with Gary, and she realised that she had never actually done that. Of course, this was mostly because her fiancé was a man’s man and had no real interest in all that kind of malarkey. And for the most part Rachel liked that.

Still, as she thought now about some of the sacrifices she’d made, her mind suddenly seemed to focus clearly on the little oddities that she’d brushed off: Gary’s reluctance to eat in some of her favourite restaurants because they were ‘too fancy, and they never give you a decent feed’; the fact that he rarely complimented her on her appearance; the way that he often didn’t notice the things she did for him; how it had taken so long for him to introduce her to his mother . . .

Rachel felt almost surprised by the realisation. Was Gary inconsiderate?

Her head said no, but deep down her heart seemed to argue the opposite. Yet, if he was, it certainly wasn’t intentional; his behaviour could really be described more as clueless than anything else.

She sighed, deciding to turn some of this sudden reflection back on herself. Maybe the problem wasn’t Gary at all, but her. Was she really so shallow that the first time another man paid her some attention, she immediately began picking faults in her partner?

No, that wasn’t the case at all, she told herself. Anyway, and notwithstanding the fact that he was already attached, Ethan wasn’t even her type.

In fact he went completely against the norm in terms of her history with men. She usually went for the strong, masculine and largely unpredictable kind, not the staid, straightforward, open type that Ethan seemed to be. The type that Terri kept insisting no longer existed.

Thinking about last night, she felt slightly guilty that after saying goodbye to Ethan and getting a cab home, she hadn’t thought once about Gary until she’d actually crawled into bed. It was only then that she realised she hadn’t heard from him all evening.

Rachel scowled. Little did she know then that her beloved was here, dead drunk and fast asleep in her restaurant. What had he been doing here and why didn’t he call? Of course, she remembered ashamedly, she hadn’t called him either, and in fact had neglected to tell him that she was out for dinner with another man. Hell, she was hardly one to talk about inconsiderate behaviour, was she?

At that moment, she heard movement and the jangling of keys from outside, signalling Terri’s arrival downstairs from her flat.

‘Well, good morning!’ Rachel greeted her with a smile. ‘How are
you
feeling today?’ What with the state Gary had been in, she expected Terri to be just as hung-over; however, her friend looked wide awake and bright as a button.

Actually, she realised, Terri looked slightly wired.

She smiled. ‘I feel fine. Why do you ask?’

Rachel raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, considering you and my darling fiancé had a late night of it, I figured you’d be the worse for wear.’

Terri shook her head. ‘Nope. I know how to control myself. I take it his lordship was still here this morning when you arrived?’

Rachel nodded and rolled her eyes. ‘And
I
take it you were forced into a spot of babysitting last night. I’m sorry about that.’

‘It’s not a problem.’ Terri took off her fleecy top and put on her chef’s whites. Then she seemed to look carefully at Rachel. ‘How about you? Did you have a nice night?’

‘Yes, it was great, actually. Ethan is such a nice guy and we had a lovely time.’

‘I see.’ Terri kept looking at her strangely, and for a moment Rachel worried that her earlier thoughts were written all over her face.

‘I mean, it was a shame that Gary couldn’t be there too but . . . What was he doing here anyway? I sincerely hope he didn’t ride the bike back from Wicklow after all?’

‘Yeah . . . I mean no, he and Sean took a taxi.’

She seemed strangely distracted, Rachel thought. ‘I get the impression that he outstayed his welcome last night, sorry about that.’

Terri shrugged. ‘Well, he was kind of worse for wear when he arrived, and then after a few more here he fell asleep so I couldn’t really move him.’

Once again, Rachel felt an odd surge of distaste at her fiancé’s rather boorish behaviour. ‘Again, I’m so sorry. I’m sure Gary rolling up like that after a mad night was the last thing you needed.’

‘It was fine. Actually, we had a chance to talk a little.’

‘About what?’ Rachel asked, completely perplexed by this. Gary and Terri rarely ‘talked’.

Again, some kind of look passed over her friend’s face, but Rachel wasn’t sure what to make of it. ‘Nothing really, just this and that. But anyway, tell me more about your night. What did you and Ethan Greene talk about?’

‘The usual. He told me about this book he’s researching, about bread. Can you believe it?’ She smiled. ‘And all about Daisy, his daughter, and of course his fiancée.’

Terri stopped halfway to the fridge. ‘His fiancée? You mean he’s engaged too?’

‘Not yet, but he’s planning to propose soon, apparently. Seems you were right about him being attached.’

‘Right.’ Terri seemed to be thinking very hard about something. ‘And was she with him in New York?’

‘The girlfriend? I’m not sure. I think so. His little daughter certainly was. Actually, now that I think of it, remind me to hold back about a dozen cookies or so from today, will you? Preferably the chocolate-chip ones. I promised Daisy I’d make her some to thank her for looking after Gary’s bags, and Ethan’s calling in for them before he leaves this afternoon.’

Terri stopped what she was doing. ‘The daughter had his bags?’

‘That’s what Ethan said. Anyway, look at the time; it’s almost eight. We’d better stop nattering and get cracking on with breakfast.’

‘Yeah,’ her friend agreed. ‘Time flies when you’re having fun. I don’t know about you but, thanks to that fiancé of yours, last night was a late one for me.’

‘You and me both.’

‘What? You were out late too?’

‘Yes, it was almost one by the time we finished.’

Terri’s eyes widened. ‘Wow, the conversation must have been good.’

‘It was. He’s a lovely guy, so easy to talk to and we just didn’t realise the time.’

‘Because you were so busy talking.’

Despite herself Rachel coloured a little, and Terri noticed. ‘Oh my God, you’re blushing!’

‘I am not.’

‘You are! What the hell happened last night? What did Ethan Greene say to you?’

‘What are you talking about?’ Rachel shook her head, mortified. ‘Nothing happened. It was just a nice night. Jesus, Terri, I barely know the guy. Besides, in case you’ve forgotten, I’m engaged to Gary.’

‘Hmm. And Gary didn’t seem to know you were meeting another guy for dinner.’

‘Honestly, it wasn’t like that,’ Rachel insisted, but she couldn’t escape Terri’s probing gaze.

‘Look, Rachel, it’s OK. I’m not trying to get at you, so don’t be so hard on yourself. Ethan seems lovely and I’m glad you had a good time. And for what it’s worth, I didn’t say anything to Gary about it either,’ she added meaningfully and Rachel glanced at her.