Journey’s End

by A. E. Radley

  If she felt that Carl was a bigger issue, a predator who may bother other women, she’d take more action. But, as it was, he just made her feel uncomfortable. Knowing that she’d be leaving in a couple of weeks was a relief. Even though she’d rather not spend another minute with Carl.

  35

  Olivia pressed the button on the steering wheel to connect her call. After days of wondering what she’d do to fill her time, everything was happening at once. It was her first day volunteering at Henry’s school and Emily’s opening night preview was the next day. Although Olivia wasn’t going, she wanted to make sure that Emily knew she was thinking about her.

  “Hello darling,” Nicole greeted.

  “Hi, could you send me the best address to have flowers delivered to Emily tomorrow? I’m not sure if I should send them to the theatre or to the offices.”

  “You never send me flowers,” Nicole groused.

  Olivia smiled at Nicole’s joke. “Well, you never agreed to sleep with me,” she joked back.

  “That’s true,” Nicole conceded. “Very well, I’ll email you the address. But don’t send anything too massive. They’ll end up at my apartment anyway.”

  Olivia considered that. “Maybe I should send them to your apartment in the morning?”

  “That sounds like a good idea. It would mean that she wouldn’t have to travel on public transport with the no doubt enormous bouquet you intend to send.”

  “It’s not enormous,” Olivia argued.

  “I’ll believe it when I see it. I’m sure it will block the sun. And then Emily will run off back to New York, and I’ll be left in the shade of the enormous bouquet you sent.”

  “Such a drama queen,” Olivia sighed with a chuckle.

  “I’ll miss Emily. My cleaner will miss Emily, too.”

  “She’ll miss you, and the work. I’m not sure about the cleaner, but, knowing Emily, she’ll probably miss her, too.”

  “She wasn’t too devastated, was she?” Nicole asked.

  Olivia mulled over the question for a moment. Devastated seemed an overstatement. But then Emily was clearly upset by the developments. Olivia didn’t want Nicole to feel guilty, so she decided to err on the side of caution.

  “She’s disappointed, but she understands that there is a lack of jobs for her now.”

  “Yes, it’s just a shame that she couldn’t make the commute work. If she were based in London then it wouldn’t be an issue.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Just that it’s a shame she has to give up so early on. Obviously, I don’t expect you to finance her commute to London, and I know Emily would absolutely hate to be further indebted to you.”

  “But I thought there were no spots open?” Olivia asked. Suddenly everything was becoming quite confusing, and she had no idea what Nicole was talking about.

  “In New York,” Nicole explained. “Oh.”

  “Oh?”

  “I think I’ve put my foot in it,” Nicole said softly. “She didn’t tell you, did she?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m very confused. Maybe you’d care to enlighten me?”

  Olivia heard Nicole blow out a breath. She could mentally see her best friend weighing up her options.

  “When I spoke to Emily,” Nicole started, “I told her that there were no jobs in New York. But there are companies I could get her into here in London. I’m based in London, so I obviously have more sway here. There are a couple of companies who would be really keen to help her grow her career.”

  Olivia reached for the indicator stalk and pulled off the main road onto a side street. She wanted to listen to what Nicole was telling her without having to focus on driving.

  “So, there are jobs?” Olivia asked.

  “Yes, but those jobs obviously wouldn’t be willing to fund her commute. And the salary they pay wouldn’t cover the commute either. Flights to and from New York don’t come cheap.”

  “She didn’t tell me,” Olivia murmured. “She only said that there were no jobs.”

  “The commute was getting her down,” Nicole stated. “She hated being away from you and Henry. Maybe she didn’t mention it because she doesn’t want to travel?”

  Olivia recalled Emily despondently walking around the house at the weekend when she thought no one was looking. She’d been lost in her own world, quickly claiming that she was fine. But Olivia knew the look of someone who was no longer doing a job they loved. She’d seen it in the mirror.

  “But why not even mention that there were jobs in London?” Olivia asked.

  “That’s something you’d have to ask her.”

  “Being in a relationship is extremely complicated sometimes,” Olivia said.

  Nicole chuckled. “It is, it really is. I am sorry I put my foot in it. I shouldn’t have said anything. It was for Emily to tell you or not, not me.”

  “I’m glad you did. I’ll approach it with care,” Olivia reassured her.

  Nicole laughed again. “Oh, please don’t. You’re like a bull in a china shop when you want to subtly let someone know that you know something.”

  “I am not,” Olivia denied.

  “Darling, I love you with the power of a thousand suns, but you are not subtle.”

  Olivia opened her mouth to deny the accusation, but realised that Nicole was absolutely right. She steamed into situations without much thought. She felt a need to speedily deal with anything that fell into her path, and sometimes that meant losing the soft touch.

  “By the way,” Nicole said. “While I’m putting my foot in it, have you spoken to Sophie lately?”

  “Sophie? No, why?”

  “The baby is due in a couple of weeks, and she and Simon are desperately trying to come up with a way to tell you that Simon is really not enjoying his job. I assumed that one of them would have done so by now, but they are running out of time before that baby comes.”

