by Jade Winters
‘I know you’re right, and believe me I am trying but it’s so hard. I can’t help how I feel about her.’ Madison flicked the tiny green fleck from her hand and resumed washing the plate. ‘On the one hand she drives me crazy …’
Kay snorted as she threw the towel on the side and reached over to turn on the kettle. ‘She drives you crazy with lust you mean?’
Madison shifted on her feet feeling a little embarrassed. Kay had read her absolutely right. She felt like a teenager again, not a grown woman who was meant to be in control of her emotions. ‘It sounds so silly when you say it out loud, like some corny old romance story. But what I feel is so real. Even if it does sound clichéd.’
‘So what are you going to do?’
‘I don’t know, Kay. I really don’t.’
Chapter Fifteen
Darcie’s office had always been her safe place. It was where she was in control of her thoughts. Until then that was. Everywhere she looked she saw a reminder of Madison. The empty space opposite. The open door. The window. Even walking along the corridor to grab a coffee from the small kitchenette, she had to pass the conference room—another room where Madison had once been.
Darcie couldn’t shake off the feeling that allowing Madison to dominate her thoughts like that could be dangerous. She had a company to run and people to keep in their jobs, and allowing herself to obsess about a woman she hadn’t had a relationship with in ten years wasn’t going to save either.
She sat at her desk, her favourite Parker pen in hand, staring down at the blank piece of paper in front of her, waiting for inspiration to flow.
She had to write something. Anything. Even if it was stupid.
You never know it might lead to something brilliant and inspiring.
After a few minutes of her mind being as blank as the paper, she dropped the pen on her desk and snatched a red felt tip from the pot on her desk. Red was synonymous with action. And action was what she needed to take. Urgently. She had three weeks to come up with an idea that would make Bryan Willis wet his pants with excitement, and that would not be easy, especially if it knocked his precious bottom line.
She scribbled Luxury without guilt. She needed to make her core message one about the guests being able to relax knowing the staff that worked at one of Clover’s hotels were treated well. The memory of her time abroad flashed into her mind and she remembered the promise she had made to her younger self. That if she was ever afforded the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the underprivileged, she would blaze a trail for others to follow. Most people talked about wanting to make a difference but when it came down to actually implementing change, they scurried away like cockroaches suddenly exposed to light.
The phone rang, interrupting her thoughts.
‘Can we talk?’ It was Emma.
‘Right now?’
‘Please.’
‘All right, I’ll come to you. I could do with stretching my legs.’
Darcie headed down the corridor to Emma’s spacious office. It was bigger than Darcie’s and had several windows which allowed light to flood the room. This was one of the reasons Darcie had passed on it. She preferred cosy, small spaces.
‘What’s so urgent?
‘I wanted to apologise.’
Darcie raised her eyebrows. ‘For?’ She let the question linger in the air.
‘For being a class-A bitch.’ Emma pulled open her desk drawer and took out a box of Hotel Chocolat chocolates. Darcie’s favourite.
Darcie resisted the temptation to take one. She knew what she was like. One chocolate would lead to another, and before she knew it, the whole box would be gone, and she would be complaining about feeling sick for overindulging.
‘And this is your way of making things up to me? By giving me a sugar overdose?’ Darcie couldn’t help a small smile creasing her mouth.
Emma rolled her eyes. ‘It’s a gesture you would have thanked me for before you decided sugar was the devil’s own temptation.’
Darcie eyed the little brown mounds peeping up from the box—tempting her with that smell only a freshly opened box of chocolates can provide. Without thinking, she crossed the room, plucked her favourite one from the box, and popped it in her mouth.
‘Suppose it would be rude to decline,’ Darcie said savouring the sweetness dissolving in her mouth. ‘And there’s no need for an apology. You were right. I was so wrapped up in doing the right thing that I lost sight of the bigger picture.’
‘Maybe.’ Emma put the box down and pushed it over to Darcie. ‘But I could have handled the situation a bit better.’
‘No, you couldn’t.’
Emma smiled. ‘Well this is a first. I thought you were going to be soooo pissed off with me.’
Darcie wondered if Emma would wipe her brow and say ‘phew’ as she did whenever a tough moment passed by. ‘Em, you know we’ll always be friends even when we disagree.’
‘I know, but we’ve never been like this before.’
‘At least we passed the test,’ Darcie said. ‘And you’ll be pleased to know I’ve come up with some new ideas.’
‘I like it,’ Emma said. ‘Wanna run them by me?’
‘Only if you’ve got time,’ Darcie said, eyeing the mountain of paperwork stacked on Emma’s desk.
‘Considering we’re all going to be unemployed if we don’t get this contract, I’ll make the time.’
‘OK, give me a minute to grab my notes.’
Darcie raced back to her office to retrieve the sheet of paper she was working on and returned to Emma’s office.
‘Right I don’t want you to say a word until I’ve finished.’
Emma feigned zipping her lips closed.
Slowly, Darcie said, ‘So, Mr Willis seemed to be OK with the premise of our presentation until it got to the part about the crèche and community hall …’
Emma nodded and gestured for Darcie to continue.
