Because She Could: The unputdownable debut novel that spans the globe (The Osprey Series Book 1)

by Kaylie Kay

  ‘Maybe just give her one last chance.’ Olivia couldn’t believe she was saying it, it certainly wasn’t what she really meant.

  ‘I don’t know babe, I don’t have time to keep cleaning up after her. I don’t think you understand how hard I had to work to get back on side with him, he was furious that I hadn’t called back. I need to be reliable or they can just cut the contract.’

  ‘I’m sure she won’t make any more mistakes, she will be really upset with herself about this.’ Argh, why couldn’t she just twist the knife in and be done with it, feed his doubt and get Sarah out once and for all? She could sense that he might just be speaking in the heat of the moment though, that he didn’t really want to get rid of her yet, and if she was too pushy she might end up being the one who looked bad in the end. She would feel stupid if she encouraged him to get rid of her and he didn’t.

  ‘You’re right, as usual.’ He extended his arm around her shoulder and pulled her towards him on the sofa. ‘One last chance.’

  As Olivia leant against Tom’s chest, thinking of ideas for Sarah’s one last chance the buzzer from the electric gates sounded in the hallway. She looked at her watch as she sat up – 8:15pm, who on earth was turning up unannounced at this time?

  ‘I’ll go.’ Tom pushed himself up from the sofa and left Olivia where she was. She couldn’t hear who was speaking on the intercom but was intrigued when she heard him press the buzzer that opened the gates, and open the front door moments later. As she heard his footsteps coming back along the corridor she could hear another voice, female, and just as her stomach flipped as she realised who it was, Tom walked back into the room followed by Sarah.

  Tom was holding a bottle of whisky and Sarah walked over to Olivia with a beautiful bunch of flowers wrapped in tissue paper, handing them to her.

  ‘I just wanted to apologise for my mistakes lately. I couldn’t wait until Monday, so I just needed to come over and tell you both in person.’

  ‘Sarah, you didn’t need to do this.’ Tom studied the label of the bottle, obviously impressed with her choice and glad that she had bothered nonetheless.

  Olivia stood up with her flowers. ‘I don’t deserve these, you really shouldn’t have.’ She wondered what Sarah was playing at.

  ‘No Olivia, you were so nice to me the other day when I had filed the invoices wrong, and I appreciate it.’ She turned to Tom. ‘Tom, I am so sorry for all the extra stress I have caused you this week, I know it was the last thing you needed. I had a lot on my mind, not that it is an excuse, but I promise you I won’t make any more mistakes.’

  ‘Oh don’t worry, no one died.’ Tom had been won over and forgotten his words of just ten minutes ago, it seemed. Olivia walked towards the kitchen to find a vase, trying to hide her annoyance that Sarah was in her home.

  ‘Phew, I thought I might have got the sack on Monday,’ Sarah laughed. ‘Lovely house by the way,’ she said, looking around her admiringly.

  In the kitchen Olivia couldn’t hear them anymore. She fought her urge to throw the flowers in the bin despite them being truly exquisite. She looked in the cupboard for something to put them in, taking out the ugliest vase that she could find, one she had inherited from an old aunt with gaudy flowers painted on cracked porcelain. She returned to the living room a few moments later, ready to thank her, and show her out promptly, but no one was there. Tom must be showing her out already, she thought, looking around the room and wondering where she should put the flowers so that she wouldn’t have to see them too often. Placing them on the windowsill, she drew the curtains in front of them; tomorrow she would think of somewhere better.

  Chapter 35

  A few minutes passed and Tom still hadn’t returned. Olivia checked the front door, but it was shut, and when she opened it she saw Sarah’s car was still in the driveway. Her heart raced for a moment as she wondered where she had gone but as she walked back into the house she could hear music coming from downstairs in the den and realised exactly where they both were. It really was time for her to leave now, she thought determinedly.

