Т.А. Уильямс – To Rome, with Love (страница 2)
She glanced at her watch. It was gone nine o’clock. She was normally at her desk long before this, often one of the first into the building. She gave her eyes a final wipe and used the tissue to wrap the remains of the cupcake. Picking up the box, she let herself out, locking the door behind her, and walked back to the lift, depositing the tissue with its contents in a bin by the lift door. She pressed the call button and waited. Fortunately, the lift arrived empty and she managed to get up to the seventh floor without having to talk to anybody. All was going well until she bumped into Adam from Sales and Marketing. He gave her a big smile.
‘Hi, Sarah. So, how was the wedding?’
She took a firm grip, on both the box of cupcakes and her emotions, and did her unsuccessful best to smile. ‘I’ll tell you all about it one of these days.’
Hastily, she set off along the corridor towards her office. As she walked through the open-plan part of the floor, she heard a few voices calling out and even a whistle, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop and face the music. She kept her head down and walked as fast as she could. The door to her office at the far end was open and she dived in gratefully. She would ask somebody else to do the rounds with the cupcakes. She really didn’t feel she could face it for now.
She put the box down on the table in the corner and looked around the room. Nothing had changed. The blinds were open and she could see right across London to the towers of Canary Wharf, glittering in the clear June sunshine. It felt reassuringly normal to be back here and, for a moment, her mood of despair lightened. Then, returning her attention to her desk, her eyes alighted on the photo in its silver frame of her and James at the Grand Canyon. She reached across and picked it up, dumping it face down into one of the drawers.
‘Hi, Sarah, so how did it all go?’ Sarah looked up and saw Melissa at the door. Hastily closing the drawer, she straightened up, hoping her PA hadn’t witnessed the unceremonious disposal of her former fiancé’s picture. She had promised herself she was going to try to act as normally as possible, and throwing picture frames around wasn’t something she did normally.
‘Hi, Mel. It didn’t, I’m afraid.’
‘It didn’t?’ Melissa sounded as bemused as she looked. For the second time in only a few minutes, Sarah felt her eyes fill with tears. She was scrabbling for another tissue in her bag when she heard Melissa’s voice again. ‘What on earth? What do you mean, Sarah? What didn’t happen? Not the wedding, surely?’
It took a little while longer before Sarah regained some precarious hold over her emotions. She nodded and managed to offer a brief explanation. ‘Yes, the wedding, Mel. James decided he didn’t want to go through with it, so it didn’t happen.’ She took another deep breath and attempted a little smile that would have been more convincing if her voice hadn’t descended into a croak. She cleared her throat before continuing. ‘Anyway, it could have been worse. Look, cupcakes!’ She took out a few and set them on her desk before pushing the box across. ‘Why don’t you go and share them out. There are loads of them.’
Melissa was still standing there, stunned. After a struggle she managed a few words. ‘Of course, but are you sure you’re all right? It must have been simply awful for you.’
Just for a moment, Sarah thought her resolve was going to break, but she surprised herself by managing to reply with only the faintest tremor in her voice. ‘It was, Mel, but I’ll get over it.’ She caught Melissa’s eye as she repeated her words. ‘Sooner or later I’ll get over it. I have to.’
An expression of sadness and sympathy replaced the astonishment on Melissa’s face, and it looked for a moment as though she was about to return to the subject; but, to Sarah’s infinite relief, she took the box of cupcakes and disappeared into the corridor. Sarah ran the back of her hand across her eyes and sat down. She could feel her heart pounding and the tingling sensation of tears once more welling in the corners of her eyes. She dug out a tissue and wiped her face and blew her nose. She risked a quick glance in the mirror and was unsurprised to see her eyes looking very red. She blinked a few times, but there was nothing much she could do except wait for everything to calm down again. She didn’t even have a pair of sunglasses with her. She had known today was going to be hard. Maybe not as hard as that moment only a week ago when she had opened James’s letter, but hard all the same.
