The Perfect Match Read Free Page B

even as part of a franchise – before you were thirty by being Mr Nice Guy in the office. Mr Nice Guy was for clients only.
    ‘I think you’re softening up in your old age, Nevil,’ she said with a smile.
    ‘Not at all,’ said Nevil, not rising to her teasing. He was, after all, only thirty-two. ‘I’m just happy to report that it won’t be long before you and I can get a place together.’
    ‘Great!’ said Bella, hiding her dismay by picking up the bottle and topping them both up.
    ‘Doesn’t it drive you mad living here with your godmother? I mean she’s lovely but – well . . .’ Nevil had good manners, it was part of his professional persona, so he left his sentence unfinished.
    Bella considered how to explain, even though she felt she shouldn’t have to. ‘It’s fine. There is plenty of space here, and she doesn’t give me a curfew or anything.’ Actually Bella really liked sharing Alice’s house. They fitted in very well with each other and considering how long Alice had lived here on her own, this had surprised them both. She had been a lifeline when Bella had needed one and she was delighted that Alice enjoyed sharing her home with her. Living with Nevil might be a lot harder – given his feelings about small chores in the office, he was unlikely to be willing to push the hoover round himself.
    ‘Well, anyway, you won’t have to be doing it too much longer.’
    ‘How come?’
    ‘I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.’ Nevil grinned.
    Bella supressed her irritation at this expression and decided not to press him. He would tell her when he was ready. ‘OK. Do you want the last bit of pizza?’
    ‘Don’t you? It’s yours really.’
    ‘You go ahead. I’m trying to cut down anyway.’
    Nevil picked up the pizza and took a large bite and smiled at her. ‘Good choice.’
    Bella watched him eat it and wondered if it was weird to prefer living with an older woman to the thought of living with her boyfriend. And while she was asking herself this she wondered if he was implying she was fat. She wasn’t, she knew that, but when she’d first walked into his agency looking for a job she had been skeletally thin – for reasons she tried to forget on a daily basis. Maybe he liked very thin women.
    Her brain flicked back to why she had been so thin, why she had suddenly left her hometown to live with her godmother and take a job she was very lucky to get. Heartbreak or a new love was the best diet aid. However, now she was settled. She had a job she loved and colleagues she got on really well with, and – well, Nevil, who was – most of the time – a really good boyfriend.
    ‘Has Alice thought how much this house would fetch if it went on the market?’ Nevil asked, chewing away on his pepperoni.
    ‘Don’t think so. I don’t think she wants to move. In fact, I know she doesn’t. It is big for just the two of us, but it was her family home. And she’s done so much to the garden over the years.’
    ‘What is it with these women – like your Mrs Langley – insisting on living in enormous houses just on their own? The amount of money they have tied up in those properties is crazy.’
    ‘But there’s no real reason they should move if they don’t want to. The time has to be right for these things.’ Bella laughed. ‘Though of course it would be fabulous to have the houses on our books.’
    Nevil seemed not to have heard her. ‘Will Alice manage on her own when you move out?’
    ‘Of course! She’s only sixty.’ She was just about to say, ‘But I’m not moving out,’ when she stopped herself. If Nevil found the right house, it would be natural for them to move in together.
    ‘I was just thinking what’s best for her.’
    ‘Of course.’ She smiled, but she knew he wouldn’t be able to help calculating the commission on a house as big as Alice’s. ‘Do you fancy finding something nice to watch on telly? We could go into my sitting room and snuggle up on the