  They obviously hadn’t heard her coming down the stairs; admittedly she had trodden very lightly. From the doorway she watched them sat with their backs to her at the black leather-trimmed bar on the far side of the room, both leaning forward and obviously in deep conversation. Sarah’s body language sat uncomfortably with Olivia, her legs crossed and facing toward Tom, with little room in between the pair, and she was flicking her hair back whilst laughing at a joke to which she was not privy. To a passer-by in the street glancing in a bar window somewhere, they could have been a couple who had just met and were getting to know each other, with all the signals of chemistry between them.

  ‘There you are.’ Olivia put on her biggest fake smile, but couldn’t help raising her eyebrows as she looked at Tom when he turned around.

  ‘Sorry babe, I was just giving Sarah a tour of the house and we ended up here.’ He raised his glass guiltily, gesturing to the bottle that Sarah had just given him sitting open between them. Sarah turned slowly on her leather stool, and Olivia saw she too was holding a glass. Of course she liked whisky, she seethed inwardly. She was the only woman she knew who did, and she guessed that they had been bonding over their mutual love of the stuff.

  ‘Amazing house, Olivia, I love it down here!’ she gushed.

  ‘Thanks.’ Olivia’s mind whirred as she thought of how to get this girl out of her house ASAP. ‘It’s great when we have our friends over.’ And you aren’t one of them, she thought. She walked across the tiled floor that acted as a dancefloor, glancing at the retro jukebox on the left wall that was playing loudly.

  ‘Join us, Olivia. Have a drink,’ Tom urged.

  There were many reasons why Olivia did not want to join them. Firstly, that would quite possibly extend Sarah’s stay in her home, and involve her having to act like she didn’t mind. Also there was the matter of her 5am start tomorrow and a flight to New York. Tom knew she had work in the morning, and that she needed an early night. She seethed.

  ‘I’d love to but you know I have work in the morning, babe, and so have you.’ Tom had already said earlier that he needed to go to bed early as he had to go in tomorrow too.

  ‘Oh, a couple won’t hurt. It would be a shame not to do this bottle justice. Have you any idea how special this whiskey is?’

  ‘No, Tom, I don’t,’ she answered curtly. She couldn’t hide it any more. The awful screeching music that she could only presume Sarah had selected was giving her a headache and she really wanted her to leave right now. Her irritation was clearly lost on Tom though, it obviously hadn’t occurred to him that Olivia, who always loved to entertain, wouldn’t want to do so tonight.

  ‘Oh, one won’t hurt.’ He got up and went behind the bar, taking a glass from underneath and dispensing a shot of rum from the optic behind him into it. He reached into the small freezer that sat neatly at the back and took out some ice, putting it in the glass and handing it to Olivia with a can of Coke.

  ‘Just one then. No offence, Sarah, but I have to be up early.’

  ‘Oh, no offence taken Olivia, don’t mind me if you want to go to bed,’ she replied as if butter wouldn’t melt.

  Was she stupid? Did she think she would leave her alone down here with Tom while she went up to bed? She looked at Tom to see if she had an ally but he was busy putting more ice and whisky into their glasses; he obviously had the taste for it now and wasn’t throwing Sarah out anytime soon.

  ‘Do you think you should have any more when you are driving, Sarah?’

  ‘Oh, one more won’t hurt, I can handle my whisky.’ She picked up her glass and raised it to Olivia. ‘Cheers.’

  ‘Stop being so boring, Olivia, it’s not even nine o’clock.’ Tom looked at her and she felt her face flush red.

  Olivia sipped her drink, welcoming the effect of the alcohol which seemed to reduce her heart rate. She tried her best to join in their banter about work but had to admit defeat as Tom poured their
third whiskey, larger than either of the last two.

  ‘I have to go to bed. Tom, will see you out Sarah?’ Hopefully very soon, she thought.

  As she laid in the bed sleep was evasive. She wondered what they were talking about in the den, and how much closer to Tom Sarah had moved her chair. Eventually she heard their voices in the hall and she tiptoed to the front bedroom to watch Sarah leave. As the front door shut and she watched her get into her car she took her phone from her dressing gown pocket. She strained to see the registration number of her car as it drew through the gates and dialled a number she had never needed to use before.

  ‘Hello, emergency services, which service would you like?’

