Love Nest Read Free Page B

obvious problems of Flat 15 and instead focus on its plus points.
    So far, so good. He was turning round slowly. Taking it all in. Lucinda inhaled the scent of freshly baked bread. Everyone had latched on to that trick. Fresh flowers on the table. Yawn. Those property programmes had so much to answer for.
    ‘A fencer,’ he said, nodding at the left-hand wall where the exposed brick had been decorated with a collection of long, slim blades.
    ‘I guess so,’ Lucinda said, surprised. Again, she wasn’t being snobbish exactly, but fencing was a posh sort of sport and Nick Crex was certainly not posh.
    ‘I used to fence at school,’ he said. ‘A “Help Deprived Youth” programme.’ His tone was mocking, acknowledging that he’d sussed her and her prejudices. Lucinda blushed.
    ‘Oh, right. What fun.’ She twisted the Cartier pearl and diamond bracelet Daddy had given her for her eighteenth birthday round her wrist. She always fiddled with it when she was a bit nervous.
    ‘It was.’ Nick Crex turned to a table covered in silver-framed photos. ‘And she’s a dancer,’ he said, picking up a photo of Gemma Meehan in a tutu.
    ‘She used to be. She had to give up. Some injury.’ Gemma was attractive in a skinny, dark kind of way. Driving everyone at the agency crazy with all her nagging about why the place hadn’t sold, but fortunately the pictures didn’t reveal that.
    ‘They’ve travelled a lot,’ he said, picking up a photo of the Meehans grinning on what looked like a Thai beach.
    ‘It’s a real party flat,’ Lucinda said, eager to steer him back on track.
    ‘Yeah. Especially with that balcony thing.’ He nodded upwards.
    ‘The mezzanine,’ Lucinda corrected, unable to stop herself. ‘It’s great, isn’t it? Shall we go up?’
    He followed her up the spiral staircase, to the upper level. A TV area with a giant HDTV screen and squashy beanbags. A study area with a desk built into the wall, lit by a genuine Bestlite. Two bathrooms leading off it – this was the point when most people started realizing that there was a catch and asking questions like isn’t that a bit of an odd layout and wouldn’t it be better if the bathrooms were en suite? Lucinda was all ready with the spiel, that this was a converted warehouse, that the floorplan reflected the layout of the original, historic building, blah blah.
    But Nick Crex said nothing. Good man.
    While he was looking round, Lucinda stood back. For something to do, she scanned the wedding photos on the wall. Alex in black tie, skinnier than he was now. She didn’t like Gemma’s dress, far too meringuey. But the look of love in her eyes was very sweet, even someone like Lucinda who categorically did not get the whole bride thing had to admit it.
    ‘So is this a bedroom?’ Nick asked, nodding towards the three steps that led down to the master one.
    ‘Yes. It’s very… original!’ Code for blinking ridiculous. She followed him into the room. An empty space. To the right, a ladder leading to a bed perched on top of the – slightly ambitiously named – walk-in wardrobe. A clichéd scent of vanilla candles in the air. Poor Gemma, she wanted this sale so much there was nothing she wasn’t prepared to do.
    ‘Isn’t it great?’ Lucinda enthused. She couldn’t think of anything worse than sleeping on a sort of perch, she’d be up and down it all night, wanting to pee, and would inevitably fall off. But maybe Nick Crex had a stronger bladder than her. Or a catheter and bag. ‘Look, and here below it you’ve got your very own walk-in wardrobe. Isn’t it fabulous?’
    ‘Mmm.’ He definitely liked it. She could tell from the body language. What did he do that he could be in with even the vaguest chance of affording such a place? Even though prices had crashed, it should still have been beyond his league. All she knew about him was from the brief phone call they’d had that morning when she had randomly picked up the phone. He’d said he’d seen