When she was working, Katie always went to bed before midnight because she had to be up early the next day and, without at least six, or preferably seven, hours sleep she couldn’t concentrate fully at the office. This particular evening, however, she invited Jack to stay the night to save him having to get a taxi home so late and he agreed without hesitation. She was pleased and was looking forward to going to bed with him, wanting to make love before she fell asleep.
They were sitting together on the sofa, watching a film on television, but Jack kept dozing off until finally she gave up on the film and pushed him off to bed. She went to clean her teeth and left him to climb in and get comfortable. When she returned, only a minute or two later, he was lying in the bed, eyes closed, not looking like he was going to be much fun. She walked to the empty side of her bed and undressed, not bothering with any pyjamas, as she was always too warm when sharing her bed, climbed in and found that Jack was also naked. Hopefully, she stroked her right hand lightly up and down his body, watching his face for signs of response. After a few minutes of teasing and poking, it became clear that Jack wasn’t going to be roused and she gave up, kissing him on the end of his nose before rolling away from him to sleep.
She was just beginning to drift away when her mobile phone let out a loud beep, indicating that she’d received a message. Katie stiffened instantly, hardly daring to breath for fear of waking Jack. Slowly and gingerly, she slipped out of bed and picked up the phone from the chest of drawers next to the bedroom door. The message was, as she’d known it would be, from Dave. Her heart raced, a mixture of excitement and fear causing her hands to shake.
Just finished work. We need 2 talk. Meant what I said. I luv u.
She hurriedly deleted the text and switched off the phone before creeping back into bed as quietly as she could. Jack hadn’t moved and within twenty minutes she was asleep.
The following morning, she was roused from her slumber by the sound of Jack falling over one of her shoes and having to stop himself from hitting the floor by taking several heavy steps forward to regain his balance.
‘Morning you,’ she said, blinking several times in quick succession until her eyes adjusted to the light, ‘You been on the beer you noisy get?’
‘Sorry, I fell over your bloody shoe. Since you’re up you can make me a coffee while I get ready for work.’
‘Yes master,’ she replied cheekily, ‘Have you found your shirt?’
‘Yeah. Good idea that, washing it. Saves me having to go to mine and get another.’
She rolled her weary eyes, ‘I’m full of those tricks.’
‘Have you seen the time?’ He reminded, full of the eager spirit that comes with a new job.
‘Mmm.’ She yawned. ‘I can’t get up yet though.’
‘Why the hell not?’ He asked, picking up a towel.
‘Because I need a kiss,’ she said in her best cute-sleepy-girl voice.
He leaned over the bed and kissed her quickly on the forehead. ‘Will that do the trick?’
‘Mmm. No.’ She shook her head vigorously.
He kissed her again, this time on the nose.
‘Uh uh.’ She said, shaking her head again, her tousled dark hair flopping around her face with the movement.
He lowered himself on to the bed so that he lay next to her and kissed her fully on the lips. She responded and rolled to face him as he put a hand behind her head to pull her closer.
‘That’s more like it,’ she said with a satisfied nod. Then, looking down at his naked body, ‘Are you sure you can’t spare a few minutes to play?’
‘We’ll have to be quick then.’
She threw the duvet off the bed and rolled on top of him.
‘You’re such a romantic.’ She laughed, lowering herself from her seated position, so they could kiss as she moved.
Chapter Thirty-two
It wasn’t yet nine o’ clock and Ben had already been seated behind his desk for twenty minutes, watching the office slowly fill up as his colleagues filtered in to work. He’d managed to sleep for short spells before waking up either too hot or too cold, with an itchy foot or a dead arm, only to drift off again. Throughout the night, though, his mind fixated over the letter from Rhia, and what his next move should be. Finally, he’d given up on getting any decent rest and decided to come into work early for a change.
At five minutes to nine, Em walked into the office. He watched her disappear into the cloakroom to hang up her coat, emerging a moment later. She smiled at him when they made eye contact, for a fraction of a second seeing only each other, oblivious to their colleagues milling around in the spaces between them. Ben looked away, embarrassed, breaking the spell, uncomfortable with what had just happened. He busied himself with the relevant paperwork for the day, waiting for her to come over.
‘Morning,’ he said, looking up as she walked around his desk to begin their daily confab.
‘Hiya,’ she breezed happily, ‘What’s today’s plan then? We’ve still got that presentation to prepare for.’
She perched on the edge of his desk, her black knee length skirt riding up her bare legs, so close to Ben that to not look would’ve been far more obvious than continuing with their meeting and occasionally looking up at her, legs and all.
He’d decided recently that Em was, perhaps, paying him extra attention around the office, as well as out of it. She’d been superb during the worst weeks of his break-up with Rhia, even forgiving his drunken attempt to take her home with him one night. Since then, however, she seemed to be inviting him out for drinks more regularly, and she’d even called him at home on a few occasions to see how he was, or if there was any word from Rhia at all. Now, with her sitting in front of him, rubbing her hand up and down her right leg with an apparently absent mind, the action drawing his attention to the smooth, slightly tanned skin, he wondered if perhaps he wasn’t wrong about her.
