A/N: you might like part of this...

Part 11

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Trying to ignore the blush that was obviously exploding all over her face, and the general enquiring attention suddenly focused on her, Donna piped up with, "That was quite a while ago now. I've moved on. Rod-Roderick was a previous boss of mine; you see. I was his personal assistant until Daisy took over."

There was a strained look about John's expression. "How long?" he wanted to know.

She shyly glanced at him. "How long ago or how long did I work for him?"

"Both!" he declared through gritted teeth.

"Is it a problem that Donna was my girl Friday, John?" Roderick smoothly wondered; his concern dripped through his words like wasps on a sugary drink. "I assure you nothing untoward happened."

Yeah, like that didn't make it sound as if something had. Donna seethed with embarrassment and indignation. "Cheek! I was much more than that; I was his personal assistant," she clarified for Verity and Sydney. "And as for any shenanigans happening where I was concerned, it certainly didn't. Daisy on the other hand…" That'd drop him in it!

"What did you do to the girl?" Sydney asked Roderick. "To this Daisy she mentioned?"

Roderick shot a warning glare at Donna. "Nothing, Uncle Sydney. Donna merely relinquished her interest in working with me, and Daisy took over her position."

He said what?! Blind fury made her blurt out, "Oh yeah? Funny that, because I don't remember having a set position that included me being in your bed!"

Everyone else at the table gasped in shock, but Roderick stayed calm. She was merely acting from a bitter standpoint, he told himself. "Not that such a position had long been your ambition, dear Donna," he tormented her with. "Such a shame. But then who could blame you for being jealous?"

The cutlery went flying then as Donna forced her body up out of her seat and her hand landed with a loud smack on Roderick's face in an involuntary act. "Jealous! You bastard!" she spat out at him. Part of her was quite pleased that he almost fell off his chair as he dealt with the blow.

John instantly grabbed hold of her arm to stop her taking another swipe at his cousin, but Donna's anger was already spent, and she shook off his strong grasp.

"I think you'd better leave," Verity suggested in a low bitter tone.

"John?" Donna half sobbed as she looked to him for support, but he was merely staring at her dumbfounded, still unable to believe she had actually lashed out. "Yes, I'd better," she agreed, grabbing up her coat and handbag whilst wiping away the hasty tears that appeared on her cheeks. "I'll leave you all to er…"

But she didn't bother to finish her sentence, let alone her thoughts, as she marched away from the scene as quickly as she could. Her only consolation was the fact she had landed a slap fair and squarely on one of Roderick's faces; the one he presented to his family. The other one she knew he kept for private.

Once outside in the cold air, her brave façade crumpled and she burst into tears. How had everything descended so quickly and so badly? Part of her knew that she would have to cry this out enough to enable her to be able to see as she drove back home to Jocasta's; and there would be the little matter of trying to decipher what the aftermath might be.

Had she ruined it for John's parents to be able to carry on living on the farm? Would he ever want to see her again? Did this mean, yet again, that her mother was right about her inability to get and keep any man, let alone a decent one? It was all so horrible.

Back inside the restaurant, Sydney had broken the tension by asking, "What was that all about?"

Roderick nursed his cheek and addressed his stunned cousin by commenting, "Donna always was a little fiery. It is nice to see that she hasn't lost any of her passion."

"Are you saying that Donna was once your girlfriend?" Verity openly asked.

With a shake of his head, Roderick replied, "No, Aunt Verity. Much as I was tempted by her ways, I resisted her charms. It seems that John here did not."

The implied criticism broke through John's hurt trance. "What are you trying to say?!"

"Nothing of any harm," Roderick insisted, and took a long sip of cold water from his glass on the table before him. "But Donna has a particular reputation, and obviously tried to get to me via you."

A small choking sound came from John's throat as he contemplated this possibility. No, it couldn't be so! Donna's surprise when she saw Roderick couldn't have been faked. After all, he had been the one to mention his cousin Ricky, not Donna.

Pushing back his chair, he announced, "Excuse me." And then made off to seek out where Donna might have gone when she had fled.

"Roderick! What did you really do?" Verity growled at him in anger. "If you have deliberately upset John just to get back at that girl…!"

The threat did not fall on deaf ears, and Roderick looked contrite for a second. "I'm sorry, Aunt Verity," he mumbled. "I'll make it up to him; to you."

"You'd better," she retorted.

He gave a sniff and picked up the nearest menu. "Let's choose something to eat and then we can discuss all this properly."

Sydney picked up his own menu with a resigned air, knowing that his wife was only more than willing to take on her nephew and beat him into submission. Perhaps the appearance of John's Donna would turn out to be fortunate for their predicament after all…

John raced through the restaurant, peeping into every corner to see where Donna had possibly gone, without any luck. "Come on. Where are you?" he quietly spoke aloud.

"Excuse me, sir, but are you looking for your wife?" the maître d'hôtel asked when he spotted John frantically searching.

"Yes!" John quickly replied, deciding to ignore the title mistake for now. "Did you see where she went?"