  Olivia spluttered. “B-but… Simon’s fine. He told me he was happy.”

  “When?”

  “A few days after he took the job.”

  “That was months ago. He’s settled in. Now the charm has worn off, and it’s all late nights and stress. He’s very good at his job, but it’s just not him.”

  Olivia took in a deep breath and held it. She turned to look out of the window at people walking their dogs. She slowly let out the breath and shook her head. She was used to missing things, the finer points in people’s tones or a joke slipped into a serious discussion. But to miss such things about the people closest to her was infuriating.

  “So, he’s leaving?” Olivia asked.

  “I don’t know. He’s been agonising mentioning it to you for a while. He knows all of the hassle you went through to set the deal up and he doesn’t want to let you, or the other Applewoods staff, down.”

  “He wouldn’t be letting anyone down. I want him to be happy,” Olivia explained.

  “I know that, you know that, somewhere deep down Simon knows that. He just doesn’t want to disappoint you. And I know you won’t be disappointed in him, which is why I’m mentioning this.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate you being honest with me.”

  “I always will be,” Nicole said.

  Early in their years-long friendship, Olivia had made the request that Nicole was always to be honest with her. Nicole had quickly agreed, commenting that there would be times when Olivia wouldn’t want the level of honesty Nicole was willing to deliver. It had happened on occasion, but, on the whole, Olivia knew that their relationship worked because of the level of trust and honesty they shared.

  She looked at the clock on the dashboard. “I have to go,” she said. “I’m about to teach at the school, any advice?”

  “Tell them all to invest in the arts,” Nicole said.

  “I dread to think how I’d explain investments to them. We’re starting off small and looking at easy ways to add and subtract.”

  “I could do with that course, are you going to stream it live?” Nicole jok
ed.

  “No, you’ll have to wait for the DVD.”

  “Fine, go, teach children how to be financial masterminds. I’ll speak with you later.”

  Olivia chuckled and hung up the call.

  She considered the conversation. There were some things that she needed to clear up. But first she needed to get to the school.

  “Does anyone know the answer?” Olivia asked.

  Henry put his hand up high and started squirming in his seat.

  “Someone other than Henry?” she suggested. She offered him a warm smile, but she wasn’t about to let him take credit for knowing the answer to her question.

  A young girl at the back of the class carefully raised her hand.

  “I think Lauren may have an answer for you,” Natalie suggested.

  “What do you think the answer is, Lauren?” Olivia asked.

  Lauren put her hand down and stretched up her body to see the white board. Her eyebrows knitted together, and she counted under her breath. Olivia was intrigued by the way Lauren was starting to come out of her shell as the lesson was coming to an end.

  “Is it… thirteen?” Lauren eventually asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

  “It is,” Olivia confirmed. “Well done, Lauren. That’s marvellous.”

  The girl beamed with the praise and flopped back into her seat, seemingly exhausted with the strain of being centre of attention.

  “I think you just earned a star for participation,” Natalie told Lauren.

  “Thank you, Miss Costa,” Lauren said softly.

  A bell rang, and the children started to excitedly gather their things and stand up from their desks. Olivia barely had time to step back before they were all running for the exit. As Henry raced past her, he smiled brightly and waved goodbye.

  A few short seconds later, and the classroom was empty save for Olivia and Natalie.

  “Is it always like that?” Olivia asked.

  “Like what?” Natalie asked as she picked up a stray pencil from the floor.

  “Mayhem.”

  Natalie chuckled. “Yep. It’s always like that. But the exit aside, what did you think?”

  “I enjoyed it,” Olivia enthused. “They had a lot of questions.”

  “They did, they enjoyed it. When I told them this morning that you were coming in, they weren’t too sure. But you made it interesting for them and got them involved.”

  “It didn’t start off too well,” Olivia pointed out.

  She shuddered at the memory of having twenty-five sets of eyes staring at her. At first, no one wanted to speak. Olivia had been effectively talking to the back wall for the first few minutes. That was until she got Henry to come up to the front of the class and help her demonstrate a magic trick that she remembered seeing online.

  She wrote the number fifteen on a piece of paper and gave it to Natalie to hold up high but backwards so the class couldn’t see the number.

  She asked Henry to choose any number at all and write it on the whiteboard. She’d given him a calculator and asked him to multiple the number by three, and then add forty-five. Once he’d done that she instructed him to double the number he had, divide the answer by six, and then remove the original number he’d written on the board.

  It came to fifteen and she asked Natalie to show the class the piece of paper she’d written before Henry had chosen his first number. The children’s eyes had widened, and when she had asked who wanted to be next, at least two thirds of them shot their hands into the air.

  Even Natalie had looked confused and impressed.

  “How did you guess the number?” Natalie asked.

  “It will always be fifteen,” Olivia explained.

  Natalie opened her mouth but then closed it again and shook her head. “I was going to ask you to explain that to me, but I bet that you would and then my head might explode.”