‘So, what if …’ Darcie mentally prepared herself for Emma’s reaction. Which at first she thought wasn’t going to be favourable but then something stirred in her, something hopeful that if Emma would hear her out until the end, she would totally grasp her vision.
‘What if?’ Emma drew out the last word.
‘The hotel staff form a co-op. They can have a small deduction taken from their wages each month to pay someone to care for the kids while they’re working. They can be taught English, maths … all sorts of things. Management changes the terms of the contract, which means all staff get treated the same. The hotel’s mission statement could be that everyone matters. The guests. The staff—’
‘Hold it!’ Emma got to her feet. ‘For fuck’s sake, Darcie, this is exactly what Mr Willis didn’t want. He doesn’t give a shit about the welfare of his staff.’
‘Does that mean we don’t have to be ethical? Those poor people are being treated like crap, and everybody that turns a blind eye to it are complicit in my opinion. Why are we even arguing about this?’
Darcie was baffled by Emma’s lack of sympathy. Up until now she thought they were on the same page with their values. Equality for everyone. It took her a few seconds to realise that nothing she was saying was computing with Emma. That she was suffering from tunnel vision.
‘Because you’re not listening, Darcie. Mr Willis is a money man,’ Emma said fiercely, as if she was defending his honour. ‘Whose aim is to make money. Where and more importantly who is going to build a building to house everyone? What part of that don’t you get? Someone still needs to fund this pie in the sky project.’
‘I’m getting everything all right, but how the fuck is he going to make money if no one wants to stay at his hotel because he treats his staff like second class citizens?’
‘Look.’ Emma’s voice softened slightly. And for the first time there was compassion in her eyes. ‘I love that you care so much about the underdog, I really do. But going against a client’s brief isn’t going to sustain our business. You brought me on board to manage
your company while you got on with the creative side of things, and until recently things have been going great…’
‘I’d hardly call the last two months great,’ Darcie said thinking about Sophie’s betrayal and how it had nearly brought the company to its knees.
‘The episode with Sophie was just a blip in the grand scheme of things. If we… you get this right, Darcie, all our problems will be over. We’ll be at the top again. Then you can do whatever you want to help people. But first, we’ve got to help ourselves.’
‘What if I run it past Madison—’
Emma threw her hands in the air. ‘Do you know what, just forget it. Carry on living in cloud cuckoo land. You just help complete strangers get better working conditions. Fuck us lot who are worried about whether we’ll have a job tomorrow.’
Darcie flinched at her outburst. ‘Emma—’
‘You can’t save the world, Darcie. No matter how much you want to believe you can. Something’s got to give. What’s it going to be?’
Darcie was at a loss about what to do. Did she do what was right for her company and rebrand the Oasis Hotel, despite knowing that they didn’t care about the inequalities their staff faced? Or did she follow her heart and turn in a proposal she knew would be rejected by Bryan Willis and in the process ruin her own business?
A decision had to be made. And soon. Darcie just hoped she would find the strength to make the right one.
Chapter Sixteen
After back-to-back meetings during the day, Madison was relieved it was nearly time to go home. She had one last call to make. If it were up to her she wouldn’t bother, but if Bryan ever found out that she had gone against his wishes, she didn’t think he’d be forgiving. Especially after she hadn’t done as he asked and taken Darcie’s name off the shortlist.
Tapping in the phone number for Lindros, Madison absent-mindedly looked around her office space. It said nothing about her. There were no personal belongings, just a desk and cabinets. No happy photos, not even any miserable ones. The bare minimum.
It wasn’t that she liked the minimalist look or had an aversion to clutter, Madison simply surrounded herself with things that she used on a daily basis.
Thinking about Darcie’s office, she realised it was the same for her as well. But Madison knew Darcie’s reasons were different to her own. Darcie had never decorated her room at their foster home or made herself comfortable because she never knew when she would be moved on next.
It was because of this that Madison’s fanciful dream of when she was finally reunited with Darcie, included providing a home for her filled with love and memories. Though that dream was slowly fading into nothing.
‘Lindros, Mandy speaking,’ The high-pitched voice sounded in Madison’s ear.
‘Hi, Mandy, can you put me through to Marcus please?’
‘I’m afraid Mr Thomas is in a meeting. If you leave a message, I’ll make sure he gets it.’
Madison was relieved she wouldn’t have to speak with him. ‘OK, can you let him know Madison—’
‘Madison from Clover Ltd?’
‘Yes. If you could—’
‘Please hold the line. I’ll put you straight through.’
‘But I thought—’
The line went dead. Seconds later a male voice sounded in the earpiece. ‘Madison, Marcus here.’
Marcus sounded smarmy and Madison could just imagine him looking like the cat who got the cream. He obviously knew why she was calling and probably thought he’d struck gold. She had heard, on good authority, that Marcus’s company was one of those that had benefited from Darcie’s campaign ideas, that he was one of Sophie’s highest bidders.
Just sharing the same air time made Madison feel like Judas.
‘Marcus, I’m just calling to let you know you’ve made it onto the shortlist.’
‘Thanks for letting me know personally—not that I wasn’t expecting your call.’
