by Penny Avis
His room had an identical layout to the other rooms he’d stayed in. A few of his clothes lay discarded on the sofa and his laptop was sitting on a small table by the window. Meredith pushed the clothes to one side and sat down. Her heart was pumping and she was surprised at how nervous she felt about the conversation she was about to have. But he had to know that she didn’t want him to move for her, however much it might upset him.
She got up to get a bottle of water out of the mini bar. As she opened it, a ping on Ryan’s laptop made her look round. There was a new message on his screen.
The team are looking great, thanks!
For a split-second Meredith thought that it was an old message from her. ‘The team’ had been the name Ryan had used for her new breasts. But it couldn’t be. It was Ryan’s instant messaging that was open on his laptop. That message had just been sent. Meredith stared at it in confusion. Who was it from? Unable to stop herself, she scrolled up to see the rest of the conversation. There was a stream of messages from someone called Julie. Some of them related to advice that Ryan had been giving her, but plenty of them didn’t. Meredith couldn’t believe her eyes as she read a series of increasingly explicit messages setting out in no uncertain terms what they’d like to be doing to each other.
She sat down slowly on the chair next to the laptop, feeling sick to her stomach. She closed the message stream and looked at Ryan’s inbox. It was full of messages from women from all over the world, most of whom seemed to think that Ryan was far more than their average doctor. One, to a Gabrielle in Amsterdam, made her gasp out loud.
Can’t stop thinking about you, especially that time in the shower. Talk about hot! When can you come back and see me?
What was it that he’d emailed her? I can’t stop thinking about you in the shower, something like that. And he’d told her that he’d been to Amsterdam to visit some suppliers!
Slowly the realisation dawned on her: talk about a girl in every port; Ryan was using his position on the desk to find himself women. Women like her, who’d been lured in by his charming bedside manner when they were at their most vulnerable. The utter bastard! Meredith felt so stupid. Here she was planning to tell him not to move because of her, when, in fact, it probably wasn’t anything to do with her.
The multitude of stamps in his passport and his liking for small boutique hotels in Paris suddenly began to make sense. How many others did he have on the go?
She moved away from the laptop and sat back down on the sofa, seething with anger and disbelief. She’d fallen for his seedy, manipulative ploy every step of the way. Well, he was soon going to find out that she was no bloody victim. She stood up and faced the bathroom like a bull preparing to charge, trying to decide which of the hundreds of obscenities that were flying around in her head to shout first. Boy, was he going to get it with both barrels. But as she waited for him to come out of the bathroom, it suddenly occurred to her that perhaps she had another option; one that wouldn’t let him see how upset she was and, more importantly, would hit him where it hurt most: his ego.
The sound of the shower turning off made Meredith jump. She quickly sat back down on the sofa and steeled herself. Ryan appeared in the bathroom doorway dressed in the hotel’s white robe, rubbing his hair with a hand towel. He stopped in surprise when he saw her.
‘Oh, hi, I didn’t hear you come in.’
‘I did knock, but you couldn’t hear me. So I used the key-card.’
Ryan glanced at his laptop, casually walked past the table and shut the top. Meredith bit her lip in fury.
‘Would you like a drink?’ he asked.
‘No, thanks,’ said Meredith, not attempting to hide her frosty tone.
Ryan looked at her in surprise. ‘Is everything okay?’
‘I’ve come to tell you that things are over between us.’
Ryan’s face fell. ‘What? Why?’
‘I’m afraid I simply don’t fancy you any more. I thought maybe you’d have got the message last night, when I had to keep pushing you away. But it seems that I need to spell it out. You’re just not doing it for me, you know.’ It was taking every ounce of Meredith’s composure to hold her dismissive tone. ‘I need to be with a man who knows how to treat women, knows what they want. I’m afraid that you’ve still got quite a bit to learn, and well, I’m sorry, but life is too short for that.’
