Loving Alex (The Alexandra Drake Series) Read online

  “Morning Archie.” I say brightly.

  “Mrs. Drake.” He nods. I don’t bother about reminding him to call me Alex either, as clearly it’s another battle that I’ve lost before I’ve even started!

  “Did James tell you that we need to go and pick Gia up?” I ask as I settle myself into the back seat.

  “He did, I have the address.” He says as we pull away.

  “Are you busy today?” I ask.

  “I’ve one or two jobs on, but not too much. Would you like picking up later on?” He asks.

  “Please, I thought we’d go to Harrods, for a change.”

  “Very well Mrs. Drake.”

  Archie drives to Gia and Roberto’s home without stress, unlike me who would be a blubbering wreck by now, and once we’re parked outside their modest home I open my door and exit the Mercedes, receiving a stern look from Archie as I do. He’s got to realise, learn that where I come from, my background, I did things for myself. I don’t expect to be waited on hand and foot, it’s not me.

  Gia must have seen us arrive as she’s half out of her front door as I approach, opening her arms wide she greets me with a big Gia hug and a broad smile, “Alex, you look so well,” she says, “the time with James, on your own, must have done you good. I’m so pleased.” She smiles and places her palm on my cheek, “You’ve even got a little colour, it suits you.”

  “Thank you,” I smile, “shall we go?”

  “Yes, yes of course.” She follows me to the Mercedes; Archie is now out of the car and determined that he will open the door for us both. I smile sweetly at him as I slide into the back seat, Gia climbs in after me.

  We pull away as Gia looks at me grinning broadly. “This is nice,” she says “going shopping with my niece!” I grip her hand and give it a little squeeze, I think I’m going to like shopping with her to, something I never did at lot of with my mum, certainly not once I got older. I haven’t quite got used to my new aunt and uncle yet, it’s difficult for me having only discovered them a few weeks ago, they knew I existed and knew that my birth mother, Maggie, had me adopted by her sister but I didn’t even know about them or my birth father, Ramiro, until sometime after I found out that Maggie had left me, the multi-million pound estate consisting of cash in the bank, Reid’s hotel, which she owned outright, a fifty percent stake in a profitable night club, Henry’s and silent partnerships and investments in many other businesses and properties in some of the most lucrative areas of London.

  “I thought we’d go to Harrods, unless you’d rather go somewhere else?”

  “No that’s fine; I’m just pleased to be having a few hours out. I haven’t been shopping, properly, for years.” She beams.

  We’re soon pulling up outside the side entrance of the huge sand coloured store with the green canopies, Archie leaves the driver’s seat and steps out to allow me and Gia to exit, I resist the temptation to let myself out of the car and allow him to open the doors for us, I don’t want to upset him.

  “What time would you like me to collect you?” He asks as I wait for Gia to climb out of the car.

  “Can I call you when we’re done?”

  “Of course.” He offers Gia a helping hand as she slides her cuddly self from the back seat. She’s positively radiant and takes my arm as soon as she’s standing next to me.

  “Very well Mrs. Drake, I’ll pick you up from here when you call.” Archie confirms our arrangements, our meeting point, for him to collect us.

  “We’ll see you later Archie.” I say as Gia and I walk towards one of the doors of the world famous store.

  We’re greeted by a doorman dressed in his Harrod’s green uniform. He opens the door for us and smiles an acknowledgment as we walk in. Gia is still holding my arm and I have the distinct impression that she’s going to be stuck there all day, not that it bothers me. She’s casually dressed in a plum self coloured pattern skirt and a pale pink short sleeved crew neck sweater which she’s teamed up with low heel black court shoes; she looks very sophisticated in a Grandma’ish sort of way.

  I know what I want, what I’ve come shopping for and make a bee-line for the handbags in the ground floor accessories department. I like the bag I use every day, the tan leather, it’s lovely and so soft but boy, everything goes straight to the very bottom of the damn thing, particularly my phone which I can never find. I’ve decided that I need to replace it. I want another tan leather bag but one that’s perhaps a little more structured, not so soft and plenty of pockets to put my phone and other bits and pieces in. Gia sticks to my arm as we wander around the beautiful designer bags. My eye’s drawn to a Marc Jacobs, its beautiful soft Italian leather. It’s tan, as I wanted with contrasting black handles. The style is exactly as I was looking for.

