‘Jesus, it’s still so good to see you back again.’ I slid her burger over, tipped the chips in between our two paper dishes, and covered them in salt and vinegar.
‘Thanks very much.’
‘Seriously, you’re looking radiant.’
‘I licked my finger and ran it under each eye this morning, just to get off the old mascara.’
‘Must be that.’ We each took a bite of our burgers, then swapped, to try each other’s. ‘Really though, you do look well.’
‘It’s contentment, that is. Being on my own. See? The theory works.’ We swapped back. ‘How’s your stuff going? Still got to share a flat with Jack?’
‘Not for much longer.’ I took another bite. ‘Hmmm mffoffan mo mmm mooor.’
‘Nope. No idea what you said.’
I took a drink of beer. ‘He’s moving to New York.’
‘Dear god, it never stops with you two, does it?’
‘With work. They want him to man the new Manhattan store out there, and start overseeing management of some other branches. Alright for some, eh?’
‘And you’re …’
‘Fine. It’s fine. Better he moves out there than we’re constantly tripping over each other round here. You know what London’s like – you’re always bumping into your exes when you’ve just nipped to Boots for a box of tampons.’
‘Ok. I like this positive thinking.’
I took another mouthful of chips. ‘I don’t have to think positive. It’s just the way it is. Anyway, with the teaching exchange all approved, I’ll be off in the new year to who knows where. I won’t have to worry about bumping into Jack at all from then on.’
Liz wouldn’t come out for more drinks – she was heading off to a house party, she said, just to show her face to some old friends – so I headed home, where Jack had fallen asleep on the sofa. I didn’t wake him, but just stood at the door and tried to imagine all of his stuff gone – life with him gone.
THIRTY-THREE
Heading into the Science office, I could hear the school choir getting stuck into their rehearsals for the Christmas concert next month, filling the corridor with festive joy I was in no way ready for.
‘Zoe, darling, could I have a quick word?’ Benni swung around the edge of her office doorway before disappearing back inside.
I followed her in, and watched her sit down behind her desk, with a folder in front of her bearing the logo of the teaching exchange programme.
‘Well?’ she said. ‘Shall we open it?’
‘Wait. Do you know what’s inside?’
She shook her head. ‘No. They don’t email, just send this package over for you and me to go through and sign. I’ll discover who I’m getting too, let’s remember.’
We both leapt for the folder and tore it open, looking for the appropriate sections.
‘Oh my god,’ I gasped. ‘Berlin!’
‘Oh, darling, that’s fantastic! Hasn’t living there always been on your wish list?’
With Jack, I thought. At least I didn’t get New York. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I took a deep breath. ‘This is amazing. Thanks, Benni.’
‘You’re welcome, Zoe. You deserve this. You better come back when your time’s up though, or I will hunt you down and drag you screaming to afternoon detention.’
I grinned at her, and tried to imagine my life in two years’ time. ‘Well? Who did you get to cover me?’
Benni opened her folder, revealing a photograph of an elderly man with white fluffy hair and a thin grimace. ‘Oh well,’ she sighed. ‘At least my wife has nothing to worry about.’
It was three days before Jack and I were home and awake at the same time.
‘It’s crazy, trying to get everything ready for New York in time for January. A month might be long enough to get myself ready, but I’m not sure about the store over there. I’m starting to worry that the clichés are true – Manhattan never sleeps.’ He looked grey with fatigue.
‘Are you still looking forward to it?’
He thought for a moment, then closed his mouth with a snap. ‘Yeah. I’m sure it’ll be fine, once I’m out there.’
I took out the details of my new school, lifted it up and vaguely waved it. ‘Looks like it’s the season for new jobs abroad.’
‘Really? Where? Not New York!’
I looked at him for a second, wondering if he was feeling the same pull-push of emotions I’d had at that thought. ‘No … Berlin.’
Jack whooped. ‘No way! Zo, that’s amazing! When do you start?’ His delight at my news felt great; I remembered why he was always the first person I wanted to tell about anything. I told him about the paperwork I’d filled in back in October for a start in the new year, how I could have been placed at any international school in the world, how it felt like a great piece of luck to have been given the one place I’d most like to go.
