Heartbeats in Moonlight

Chapter 50

Her mind balked, for a moment, as she thought about her next move. She wanted their conversation to move from personal to business. She clenched her hands together, "Ok, start with a room that you spend most of your time in."

David raised an eyebrow. He knew if he got surly, there wouldn't be any chance of re-establishing their relationship.

Ella ignored the question in his eyes. "Tell me why, and we will go from there." She took a step forward and moved away from David.

David had no intention of changing the topic. Just a pity that Ella didn't know that.

She kept her distance and continued, "My directions for the decorators are based on the information that you gave me before, but just in case you have changed your mind we change my instructions for the decorators."

But David wasn't ready to change the topic. In fact his house's décor was not on his mind. He had so much more to talk about, and none of it was about his home's décor.

"Did you tell Amelia?" He stuck with his agenda and followed her. Ella's nerves snapped.

Once she had a crush on this man, and it was not the case now, she reminded herself, "What?" The tone showed her exasperation. Why was he here? If he wasn't interested in his home's décor, why bother to come here? He insisted on a change in the appointment time? He said it was necessary: he wanted to double check her directions to the decorators! And that riled Ella. But she had banked that emotion, and agreed to meet him later. Hence this meeting. But David's conversation topic was not what she expected. And he was still going on about Davina.

"What do you think?" David wished he had used a different tone, given he saw the impact of his tone on Ella. Her countenance went from business to frustration and angry!

Ella snapped when she heard his chilly response. "She's not stupid." She glared at David.

"About the staging?"

"Of course, she saw it." Ella regarded David cagily. Her mouth set in the mulish line. Time to get David's mind back to the job. 

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't see it."

"I doubt you were looking beyond Davina's obvious attractions." She snapped again, once again conceding some of her professional veneer. Her panicked look was giving way to fury. Why was she allowing him to rattle her?

David's eyebrows arched in surprise. "Excuse me?"

She tilted her head to gaze up at him,  "Shall we get on?" She pulled herself together quickly.

"Davina is mercenary! I'm not interested in women like that." David muttered, doing his best not to reach over and throttle Ella. How could she be so detached about it all? And why assume that I would fancy Davina? He was sure that Ella was clever enough to know that, after all, Ella knew he fancied her ten years ago, and Ella was very different to Davina.

 Ella was pleased to see the flash in his eyes. Good, she got to him! "If you say so." She murmured.

David gritted his teeth. Why he was bothering to explain, he didn't know why, but for some stupid reason he felt he had to, "She dumped Jack when he stopped competing."

"Yes, I know that." Ella was pleased to see David was still rattled.  

She was deliberately baiting him, David thought and he gritted his teeth again. He folded his arms. "She has no obvious attractions. For either of us."

"If you say so." Oh yes, she was enjoying this chat!

 David poked his tongue in his cheek, took a second, and continued. "Jack can't stand her. And I had no time for her, either when she dated Jack, or now."

"Good to hear you have standards and scruples." Ella said with a feigned smile. He thought it was closer to a smirk.

"Excuse me?" He raised a brow. When did he release control of this conversation?

"Standards and scruples?" Her smile grew. She shrugged, "You know, standards, it means evaluations, someone who is looking at calibre..."

"I know what a standard is!" He barked and then blew out a breath and reined his temper. He stared at the ceiling, took a few seconds and said, "Sorry."

She acknowledged that apology and then turned around, leaving him facing her back. She continued, "As I pointed out to Amelia, when Davina dumped Jack, he let her go!"

David wandered over to Ella's space. Ella moved.

Ella cut right to the bone, "He probably thought good riddance!" David could still hear her smile in her voice, and he was sure she was laughing at him, but she had moved away, again. "I played her Jack's last message, and it was obvious that if Amelia were even contemplating dumping Jack he would not be letting go!" She gave him a blazing smiled and moved away, again. This man was tracking her! Exasperation and frustration raced through her veins. But still she stuck to her guns, ignored him tracking her, and continued, "His language was extremely colourful."

Ella looked over her shoulder and saw David's lips twitched and her own lips twitched. From frustration to laughter within seconds.

David stepped forward, "He was furious with Davina and seriously worried about loosing Amelia." He looked pleased and stood, as he realised he had hemmed her in. "Haven't seen him that stressed in years. His language usually falls apart and he goes back to his roots, when he's emotional."

"Well, it's sorted and the wedding is pretty soon."

They looked at each other.

Ella took another quick step backward. She pulled a stack of papers together and held them close to her chest, "Could we talk about this job?" And with a challenge in her voice suggested, "And if you don't mind, could you move?" She feigned a smile, "I only have a few minutes, so, lets get on with this?"

David considered his options. He could continue with the topic or move their conversation to the job. He couldn't imagine any confrontation would be productive, especially as she looked ready to throw him out. Her words sounded normal, her tones were professional, but her eyes flashed.

He was pretty sure, seeing Ella's eyes, that if he continued with this topic, she would turf him out. And that would not suit him. They had lots to talk about, the problem for David was how to start the conversations about the pertinent topics and how not to get thrown out.

Ella looked at the clock, looked back at him, "Well?"

Time to allowed her to believe she had won. In strategy, you have to pick your argument and you need to know when to concede. And at this moment, he would concede. Just for the moment. But if she thought he had no intention of returning to any personal conversation, she would learn, she was wrong.

Ella watched the emotions flit through his eyes. He looked directly at Ella. "Sure, we should start."

Ella was pretty sure that he wasn't talking about the job. But she knew it was best not to ask him to clarify.