  ‘Um, the police please,’ she said quietly.

  A short silence followed before she heard her call connecting.

  ‘Hello, police.’

  ‘Hi, I’d like to report someone who is currently driving their car after having too much to drink.’

  She hadn’t heard Tom come up the stairs, and she jumped when she felt his hand on her shoulder. She hung up the call immediately, wondering how much he had heard, but when she turned around she could see by his face that he had heard enough.

  Chapter 36

  Tom just couldn’t believe what she had done, not that she had got as far as giving Sarah’s details to the police, but the fact that she had even contemplated it had been enough. They hadn’t really rowed, perhaps that would have been easier, but the look of disappointment on his face had been enough to crush her.

  ‘I don’t know who you are anymore.’ Those were his words, and she couldn’t get them out of her head. Again, she had contemplated calling in sick for her flight but she knew he would need time to calm down, and she probably needed to go away and get some sleep to stop her getting too emotional. It was just a bullet to New York with a minimum layover, she would be too busy to think too much, she reasoned, and when she got back on Sunday she would make it up to him, again.

  ‘Catered full, my love. Fifty-three kosher meals, I’m afraid.’ The caterer looked at Olivia apologetically.

  Oh my word, she thought. Today was going to be

  a hard day! Whilst she didn’t mind a few special meals, having to hand out fifty-three kosher meals by hand before they could even start the meal service was not ideal.

  ‘Ok, thanks, not,’ she joked.

  ‘Sorry,’ he laughed and handed her paperwork to say she had seen all of the catering. She scribbled her initials and gave it back.

  ‘Have a good flight.’

  ‘I’ll try,’ she sighed loudly, and watched him walk up towards the front of the plane to check the other galleys. She looked around at the vastness of the Boeing 747, with its four hundred economy seats, their galley today being situated in between the four doors as they were known, or the fourth set of doors down from the front. With five sets of doors in total, and a sixth on the upper deck, it was worthy of its iconic status as the Jumbo Jet, and it held a lot of passengers! She was happy to be kept busy today though.

  It was like when you go on a long drive and suddenly realise you can’t remember any of the last twenty miles, she thought, as she found herself putting away the last meal cart without being able to recall much about giving the meals out. She pushed down the brake and pulled the red latch down over it, checking over the other carts to make sure they were all secure in their stowages. The crew began to filter in, looking through the ovens for food now that they had a chance to eat, and Olivia stepped out into the aisle to make some room.

  Now that things would be quiet for a while she decided to take the opportunity to go and see the pilots, and she made her way to the stairwell that led to the upper deck.

  ‘How’s it going up here?’ she asked the girl in the upper deck galley at the top of the stairs. Olivia didn’t even remember seeing the pretty, petite blonde girl in the briefing, let alone know her name.

  ‘Not bad,’ she replied cheerfully, clearly free from the worries and anxieties that Olivia had brought with her today.

  ‘I’m going up to see the boys, do you want me to take anything?’

  ‘No thanks, Adrian just took them in a cup of tea.’

  Olivia had to think for a moment before remembering that Adrian was today’s manager of course. She really wasn’t at her best.

  She smiled and walked swiftly to the door right at the front, tapping the access code into the keypad and looking up at the camera above her.

  Click. The door unlocked and Olivia entered the flight deck, closing it quickly behind her. She had heard about the days before terrorists started flying planes into buildings, when the flight deck door wasn’t locked, and children would queue up outside to meet the captain on some routes. It was a shame that now they had to stay locked in this small cockpit pretty much all flight and so she always made an effort to go and see them if she got a chance.

  Adrian was already in there and she leant against the jumpseat he was occupying on the right of the door behind the two pilots. Olivia tutted as her hair caught in one of the hundreds of buttons that lined the ceiling, and released herself carefully lest she should pull something important. She recognised both of the pilots but didn’t know them well so they talked through the list of questions that were standard.

  ‘Any plans for New York?’

  ‘Did you have to travel far this morning?’

  ‘What’s your next flight?’

  The list wasn’t exhaustive; when you met so many different crew it was useful to have the small talk ready.

