by Liz Bower
“Sorry. That came out wrong. It’s just I don’t want…” He wouldn’t meet my gaze before his lifted towards the ceiling. “I don’t want you to be the source of office gossip. It’s just easier if you aren’t working here.”
Me being the source of office gossip didn’t seem to bother him when he’d had me pressed against the door. My eyebrows drew together as I got the impression he was lying to me.
“Did Tony say what you would be working on?”
“Not really. Just that I’d be working on some accounts as well.”
Beck strode across his office to his desk. “Okay.” He grabbed his mobile off the desk and his jacket off the back of his chair. “Okay. I have to go…I need to call…someone.”
He strode out of his office, leaving me wondering what the hell had just happened and staring after him at the empty doorway. Like a fool, I stood there for who knew how long.
His confession from the weekend of wanting us to be together taunted me. Those words didn’t feel very true at that moment. Hurt followed the embarrassment that those words might not have been true. But why would he lie?
Maybe the office hadn’t been the best time or place to bring it up. I’d caught him off guard and would speak to him that evening. After all, this was Beck. I trusted him. Didn’t I? Yes. It was difficult to trust, but I had no real reason not to.
You trusted your mum and look what she kept from you. God, I hated that little voice in the back of my mind. Shut up. I do trust him.
The sounds of the office slowly filtered through Beck’s open door, interrupting my internal argument. Giving myself a mental shake, I made my way back to my desk. Tried to put thoughts of Beck, and the look on his face as I broke the news, to one side.
It was hard, though. Every so often, I’d catch myself drifting off. Staring into space and wondering who he’d had to call. Why he thought it would be easier if I didn’t work there. We didn’t have to work together, and I rarely saw him for more than a fleeting glance. It was only a couple of weeks longer. Then I’d glance around the office looking for him. But his door remained open for the rest of the day, and I didn’t see him return.
As I sat staring at his open doorway for the millionth time, the sound of Jaz’s laughter caught my attention. “What’s so funny?” He was watching me as I swivelled my chair around to face him.
“You are.”
Clearly I wasn’t in on the joke, and I frowned at him. “Why?”
“You’re like a million miles away this afternoon. What’s going on?”
What could I say? I’d love to confide in Jaz about Beck but…well, I wasn’t even sure where we stood after he’d stormed off. And while I thought Jaz would keep it to himself if I did, the idea of anyone overhearing us or anyone else in the office knowing made me cringe.
What did Jean always say? A secret is something you tell only one other person or something like that. If that was true, it would be around the office in no time.
Instead, I gave him a half-hearted shrug. “Tony offered me an extension to my contract.”
Jaz smiled, flashing his white teeth at me. “That’s great news. We should celebrate.” His smile dropped as he stared at me. “It is good news, isn’t it?”
Yes, it was. I needed to get a grip. “It is.”
“So, what’s with all the staring into space then?”
Oh, you know, Beck doesn’t want me here, stormed out of his office when I told him the good news. Nothing important. Obviously, I couldn’t say that. “Just thinking about the future. You know, what to do about the cake business. That’s all.”
“You’re still going to do it, aren’t you? Because I may have mentioned it to a few people.” He gave me a sheepish look. “Or to like everyone I know.”
Shaking my head, I laughed. “Yes, I’m still doing it. So, thank you. For mentioning it to everyone you know.”
“So, we should celebrate. Have you got any plans for the evening?”
Earlier in the day I would have said yes, I had plans. But I had no idea where Beck was or if he still planned on coming ‘round to mine that evening. “I have now. Where are we going?” Because, screw Beck. After the way he’d acted, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to wait around wondering if he’d show up or not.
A night out with Jaz sounded much more fun.
Chapter Twenty-One
Opening my eyes, I rolled over to check my alarm clock and let out a groan. Head throbbing as my stomach lurched. I was going to kill Jaz. Boy, could he knock back the booze. Except I was regretting getting hammered. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Didn’t it always? But work with a hangover? Not such a good idea. Dragging myself from beneath the covers, I crawled towards the bathroom.
