Page 31 of Under Your Spell

He hangs up the phone and then nudges his sunglasses down his nose a little so that I can see his eyes.

‘Nice jammies,’ he says.

I look down at my seasonally inappropriate pyjamas which are covered in tiny pictures of dogs wearing Santa hats. Fantastic. I run a hand over the wild mess of my hair, trying to smooth it.

‘What are you doing here?’ I blurt, and the words come out more hostile than I intended.

‘In the middle of bloody nowhere?’ Theo sighs. ‘No idea. Ask your sister.’

‘I mean,’ I say with forced patience, ‘what are you doing here so early? I wasn’t expecting you until this afternoon. What time is it anyway?’

Theo looks at the disgustingly expensive watch on his wrist. ‘Almost seven.’

‘In the morning?!’ I croak, horrified.

‘Not a morning person,’ Theo nods understandingly. ‘I get it. I’ve just come in from LA so it’s almost midnight for me.’

‘From… LA?’ I manage. ‘I thought David said you were driving up from London. How did you even get here?’

‘Plans changed. I flew.’

My eyes widen as I lean forward and search the driveway, half expecting to see a helicopter parked next to my Ford Fiesta.

‘To Edinburgh, Clemmie.’ Theo’s tone is mildly exasperated. ‘Then I drove the hire car down.’

‘Oh, right, yes,’ I notice the gleaming Audi which is doing a great job of making my car look even more dilapidated. ‘Sorry, I think I’m still half asleep.’

We stand awkwardly on the doorstep for a few more seconds. He pulls off the sunglasses and hooks them into the collar of his T-shirt. His eyes look tired, and he runs a hand through his hair. I follow his tattooed forearm as it moves, his fingers with their silver rings running through hair that I know is silky soft. My mouth dries. God, is the man actually moving in slow motion??

‘Come in!’ I finally say, sounding like a jolly-hockey-sticks school teacher as I belatedly remember why I am here, why he is here, and what my job is supposed to be – the one I’m being paid huge amounts of money for. Professional, Clemmie. Be professional. ‘Do you need help with your bags?’

Theo shakes his head. ‘I’ll come and grab them out the boot later.’

‘Okay then.’ I move aside so that he can get through the door. He brushes past me and I get a brief, delicious hit of his aftershave. My toes curl and my stomach swoops. I will my stupid body to behave itself, and lead him through the downstairs of the house.

‘This place is nice,’ Theo says, looking around with interest.

‘Yeah, Petty has done a really good job with the renovations. That’s Lil’s mum.’

Theo nods. ‘Serena mentioned.’

‘So let me show you around. Through here is the study – well, I call it the study but I guess it’s the gym now.’ I lead him into the room and again he glances about and nods.

I notice his eyes linger on the boxes and I flush. ‘I haven’t had a chance to unpack all the stuff David shipped yet. I’m sorry. I arrived late last night. Car trouble.’ The words tumble out of my mouth, and I see Theo’s lips thin, but he only makes a noise between a grunt and a murmur.

He’s being very quiet. Perhaps he’s just tired? Or is he annoyed that I haven’t got everything perfectly ready for him? I’ve been having trouble squaring the Theo I met with the tyrant David works for, but maybe this is the real him now he’s not trying to charm me.

‘Okay!’ I say brightly. ‘And through this way…’ I turn to move past him back through the door and stumble over a piece of equipment straight into Theo – or I would stumble into him if he didn’t rear backwards as if I had a highly contagious skin disease. As it is, my arm barely brushes his and he clatters back against a set of dumbbells, a pained expression on his face.

‘Sorry about that,’ I say quickly.

He just makes that strange humming noise again and avoids my eye, but there’s a muscle ticking like mad in his jaw.

I take him through to the kitchen. Everything about this feels so awkward. When imagining this part, I thought I was going to behave like a consummate professional. I had plans! A checklist! I was going to be calm, in control. I did not think I would be bleary-eyed in my novelty pyjamas, trying desperately to remember the gazillion emails David and I exchanged.

‘Um, so this is the kitchen,’ I say unnecessarily. ‘I’m afraid I haven’t been able to find all the things on the latest list David sent me yet. Obviously I need to unpack all the boxes, and there are a bunch of deliveries scheduled for this morning and then I’m going to head into Newcastle later. So there’s sparkling water in the fridge,’ I hesitate, ‘but I’m afraid the brand is just whatever they had in the local Co-op, and there’s fruit and eggs and bread and cheese.’ I rifle through the checklist I’ve been carrying around in my head all week. ‘There’s a coffee machine coming later today and David set up a weekly delivery of organic veg. I’m sorry it’s not all in place already…’ I ramble nervously.

Theo’s mouth is flat, and his jaw clenches again in annoyance. ‘It’s fine,’ he says, but clearly it isn’t. Clearly I’ve already failed the first test and David is going to feed me to his goldfish.