Temporary Girlfriend

‘A friend gave me a lift.’

‘Boyfriend?’ he enquired, but she could tell from the stern look of him that he wasn’t particularly interested in her answer.

‘No,’ she replied, and left it at that. She could see no reason to waste further time. ‘I’m very sorry about the accident,’ she began for starters.

He observed her silently for a few moments. Then coolly remarked, ‘It’s something that you admit liability, I suppose.’

Oh, heck—was she not supposed to do that? Not that it mattered; Nikki had said that it was all her fault. Elyss hesitated. The state Nikki was in, perhaps she’d got it a little wrong.

‘Are you saying that you’re a little to blame?’ Elyss enquired hopefully. Even if she had to pay only half it would be a tremendous relief.

‘I’m not saying anything of the sort!’ Saul Pendleton replied sharply. ‘As well you know—if you remember that right turn I endeavoured to make at the traffic lights last night.’

So much for tremendous relief, Elyss mused unhappily, not liking to have her head bitten off for her trouble. Though she took heart that, by the sound of it, he believed that she was the blonde who had crashed into him.

‘Who could forget a thing like that?’ she murmured. For some unknown reason she was feeling in need of an excuse. ‘You know how it is; when the lights changed to green, all I could think of was getting over them before they went to red again. Er—you weren’t hurt?’ she thought to enquire of this man who was fully in charge and didn’t appear to have a thing wrong with him.

‘I fared better than my car,’ he answered drily.

‘I’m sorry about that,’ Elyss said. ‘About your car, I mean.’ And, getting a bit fed up with having to continually apologise—especially for something which she had not done—she enquired politely, ‘Have you been able to get an estimate for repairs?’ At last they were getting down to the nub of the whole issue.

‘Not yet,’ he replied, his eyes on her richly blue ones. ‘Though, as you’d expect, it will be in the region of at least two thousand pounds.’

Oh, no! Elyss wasn’t sure that she didn’t lose some of her colour. ‘As much as two?’ she asked faintly.

‘A minimum of two thousand, I’d say,’ he replied confidently.

The words trembled on her lips to ask him to get it done somewhere cheaper, but she realised from his clothes, his home, the very manner of him, that he never had anything done on the cheap. ‘When is it likely to be finished—repaired?’ she made herself enquire. With luck it would take all of a year to get the spare parts.

‘The car has been transferred to a specialised garage today. But it will depend on whether parts are available here or whether the garage will have to send to Italy for them. Then they’ll be fitting, painting—sorting out the electronics...’

Oh, heck, it was, she saw, going to cost all of two thousand pounds. By the sound of it, though, it could take quite a while—but nowhere near long enough for her to be able to scrape the money together.

‘Meanwhile, I’ve been able to hire a car until—’

‘You’ve hired a car?’ she cut in in a rush, a note of strain in her voice. This was something she just hadn’t thought of. Oh, her stars! The cost of hiring a car would be down to her—she just knew it! She prayed he had hired a small, everyday run-about. But, even as she asked, ‘Er—a Ferrari, I suppose?’ she knew the answer.

‘You suppose correctly, Miss Harvey.’

She started to feel light-headed. Her mind just would not cope with how much it must cost to hire a Ferrari—and the length of time Saul Pendleton was going to need to keep it.

She fought to pull herself together and to hide that she was in panic mode. ‘The th-thing is,’ she began stiltedly. She was here now; there was no point in going away and worrying herself silly. She must try to get something said, sorted out, and settled here and now.

‘Yes?’ he enquired politely when she had got no further.

At that point Elyss started to actively dislike this man. She had a feeling that he knew she was in one very big mess—but was he saying one word to try and help? Was he, blazes!

She swallowed hard. Be fair. He had been driving along minding his business before her car had sideswiped him. ‘The thing is,’ she got started again. ‘I was—er—wondering if you would—um—consider—’ She broke off. He must have the central heating on—she was all of a lather. ‘Consider giving me time to pay.’ Hells bells, at thirty pounds a month—the very maximum she could scrape together—it would take seven years plus to reimburse him.

He smiled. She liked his smile. It made her feel better. It seemed he might be prepared to consider her request anyhow. She smiled back. His dark eyes went from her blue eyes down to her gently curving mouth.

Then his eyes were back to holding hers, when he remarked pleasantly, ‘Oh, there’s no need for that, Miss Harvey.’ Her smile widened—he must have come up with some answer. She was still smiling when, smoothly, he added, ‘Your insurance company will settle everything, I’m sure.’ Abruptly her smile faded, and she started to dislike him again. ‘You are insured?’ he enquired silkily.