He’d been in emotional turmoil for long enough now, and could be way off the mark. She wore the same sort of clothes every day, her skirt wasn’t particularly short, it had just worked its way up her leg when she sat down. The fact that he’d noticed, and tried to ignore it, only served to make him think about her more and convince himself that she was trying to get him to look.
‘So you think we’ll get it done today then?’ He asked, once again trying to push his confused thoughts to the back of his mind.
‘Fingers crossed,’ she replied with a smile, leaning forward to take the files from his hand, her low cut top affording him a fleeting glimpse of her cleavage, before standing up and walking back to her desk.
Still trying to occupy his mind with work and not his assistant, Ben set about constructing a spreadsheet to fill with the figures his team were preparing for the presentation he was giving that afternoon. He didn’t look up from his screen again until a voice broke his train of thought.
* * * * * *
Jack wandered into the same office he’d been in the day before when he’d asked for directions, and headed for the chap he assumed to be in charge. Today, he’d been sent with some letters that had been delivered to his department by mistake.
‘Alright,’ Jack said, causing the man to look up suddenly from his work, ‘I’ve been sent across with some of your mail. Apparently we ended up with it by mistake.’
He held out a few envelopes which the man took from him.
‘Oh right. Thanks. Did you find the training room alright?’
Jack smiled politely at the man as he spoke, unsure how long he should stay. ‘Yeah. That girl, Em was it? She pointed me in the right direction.’ He nodded to emphasise that he’d found the required room.
‘Em’s good like that. Very keen to please. I’m Ben by the way.’ Ben looked across at her desk just in time to see her look away.
Jack introduced himself and then continued. ‘Well, I was very grateful to her.’
‘Excellent. Well,’ Ben opened a drawer in his desk and reached inside for a small file, ‘I’ll just sign
for this mail and you can take the receipt form back with you. Proves you haven’t nicked it and that I’ve got it.’
Jack took this as a cue to walk around to the other side of the desk to take the sheet of paper from him. He watched Ben reach down for the file and saw a framed photograph of a girl in the desk drawer. She was laughing and her blonde hair was curling around her face at one side. She was very pretty; her well-defined features making her look almost like a model, and Jack wondered why the picture was in this bloke’s drawer. Then it was closed and Jack took the signed mail receipt before going back to his own office.
* * * * * *
When the rest of the office wandered to the canteen or made their way into town, Ben and Em went to a conference room with an armful of files and a laptop to connect to the projector, to prepare for his presentation. Half an hour later, they were just about ready. Sheets had been laid out around the room for the audience to refer to, and all the required files were in order at the front of the room.
‘Right, I’ll just grab a quick sarnie before I set up the projector, then I’m not rumbling all afternoon.’
They went to the canteen and, while Ben picked himself a tuna and mayonnaise sandwich and some iced carrot cake, Em picked up a bottle of Peach water for herself and a can of Coke for Ben. The canteen was largely deserted now, as most people had returned to their offices, so they’d no trouble finding a table.
‘What time do you reckon you’ll be done?’ Em asked.
‘If it all goes like we’ve planned, then I should be out of there by half two, quarter to three. Then it’s an early finish I think, I’m dead on my feet.’
‘Nice one. Do you want to go for a drink after?’ Her face was angled down but her eyes peered up at him hopefully.
‘Er, yeah. I suppose. Not for long though, I need sleep. Who’s going?’
She faltered for a moment. ‘Oh. I hadn’t asked anyone yet. I will do though.’
Why are you being so attentive all of a sudden? He wanted to believe it was simply that she was a nice person and cared about him, but he couldn’t help feeling that she wanted more than just friendship. Of course, he couldn’t come out and ask her without looking like a complete dope who was convinced he was God’s gift to women. He could just imagine the conversation in the pub. So Em, you fancy me then eh? Oh yeah, she’d reply sarcastically, I long for you day and night. Fancy another pint?
He was confused by the situation with Em. He certainly liked her, and he found her attractive, but the fact remained that Rhia, bitch that she was, still occupied his thoughts almost all of the time. Besides, Em seemed to have suddenly developed an interest in the new starter they’d met the day before. This aggravated Ben a little, because he quite enjoyed the attention from Em, despite having no real intention of doing anything about it.
He checked his watch against the clock on the canteen wall and took a last mouthful of his Coke before standing up to leave.
‘Aye, aye,’ he said, nodding across the canteen, ‘Isn’t that your mate? The lost boy.’
Em turned around to look. ‘Fuck off; I’ve only met him once.’
‘So meet him again then.’
Before she could protest any further, Ben called over to Jack and waved a hand.
‘Settling in all right?’ Jack looked up. ‘Em says you look like you’ll fit in easily enough.’
Jack smiled and nodded while Em looked on, mortified.
Ben chose this moment to leave for his presentation and leave a shame-faced Em to talk to Jack, who’d wandered over to her table.
‘Hiya. Have a seat,’ she offered.
‘Cheers,’ he replied, ‘Just for a minute.’
‘Don’t take any notice of Ben. He can be a shit sometimes.’
‘Anyone who looks as rough as him deserves some laughs. Is he okay?’
