‘No!’ Anna shook her head. ‘Not like that anyway. Oh, Daise, you won’t believe what a difference my new job has made.’ They hadn’t had a chance to meet up since Anna had started working for Daniel. They’d spoken briefly on the phone a few times, but Anna had been guarded at first — she couldn’t figure Daniel out — but now she wanted to tell Daisy everything.
‘The job that you didn’t want to take, because your new boss was rude and difficult?’
Anna smiled again. ‘He likes things a certain way, that’s true, but his bark is worse than his bite when you get to know him.’
‘And you’ve got to know him?’ The insinuation was clear in Daisy’s voice.
Anna scolded her friend. ‘As a person, yes. Not in any other way.’
Although, when he’d leaned over her, to look at her photographs this afternoon, she couldn’t help remembering that her heart had started to beat more quickly.
As soon as the photographs had been delivered to the promoter, Daniel had turned to his famous diary. ‘We haven’t got much on for the next few days. How about we look at your work?’
‘Are you sure?’
He nodded. ‘I told you on Saturday I wanted to see them.’
Hesitantly Anna switched on her laptop, opening up the folder that housed her latest work. She bit the inside of her cheek nervously, still unused to showing her photographs to others. Daniel didn’t say anything as he flicked through the images, his face so expressionless that Anna didn’t know what to think. Her stomach clenched with anxiety until he reached the last one and turned to her.
‘They’re exceptional,’ he said simply.
‘They are?’
‘Yes, they are. I love the way you’ve captured the old and the new architecture. You have a good instinct with light and angles — these images aren’t what the average person would see. They make you look at the buildings in a different way. These alone would be enough for an exhibition. You don’t need the ones you took in Chester. In fact, I think a different location would muddy the waters.’
‘You think they’re good enough for an exhibition?’ she asked incredulously.
He nodded. ‘With a bit of work, yes. The only thing I don’t understand is why has no one spotted your talent before?’
She bowed her head, her face flushing with heat. ‘Because the only person I’ve ever showed them to before was my ex, Mark, the manager of The Whigmore. He made me believe theyweren’t good enough, and so I’ve never been brave enough to do anything with them.’
‘Well, he was wrong. They are good enough, or they will be, and so are you. He’s done you a disservice in stopping you from believing in yourself.’
Anna stared at him open-mouthed. She had never once doubted that Mark was telling her the truth about her talent. But judging by the way he had treated her recently, she should have realised he may have acted to serve himself. Now she felt foolish for taking his opinions at face value.
Daniel broke her silence. ‘The first thing we need to do is decide which photographs we want to use, then we can get to work on making them the best they can be. Are you up for that?’
‘Oh, definitely.’ And suddenly the past and Mark didn’t matter. It was the future which counted, and she had a feeling that the future looked bright.
She and Daniel had worked all afternoon, selecting the best photographs. He was right — there were more than enough for an exhibition. Daniel suggested how she could edit some of them, and some that she should retake at a different angle, and she couldn’t wait to get started. The new photographs would have to wait until the weekend, but she had every intention of getting out first thing on Saturday morning, regardless of what was going on with her family.
‘That’s amazing, Anna,’ Daisy said now. ‘It’s what you’ve always dreamed of.’
‘I know.’ Anna took a large gulp of her wine. ‘I can barely believe it’s actually going to happen. I keep having to pinch myself.’
‘And it’s all down to one man,’ Daisy said. ‘I thought you were going to work for Daniel Redfern, not the other way around.’
‘Oh, I’m still working for him. We’ve got a shoot on Wednesday and I’ll be the one lugging all the equipment around. Nothing’s going to change in that department. And I don’t want it to, either. I’m learning so much just by watching how he works.’
‘I see.’
Anna turned to her friend and looked at her sharply. ‘What’s that supposed to mean? I know that tone of voice.’
‘Nothing . . . it’s just that you sound as though you’re a little bit in love with him.’
Anna almost choked on her wine. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve done that before, remember? And look how badly it ended. I’d never be stupid enough to do it again.’
‘Okay, I believe you,’ Daisy said guardedly. ‘It’s just that you sound really enamoured with him.’
