Fitting In

by Amanda Radley

  Heather’s breath caught in her chest.

  “Suicide,” Scarlett added.

  “I’m so sorry to hear that,” Heather said, licking her suddenly dry lips. She noticed that Scarlett’s expression had hardly changed despite dropping what could only be described as bombshell-level news.

  “It was difficult,” Scarlett acknowledged.

  Heather felt her heart break on Scarlett’s behalf, wondering if Scarlett’s cold exterior was simply a coping mechanism. Death of a mother and a brother, who could cope with such horrendous circumstances?

  Heather couldn’t imagine what sort of toll such loss would have on a person, or on a family. Perhaps she was seeing the results of it.

  “Ah, there you are,” Leo said, addressing Scarlett as he stepped into the room. “You need to mingle with the guests whether you like it or not.”

  Heather couldn’t believe the terrible timing Leo had. She was finally having an actual conversation with Scarlett. The young woman had seemed on the verge of opening up, and here was Leo, essentially ruining the moment.

  She cast a glance to Scarlett, noticing an almost military stiffness in her spine at the appearance of her father.

  “I will mingle now,” Scarlett agreed readily, leaving the room in a clipped stride.

  Leo sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “She’s fitting in well,” Heather said, suddenly needing to defend Scarlett and prove to Leo that she wasn’t the awkward and difficult woman he seemed to assume she was.

  Leo looked at her questioningly.

  “Scarlett,” Heather explained. “She’s fitting in very well at Silver Arches. I’ve heard excellent feedback from her line manager.”

  That much was true at least. Tara did have a lot of good to say about Scarlett; unfortunately, it was usually followed by a complaint of her social ineptitude. But Heather wouldn’t mention that now. It had suddenly become important for her to convince Leo that his daughter was doing well.

  Leo looked a little flustered but undeniably pleased. “Good, that’s nice to hear.”

  “I know you had your concerns about her fitting in,” Heather said, attempting to fish for more information.

  “I do. But I see she’s in good hands.”

  “She is,” Heather promised.

  A female voice called out for Leo’s attention, and he gestured that he had to go. Once he left the room, Heather let out a heavy sigh. She’d told a white lie, but one that meant she had to make sure that Scarlett did fit in.

  Unfortunately, she wasn’t entirely sure how she was going to manage that.

  24

  Don’t Want to Be Friends

  Scarlett moved from group to group in the downstairs of the house, allocating three to five minutes to each group before moving on. She’d been forced to socialise with these people ever since she was old enough to stay up for one of her father’s frequent parties.

  She knew the drill well. Enter a group, say hello to the members of the group, and ask a vague question about a family member of one person. Listen to the answer, and then provide a small insight into her own work life. Then it was simply a matter of waiting for someone to tell a joke or amusing story, and then laugh and make a discreet exit by pretending she had seen someone else she had to say hello to.

  Occasionally she was cornered by the professional photographer that her father had hired to document the event. The man had taken a shine to her, pulling her into groups to have her photo taken, and ordering her to smile.

  The concept of having to smile for photographs was one she found truly baffling.

  As a child she was frequently asked to smile for photos despite the fact she was not at all happy. The result was photo albums filled with lies. Family holidays, birthday parties, and more, all filled with fake, hollow smiles. Not a real depiction of events at all.

  When she became a teenager, Scarlett decided to stop smiling for photos unless she was honestly happy. She wasn’t trying to be awkward despite what her father thought. She just didn’t like the dishonesty of it all.

  Scarlett had calculated that she’d be around all the current groups in around sixty-five minutes. Then she could consider her duty done, and she would be able to disappear back home.

  Her plan came to an abrupt end when she noticed someone unexpected in the next group she intended to join.

  Rather than making her way to that group, she made a beeline for the utility room off the kitchen. It was one of the few places that guests weren’t congregating, and it allowed her a few moments of peace to consider what she had just seen and what, if anything, to do about it.

  Steph, her ex, was at the party.

  Neither Audrey nor her father had told her that Steph would be there. Scarlett certainly hadn’t invited her, and so she was at a loss to explain her presence.

  Familiar feelings of loss and confusion hit her.

  The breakup was old news to most, but Scarlett still dwelled on the end of the relationship. It had been a failure, apparently one of her own making. Steph had said she had stayed as long as she could, indicating she had been unhappy for a long time.

  Scarlett had been blindsided by the whole thing.

  The utility room door opened, and Steph peeked through the gap at her. “Can I come in?”

  Scarlett realised she had been seen making her escape and wished she had gone into the garden instead. At least that way she would have been able to lose Steph in the crowd rather than be stuck in a room with no exit.

  Steph stepped into the room and closed the door behind her without Scarlett inviting her in.

  “Hey,” Steph greeted.

  Scarlett didn’t reply. Didn’t know what to reply.

  “I’m assuming your dad didn’t tell you I’d be here?” Steph continued.

  “My father doesn’t tell me much,” Scarlett pointed out sarcastically. Steph knew that, of course.