‘Yeah. He just works too hard and doesn’t sleep enough. Anyway, how are you finding it here?’
‘It’s not bad. I’m still training and stuff, but it’s cool.’
They talked for a few more minutes and Em was increasingly taken with his easy manner and unconventional good looks. His face, despite being alabaster white, was transformed by his wide smile, which lessened the intensity of his jet black eyes and hair.
‘Right.’ She stood up. ‘I’ll have to get back; I’m late as it is.’
‘Fair enough. I’ve got more vids to watch in a while anyway.’
She laughed. ‘Okay then. It was nice talking to you. Hopefully I’ll see you again.’
On her way back to the office, Em smiled, thinking about Jack. That went well. I’ll have to ask if he’s seeing anyone. Jack was also pleased with his new friend and made a mental note to tell Katie all about her later on.
Two hours later Ben walked back into his department, having given his presentation.
‘So how did it go then?’ Em asked.
‘Pretty good I think. We’ll find out tomorrow. Anything happen while I was gone?’
‘Nah. It’s been dead,’ she said, shaking her head.
‘Right.’ Ben took a deep breath. ‘We’ll call it a day then. I feel shattered after that.’ He turned to face the rest of the office and raised his voice to address them. ‘Right you lot. Shut down your pc’s and clear off. We’ll have an early one today. The presentation went well and I’m ready for a pint.’
The group made their way to the lifts as one unit and then filed across to the Ape and Apple, chatting noisily about the results of the presentation, like excited school children.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever been in here this early.’ Ben observed when Em came back from the bar with a tray of drinks.
‘Pace yourself then,’ she said, passing the drinks around the table to the relevant people, ‘You don’t want to get in a state in front of everyone.’
The group, consisting of eight or nine people, Ben’s team, sat around two tables they’d pushed together, talking amongst themselves, occasionally questioning Ben on various work topics. Gradually, though, as late afternoon sashayed into early evening, only he and Em remained.
They’d been in the pub for about three hours and Ben felt quite drunk.
‘Christ, I’m half pissed. Serves me right for drinking in the afternoon.’
‘You can always get a taxi,’ Em suggested, her own eyes covered by the sheen that came from drinking a few too many. ‘I might even share it with you this time.’ She smiled at him and raised her eyebrows, taking another mouthful of her drink.
Ben knew immediately what she was referring to and what was being inferred and was suddenly nervous. He felt a trickle of sweat run down his right side from his armpit when he picked up his pint and made sure his arm pushed against the area where he’d felt the movement, absorbing the perspiration into his shirt. All thoughts of being tired left him now as adrenalin began to flow through him.
‘God, I was well gone that night. I can’t believe the state I got into over Rhia.’ He shook his head slowly to emphasise his point, pleased with himself for mentioning his former partner by name, hoping Em would take the hint.
‘Did you mean it?’ She asked, running her middle finger around the rim of her glass.
‘What?’
‘The stuff you said that night. About liking me and that.’
‘I can’t really remember I was that drunk,’ he replied nervously. He was becoming more uncomfortable with every word she said.
‘It’s like you said,’ Ben continued, trying to take control and stem her advance before anything happened that could cause complications. ‘It would be no good because I’m your boss.’
‘Would you tell anyone if something happened?’ She waited, finally taking his silence as an answer. ‘Well then. I’m hardly going to broadcast it am I?’
‘You didn’t sound over keen that night from what I can remember.’
‘Maybe I’ve had a re-think.’ She responded the instant he’d finished. ‘Besides, you were a mess then. But you’ve sorted yourself out now.
You seem to be less,’ she paused, struggling to think of an appropriate word, ‘obsessed with the wonderful Rhiannon.’
He smiled at the use of her full name, not the more familiar abbreviation. ‘Maybe. Maybe not.’
‘There you are then.’ Em stood up from her stool and took a couple of steps around the small, round, pub table to sit next to him on the plush covered seats. She hadn’t set out to take things this far. She didn’t even fancy him. But now, after too much vodka, making a pass at her boss seemed like the best idea she’d ever had. Besides, he obviously fancied her, since he’d tried his luck before and she’d caught him eyeing her up that very morning.
Ben felt out of his depth. He quite fancied Em, and opportunity was threatening to knock his door down if he didn’t answer it soon. But for some reason, despite his drunken state, he didn’t feel comfortable with how the situation was developing.
* * * * * *
Jack turned his key in the front door of his small terraced house and walked in, putting his coat over the edge of the Newell post, on his way to the kitchen. He switched on the kettle and opened the newspaper he’d bought that morning but had barely found time to glance at. After concentrating hard all day, trying to take in countless pieces of information, he felt exhausted.
His forehead wrinkled as he thought about the news he’d received about his training. It would be a problem, no doubt about that, but he couldn’t see a way around it. The sound of the phone ringing, instead of derailing his train of thought, only made him sigh. He knew that he’d have to tell Katie.
‘Mwah,’ Katie began, ‘How was day two then?’
‘I’m knackered,’ he said, ‘I’ve only just got in the house.’
‘Are you free tonight?’
‘I’m not actually.’
‘Why?’ She was surprised. ‘What are you doing?’
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