Madison wanted to burst his bubble and tell him the only reason he had made it onto the shortlist was because of her fuck up. But if there was one thing Madison was, it was professional—normally. A vision of Darcie swept through her mind before she pulled herself together. ‘We’ll expect your proposal by the 25th of this month. I’ll email you the details.’
Marcus’s voice held a serious undertone. ‘I look forward to working with you in the future.’
‘That remains to be seen,’ Madison said, disconnecting the call.
Dropping the phone on the table, Madison exhaled a long breath. How was she going to get Darcie’s proposal in front of Bryan? And if it was the best out of the three proposals would Bryan even consider using it? The only thing she could do was wait and see. It was unbelievable how quickly things had unravelled. Darcie losing her place on the shortlist. Bette reappearing in her life. It would all be so much simpler if she could just walk into Bryan’s office and tell him that she would not work with Bette under any circumstances. She gave a small shake of her head just imagining what he would say. Unprofessional. Letting her emotions get in the way of business. And he would be right of course, but Madison had never claimed to be without feelings, and to ask her to act against her gut instinct would render her to not being human.
Closing down her computer for the night, Madison set off home, all the while thinking about what she would do with the rest of the evening. Outside was balmy so she decided to walk the short distance. She had walked less than a hundred yards before she heard a voice call out her name and her stomach fluttered at the sound of it. Turning slowly, she waited for Darcie to catch up with her.
‘I was just on my way to see you,’ Darcie said.
‘Something up?’ Part of her hoped Darcie had come to turn down the job; it would certainly make Madison’s life a lot easier, but it would also put an end to their impromptus meetings. As usual when it came to matters concerning Darcie she was torn.
‘No everything’s fine …’
‘Darcie, this is me you’re talking to. I could always tell when something was up.’ Madison felt a swell of emotion just mentioning the past. Now that they were alone on neutral ground she thought what a weight off her shoulders it would be to just say all the things she had wanted to tell Darcie over the years. Unfortunately, the way Darcie kept her gaze to the ground, told her now wasn’t the right time.
Darcie shifted from one foot to the other. ‘Can we go somewhere to talk?’
‘You can come back to mine.’ The words were out of her mouth before she realised what she’d said.
Darcie looked up at her. Her gaze steady, unblinking, and serious. ‘Do you live alone?’
Madison wondered if Darcie was asking because she wanted to know whether Madison was single, or because what she wanted to discuss was private.
‘I live with Kay.’
Darcie looked away momentarily. ‘I see.’
‘No, not like that,’ Madison said quickly. ‘She’s my flatmate.’
Madison could have sworn she saw a flicker of relief in Darcie’s eyes. ‘Will she be home now?’
‘I doubt it. She normally gets in around ten.’
‘Shall we go then?’ Darcie gestured for Madison to lead the way.
Madison didn’t realise she was so adept at small talk, but she managed to fill the awkward silences with conversation that ranged from the weather to foreign affairs. When they walked into her flat, Darcie let out a low, appreciative whistle.
‘Wow. This place is amazing,’ Darcie said, making her way over to the large arched windows.
Madison tried to see it through Darcie’s eyes, but all she saw was a lifeless space, devoid of the love she once thought she would share with Darcie. It was, in truth, no more a home than some soulless hotel room.
‘It serves its purpose,’ Madison said, forcing a cheery smile. She was going to play it cool. There was no point in wearing her heart on her sleeve only for Darcie to ignore it.
‘I’ve always dreamt of living somewhere like this.’
Madis
on had a sudden flashback to Darcie telling her about the flat she would one day live in. One that looked exactly like the one they were stood in now. It was because of this Madison had bought the place. In the hope that one day they would live there together. But she now realised the dreams of great happiness and bliss with a childhood sweetheart were no more than a pipe dream; an illusion which could never live up to the reality of what once was.
Madison wrenched her thoughts from the past. She slipped out of her jacket and threw it on the sofa. ‘Do you fancy a drink?’
‘Tea would be great, thanks.’
Madison watched Darcie looking like a kid in a candy store as she walked around the living room, checking out the rows and rows of books lined up on the shelves, along with the picture frames which held the images of Madison’s now deceased mother.
‘Tea it is.’
Darcie didn’t seem to hear her as she was too busy looking around.
Madison disappeared into the kitchen. While she waited for the kettle to boil, she grabbed two mugs from the cupboard and threw a teabag into each of them. It felt so surreal having Darcie in her flat. To be making her tea. Who would have thought that doing something so mundane could make one’s heart surge with joy? If only … no, she refused to let negative thoughts sully whatever this turned out to be.
Carrying the tea back into the living room, Madison found Darcie sitting on the striped snug chair by the window. Madison’s favourite place to sit. After placing the tea on the small table beside her, Madison sat down on the rug a few feet away.
‘You’ve done really well for yourself,’ Darcie said, her gaze sweeping the room.
Madison gave a slight shrug. ‘I got lucky.’
‘It’s nothing to do with luck. You’re good at your job.’
‘I try my best.’
Darcie picked up her mug and blew on it before taking a sip. ‘Why did you change your name?’