She flicked through the papers on her desk, glancing idly at the June copy of the
‘I brought you some coffee, Sarah.’ She didn’t hear Melissa’s footsteps until she came in and put the two cups down on the desk. Sarah was relieved to see that the box of cupcakes had not reappeared with her. Melissa pulled up a chair. She almost looked as if she was going to cry. ‘Oh, Sarah, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you and what you’ve been through.’
‘Just leave it now, please, Mel. What’s done’s done and I’d really rather not talk about it.’ Sarah took a deep breath and did her best to forget the tattered remains of her personal life and concentrate on the job. ‘We’ll start with the charity bike ride, I think. Venice to Rome. That all kicks off this coming weekend, doesn’t it? Is everything booked?’
Melissa checked her pad. ‘It’s all booked and fixed.’ She looked up and tried to lighten the atmosphere. ‘I bet you wish you were going, too, don’t you? Cycling’s sort of your thing, isn’t it?’
Sarah nodded, glad of the distraction. ‘I’d enjoy the cycling, but I really don’t feel like being charming and helpful to a bunch of people just now. No, I’m going to be just fine here in the office, with my head down, sorting out what’s going to be on offer to the travelling public next year.’
‘Paul made the last of the bookings for the bike ride.’ There was something in Melissa’s voice that made Sarah glance up. She wasn’t mistaken. There was definitely a dreamy look in her PA’s eyes. Somehow this served to lighten her mood a little.
‘Paul… you mean Paul Hall? I thought he was still over in the States.’
‘No, he’s back in London now, as is his big brother, Miles. They came back last week while you were away. And apparently, they’re both going on the Italian bike ride. We had to book two more rooms in the hotels. Something about familiarising themselves with the sharp end of the travel business.’ Melissa glanced over her shoulder at the open door and lowered her voice. ‘The word is that old Mr Hall’s finally retiring and handing it all over to the boys.’ Her expression darkened. ‘From what people are saying, Miles might well be planning some major changes.’ She was looking worried now. ‘And if that leads to redundancies, I’m sure I’d be one of the first to go. You’ve been at Hall’s for ages, haven’t you, but I only started last year.’
Sarah was reaching across the desk for her coffee, but she switched direction, caught Melissa’s hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. ‘I’m sure you’d be the last to go, Mel. I don’t know what I’d do without you.’ She managed an encouraging smile and saw the relief on Melissa’s face. She picked up her coffee and took a mouthful, murmuring appreciatively. Melissa had obviously gone all the way to the cafeteria to get the good stuff. That was something that had definitely improved over the nine years she had been working here. When she’d first started at Hall’s, the coffee had been undrinkable. ‘Here, have a cupcake. At least they weren’t ruined.’ In spite of her resolve, she couldn’t help the note of bitterness in her voice.
‘Oh, Sarah…’ Luckily, Melissa was prevented from saying more as a tall figure appeared at the door, leaning casually against the frame.
‘Knock, knock. Hi, Sarah, welcome back.’ As he walked into the room, Sarah couldn’t miss the expression of adoration on Melissa’s face, not dissimilar to the look their old dog used to produce every time food appeared in his vicinity. This thought also helped her to adopt what she hoped would sound like a normal tone.
‘Hello, Paul. Long time, no see. How was Harvard, or was it Yale?’
He came over to her desk and extended his hand, leaning towards her with a winning smile. As he did so, he shot a sideways glance at Melissa, who blushed and choked on her cupcake. He looked as if he had been working out while in the States. Sarah didn’t remember his shoulders being quite so broad.
‘Right first time. Harvard Business School, and it was good. What about you?’ He took a closer look at her. ‘You’ve got awfully red eyes. Are you all right?’
‘Hay fever, I’m afraid.’ It wasn’t very inspired, but it would have to do.
‘How awful for you. You’ve just been away for a week, haven’t you? I thought you were going to be off for longer. What’ve you been doing? Did you go somewhere nice?’
‘I just stayed around and sorted out some stuff.’