  ‘How are things going down the back?’ Adrian asked, looking up at Olivia.

  ‘Yeah fine, once all the specials were done!’

  ‘Shall we sort some breaks out then?’

  They both looked at their watches to ascertain whether there would be enough time between now and the last service to make it worthwhile.

  ‘We could probably manage an hour if we split the crew in two?’ Olivia calculated, allowing two hours at the end.

  ‘Let’s do it, I could do with a power nap myself. I’ll be back later guys,’ he said to the flight crew, and they both signalled their goodbyes, turning back to the controls. Olivia checked through the spy hole to make sure that no one was outside the door before opening it, and led the way back out into the cabin. Just as they got to the stairs the plane jerked and suddenly Olivia felt herself lift off of the floor as they hit an area of clear air turbulence. She reached out to grab the handrail but slipped and lost her footing, tumbling forward down the steps. She clutched at the rails to stop her fall, and felt a crack as her left arm twisted backwards, sending excruciating pain that made her cry out. The seatbelt signs pinged on.

  ‘Cabin crew, take your seats,’ came the captain’s voice over the PA.

  ‘Oh my god, are you ok Olivia?’ called Adrian from the top of the stairs. He was on his knees holding onto the handrail with one hand and reaching out to her with the other. She tried to turn herself around without moving the hurt arm too much, and let Adrian help her up and onto the jumpseat at the top of the stairs. She sobbed with the pain and held her injured arm against her body to immobilise it.

  ‘Are you ok?’ asked the girl from the galley as she made her way past in the direction of the jumpseat at the upper deck doors, holding on tightly to the seats she passed. Olivia nodded, bravely biting her bottom lip.

  Adrian put his arm around her shoulders to comfort her, unable to do much else as the plane struggled to find a smoother path. They could hear cries from downstairs and he took the phone from next to their seat to make an announcement.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen, it does appear that we have encountered an area of clear air turbulence. This is an unfortunate situation but please rest assured that it is nothing to worry about and the captain is currently navigating us out of it. For now, please make sure your seat belts are fastened and the crew will be with you should you need any assistance as soon as it is safe to do so.’

  He put the phone back in its stowage an
d looked at Olivia, glancing down at her arm with a concerned look on his face.

  ‘It must be awful down the back.’ Olivia tried to take her mind off of the searing pain. It was true that turbulence was always significantly worse as you neared the thinner tail end, and she hoped that no one else had been hurt.

  Chapter 37

  Olivia saw the flashing lights of the emergency services waiting on the ramp as they taxied onto stand. She had been right about down the back, they had felt the full force of the turbulence, with stories of people coming inches off of the ground. One unfortunate man had landed so heavily in the confines of the toilet that he had hurt his back, and others had sustained injuries ranging from bruising and sprains to suspected fractures. She couldn’t help thinking it was lucky that the carts were away and she had secured the galley just before, as it could have been worse if she hadn’t. The crew had done a marvellous job with the medical kits; Olivia’s arm was splinted and secured in place which had helped with the pain no end. With no life-threatening injuries amongst the dozen or so wounded it had been decided to continue onto New York, being that they were halfway between London and there, and flying over the North Atlantic when it had happened. It made sense to get them all to where the majority of passengers needed to be, and the injured ones would have access to quality medical facilities there. The passengers had been impressed at how the girls who had been serving them dinner just a little time before were highly qualified first aiders, and very competent ones at that. Olivia wished that she had been able to help them, she wasn’t good at being a patient.

  Eight hours later Olivia thanked the bellman who had kindly helped her up to her room with her case. He wished her well and closed the door gently. She winced as she tried to take off her jacket, letting it fall down her good arm. She was grateful for the small button on her short blouse sleeve that would come in handy when she tried to get it off over her cast in a minute. Her forearm had been fractured as she had suspected, and although the hospital were happy to release her back to the comfort of her hotel room the airline’s medical assistance company advised she wasn’t to fly home for at least forty-eight hours. The plaster cast felt heavy and awkward, but at least the drugs had helped with the pain for now, and she was so exhausted she doubted anything would keep her awake.