Ryan stood rooted to the spot, his mouth opening and shutting like a fish as he struggled to find a response. Meredith felt certain this was a conversation he’d never had before.
‘So it’s all just gone a bit dull. The sex isn’t exciting and neither are you. Time for me to move on.’ Meredith stared impassively at Ryan and shrugged. ‘So, there it is.’
Ryan took a step towards her. ‘But I don’t understand. We’ve been having a great time together.’
‘Don’t,’ said Meredith, holding up her hand. ‘That’s my point. You think we’ve been having a great time, when for me the reality has been something quite different. It’s over between us and that’s that. We’ll still have to work together, of course, but I’m sure we can both handle that. It’s only for a couple more weeks at most.’
‘But what about Beau Street, my new job? I’m moving over here just to be near… ’
He didn’t finish his sentence. Meredith leapt off the sofa and squared up in front of him, her hands clenched by her sides.
‘Don’t you dare say that! Don’t pretend for a second that this is about me,’ she hissed.
Ryan stepped back in shock.
Meredith took a deep breath and looked at the floor. It was so tempting to tell him she knew about the messages, but there was no way she was giving him the satisfaction of knowing how hurt she was. She looked up and forced herself to smile.
‘Sorry, been a long day. Anyway, so that’s what I came to say. I hope you’re not too upset. I’m sure you’ll find yourself a nice girl soon, someone who’s perhaps not quite so, well, demanding as me,’ said Meredith, trying to sound as patronising as humanly possible.
She picked up her bag and went over and gave Ryan a peck on the cheek. ‘Don’t take it too personally. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
‘Meredith, stop. I don’t understand,’ said Ryan, standing in her way. His hair was dripping slowly onto his shoulders and his face was covered in confusion. ‘You can’t mean that. Come on, sit down. Let’s talk it through. I’m sure we can work it out.’
‘Not this time, Ryan. You’re just not man enough for me and that’s that. Goodbye.’
Meredith shut Ryan’s hotel door behind her and managed to get a few steps towards the lift before the tears started to flow. She buried her face in her scarf in an attempt to stifle the noise of the huge sobs that quickly followed. The last thing she wanted was for Ryan to hear her crying. She leant against the wall with her arm bent across her forehead as she waited for the lift to arrive. How she’d managed to get through that she had no idea. Pride and sheer bloody-mindedness, probably. How could she not have realised what he was up to? The lift arrived and fortunately it was empty. Meredith pressed the button for the ground floor and struggled to catch her breath. When she was finally outside the hotel, she flagged down a cab and headed for Daisy’s. Dougie opened the door and looked at Meredith in alarm. Her tear-streaked face and crumpled appearance was a far cry from the smart work image he was used to.
‘Shit! What’s happened? Daisy, quick, it’s Meredith,’ he shouted, ushering her inside.
Daisy came hurrying into the hallway carrying a pair of oven gloves. She took one look at Meredith’s face and dropped them on the floor.
‘Meredith, darling, what’s happened?’ She ran over and hugged Meredith, who buried her face in Daisy’s shoulder and sobbed uncontrollably.
‘I’ll make tea,’ said Dougie.
Daisy took Meredith’s arm and led her into the sitting room. They both sat on the sofa and Daisy just sat quietly with her hand on Meredith’s knee until she had calmed down enough to speak.
&nb
sp; ‘I’m so sorry, just barging in like that,’ said Meredith.
‘Don’t be silly,’ said Daisy. ‘That’s what I’m here for. Have they found out about your surgery?’
Meredith shook her head. ‘No, not yet anyway. It’s Ryan. I’ve just had to finish with him.’
‘Why? I thought it was going so well?’
Meredith explained what she had seen on Ryan’s computer.
‘So there I was, totally convinced that he was moving continents just to be nearer me, when in fact it was me and God knows how many others. I feel like such a fool.’ Tears streamed down Meredith’s face.
