Warhol's Prophecy Read Online Free PDF

Hailey know it?’
    ‘Jesus, what is this? Woman’s Hour ? Stick to running this business, Frank. Forget the Agony Aunt routine. Any problems I’ve got with Hailey, I’ll sort them out.’
    ‘It might seem like I’m sticking my oar in but, if it does, I’m doing it because I care about both of you. I mean we’re mates, not just business partners, aren’t we? If I had any problems with Maggie, I’d talk to you about them.’
    ‘Hailey and I are OK, right? We’re working things out. I didn’t exactly sit down and consider the pros and cons before I had that affair with Sandy. I didn’t think about any of the consequences, because I didn’t expect to get caught. But I did , and that’s the end of it. Now, if there’s nothing else, why don’t you give Sandy a shout and we can tell her what to put in this letter?’
    Burnside paused a moment, then opened the office door again.
    ‘Sandy,’ he called, ‘have you got a minute, please?’
    The two men locked stares, Burnside finally looking away, stepping to one side to allow their secretary access to the room.
    Sandra Bennett smiled at both men as she entered, the smile a little more muted as she looked at Rob.
    He ran swiftly appraising eyes over her: the slim legs and narrow hips, the shoulder-length ash-blonde hair. Narrow, finely chiselled features, and those eyes – inviting.
    An invitation you couldn’t turn down , Rob pondered, shifting in his seat.
    She was wearing a black jacket and skirt. Simple. Efficient.
    She sat down opposite Rob and crossed her legs, smoothing a crease from her skirt, aware that he was studying her. There was still a part of her that welcomed that gaze, and all that might lie behind it.
    ‘Take a letter, Miss Bennett,’ said Burnside, grinning.
    ‘Frank, you’re not usually this formal.’ She smiled.
    ‘We need to be this time,’ Rob said. He explained to her what was going on with the vans they wanted to buy, watching as she made notes on her pad, stopping occasionally to look at him, unsettling him by the length of one or two of those glances.
    Burnside was chipping in with his own ideas but, when Sandy looked up at them after each flurry of scribbling, it was Rob’s gaze that she caught and held.
    Finally she got to her feet, and tapped the notepad with her pen.
    ‘I’ll sort it out,’ she said, smiling.
    And she was gone.
    ‘Give them hell, Sandy,’ Burnside chuckled after her.
    ‘What else can I do for you, Frank?’ Rob wanted to know, looking up at his partner still standing in the doorway.
    Burnside appeared vague.
    ‘You’re still here,’ Rob continued. ‘So is there something else?’
    ‘Just be careful, Rob,’ said the older man. ‘Like I said, I know it’s none of my business, but . . .’
    Rob cut him short. ‘That’s right,’ he said flatly.
    ‘If it’s any consolation, I can understand why you did it. I mean, she’s a good-looking girl, I don’t deny that, and—’
    ‘Spare me the shoulder to cry on, Frank. I said it’s over, and it is.’ He got to his feet, crossing to the door, holding it open for his partner, who hesitated a minute then left. Rob closed the door, but lingered next to it.
    Through the glass wall that formed the front of his office, he could clearly see Sandy sitting at her desk, fingers flashing quickly across the keyboard of her VDU.
    Waiting for her to turn round and look at you?
    ‘It’s over,’ he said under his breath.
    He wondered if these words of reassurance were for his own benefit.
    It was a moment or two before he went back and sat down again.

6
     
    ‘I GOT LOST today, Dad.’
    Becky said the words almost gleefully, smiling happily first at Rob then at Hailey.
    They had eaten dinner in the kitchen, as they always did; the room that had once been the dining room having been transformed, about a year ago, into a study, and what had once been the study having been redecorated to turn it into a playroom for Becky. What the hell: they only ever used the