  “Yeah, I should have expected that. I’m working for him now. Well, for Intrex. He sought me out and asked if I wanted a role when my contract was up. I was going to tell you, but, well, we don’t really speak.”

  “We broke up.”

  “We could still be friends,” Steph suggested.

  Scarlett wasn’t sure they could.

  The end of the relationship had been difficult, and she wasn’t certain she could push those feelings to one side and have a friendship with someone who had so thoroughly broken her heart.

  “I’m sorry about the way things ended,” Steph said, as if reading her mind.

  “You’re not,” Scarlett replied, feeling hurt emotions swirling around her.

  “I… we weren’t right for each other. It wasn’t working,” Steph admitted. “But I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  “You did hurt me.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry. I should have handled things differently. I shouldn’t have said some of the things I said,” Steph said, “but maybe we can put those things behind us and be friends?”

  Scarlett swallowed.

  She didn’t want to be friends. She wasn’t even very good at being someone’s friend. Not to mention the fact that her excellent memory played over Steph’s hurtful last words to her every time she saw or thought of Steph.

  But this seemed to be a time when Scarlett was expected to push her feelings to one side in order to bend to societal norms.

  She’d lost count of the number of times in her life that she had been told she had to do something even though she desperately didn’t want to. Being normal, her father referred to it.

  Scarlett didn’t know what that meant, but she did know that it often meant she had to do something that she didn’t want to do in order to please others. Being normal seemed to always involve Scarlett making a sacrifice. She didn’t understand it, and she didn’t like it.

  The utility room door opened once more, and Audrey entered the room.

  “I thought I saw you come in here, Steph,” Audrey said. “Leo is looking for you.”

&nbs
p; “Oh, okay,” Steph said. She looked at Scarlett and smiled softly. “Maybe catch up with you later?”

  Scarlett didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to catch up with Steph later. Or ever again. Although she suspected the new proximity of her ex-girlfriend to her father might make that impossible.

  Steph left, and Audrey closed the door behind her.

  “Are you okay?” Audrey asked.

  Scarlett wished people would understand that she rarely knew the answer to that question. She gave a small shrug.

  Audrey pulled her into a hug, and Scarlett felt a sense of relief. She hadn’t known she wanted a hug, but the moment Audrey enveloped her in one, it felt right.

  “I didn’t know Leo had invited her. I’m sorry,” Audrey whispered. “I know it must be hard to see her.”

  “It is,” Scarlett agreed.

  Audrey stepped back and took Scarlett’s face in her hands. “I hope you know that if you ever need me, my door is always open to you.”

  “I know,” Scarlett said.

  And while she was aware of that fact, the truth was that she wouldn’t know what to say.

  She appreciated Audrey’s continuous offers of help but felt powerless to accept them.

  25

  Interrupting Breakfast

  Heather was mildly surprised to find Leo sitting in her office on Monday morning. No meeting was in the diary, and the last she’d heard from him was that she’d speak to him by telephone towards the end of the week.

  “Good morning,” she greeted him as she put her bag under her desk and placed her coffee and breakfast on the desk.

  “We need to think of expansion plans,” Leo said without hesitation. He’d clearly been waiting a while and was eager to get into the conversation.

  “What kind of expansion?” Heather asked.

  She turned on her computer and started to set up for the day in much the same way she would if he wasn’t there. If Leo wasn’t going to call ahead, then he was going to have to take her as she was. She suspected Leo was trying to play some ridiculous game of office politics with her. If he thought she’d defer to him in some way in her own office, he had another thing coming.

  She opened the takeaway bag and took out her breakfast croissant.

  “Experiences,” he said. “That’s what people want. Retail shopping goes up and down, and people can buy a lot online these days. Their appetite for buying online will only increase. But experiences, that’s where we need to focus.”

  “Agreed,” Heather said, taking the first bite of her unhealthy but delicious breakfast. “People need to eat, and cafe culture is becoming more and more popular. Restaurants struggle from time to time, but only because there is an abundance of them. But the cinema, bowling, those kinds of things seem to be thriving.”

  “We need to go further,” Leo said. “We need to consider what kind of experiences people want and, more importantly, what they can’t get elsewhere. I remember when laser tag was big. Do we try to bring it back? Or is there new tech out there? We need a team of people from all backgrounds to bounce ideas around.”

  “Sounds like an excellent idea,” Heather said, taking another bite of croissant.

  She had been worried that Leo would be another out-of-touch investor who would have an idea and run with it no matter what. Instead, he seemed eager to crowdsource ideas from a variety of people and combine those findings with his own research to come up with plans. Utilising his business experience alongside advice he received in a sensible manner.

  “Justin Freeman is our head of entertainment, and Lucy Williams is our experiences manager,” Heather said. “Then I think we should canvass some of the younger people in the teams. Maybe find some people from each department to get a wide selection of people. Ravi has his finger on the pulse; Thomas Kingsley is known for being the most frugal man in the company—if he thinks something is worth spending his money, then we’re in the right area. Scarlett would be a good addition too—”

  “No, not Scarlett,” Leo said quickly.

