It's Raining Men Read Online Free PDF

millstone, but they’d got there in the end. She knew Lud would be
delighted for her – nearly as pleased as her parents would be. He obviously had news of his own, though, because he was extra smiley tonight, as if he was trying to hold in a grin that was
too big for his mouth. He was reading the menu and his blue, blue eyes were twinkling.
    After the waiter had taken their order they both began speaking at once. Ludwig, being the consummate gentleman, waved at her to go first.
    ‘Guess what happened to me today, finally,’ Clare said, beaming.
    ‘I don’t know. You found the secret of eternal life? You checked your lottery ticket and found you had won?’
    Oh, it was much better than that.
    ‘I was pulled into the boardroom . . .’
    ‘Yes?’ Lud leaned forward in his seat and reached for her hand.
    ‘And I was offered a partnership. The first woman in the history of the firm. Me!’ She squealed and Lud stood up and came to her side of the table to hug her, full of
congratulations.
    ‘My darling, that is brilliant,’ he said, but she picked up something in his voice. For some reason it wasn’t as wonderful to him as she’d hoped it would be.
    ‘I’m so excited. It’s the stuff of dreams. I’ve wanted it for ever but I never thought they’d offer it to me.’
    ‘
Is
it what you want?’ asked Lud, returning to his seat.
    ‘Yes, yes, of course it is,’ said Clare, now slightly confused, her eyebrows dipping in the middle of her forehead. Why would he ask that?
    ‘So that is good,’ he said. ‘I’m very proud of you. You deserve it, Clare. You’ve worked very hard all your life for this moment.’ He paused. ‘I also
have news.’
    ‘Well, come on, let’s have a news day. What have you got to tell me?’
    ‘I have been offered a promotion.’
    Nothing that Clare didn’t expect, then. She grinned.
    ‘There’s a shocker, smartypants.’
    ‘It’s in Dubai,’ he went on, subdued.
    ‘Dubai?’ Clare gulped. She didn’t expect that. ‘Why Dubai? You won’t take it though, will you, if it’s there, surely?’
    ‘It’s a new position.’
    He didn’t say that he wasn’t taking it.
    ‘You’ve accepted it?’ Clare felt slightly faint as if all the blood had been diverted from her head.
    ‘Not yet.’
    Not yet was the same as yes, wasn’t it?
    ‘You’re going to live in Dubai?’ Clare’s mouth formed the words but her brain was refusing to accept them. Lud wouldn’t have taken a position in Dubai without
talking to her about it. At least her old, dear, familiar Lud wouldn’t have. The one who wasn’t ruled by his smartphone. ‘When . . . when . . .?’ Her lips felt as if they
were losing their power to obey her.
    ‘Monday. I go on Monday.’
    ‘Monday?’ She sounded like a deranged echo.
    ‘Well, I am flying to Dubai on Monday to meet with people, to decide if I want to take the position but they want someone quickly and they’ve made me an offer I would be an idiot to
refuse. If I say yes, there will be a little toing and froing for a couple of weeks then I start a two-year contract.’
    ‘I can’t believe you didn’t say anything until now.’ Clare bit her lip to combat the tears of hurt which were rising to her eyes.
    ‘I didn’t want to say anything until I had been offered the position for sure. Now I have and am here talking to you about it, but suddenly everything is rush rush rush.’ He
coughed. ‘Clare, I was hoping you would come with me.’
    Oh no, this couldn’t be happening, thought Clare. There had to be a god of timing who was seriously pissed off with the world and had decided to wreak vengeance. Of all the places in the
world where Clare would have loved to live, Dubai was right up there in the top three. The endless sandy beaches, those beautiful seas on her doorstep, the sun, the shopping. She pictured herself
diving beneath warm water that was as blue as Ludwig’s eyes.
    Lud’s hand squeezing hers popped the bubble of her