He went in for a hug, but checked himself – we ended up in a clumsy high five, yeah, cool, high five. Of course: we didn’t hug anymore. This was just sharing some good news with the person you most wanted to tell, with the person you wouldn’t see again after a month or so. But no hugging.
‘So we’re both off,’ I said. ‘Both out of the country.’
‘Yeah, I guess so.’ He looked around the flat. ‘Two continents. Wow. That really is divorcing, isn’t it? I guess we’ll need to get this place sorted, then. One way or another.’ He rubbed his head, looking blank, distant, and said he really needed to get some sleep – the investors in Asia wanted a 5 a.m. call with him.
I made myself a cup of tea, and for the first time ever, feeling in an experimental mood, opened the bin straight away and put the teabag inside. Whoah. Jack was right. That really did take no time.
Pity he wouldn’t be around for long enough to notice the difference.
THIRTY-FOUR
Liz had asked if I was free for a quick drink after work. At the bar, I saw her chatting to a familiar face.
‘Well, hello, stranger.’
Adam, he of the house slippers and also, it seemed, Liz’s heart, gave me a huge hug, then held me at arm’s length to grin and say, ‘Hello back at you.’
‘It is really, incredibly nice to see you.’
Liz was beaming, shooting actual rays of happiness from each and every pore of her skin as she held his hand under the table. She could hardly stop smiling the whole evening. We sat at a booth and talked about our Christmas plans – even with Berlin only weeks away, mine felt flat and grey, so I encouraged them to talk about the cottage they were renting with Liz’s mum for the Christmas week.
‘And of course,’ she said, looking serious, ‘I’ve asked Adam to bring his slippers.’
He shrugged. ‘Over time, she’ll learn their importance. It’s an understanding that comes only with many years’ wisdom.’ They both laughed, and I thought, Yeah. Liz’s theory really does work.
When Adam was at the bar, Liz told me what had happened: they’d both ended up at the same mutual friend’s house party – the one she’d been heading to when I’d seen her for our burger date. She knew before they’d even spoken that she still had feelings for him, but decided to try and avoid him in case he didn’t feel the same. She’d been hiding up in a bedroom for half an hour before she heard a noise at the bedroom door, and opened it to find a pair of slippers with a note inside, reading, ‘It’s cold out there. You might need these.’ Adam was waiting around the corner, and they hadn’t even spoken, just fallen into each other’s arms (although Liz may have used slightly less romantic language). Since then, they’d been almost constantly together, and Liz confirmed that her theory had definitely worked – she had never, in any prior relationship, appreciated just how good it was to be with someone nice. And compared to Henry’s sunglasses (I asked if he ever took them off, but Liz only looked at me with wide eyes; I said, Even in bed?, and Liz merely opened her eyes wider), Adam’s slippers were comforting and acceptable – lovable, even.
‘And,
’ Liz went on, ‘I’ve remembered that the slipper thing wasn’t even his worst habit! But Henry taught me that not only are Adam’s habits pretty harmless, but that I’m hardly perfect either. I’m not!’ she said, seeing my laughing, shocked expression. ‘But I feel like my imperfections and Adam’s imperfections fit together. For now.’ She laughed as she watched Adam push his way through the crowds towards us. ‘I’m really happy, Zo. I can’t guarantee where this is going to go. But at least I can give it a fair run.’
On the way home that night, I had my first text from Kat since our encounter with Chuck at the bar. Can you get the first three lessons off tomorrow? Emergency. Come to Chuck’s office at 8.30. Ask for Damian xxx
When I texted back to ask a handful of my million questions, I got no reply.
I only had one lesson before lunchtime, and when I explained that Kat had an emergency, Benni told me George could cover my lesson. She sent another message shortly after: If you try to pull this kind of stunt again I’ll have you transferred abroad o_o
I then had two messages from Esther and Ava, who had apparently both received Kat’s text too. See you there? I sent back.