  As I stand pawing the bag Gia looses my arm and wanders over towards a black bag that she’s spotted. At first I’m unsure of the brand but she seems to like whatever she’s picked up. I glance at her looking at it inside and out, feeling the soft leather, she’s smiling to herself. She checks the tag, frowns and puts the bag down before walking back to me.

  “It’s a lovely bag Alex.” She says as she feels the leather of the Marc Jacobs that I’ve decided to buy.

  “It is. That one’s nice too.” I point at the bag that she’s just put down.

  “Umm, but too much for me. My God, Roberto would have a fit if I bought that!” She laughs as she wanders off again.

  I approach one of the staff with my new bag and she leads me to a glass counter to pay. “Can I have that one as well?” I point to the bag that Gia has been looking at.

  “The Mulberry?” The assistant questions as she walks over to the bag that Gia was so in love with.

  “Yes, but please be discrete, it’s for my…..my friend, I don’t want her to know that I’m buying it for her.” I whisper.

  The assistant smiles and quickly walks over to collect the bag whilst I keep my eye on Gia as she mooches around the department.

  The two bags are wrapped beautifully in their dust bags before being placed in a large green paper carrier. The bill, well that’s at lot for two handbags and certainly something I would never have entertained before receiving Maggie’s legacy, hell Lewis would have expected me to keep house for four months with this much cash! The assistant makes the comment that my friend is very lucky as I hand over my Coutt’s card.

  “Thank you Mrs. Drake.” She processes my payment and hands the card and receipts back to me. I glance at Gia who is still meandering. I catch her up and grab her arm tightly, smiling at her, she has no idea what I’ve done, well I hope not! “Come on, perfume next!” I announce as I propel her towards the perfumery.

  I don’t have to browse here I know exactly what I want, but on the way I notice some Paul Smith Union Jack cufflinks that appear to have been abandoned on one of the counters, I think of James. I pick them up and after asking for a bottle of my absolute favourite Signorina, something that I used to have to save for from my housekeeping budget. I ask the assistant if I may have the cufflinks as well, she looks around; nobody appears to be purchasing them so I buy them for The Bossman.

  Gia keeps hold of my arm as we take the Egyptian escalator to the first floor.

  “What do you want from here?” She asks as she looks at the array of beautiful dresses.

  “I need a new party dress, something that I can wear when we go back to Henry’s - the nightclub.”

  “Oh, James told me about Henry’s. He used to go there a lot when he was younger!” He smiles, I can see that she’s thinking about James as a younger man, she’s thinking about it with fondness, it’s so clear on her face, so very readable.

  This is news. Maybe Gia might tell me a bit more about James. “Did he? He said he’d been before, when we went a couple of weeks ago, the night before, well…you remember.”

  She’s still holding my arm and squeezes it gently as she too remembers the day we told her that I had miscarried. I tell her a little of our visit to Henry’s, leaving
out the details of our, our argument.

  “There were lots of people there who seemed to know him.” I add.

  “It was his favourite place when he first came home from America, he stayed with us for a few months until he got himself settled, Roberto used to run him to Henry’s on Friday’s and Saturday’s when he wasn’t working,” she smiles, “sometime’s we’d get call at three and four in the morning to pick him up. Oh those were the days.” She reminisces; clearly she enjoyed having James stay with them, despite the early morning runs to pick him up, I have no doubt drunk!

  “So that’s not long ago, he’s only been at Reid’s five years.” I think aloud.

  “That’s right. We never minded though, he’s a good boy is James.” She smiles as she talks about him affectionately, I can tell that although James is not part of their family he’s held in high regard and clearly loved by Gia.