Elyss knew then that he knew that she was not insured. She didn’t know how he knew, she just instinctively felt it. The knowledge that he was just playing with her rattled her. ‘You know damn well I’m not!’ she flew. She instantly wanted those words back. Oh, grief, this man missed not a thing. His eyes were on her, taking in, reading. She lowered her gaze to her lap. ‘I thought I was,’ she felt compelled to confess, her tone quieter, not angry. ‘I gave—’ She broke off, took a shaky breath and raised her head to look at him once more. She found his eyes were still steady on her. He was waiting. From where she was sitting Elyss realised that she couldn’t get into any more trouble, having owned up to not being insured. ‘A friend was going to drop my cheque into my insurance company a couple of months ago—only she— forgot.’ Oh, dammit, that sounded so unlikely she was sure he wouldn’t believe her.

‘You should have checked!’ Saul Pendleton stated curtly—and that annoyed her. She knew she should have checked! She didn’t need him to remind her.

‘You obviously did!’ she snapped—and got a very grim, unsmiling look for her trouble.

‘You think I shouldn’t have? After your phone call this morning...’ He let that go to change tack, to abruptly question, ‘This friend—the one who forgot to drop your cheque off—is she the same friend who was driving your car last night?’

It was unexpected. ‘You know?’ she gasped. ‘You know it wasn’t me?’

‘Of course I know!’ he rapped. ‘The woman I spoke with on the phone this morning sounded nothing like the hysterical female I had to deal with last night.’

‘She could have calmed down by this morning,’ Elyss argued, even though she realised she might fare better if she were placatory rather than argumentative. Yet she didn’t seem able to act in a way in which she did not feel. This man, she realised, effortlessly rattled her normally even temperament.

‘Not to that extent, she couldn’t,’ Saul Pendleton gritted concisely. He was right, of course. Nikki had still been in a state this morning. ‘Though she might well have remembered that neither car was anywhere near a set of traffic lights when she attempted to demolish my car.’

Elyss gasped in astonishment. Talk about ‘Walk into my parlour’! Not minutes ago she had agreed their vehicles had been in collision at some traffic lights!

‘You tricked me!” she exploded angrily.

‘Don’t get on your high horse that I tricked you!’ he rapped. ‘No one does me down, Miss Harvey! From the way I was hearing it, you were out to have a damned good try.’

She hadn’t a leg to stand on. It hurt to back down, but... She drew a shaky breath. ‘It wasn’t like...’ she halted. To tell him how it really was she would have to tell him all about Nikki, and she wasn’t ready to do that. ‘So—er—after my phone call, you checked with the insurance company. Nikki—’ She broke off. She hadn’t been going to mention Nikki’s name! ‘And they told you I wasn’t insured.’

‘Not with them you weren’t. Nor did they know you at the address I was given. You do live there?’ he demanded.

‘I moved in five months ago—I forgot to give the insurers my change of address.’

She received a grunt for her oversight. There was no point in her explaining that she’d been so busy at work she hadn’t had time to think much about anything else—much less to remember to tell people she dealt with only once a year that she had moved.

‘You forgot a lot of things by the sound of it.’ I wish I could forget you! she thought. The gloves, it seemed, were off. ‘You are Elyss Harvey?’ he questioned toughly. ‘Should I decide to sue, will I be confronted by yet another blonde-haired, blue-eyed Elyss Harvey in court?’

Court! Oh, heavens, her parents would be most perturbed. Why couldn’t he drive a Metro? ‘My name is Elyss Harvey,’ she confirmed unhappily.

‘And your friend?’

‘Her name isn’t important,’ Elyss told him quickly.

‘Not important!’ He seemed astounded. ‘Driving without due care and attention, giving a false name, to itemise but two misdemeanours. We haven’t come yet to the criminal act of driving while not insured. Add—’

‘She’s not well,’ Elyss interrupted quickly, having heard quite enough to be going on with. ‘She’s having boyfriend trouble. She’s...’

‘She’s in a whole heap of trouble!’ Saul pronounced curtly. ‘And so, if you’ll forgive me for saying so, are you.’

Elyss stared at him. This interview wasn’t going anywhere near as well as she had hoped. ‘Will you not give me time to pay what I’ll owe you?’ She repeated the question she had asked earlier. The impossible question.