A shower, two cups of strong coffee, and two paracetamol later, I felt almost human as I walked into the office. My eyes automatically slid towards Beck’s office door. It was shut. I had no idea if he was in there or not.
As I slumped into my seat, Jaz smiled at me, looking far too cheery for the amount he had put away the previous night.
“Feeling a little rough?”
Narrowing my eyes at him, I stuck my tongue out. He just laughed as I switched my computer on.
By mid-morning, I was almost back to normal thanks to more coffee and a bacon butty, compliments of Jaz. Which was a good job when Tony made his way over to my desk later.
“Kimberly, can you come to my office after lunch? I have something else I need you to work on. We can go through it together.”
“Of course.” He nodded at Jaz and headed for the stairs. Jaz watched Tony leave then turned to me.
“Do you want to get some lunch together at the coffee shop?”
“Definitely. I think I could eat a horse today and still be hungry.” Guess that’s what happened when you drank too much and then had to work. Jaz laughed.
“Okay, but I don’t think you’ll get one at the coffee shop.”
I gave him a shove as I followed him out of the office.
It was quiet when we entered the coffee shop, but Laney appeared from the back at the sound of the bell over the door as I closed it behind me. She ran a hand over her brown curls when she saw us but only managed to make them stick out more.
“Hey, Laney.”
“Hi.”
I glanced Jaz’s way when he didn’t say anything, but he already had his head buried in the sandwich selection. Guess I wasn’t the only one who was hungry.
As we made our way back over towards Laney to pay for our lunch, I noticed a hint of pink along her cheekbones as Jaz handed over his money, his fingertips brushing across her palm. Her question about Jaz the last time I’d been in came back to mind, and I tilted my head, looking between them. Mmm…interesting. Maybe it was more than just the food that brought Jaz there for lunch.
He wandered off to get us a table by the window as I dug out my purse from the depths of my handbag. When I looked back up, Laney had set out a plate of what I assumed were supposed to be beignets but just smelled greasy. She caught me eyeing the plate.
“Do you want to try one? They’re sort of like doughnuts but have chocolate in the middle. I’m trying out some new lines, hoping they’ll be more popular than some of the older ones that customers seem to be bored of.”
I really didn’t want to, but the look on Laney’s face had me reaching for a piece anyway. Grease dripped out of it as I picked one up, when I bit into it, expecting melted chocolate, the pastry was crusty, and there was a lump of hard chocolate in the middle. I grimaced.
“That good, huh?”
The distraught look on her face had me feeling bad. “No. It’s just…they’re a little greasy. And the chocolate should ooze out of the middle like the jam would in a doughnut. Have you tried them?”
She shook her head. “I don’t eat desserts. A new supplier offered them to me to try and get me to start ordering from them.”
I wrinkled my nose up at that. “Well, if I were you, I wouldn’t be buying from them.” She picked up the pl
ate, turned around and dumped them in the rubbish bin.
Maybe I could make it up to her by making a batch of them for her. I’d only made them once before after I’d been on holiday to France with my parents. We’d taken the ferry across and driven through northern France for a couple of weeks, staying in gîtes along the way. The beignets I’d made hadn’t been as good as the French ones, but they were definitely better than those she’d just binned.
“I’m sorry.”
She waved my apology away. “Better to find out from you than another customer.”
After paying Laney, I joined Jaz at the table.
“You were a long time.”
I unwrapped my lunch trying not to smile. “We were talking about baking.”
“Oh.”
At that, I glanced up to see what I thought was disappointment on his face, but the look disappeared before I could be sure. But I couldn’t resist. “Why? Did you think we were talking about you?” He sputtered around the bite of his sandwich. And I wasn’t sure, but I thought he might be blushing as his cheeks darkened. It didn’t seem very Jaz-like, though.