  Once on the first floor I wander around the collections and pick out a few mid length and short black dresses. Taking them through to a dressing rooms I am assisted by a lovely young lady who offers advice and points out one or two other black dresses, unfortunately the dresses she’s pointing to mostly have very fine straps or cut away backs, no good for me with my back, of course I don’t tell her this and just brush the suggestions aside.

  Gia follows me to the dressing rooms where she takes a seat and waits whilst I retreat into privacy and try the first of the dresses on.

  As I slip into each one I check my back in the mirror carefully before wandering out to show Gia. She likes each and every one but eventually I opt for a Saint Laurent sleeveless, its relatively plain apart from a bead and sequin embellished sort of cowl neck.

  I’m just changing when I hear Gia at the curtain.

  “Alex?” She says so very quietly.

  “Yes.” I quickly pull my shirt on.

  “I know it’s very cheeky of me Alex,” she pauses, “but your back. Roberto told me. Can anything be done?”

  Of course I know what she wants, she wants to see. I take a few moments to process what she’s just said and what I know she wants to do, she doesn’t want to look because I’m some sort of freak, I know that, I think she wants to help – or at least I hope. I feel cold inside, there’s no reason why she should see, why she needs to see but Gia is family, although not family that I have known all of my life, her husband knows and I believe they all want to help. I take a deep breath and compose myself.

  I open the dressing area to her, “Is there anyone around?” I must sound like a shoplifter checking the coast is clear before I stuff the three grand dress in a bag!

  She shakes her head.

  I turn into the dressing room, Gia is stood behind me as I carefully and slowly pull my shirt down around my shoulders. There, she can see it all now, well not the L.D brand, that’s covered by my bra strap.

  “The monster.” She takes a deep breath, “he’s no man. He’s an excuse, a miserable excuse for a man!” She hisses, “Ramiro knows….Roberto told him, he knows Alex.” She frowns, looking concerned. Heaven knows what would happen in Ramiro was younger, fitter and over here.

  I pull my shirt back around my shoulder holding my head down, ashamed. I collect my things together, including the dress I’m going to buy.

  As I step out of the dressing room Gia grabs me and gives me one of her special hugs, her eyes are watery. “We will sort this for you Alex, if you want us to, we’ll sort it.” She says quietly.

  “Thank you Gia. James has the name of a surgeon in Harley Street. I just need to pluck up the courage to go and see him, maybe in a couple of months, when things have settled down, you know when I’m divorced maybe I’ll see to it then.” I mumble, my head down so embarrassed. It should have happened, I should have left him before it got to this stage, I was stupid, so very, very stupid. I take a deep breath and compose myself.

  “Good girl.” Gia looks at me, squeezing my arm. “We’re here for you, you know that?” She smiles. The words, the look she gives me could make me crumble here and now. The fact that I’m so wanted within this, my new family, they don’t really know me but still they seem so full of love. I take several deep breaths, before paying for the dress, which is beautifully wrapped. Gia retains her grip on my arm as we head out of the store.

  Chapter 5

  “Shall we have lunch?” I ask Gia as we walk out on to Hans Road, “Look, Café Rouge – as good as anywhere?” I point towards the ruby fronted café bar.

  “Why not?” She smiles, still clinging onto my arm.

  We walk into the restaurant, it’s still early and we’re seated without delay, thank goodness. We both order Merlot and when the waitress returns with our drinks I choose a Caesar salad and Gia goes for a Croque-Monsieur.

  We sit chatting about the morning, Gia enthuses about some of the things she’s seen in Harrods, as I listen to her my hand drifts to the Tiffany diamond pendant that James gave me. I’ve really not taken it off since I put it back on, following our “tiff”, when he came home with that mark, that love bite and I asked him to leave, something that I said I would check him out on but haven’t, I believe him, I think, I hope.

  “I’ve got something for you Gia.” I say when she takes breath, allowing me to get a word in.

  Reaching down into the Harrods bag I pull out the Mulberry dust bag that holds the handbag she was so clearly wanting. I hand it to her, “This is for you Gia, thank you for coming with me, for being such a good friend.”

  She takes the bag from me. I think she knows what it is before she opens it.