  Olivia decided against explaining. She’d almost gotten into an argument with Emily over the numerical anomaly.

  “It’s magic,” she said finally.

  “Sounds good to me,” Natalie agreed. “So, it wasn’t too horrible? You think you’ll come back?”

  “I’d like that,” Olivia said. “Although, things might be changing at home, so I will need to speak with Emily.”

  Natalie leaned on one of the children’s desks. “Oh?”

  Olivia licked her lips nervously. She didn’t know if this was something up for discussion. But she also knew that she needed to discuss what she had recently learnt.

  “Emily’s project in London is coming to an end,” Olivia said.

  “So, she’ll be back home? That will be great. I know Henry misses her a lot.”

  “Yes.” Olivia stood still and thought about how to bring up the rest of the subject.

  “Is there more?” Natalie asked.

  “Yes.”

  Natalie chuckled. “Is it top secret?”

  “Emily told me that her agent said there are no available jobs for her at the moment. But I’ve discovered from her agent that there are jobs, but they are in London.”

  “But she didn’t tell you about them?” Natalie asked.

  Olivia shook her head. “She implied that there were no jobs whatsoever.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t want them? Maybe she wants to do something else?”

  Olivia shook her head again. “She loves her job. She was very upset when she found out that there were no new projects for her.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t want to fly back and forth? That must be hard.”

  Olivia frowned. It did seem like the logical conclusion, and the one she had come to herself.

  “And it must be expensive,” Natalie continued. “I don’t want to pry into your financial situation, but I can’t begin to imagine the cost of flights to and from London every week.”

  “She knows I’d pay that.” Olivia folded her arms and walked over to the window to watch the children playing.

  “Maybe she doesn’t want you to pay? I don’t think I could accept a gift like that, even if it were from my wife.”

  “But everything we have is jointly owned,” Olivia explained.

  “Maybe that’s how you see it.” Natalie walked towards the front of the class and sat down at her desk. “Excuse me if I’m being nosy, but would I be right in guessing that you come from a wealthy family?”

  Olivia debated questioning the word “wealthy,” but quickly put it to one side. She knew without a doubt that her family and her own financial situation put her into the wealthy category as far as most people were concerned.

  “Yes, I suppose so,” she agreed.

  “So, you have money and you are happy to share it with Emily?”

  “Of course.”

  “That’s great and very kind, but I can kind of see how Emily wouldn’t want that.”

  Olivia turned to look at Natalie. She was confused by how the teacher could possibly have any understanding of the workings of Emily’s mind.

  “How come?”

  “Because money is a hot topic. It makes the world go ‘round and causes more wars and arguments than anything else. People who were once deeply in love can quickly come apart when money is involved.”

  “But we’ve talked about money, Emily is comfortable that we live off my funds.”

  “That may be true, but you funding her expensive commute is a completely different story.”

  Olivia leaned against the wall and looked down at her feet. In her heart, she knew that Emily still had a different view towards money than she did. No matter how often they spoke about it and how much reassurance Olivia gave, a part of Emily was still unsure about spending their communal funds.

  She wanted Emily to be comfortable, but that didn’t necessarily mean that she was.

  “I’m sorry,” Natalie said. “I shouldn’t get involved. It has nothing to do with me, I just sometimes spurt things out.”

  “I’m happy for you to spurt things out,” Olivia confessed. “Sometimes I need to hear
them. What should I do?”

  Natalie blinked. “Um, I have no idea. That’s up to you. And Emily, of course.”

  “Should I encourage her to take the jobs and pay for her flights? Maybe book them to ensure she does?”

  Natalie looked uncertain. “I don’t know Emily very well, hardly at all. But I know that I wouldn’t want someone to force me into a situation like that. Booking a flight for someone without telling them doesn’t sound like a great idea.”

  Olivia knew all too well what she meant. One of her first arguments with Emily had been because she had done just that. The following events nearly ended their relationship.

  “True,” Olivia allowed. “But then what?”

  “You’ll have to speak to Emily,” Natalie suggested. “There must be a way for her to do the job she loves.”

  “I don’t know how I can speak with her if she refuses to even tell me about this. As far as I’m supposed to know, there are no jobs.”

  “Maybe she didn’t tell you so she could protect you?”

  “Protect me?”

  “You seem like the kind of person who wants to fix things, the kind of person who wants to ensure that everyone is happy.”

  Olivia chuckled. “I don’t like to see people suffering from problems that can easily be fixed.”

  “Maybe Emily didn’t tell you about the other jobs so you didn’t feel obligated to fix things for her?”

  “Maybe,” Olivia agreed. “But that’s beside the point because now that I know… that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

  Natalie laughed. “Sounds like trouble to me.”

  Olivia nodded. “Probably, but I’m used to it.”

  36

  Emily stood to the side of the stalls and watched as the audience started to take their seats. She’d been so busy organising the last-minute changes to the script that it had completely escaped her that she was about to experience her first opening night ever.