The next morning, the three of us met up outside Kat’s former offices, and I could see we were all remembering our last visit here together. But inside, at reception, there was no Miranda. A tall, curly-haired woman greeted us with a distracted air, although when I said we were here to see Damian, she gave us a small, private smile as she talked quietly into the phone.
A dark-skinned young man came through the frosted glass doors and held them open for us, smiling. He followed us through, then gestured for us to follow him down a corridor; he stopped at a large wooden door, which opened to reveal a huge meeting room, with chairs lined up in front of a TV screen that was showing the news on mute, and a table covered with breakfast food, coffee pots and tea urns.
‘Help yourselves,’ he said in a soft voice. ‘It’s just you guys in here, so make yourselves at home. And I’m to tell you to keep an eye on the TV.’ He winked at us, then shut the door gently.
‘What the hell is going on?’ said Esther, piling almond croissants onto her plate.
Ava looked confused too, but poured herself a cup of tea and nibbled at a fruit bowl. I was too nervous to eat, and kept looking from the TV to Es and Ava. After a quarter of an hour, the TV popped and crackled: the channel was changing to a live link from another room, the volume being turned up by someone. It was a meeting room similar to this one, but with chairs arranged around a large table, instead of facing a TV screen. People were filling the seats, each of which had a glossy print-out in front of it on the table. Once almost all the chairs had been occupied with confident-looking suits, and the space behind by nervous-looking lesser staff, Chuck strode in with a headphone mic on. He greeted a few of the suits by name, glad-handing as he went around the table, then stopped near the white screen that had been set up at the end of the table and put his hands together.
‘Namaste, everyone.’ He bowed from the waist. ‘Thank you all for coming today. It’s a real honour to have a visit from KSTW, the largest digital agency in the US. It’s so great that you guys could come and see our humble little office in real life.’ Some of the staff behind the suits, Kat’s former colleagues, started giving each other nervous glances.
‘Ok, so …’ Chuck clapped his hands together. ‘What we’re doing here today, is showing KSTW just how great a little agency we are, and how much we could offer them if they decided to take us under their umbrella. First of all – savings.’ He chortled. ‘We all know that any business wants to know they’re getting a bargain, and I can reassure KSTW that they will be – there are plenty of savings to be made here when you consider scale costs, plenty of overlapping roles that can simply be cancelled out into financial savings for any buyer of our agency.’ Kat’s old colleagues were giving each other slightly more nervous looks; between some of them, glances were escalating into outright hostility as they realised Chuck was planning to get rid of most of his staff for a sale that would doubtless only benefit him. Those feelings seemed to grow as Chuck launched into his presentation: countless inspirational images – sunlit woodlands, wild waves, Muhammad Ali, Gandhi, people cresting mountains – and phrases on each one like ‘visionary global influencers’ and ‘leveraging collective reach’ and ‘strategic networking partnerships’ and ‘sustained storyscaping synergy’. By the time his final slide came up, with an image of lightning splitting an oak tree and the phrase ‘integral collaboration with dynamic disruption’ written across it, the suits were smiling tightly at each other.
‘Any questions?’ Chuck said, adjusting his gait to stand even wider by the side of the screen.
‘Yes,’ said one of the women at the table, tapping her glossy print-outs into a square. ‘I just wanted a few more details on your …’ She paused, looked down at the print-outs. ‘… “impactful platforming”?’
Chuck hesitated. ‘I think, to be fair, everything I need to say is in your documents there. I mean – if you want breakthroughs in your social conversations, I’m your man!’ He stood back and rocked on his heels.
The woman looked almost pleased. ‘And can you talk us through any of your figures for future projections? Any of the partners you’ve got lined up?’
Chuck rocked back on his heels again. ‘I can show you – but I think it’s better for our relationship if we all know what page we’re on creatively, before we worry about the nuts and bolts of the whole thing. Right?’ He smiled at them, his charm turned up to eleven. ‘It’s the vision that’s going to make this relationship work, isn’t it? Any chump with a calculator can tell you the numbers and show you a few spreadsheets.’