The maître d'hôtel pointed towards the main entrance. "She stepped outside for a breath of fresh air, sir."

"Thank you!" John threw at him as he burst out through the restaurant doors.

The first thing he spotted was Donna's car still sitting in the car park. Thank goodness for that! It meant that he was in with a chance to catch her. The next thing he spotted was Donna herself, leaning against the wooden cladding on the wall by the side of the main entrance doors, watching him dart his gaze about with great interest. In her hands were her mobile phone and several used tissues.

It must have looked quite comical, the way he suddenly halted in his tracks, like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a lorry; but he saw no humour in the situation. And to top it all, soft rain began to fall, threatening to drench them in the next ten minutes.

They stood staring at each other, not knowing what the best start to their conversation would be.

"Well? Are you going to stand there gawping at me all day, or are you going to ask me whatever questions are on your mind?" Donna testily quizzed him.

Swivelling on the spot, he spluttered, "Oh! I don't know, but erm… if you… I think we should talk."

"Rightio," she agreed. "Go on then: talk!"

No no no no! This wouldn't do. Not here, in public. He shook his head, "No, not here. Can't we go somewhere else?"

"Like where?" she demanded. "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather get dumped here, and then I can just go straight home."

"Dumped?!" he echoed. "Who said anything about being dumped?"

"It doesn't matter, because you're going to dump me after what that arsehole said about me in there," Donna bitterly stated. "The continuing saga of 'Daisy Gets Her Man'."

A puzzled frown crossed his face. "I'm sorry, but who is Daisy, and why are we discussing her?"

With an exasperated sigh, she explained, "Daisy is Roderick's shag bunny; the one that won. The one that always wins. And I end up looking like a complete idiot."

The puzzled expression deepened. "I really don't get what some woman that Roderick bothers to sleep with has to do with me!" John confessed. "Unless he stole her off you; or..." Several thoughts could be seen to whirl through his head. "…she stole him. Did she, Donna? Did she steal Roderick from you?" It hurt so much to ask the question, but he had to know.

Averting her gaze, she reluctantly whispered out, "Yes."

How he stopped himself from screaming in horror he didn't know. As it was, he sunk to his hunches, trying to catch his breath as the implications hit him. Ricky was right! She had used him to get back to Ricky. All that had happened between them was a complete sham.

Then he felt Donna's comforting arms capture him, her mouth whispered soft words into his ear, as she tried to manoeuvre him away from the building. "It's not what you think," she told him. "Let's get into the car and out of the wet. I promise I'll explain, but just let me get you somewhere private."

So he let her guide him into the front passenger seat of her little blue Peugeot, all the time wondering what on earth she could say that would make this all better. This was a nightmare; it had to be. Things like this didn't really happen.

"Well?" he immediately asked her once her door was shut and she was sitting in the driver's seat beside him. He could hear the sob catch in his throat but he didn't care anymore. If she was merely after Ricky then he had to find out what it meant for his parents and his future life.

Taking in a deep breath, she tried to be brave but his wet, accusing look was breaking her heart. "Your cousin is a lying scumbag," she began. "He made it sound as if we were heavily involved, when we weren't. No, hear me out. I was merely his PA, and yes, I confess that I did fancy him for a while. He used that against me, getting me to work longer hours training Daisy, with the promise of rewarding me. As it turned out, my reward was Daisy getting my job, all the credit for my hard work, and a place by his side. All I got was redundancy with no pay out. He couldn't wait to get rid of me once she squirmed her way into his bed; but then he had the cheek to phone me up the other day and offer me a new job, giving me a load of baloney about needing my skills, and an invite to go out with him for dinner today!"

John's mouth opened and closed a few times like a gasping goldfish. Finally he managed to ask, "Did you love him?"

"I thought I did, but I didn't," she disclosed. "I don't know what I ever saw in him."

"And me?"

"What about you?"

He blew out his cheeks as he tried to decide on his next question. "What did you know about me?"

"I knew he had family in the country, that he was considering buying a farm, that he wanted to rescue an old family business, but I didn't know anything about you," she supplied as honestly as she could. "I thought it was a mere coincidence that you looked a bit like him, and I tried not to use that against you."

"So it wasn't a plus?" A disbelieving hollow laugh escaped from his lips.

"Okay, I admit it helped. But you surpassed that."

"How?" he inevitably wanted to know.

She snorted her scorn. "Have you seen yourself in your black jeans? You are gorgeous, and I mean in a drop dead gorgeous sort of way. And your eyes are way lovelier than his. I don't think anyone has ever looked at me the way you do. His eyes are usually cold and calculating when he isn't trying to charm the birds out of the trees. And don't get me started on his hair! I dread to think how much muck he uses on it."

A smile spread across John's face at that thought. It was true; Ricky loved his slicked back style. Goodness knew where he had got it from.

"Are we okay, you and me?" Donna cautiously wondered.

He risked nodding. "I think we can be," he quietly replied, and gulped down his doubts.