‘But you didn’t want him to, did you? That’s why you were there: to tell him not to move because of you. I think you’d already picked up that something wasn’t right. Sure, you didn’t know what exactly, but your gut feeling was already pushing you away from him, wasn’t it?’
Meredith nodded miserably. ‘Guess so. But I still feel… oh, I don’t know, just horrible, used, disgusted by the whole thing. All that stuff he said to me, all those messages. And there he was probably saying the same thing to all those other women. I mean, one of the messages I saw, it could’ve been from me. And some of the others, they were, well, just filth. I can’t believe I’ve been seeing someone who could type that sort of stuff.’
‘It’s not your fault. These types of guys, they’re clever at manipulating people, you know? The fact that these women have had major surgery, which is almost always linked to their appearance, makes them much more susceptible. What a slime ball. I hope you gave him a piece of your mind!’
‘I told him I was dumping him because he was crap in bed,’ said Meredith, grinning weakly.
Daisy threw back her head and laughed loudly. ‘Well done you!’
Dougie caught the end of the conversation as he was setting down the tea.
‘Who’s crap in bed? This sounds like a drama I need to be in on.’
‘Meredith’s broken up with Ryan, you know the guy from America,’ explained Daisy.
‘For being a rubbish lay? That’s a bit harsh, even for you girls,’ said Dougie.
Daisy and Meredith smiled at each other.
‘No, sadly that wasn’t the real reason. He’d been seeing someone else,’ said Daisy.
‘A lot of someone elses,’ added Meredith.
‘Well then, lovely Meredith, he’s a bloody fool and you’re better off without him.’
Meredith smiled gratefully at him. Daisy was so lucky.
Dougie poured Meredith a large mug of tea.
‘Will you still have to work with him?’ Daisy asked.
‘Yes, unfortunately. I can’t just drop a client without any explanation and I can hardly tell work the truth. But I’m not bloody well letting him know that I’m bothered. The arrogant bastard would love that. I have to make him think that I don’t care, even if it kills me.’
‘Hold that anger,’ said Daisy. ‘That’s what’ll carry you through.’
‘Would you like to stay over?’ Dougie offered.
‘If that’s okay?’
‘Of course, I’ll make up the spare bed’. Daisy flashed him a grateful smile and he disappeared, leaving Meredith and Daisy alone to chat.
‘Do you have any stuff with you?’ Daisy asked.
Meredith shook her head. ‘But I’ve got pretty used to being a dirty stopout. I’ll just get up early and go home before work.’
‘You can borrow some of my things,’ said Daisy.
‘I’m sorry to dump all this on you,’ said Meredith, ‘but I didn’t know where else to go.’
‘Will you please stop apologising?’ Daisy put her arm around Meredith. ‘It’s really been happening to you recently, hasn’t it?’
Meredith had to agree with her. It really had.
‘How’s the gallery?’ Meredith asked.
‘A bit better actually. That interior designer you met at the dinner party, Debs, well, she’s turned out to be a brilliant contact. We’ve agreed on a load of colours that she regularly uses and I’m trying to make sure that plenty of the paintings pick up some element of those colours. Plus I’ve painted a few of my own. It felt a bit forced to begin with – you know, horribly commercial to choose colours based on some paint chart. But once I got going, it was fine. In fact, I really love several of them. And they sell so much better. Which I guess is really the point.’
‘Totally the point,’ agreed Meredith. ‘You’ve got rent to pay.’
‘Debs also likes your idea about approaching some local businesses. See if we can get some commissions to make over their reception areas or meeting rooms, things like that.’
Meredith thought about Clinton Wahlberg’s barren new training centre. That could certainly do with a makeover.
‘We’ve got this new training centre at work. It’s completely bare at the moment. No art, no sculptures, nothing. For all I know it might be all on order, but I’ll make some enquiries just in case there’s an opportunity for you.’
‘Would you? That would be great thanks,’ said Daisy.
