AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Amelia
The night was a long one with little sleep. I was frustrated as I needed to call my mom to get answers to the new questions in my mind. Why would my sister not have told me she was having a baby? Perhaps she’d thought I was too young and was waiting until she showed more? That was probably it. I was being stupid. Things with Henry tonight had become heated and emotional. He’d left the apartment, slamming the door behind him, and I wondered if he’d gone to his club.
I also wondered if he’d tell me tomorrow about his other business when I was being shown around? One thing was for sure. I was going to be a model employee.
Yes, I knew my being here was upsetting to Henry, and maybe bringing back memories he didn’t want to face, but I couldn’t apologize for what I was doing. I needed to do this to get my own life on track. For once, I was putting my own needs first. I’d enjoyed him comforting me when I’d cried and then I’d felt guilty. It was his loss, yet I was the one crying and being comforted? How did someone cope with the loss of their wife and child? Their whole future world. Well, he hadn’t, had he? He’d buried it as deep as he’d buried his wife. If there was one goal I had for him while I was here, it was to get him to see life was worth taking chances for.
Eventually, in the early hours of the morning, I heard the door open and Henry stumbling down the corridor. Footsteps came all the way down to my room. The door pushed open slightly, and I quickly closed my eyes and let my mouth hang open, pretending to be asleep.
“What the fuck are you doing to me, Amelia.” He whispered from the doorway.
Then I heard the door close and his footsteps stumbling back to his own room.
He was gone, already at work when I went to the kitchen the next morning.
“Morning, Mary. I need all the coffee in the world today.” I smiled at her.
“Are you excited about your first day?” She asked.
“Nervous.” I replied honestly. “I know I can do the job, but with Henry knowing me, I don’t want people thinking he’s making allowances, or I got the job from being kind of family.”
“How close were you to him, back then?” She asked me. I could tell Mary was fond of Henry and had developed a motherly relationship with him.
“I didn’t really know him at all.” I told her truthfully. “They eloped to get married, so I didn’t get to be a bridesmaid or anything. Then they lived in Manhattan. He’d just bought them a house in the Hampton’s, was bringing her home, when she passed. Then he went back to Manhattan and cut himself off from us all.”
“You like him, don’t you?” She asked me.
I hesitated, but only for a moment. It was a chance to admit how I felt for once. To get things off my chest.
“He was always like some mysterious Prince Charming to me, Mary. I thought I’d built him up in my mind as a kind of fantasy, you know? But when I saw him, well, he’s still like that to me. The unattainable prince. He was married to my sister. He’s an impossibility, and maybe that makes him even more attractive? I have intimacy issues, so pursuing someone I’ll never have is typical Amelia territory.”
“Well, I have no idea if he is, or will ever be, attracted to you, or whether you’ll forever be Vee’s little sister, but I do know this. I’ve seen more life in him the last two days than I’ve seen in all the years I’ve worked for him. I’ve seen Henry. Your being here is good for him. So I hope you stay. Just be gentle with him.”
“I will. If nothing else, I’m sure we’ll be friends.”
“Would you like some bacon? I know H said to hurry and get to work.”
“Can I have a bacon sandwich to go?” I hopped off my stool. “I’d better go and get ready.”
I arrived at work with ten minutes to spare, and one of his assistants asked me to wait outside his office. At eight am sharp his office door opened, and he looked out with an annoyed look on his face before spotting me. He gestured me inside his office.
“You thought I’d be late, didn’t you?” I smirked.
“I know how much you love Mary’s breakfasts, and I didn’t think you’d be able to resist.”
It was straight into business mode after that. Henry himself showed me around the building and introduced me to people. I was assigned an assistant, Jessica, and already had a diary full of appointments. Some were more introductions to people, such as Tyler, from IT, who gave me an induction to the computer systems, etc, and set me up with passwords. At other times I had meetings to attend with Henry himself. I was kept busy and went home to the apartment every night exhausted. Henry wasn’t around and so I spent most evenings in the living room, curled up watching TV while I processed the day.
Henry had a last minute ‘business trip’ at the weekend which took him away from the apartment. I started to wonder if he was avoiding me. I’d barely seen him apart from spending time in meetings wi
th him. My following week’s diary was pretty much the same. I was learning the ropes. He’d not mentioned the club. Once I knew he was not going to be around at the weekend, I called up some girlfriends and had them show me Manhattan at night.
By the time Monday came around again, I was frustrated with Henry’s apparent avoidance of me.
As I sat at my computer on Monday, studying some very exciting company policies, Jessica buzzed through.
“Do you have time to see Aidan Hall? He’s a business partner of Mr Carter’s. Mr Carter is not in, so he was wondering if he could see you instead?”
“I know Aidan. Yes, send him in.” I told her.