  “Maybe she’ll surprise you?” Heather suggested.

  Leo laughed. “She’s surprised me every single day since she was born.”

  “Well, she certainly thinks out of the box, and that’s what a project like this needs,” Heather pushed.

  “Scarlett and I don’t work together, and that’s that,” Leo said firmly.

  Heather thought for a moment about how she wanted to handle the order. Within a few short seconds, her mind was made up and she’d put her croissant down. “I don’t allow personal feuds to prevent working relationships in my centre,” she said with dead seriousness. “I expect everyone to be able to work together. Wouldn’t you agree that is an important factor in a team?”

  Leo maintained strict eye contact. Heather matched him, not blinking. A few tense seconds passed before a grin formed on his face.

  “You’re fearless, you know that?” he said.

  Heather took another bite of food and shrugged. “Honest, is all.”

  “I love Scarlett. I do, with all my heart,” Leo admitted. “But she drives me crazy and I don’t like the person she makes me become when we spend too much time together.”

  Heather frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “She infuriates me,” Leo explained. “I get angry. You may have heard rumours about me shouting and throwing things, but they are rarely true. But Scarlett, she pushes a button in me. I find her… I find her illogical. And cold. So… devoid of feeling. I can’t get through to her, and she’s my daughter.”

  Heather was surprised but pleased by the admission. Finally, she felt like she was getting somewhere in figuring out the rift between father and daughter. She didn’t know why it was important to her, but it was. She felt like it would be an incredible victory to bring the two together, if such a thing was at all possible.

  “I’ll admit that it is a little hard to understand her behaviour sometimes,” Heather allowed, “but I don’t find her to be devoid of feeling. Perhaps a little reluctant to share them, but she definitely feels things. I’m sure of that.”

  Leo let out a sigh. “Audrey suspects she’s autistic.”

  Heather’s eyes widened. “Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say. It made a lot of sense. She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of it before. It was like a critical puzzle piece falling into place.

  “She’s hardly old, but when she went through school it wasn’t really something they tested for. She got through school okay, no friends and one or two detentions for talking back to her teachers, but nothing dramatic,” Leo explained. “People weren’t talking about autism when Scarlett was growing up. It’s only in recent years that it’s really in the public eye.”

  “Have you discussed it with Scarlett?” Heather asked.

  Leo shook his head. “As I said, we don’t speak.”

  “Maybe clearing the air…”

  Leo shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “No. Look, we’re getting off topic. I’m not here to talk about Scarlett. I want a list of names for a think tank, at least fifteen people. And definitely not Scarlett.”

  Heather knew when to push a subject further and when to remain quiet, and this was definitely the latter.

  “I’ll get a list to you by this afternoon,” she promised.

  Leo stood up and plucked his phone out of his inner jacket pocket, looking like his attention was fully absorbed in his work. Heather suspected it was a ruse to aid his escape.

  “Great, great,” he said distractedly. “I need to get back to my office.”

  He was gone without another glance at her.

  Heather pushed her croissant away, suddenly losing her appetite.

  She knew next to nothing about autism other than what she’d heard in popular media. On top of that, she only had Audrey’s suspicion to go on.

  She didn’t even know why it was relevant to her. Scarlett was doing well in security, not making any friends but certainly not making as many enemies as she had done
before. Could that be considered a victory? Making fewer enemies? Mathematically, it brought her closer to fitting in, Heather considered.

  However, there was a strong urge in Heather to help Scarlett more. She didn’t like the idea of the woman being lonely or disliked. If she could get to the bottom of the mystery of Scarlett Flynn and maybe offer some help, then she would.

  26

  A Chat over Coffee

  Ravi lifted his phone and took a picture of the coffee and brownie in front of him. He’d recently started using Instagram at Nico’s insistence, but the only pictures he ever posted were of his mid-morning snack at one of the coffee shops in the centre.

  He didn’t have many followers but told himself that by tagging the business in question, he was in some way helping them with their social media marketing.

  It was a long shot. He didn’t really understand how little actions equated to big changes.

  “What do you know about autism?”

  He looked up as Heather sat down at the table with him, a takeaway coffee in her hand.

  “Hi, yes, you can join me,” he joked.

  She ignored his quip and sipped at her coffee, looking at him over the top of the cup.

  “Not a lot,” he said, picking up the brownie and taking a bite. “Why?”

  “I just heard from Leo that Scarlett’s mother—stepmother—thinks that Scarlett may be autistic. I don’t know much about it. I googled it, but there’s a lot of contradicting information.”

  Ravi took another bite of brownie and regarded his boss and friend. Heather’s growing obsession with Scarlett was intriguing.

  “Why don’t you ask Scarlett?” Ravi suggested.

  Heather made a face. “That might not go down too well. I don’t think Leo or Audrey have broached the notion with Scarlett, so it’s hardly my place to do so.”

  “You think Scarlett might not know?” Ravi asked.

  Heather shrugged. “I’m not sure. I don’t want to offend her by asking. I’m not close enough to her.”