They sat for a few minutes in silence sipping their tea.
‘I need to tell my boss that I had my surgery at Beau Street,’ said Meredith, thinking aloud.
‘Why? I thought you said that didn’t matter.’
‘There’s an investigation going on into the doctor who did it and there’s a chance my name will appear on the records that are being looked at. Plus I’ve been recognised by the nurse who looked after me and she’s threatening to tell all unless I keep her in the loop about what’s going on with the takeover.’
‘Bloody hell, Meredith, what’s wrong with these people?’
‘Deals do funny things to people, you know. We see it all the time. Whether it’s the money or the stress or, in this case, the fear of losing your job, it pushes people – pushes them into doing things they wouldn’t normally do.’
‘Well, I don’t think you should tell work. It’s your business and you mustn’t let yourself be bullied into telling people when you don’t have to.’
‘They may well find out anyway. At least if I tell them first, it will be marginally less embarrassing. Plus it will take the wind out of the nurse’s sails. She’d have nothing over on me then.’
Daisy sighed. ‘That’s a shit choice.’
‘Yes, it is,’ agreed Meredith.
The next morning, Meredith woke up in Daisy’s spare room to a text message from Audrey Fox.
Saw you in for meetings yesterday. What’s the latest?
Meredith stared at the message and her heart sank. That was it; she had to tell Nick what a mess she’d got herself into.
Chapter 22
After she had been home and changed, Meredith rang to make an appointment to see Nick. He was free in an hour’s time. She tried to focus on sorting through her overloaded inbox, but the conversation she was about to have kept running through her mind over and over again. How did she begin? What was her first line? ‘Morning, Nick, I need to talk to you about my breasts implants’ didn’t feel quite right.
She looked up as Alfred popped his head around the door.
‘Yesterday went well, I thought. No one seemed to really notice our little slip-up on the valuation,’ he said.
Meredith nodded wearily.
‘You look a bit peaky,’ said Alfred. ‘You should probably take a few days off once this deal is done.’
‘That’s rich coming from you,’ said Meredith. ‘You practically live in the office. Anyway, I’m okay, thanks.’
But to her horror, her voice broke as she was speaking and she suddenly felt very close to tears.
Alfred shut the door and sat down. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘Nothing, nothing,’ said Meredith, fanning her hand in front of her face.
Alfred shifted uncomfortably in his chair and said nothing as she tried to compose herself.
‘I’m sorry, just ignore me,’ she said. ‘Things with Beau Street, well, they’ve just got a bit comp
licated, that’s all.’
She heard Alfred take a large breath that made her look up. He looked like he was about to say something important, something that he needed to prepare himself for. She was right.
‘What?’ she asked.
‘I know about your operations at Beau Street,’ he said.
Meredith sat back in shock. ‘How?’
‘I saw a bill in your briefcase when you left it in the bar that time. I was only looking for something with a name on, I promise. I didn’t mean to pry.’
‘You’ve known all this time?’
Alfred nodded. ‘Is that what this is about?’
‘Yes, sort of. I’m about to go and see Nick and tell him about it.’
‘Why would you do that? It’s none of the firm’s business what you, um, do with your own, err, body,’ said Alfred. He was clearly finding the subject matter of their conversation a bit difficult to deal with.
‘Well, of course you’re right, at one level,’ said Meredith. ‘But Lloyd Cassidy was my doctor.’
Alfred looked horrified. ‘Did you do the whole out-of-hours, cash thing?’
‘Thankfully, no I didn’t. He did mention the option of paying extra for additional privacy, but as I’m about as famous as that chair you’re sitting on, I didn’t think I needed it.’
‘Then you’re okay.’
‘But as Tom Duffy put it, the accountants are going through his records with a fine-tooth comb, so it’s probably going to come out.’
She also explained her problem with Audrey Fox.
Alfred sat thinking for a moment. ‘You mustn’t tell Nick. That’s just not right. You’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.’