Page 12 of Love Letters on Hazel Lane

Jo clicked frantically, staring at the monitor. He was right; it wasn’t there.

‘Did you save in the wrong place?’ said David.

She shook her head. She never saved things in the wrong place. Organised was her middle name. Although she had been distracted. That message from Neil had arrived on Buzzz… was that before or after she closed the spreadsheet?

Odd though, because whenever you closed a document in Microsoft Office, it prompted you to save your work if you hadn’t already.

‘I definitely saved it, David,’ she said again.

She couldn’t understand it. She didn’t make silly mistakes like this. She just didn’t.

‘Well, bloody find it,’ he said, slamming his fist down on the desk and making Jo jump back. ‘I have a Zoom meeting with the channel tomorrow, Jo. I need to check through those figures. Like now.’

She stared down at the screen, blinking back the tears. She hated it when someone raised their voice at her; hated the memories it brought back.

‘Don’t just stand there,’ he said. ‘Find. It. Now.’

As she rushed out of his office, everyone busied themselves, trying to act as if they hadn’t been listening to David’s every word. Everyone, that was, except Leona, who stared at Jo, a tiny smile beginning to form on her lips.

Sitting down at her desk, Jo checked the shared drive again, but the missing document wasn’t there. It wasn’t in her personal drive either. And yet she was sure – well, 99 per cent sure – that she had saved it. She looked up at Mona hopefully. ‘You saw me,’ she mouthed. ‘You know I saved it. How could it disappear?’

She’d have to redo it, but first, she needed coffee.

She could have gone to Costa – the fresh air would probably have done her good – but to save time, she filled the kettle in the office’s tiny kitchen. A cup of instant would do. Anything with caffeine.

She waited for the water to boil, deep in thought. How could it vanish? And then she had that strange feeling that you get when you know someone is watching you. She turned to see Leona standing in the doorway, a barely concealed smirk across her face.

‘Ah, great, you’ve put the kettle on already,’ said Leona, brandishing an empty mug.

Jo had only put enough water in for one cup of coffee. With a sigh, she picked the kettle up and filled it some more, although she knew full well what Leona wanted and it wasn’t caffeine. She wanted: a) to find out more about why David had been angry, b) to gloat or c) both. It was probably c) both.

Anyone else would have asked their colleague if they were okay, but not Leona. She cut straight to the chase with, ‘David sounded mad at you. What d’you do?’

‘I… he…’ Jo bit her lip. ‘He couldn’t find a file, that was all. Saved in the wrong place.’

Leona nodded. ‘And you found it?’

‘Well, not exactly.’

‘How odd,’ said Leona. ‘Perhaps Little Miss Organised isn’t so organised after all.’

The kettle began to boil. She would normally make Leona’s coffee for her, but sod it. Her colleague was clearly revelling in the fact that Jo was in trouble. She spooned Nescafé into her own mug, poured in the hot water and left the kitchen. She preferred coffee with milk, but just this once, she’d drink it black. She wouldn’t spend a second longer than necessary in such close proximity to Leona.

Had Leona deleted that spreadsheet deliberately? Jo wondered as she sat back down at her desk. Would she stoop that low? From the moment they’d met, Jo had sensed that the woman didn’t like her, but had no idea why; she’d tried so hard to help Leona when she first joined Pop! Productions, but since then, they’d barely spoken. Leona had quickly appointed herself the social secretary of the little office, ensuring that Jo was no longer included on girls’ nights out. That wouldn’t have bothered Jo too much in the days when she’d shared a flat with Gemma, but since her best friend had moved so far away, it did bother her. It bothered her very much.

But it was one thing to omit to invite a colleague out for Friday night drinks, quite another to deliberately sabotage their work. Whatever grudge Leona held against Jo, she wouldn’t go that far. Would she?

*

It was twenty to eight that evening by the time Jo finally boarded the train back to Hebbleswick. Caroline had kindly stayed late and the pair of them had managed to recreate the missing spreadsheet. Jo had checked and double-checked that it was saved this time, had emailed it to David and blind-copied herself in, to be on the safe side.

It had been a terrible day. As well as losing the spreadsheet and David getting cross, Jo had overheard Leona telling the whole team about it. ‘Can you believe it?’ her nemesis had said. ‘The Queen of Spreadsheets has lost a spreadsheet!’

They’d all laughed.

Or rather, cackled – 16 points.

As the train left Manchester Victoria Station, Jo’s phone pinged. A new message on Buzzz. It was from someone who, according to the app, lived within two miles of her. Strange. He’d never come up in any of her searches.