Page 24 of The Work Husband

‘Shall we try this first? There’s a zip up the back I can help you with. So do you live in London, or are you just visiting?’

She stepped into the dress, which I could already see was a perfect fit. With only her measurements to go on, Sebastian had done a fantastic job.

‘I’ve been living in Cambridge,’ she said as I pulled the zip up her slender back. ‘I was doing a master’s degree in biochemistry. I was hoping to stay on in London and do my PhD at UCL, but I’m not sure… This is great, by the way. I’ll take it. What’s next?’

‘How about this?’ I produced a long-sleeved black dress, heavy with gold embroidery.

Zahra shook her head. ‘I should have said in my email. I’ve got enough black things in my wardrobe; let’s try that cerise jumpsuit.’

‘Gotcha.’ I took the jumpsuit off its hanger. ‘So you were saying, about your PhD?’

‘Yeah, Dad wants me to go back home to Riyadh, but I want to stay here. So we’re kind of at loggerheads over it. Will they be able to alter this for me, do you think? It could do with an inch off the hips.’

‘I’m sure they can.’ I noticed a pot of pins on a side table and carefully put one in each side seam of the jumpsuit, kneeling down next to Zahra, her bottom level with my face. ‘This is stunning on you. It’d be perfect to wear out for lunch with friends, or even on a date.’

From my position on the floor, I could only just see her face, but her smile vanished for a moment, and I wondered whether I’d dropped a clanger. She’d mentioned going out with her family and friends, but not a boyfriend.

Then the smile returned. ‘It would, wouldn’t it? I always wonder about jumpsuits, though. Girls love them, but do men think they just look like fancy overalls?’

‘It’s a good point,’ I agreed, then laughed. ‘Not to mention the twenty minutes it takes to go to the loo when you’re wearing one. But I’d have to ask Sam, my boyfriend. Although he doesn’t have the first clue about fashion. We were out one time, and I went halfway across London with my skirt tucked into my knickers. I only found out when my mates told me. When I asked Sam what he was playing at, he said he thought it was meant to be like that.’

Unbidden, the thought popped into my head that Jamie would’ve noticed right away.

Zahra laughed. ‘Men! Sometimes I think they’re all stuck in the 1980s, back when it was all massive shoulders and tiny skirts.’

Maybe she does have a boyfriend after all, I thought. If so, he’s a lucky bloke. But with her half-naked in front of me, it felt too personal a question to ask.

Still, by the end of the two-hour time slot, Zahra and I were chatting away like old friends. Nadia had brought us macarons and Diet Cokes to keep our strength up, and Zahra had confessed that she was dying for a fag. She’d told me more about her studies and her family; I’d revealed a few nuggets of celebrity scandal gleaned from Gossip Guru, and told her about Milton and our flat in Hackney. They were small snippets about my life, and normally I’d have shared them without really thinking about it. Now, though, they felt as fragile and ephemeral as the bubbles in the Diet Coke we’d drunk – like they could just float away and disappear, and all that would be left would be flat disappointment.

‘I think we’re done here,’ she said at last, surveying the contents of the garment rail with satisfaction.

The clothes on there were going to cost her more than the value of Sam’s and my flat.

‘Pretty good work by us,’ I said with a smile.

She grinned, and we high-fived each other.

‘Thank you so much, Georgia,’ she said. ‘Honestly, this has been amazing. I wish we…’

She didn’t finish her sentence – she didn’t need to. I knew what she meant. She was thinking that in another world, she and I could have been friends. I could have invited her round for dinner and introduced her to Sam, along with her boyfriend (if she had one – I still wasn’t sure). We could have gone for cocktails somewhere glamorous enough to do justice to those fabulous clothes. We could have giggled our way through yoga classes together like Molly and I used to before she got pregnant.

But this world wasn’t that world – her world and mine might just as well have been in different universes.

‘I’m sure we’ll see each other soon,’ I said. ‘I’ll really look forward to it.’

If only I could have guessed what role Zahra and her mysterious love life would come to play for me over the next few months, I might not have felt quite so enthusiastic.

THIRTEEN

‘I’m not going to lie, you do look hot,’ Jamie told me, his deep-blue eyes fixed intently on my face, his white teeth flashing an appreciative smile.

To my annoyance, I found myself blushing. ‘Stop it. Anyway, it is thirty degrees out there.’

‘Not in here, it isn’t. In here, the aircon seems to be doing its job just fine.’

He glanced down at my chest, and my blush intensified as I realised that my nipples had responded to the sudden cool of the bar and were poking through my thin dress and the unpadded bra I’d put on that morning because it was too warm to wear anything else.

‘Look,’ I scolded. ‘You’re not meant to be acting like this now. This is supposed to be for Sam’s benefit, and he isn’t even here.’