He looked around the meeting room.
‘Ok? Great! Thanks again for coming in. Guys, can we give our visitors from KSTW a big hand for welcoming us into their family?’ The staff around the edge of the room looked shell-shocked, and only one gave a slow clap.
The woman at the table murmured to her colleague beside her, then said, ‘Sorry, Chuck, we’ve just got one more person to hear from.’
Chuck blinked, his face frozen with confusion, but when the door opened and Kat walked in, followed by Damian carrying another pile of glossy print-outs, his face began melting into something between nausea and fury.
‘I’m so sorry,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘There seems to be some kind of confusion. Ms Lewis is actually a former agency employee. I’ll just call security to remove her and we can carry on.’
‘Actually,’ said the woman at the table, smiling, ‘I’ve asked Ms Lewis to talk to us today. I think you might find her presentation … enlightening.’
Kat stood at the front of the meeting room, her beautiful braided mohawk adding to her height and giving her an air of calm authority.
‘Thanks very much,’ she smiled. ‘Thanks, Damian,’ she added, as he worked his way around the table, handing out documents. Kat pointed her controller at the projector, and clicked open a new slide: ‘KSTW: Where we can take you’. Her presentation had fewer slides than Chuck’s, but each one contained a simple idea: a business area to target with suggested companies and ways to improve their marketing; a new way of using social media with mocked-up samples; using her agency’s British identity as a way to expand both further into the UK and into South American markets, with suggested companies to aim for. Each slide was followed by rough figures, comparing current and potential profits and consumers.
I felt a nudge from Esther, who was almost bouncing in her seat. ‘Look at Chuck!’ she whispered, and when I did I almost felt sorry for him. His face was purple, the same shade I remembered from the bar the other night with Kat; and his leg was jiggling angrily as he leant against the wall with poorly feigned apathy.
When Kat finished, both the KSTW employees and the agency staff applauded. Chuck stepped forward, knocking a chair over in fury. ‘Sorry, have I lost my mind? An ex-employee of mine comes in here, steals my ideas, and what, get
s a big pat on the back for it? I’m calling security, and I’m going to get some kind of semblance of reality back into this meeting.’ He reached for the intercom.
Damian went to hold him back, but Kat looked at a colleague standing at the edge of the room, who simply shook her head, and Damian sat down again.
‘Reception?’ said Chuck. ‘Can I get security in meeting room two? Now? There’s someone who needs escorting out.’ He released the button and leant back against the wall, relaxing into his triumph.
The woman who had shaken her head at Kat raised her hand.
‘What?’ said Chuck, irritated again.
‘Hi. Belinda? Head of HR.’ Chuck shrugged at her. ‘It’s just … when you say ex-employee, I can’t actually find any of the paperwork about her termination.’
‘Fine, fine,’ Chuck hissed. ‘We’ll sort this out later. It’s really not the time.’
Belinda went on. ‘Only – it seems this is quite a clear case of wrongful dismissal. And Ms Lewis has quite a good case against you for this.’
‘Against me?’ Chuck laughed. ‘Against the agency, I think you’ll find. This is your job, isn’t it? You can sort this out.’
‘Yes, it is my job. And I’ve been talking with the other people who do my job at KSTW, and it seems that if this buyout is going to happen, those people who do my job there … well, they want Ms Lewis here.’
Chuck’s face began re-purpling. I was starting to wonder if I would ever grow tired of seeing that colour change.
‘And,’ Belinda continued, ‘well, they don’t want you.’
Gristle and co. burst in through the huge door.
Belinda pointed to Chuck. ‘Please, Simon, if you would? Mr Johnson was just leaving.’ Gristle looked surprised, but the other two looked at each other and gave small smiles. They stepped up to Chuck and took an arm each. Gristle held the door open as they started walking him out.
Chuck looked at Kat over his shoulder. ‘I don’t know how you’ve convinced everyone, but you’re a liar, and you won’t get away with this! You WON’T GET AWAY WITH IT!’
The Starter Home Page 26