“No. Why would I think that?”
But I didn’t miss the way his eyes darted towards Laney. “I don’t know. Maybe you come here for more than just the food?” But Jaz shook his head.
“You know I love the food here.”
As I leaned over to take a bite of my own sandwich, his gaze darted over towards the counter again. I put my lunch down, not even trying to hide my smile that time. “Or maybe it’s those looks you keep directing at Laney.” Jaz’s food suddenly became fascinating as he turned all his attention to it.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he mumbled.
Letting out a laugh, I picked up my sandwich again. I was pretty sure he did know what I meant.
But if he liked Laney, why hadn’t he said something to her? Jaz didn’t seem the shy type when it came to going after something he wanted.
Back in the office, I carried the stack of papers back to my desk that Tony had given me and got to work. I’d still seen nothing of Beck and tried to push thoughts of him away. Clearly it wasn’t working, and I must’ve still been hung-over because the paperwork Tony had given me made no sense.
The new account Tony had landed had already paid us, yet I couldn’t work out what they’d paid us for. And it was way over the amount I’d seen on other accounts paid on a monthly basis. Putting it down to the hangover, I made a note to double-check the account on Monday. I must be missing something but it was already a quarter to five and I was more than ready to go home. Veg out on the sofa for the night. Eat junk food and binge watch re-runs of The Good Wife.
With a quick glance around the office, I pulled my mobile out of my bag. Checking it for the hundredth time that day. Still nothing. No texts. No messages. Not a word from Beck. I slipped it back into my handbag and tidied my desk up. Shuffled papers around to kill time until I could leave. As soon as the clock hit five o’clock, I was out of there.
Finally home, I collapsed onto the sofa with a groan and covered my eyes with my hand. It had been the longest day on record. Penny rubbed herself against my other hand before settling down next to me and purring loudly.
“At least you’re glad to see me.”
My mobile bleeped with a message vibrating loudly against the coffee table. I grabbed it and earned myself a glare from Penny as I jostled her.
Have to work the weekend. Sorry. Speak soon.
My eyes watered at the brief, unemotional text and I threw the phone onto the other end of the sofa. It might be true, but I suspected Beck was avoiding me. I just didn’t know why. And right then, I couldn’t muster up the energy to figure it out.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The weekend dragged by without another word from Beck despite having texted him. So I buried myself in the project of overhauling my website and made a head start on two cake orders I had lined up. And then I made a gingerbread loaf. Remembered how it was the first thing my grandma taught me to make, and it always brought back happy memories. Plus, it tasted delicious, even if I did say so myself.
But when Monday morning rolled around, my stomach rolled right along with it. Would Beck be at work? Even if he was, I couldn’t say anything at the office. And left alone all weekend, I’d gone from confusion to hurt and ended up at flat-out pissed off.
If he had a problem, why didn’t he come out with it, instead of avoiding me? Surely this couldn’t be about my contract having been extended. There had to be more than that to it, didn’t there?
As I walked into the office, I wouldn’t have time to answer that because Tony was leaning over my desk. “Morning.”
He jumped and straightened up from my desk, looking startled. Maybe I’d overdone the enthusiastic greeting.
“I was just leaving you a note.”
I shrugged off my coat as I stopped behind my chair to hang it over the back of it. “A note?” Tony glanced over at Jaz, but he wasn’t paying us any attention.
“Yes. There was a…mix-up on the account you were working on last week.”
Rolling my chair out from beneath my desk so I could sit down I said, “Oh. Good.” Taking a step back from me his head tilted to the side.
“It’s good there was a mix-up?”
Laughing nervously, I shook my head. “No. I meant…something didn’t seem right when I was working on it on Friday. I meant good because I’d spotted it and intended to speak to you about it.” He looked over to Jaz as he rubbed his hands together.
“Well, I’ve saved you the trouble.” He tapped a finger against my desk. “My note explains it all, so I’ll leave you to get on with it.”
