‘I think it’s perfect,’ she said.
‘You do?’
‘Yes. It’s got everything on our tick list. But more than that, it has a good atmosphere and I think we could be happy there.’
‘So do I.’ He got up from the table and walked over to the coffee table, where he’d left his phone.
‘What are you doing?’
‘I’m going to phone the estate agent.’
‘But it’s half past seven. There’ll be no one there now.’
He shrugged. ‘There might be. And if not, I’ll leave a message so they get it first thing in the morning. These kinds of properties get snapped up really quickly. It might be gone already.’
Liz’s stomach lurched at the thought. What if someone else had put an offer in while she’d been dithering? She held her breath as the phone rang out and then to her surprise was answered. She listened to the one-sided conversation as Alex offered twenty thousand pounds below the asking price. She sucked in her breath when he said it, because if houses like that were in such demand there was no way the seller was going to accept that.
‘Well?’ she asked when he put the phone down.
‘He’s going to speak to the vendor tomorrow. So we’ll just have to wait and see.’
‘Don’t you think your offer was a bit low? I doubt they’ll go for that.’
‘I doubt they will. They’ll know we’re interested, but not a pushover. I’ll go to the asking price if I have to, but there’s no point offering it straight away. Whatever we save will go on fixtures and fittings.’
After they’d cleared away the dinner plates and tidied the kitchen, they sat down together on the sofa. Liz’s head was buzzing with thoughts of what they would do to the house if they got it. Now that they had put an offer in, she was desperate to hear that it would become theirs.
‘If we do get the house, we’ll have to go back straight away and go round each room to see what we want to do with them.’
‘Can’t wait,’ Alex said. ‘Although you’re only going to be doing the planning. We’ll get people in to do the actual work.’
‘Of course we will.’
She was a bit disappointed at that. She’d had a romantic image of them shrugging on work clothes and painting the house together. But deep down she had known that would never happen. Alex always got work done by professionals — he wasn’t into DIY. Besides, she knew he’d never let her do anything physical. Just in case. She smothered a sigh. This pregnancy wasn’t turning out to be the joy she’d hoped it would be. It was so confining. But she was pregnant and that was a blessing in itself. She hoped that as the pregnancy progressed Alex would become a little less insecure about something going wrong, which would take the pressure off. In the meantime, they had a new home to plan. Even if they didn’t get this house, she was now determined to find something just as good. And perhaps Alex was rightabout getting professionals in. She wanted to be in their new home by the time their baby was born.
‘It’s going to be great buying a new place together.’ Alex interrupted her thoughts. ‘I’ve loved living in this apartment, but it’s always been more of a bachelor pad than a family home.’
‘I agree. And I can’t wait to put our own stamp on it.’
‘Yes. It’s going to be a lot of work, though. Are you sure you don’t want me to ask Tia? We can tell her the look we want and make sure she sticks to it.’
‘No,’ Liz said, sitting up abruptly. ‘You know what Tia’s like. Whatever we say, she’ll push her own ideas on us. I want this house to look like a home, not a show house. And I want it to beourhome.’
‘Fair enough. But if it gets too much...’
‘It won’t. Once we get a feel for what we want, we can source most things online. That way it won’t be too taxing. I’m really not budging on this.’
‘No, I can see you’re not. You always were stubborn.’ He kissed her lightly on her nose.
Chapter Thirteen
The wine bar was already noisy by the time Emma and her colleagues arrived. Emma ordered a glass of white wine before joining Nick and four others at the last empty table. Nick introduced them all — Jenny from HR, Mike, who was one of the chefs, Louise from Reception and, finally, Toby, a server in the restaurant whom she’d previously met when she’d helped out when they’d been short-staffed. Emma had never socialised with them before. She’d kept to herself after the bumpy start she’d had with Heather, but now she realised she’d been missing out. She slipped easily into their banter and felt at home with them almost immediately. It might be nice to have friends outside of her and Jay’s life, and could go some way to making work more enjoyable.
After her third glass of wine, Emma was feeling quite tipsy and easily joined in with the laughter around the table.
‘I suggest we raise a glass to Emma,’ Nick said suddenly.
‘Me? Why?’ Emma asked, surprised.
