Charlie frowned, that confused smile back on his face. I seemed to bring that out in him. A lot.
‘My boss didn’t want me to go with him.’
‘But I thought you said you were good at your job?’
I opened my mouth to say something.
‘And don’t take that the wrong way – I meant that any boss of sense ordinarily does whatever they can to keep good staff. It’s not like they’re always that easy to find. Believe me, I know.’
‘This was a little more complicated.’
‘Oh.’ Charlie sat back. ‘I didn’t mean to pry.’
‘No. It’s fine. And seriously?’ I laughed. ‘That’d be rich of me to object to you asking questions, wouldn’t it? Anyway, as it’s turned out, he did me a favour. Although I have to admit I didn’t feel that generous towards him at the time.’
Charlie didn’t say anything, clearly letting me decide as to whether I wanted to share any more.
‘I was dating my boss. We’d been seeing each other for a couple of years and it seemed to be going well, like everything else. But when he went over to America for those trips, something changed. Long story short, he met someone over there. His new Executive Assistant.’
Charlie winced.
‘Yes. It was a bit.’ I finished the last of my drink. ‘I’d love to say I had a dignified reaction to the whole situation.’
‘I take it you didn’t?’
‘Not exactly. Let’s just say I perpetuated the belief that redheads have a temper, culminating in a situation which may or may not have involved me stapling his tie to the desk.’
‘Well, bearing in mind there are far worse things that you could have stapled to the desk, I’d say he got off pretty lightly.’
5
My eyebrows shot up and a bubble of laughter burst out of me. Accountants often had a reputation for being dry and boring but today was enlightening me to the fact that Charlie Richmond definitely wasn’t boring, and the only thing dry about him was his wit.
‘That’s true. Although he was wearing the tie at the time of stapleage.’
He smiled. ‘Stapleage? Is that a word?’
I shrugged.
‘Still. It’s been for the best and he was probably right in what he said – I wouldn’t have been the right fit for the company there.’
‘He said that?’ Charlie’s brow furrowed. ‘Because of the relationship?’
I shook my head. ‘No. Well, maybe a little but there was more to it.’
He said nothing, waiting for me to continue.
‘Oh, Charlie! You’ve been in my company for a few hours now. I’m not exactly high-flying corporate material. I’m too… friendly!’ I laughed. ‘I think he was a bit worried that I might show him up with his new colleagues and friends.’
‘Then it doesn’t really sound like he deserved you in the first place. In any capacity.’
My smile broke through and I sat straighter. ‘You know, I came to the same conclusion.’
‘Good. It sounds like you had quite a last day at that particular office.’
I let out a sigh at the understatement. ‘Still. It turned out for the best. I found some local bar work and decided to use the redundancy money to take a little break from working full time. With that, and my suddenly unexpectedly free social diary, I was able to concentrate on finishing the writing course I’d been doing and even started getting some magazine articles accepted, now that I had the time to devote to submissions. I thought doing a bit more on the blog would be good practice too, as well as it being a bit of a showcase for my writing. And the more I did it, the more I enjoyed it and the more hits I got. One post got picked up on a blog round-up and that really helped boost things. Advertisers started approaching me, which helped my income and as the blog continued to grow I started getting attention from brands, interested in possible sponsorship and collaborations.
‘Getting a column in the local paper was pretty exciting, and I regularly write for a couple of other publications and their online sites too. I no longer do the bar work, by the way. Just so that you don’t think I’m hiding any cash-in-hand stuff from my accountant.’