Striding off towards his office, I watched him leave before dropping into my chair. Jaz poked his head around the side of his monitor then.
“Did you have a good weekend?”
I shrugged, not wanting to admit to Jaz that it had been pretty craptastic. “It was all right. I made some gingerbread loaf for you. What about you?” I grabbed the Tupperware box from my handbag and handed it over to him. He opened the lid and took a deep breath.
“Mmm, that smells delicious. Coffees are on me this morning to go with this. My weekend…”
He grinned and I held a palm up towards him. “That grin tells me everything I need to know. I don’t need the details.” Laughing, he disappeared back behind his screen.
Waiting for my computer to log on, I read Tony’s note. Then read it a second time because it didn’t make any sense. The monitor flickered to life and I pulled up the account details. But there it was on the screen. Apparently one of the teams had spent ten hours working on the account. The money they’d paid the previous week had been returned and a new lower payment made. Except, when had someone had enough time to work on their account between Friday and Monday? Beck? I rolled my eyes. Why would he be doing the lowly work on an account?
As I moved the cursor to close out of their account, my gaze landed on the bank account numbers. They didn’t match. Surely, Tony must have noticed.
Clicking through to the banking page, I tapped my fingers on the desk, waiting for the details to load. And when they did, I leaned back in my chair and stared at the rows of numbers. The original payment came from a UK bank account, even I could tell that. The same one the new payment had been made from. But Tony had paid the original amount back to a different account. Maybe they’d opened new bank accounts? Over the space of the weekend? It would take longer than that with all the checks the bank would run to verify it, wouldn’t it? The hairs on the back of my neck lifted as goosebumps rose on my skin. It seemed a little…dodgy.
I did a Google search on the IBAN number. The bank was registered in the Cayman Islands. Resting my head back against the chair, I stared at the ceiling tiles. Why would they have an account in the Cayman Islands? I clicked back on the client record. They were a small family-run antiques business that didn’t make that much money. Certainly not big enough to make an offshore b
ank account necessary. Not for the first time, I had my doubts about Tony. Especially when he’d told me I wasn’t supposed to speak to anyone about this account. But if I had doubts—suspicions—I knew I should report them. That much I remembered from watching the video on my first day before it sent me into a boredom-induced coma.
I glanced Jaz’s way, but he was hidden behind his computer screen. Plus, you weren’t supposed to report your suspicions to a colleague. And did I really want to involve him? My gaze wandered to Beck’s office as I considered telling him instead. He was my boss after all. The door to his office was open.
Before I thought too much about it, I was on my feet and heading for his office. This was work-related. That was the only reason I was going to Beck. Nothing to do with the fact that I hadn’t seen him for almost three days. If I had seen him I’d still be reporting it.
Through the open doorway I spotted Beck sitting behind his desk, hands behind his head, elbows splayed as he stared at the monitor beside him. He looked tired. Hair ruffled, tie loosened and pulled off centre. And still, my heart gave a little squeeze at the sight of him. Realised how much I’d missed him. How much I’d wanted the weekend to be a replay of the one where he’d stayed over after his parents’ party.
Rapping my knuckles against the door frame to get his attention, he glanced my way and smiled. That was a good sign, right?
“Hey. Come on in.”
I stepped into his office and closed the door behind me. Took a seat opposite him as I tried to work out what to say. Why hadn’t he called? Was he pissed off that I was still at the office? That I was mad at him?
But none of that was work-related, so it would have to wait until I saw him again outside the office. If I saw him out of the office again. Beck’s gaze wandered over my face.
“Everything okay?”
I nodded then said, “No.” Beck’s lips lifted at the edges at my mixed reply. Swiping my hands down my thighs, I reminded myself I had no reason to be nervous. This was Beck. Personal stuff aside, I knew we needed to discuss this. “I’m sure it is. I mean it’s…Tony told me not to speak to anyone about the account I’m working on, but I’m sure he didn’t mean you.”