  “Oh Alex, I can’t accept this, it’s much too much!” I’m sure that’s a look of disbelief on her face.

  “Don’t be silly, you’ve done so much for me in such a little time, it’s the very, very least I can do. Please – I’ll be so offended if you don’t take it.” I’m insistent, flapping my hands at her as she attempts to give it back.

  She stands and walks around to me, bending down she gives me such a hug, a proper hug like the one’s my mum used to dole out from time to time.

  When she returns to her seat I talk about Ramiro, “I was thinking of asking Ramiro to come here for a few days, but I’d need you and Roberto to be on board, I couldn’t entertain him on my own, we just couldn’t communicate!”

  She smiles broadly and nods, “I think Roberto would be more than happy. If Ramiro agreed it may be best if he stayed with us anyway, that way there wouldn’t be a major language problem, he could come and see you each day, you could pick him up. He’d like that big car! Do you want me to talk to Roberto first?”

  “Umm, I think that would be a good idea and I’d love him to meet Anna before she goes to university and I’m sure she’d like to meet him too!” I take a drink of my wine as we chat.

  “It’s a lovely idea.” She agrees, I’m so pleased.

  “Maybe we can arrange a family meal or something like that?” I suggest as I take another drink of my Merlot.

  “That would be great. Really good.” She enthuses.

  Our food arrives interrupting us from our plan making.

  As I work my way through my salad and Gia through her glorified toastie we talk about plans, about James, what he was like as a teenager –wild by all accounts! Oh yes, Gia certainly fills in one or two gaps in his history, but I suppose most teenagers can be a bit strong willed and coupled with losing his dad at such an early age it’s no wonder he was a little “off the rails” for a while, almost understandable.

  “I can’t believe that James hasn’t been snapped up by some young attractive girl.” I think out loud.

  “You’re right Alex - although not for want of them trying!” She laughs, “always someone on the phone before he went to America. I bet I used to take two or three calls a day from different girls “is James there… Can I speak with James…Where is he?” It used to make me and Roberto laugh!” She giggles as she recounts the stories of the many phone calls received for James.

  “But nobody special?” I ask.
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  “No, nobody. Only you! He thinks the absolute world of you Alex.” She’s serious, her expression changing.

  “How do you know?” I push my salad around my plate, looking at her. Looking for signs that what she says is real, truthful.

  “I just know – the way he looks at you, he cares about you. I can just tell. Remember, I’ve known him pretty much all of his life, Lucca and Roberto started Amici when James was, oh I don’t know, maybe two or three, of course we knew them before then anyway, Roberto and Ramiro were great friends with Lucca back in Italy, the families knew each other. I remember his mother disappearing, it was a tough time for Lucca, but he managed and did a good job with James.” She recounts a little of James’ early history. I knew his Mother disappeared, walked out when he was just six months old. I don’t know why and now isn’t the time to ask, I feel sure it would ruin such a lovely day if I pry too much. But, It’s good to know a bit more about my lover, I know a great deal about him already but there are still gaps.

  We finish our food and pay the bill, Gia insists on paying, despite it being my treat.

  As we walk out of the restaurant I think of one thing I should have asked Gia, “What’s with the strawberries Gia? He’s absolutely mad about them!”

  She laughs, loudly “The strawberries! – You know about them? I could never keep up with the demand!”

  I smile “Oh yes, I know about them! Bloody strawberries!”

  Gia takes my arm, “When he was a little boy he wouldn’t eat anything remotely healthy, if it was orange food, you know, battered or covered in breadcrumbs he’d eat the lot, with chips or mashed potato, but nothing green, no fruit or anything like that. Lucca asked me to look after him for a couple of days while he went somewhere, I can’t remember where it was. Anyway I was trying to get the boy to eat something healthy so, I dragged him to a supermarket and we went through every fruit and vegetable until he spotted something he was willing to try –Strawberries! Well, we never looked back and he still eats them now, like they’re going out of fashion, although I think his diet is generally healthier now. Is it still a box a day?” She asks.