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‘That’s better,’ the hairdresser said.
And, expecting the worst, Roula looked up. To her surprise itwasbetter. It was still almost as long, except it was no longer one vast triangle. There were ringlets and curls, and she felt glossy as she stepped back out on to the street, and kept looking in shop windows at her new hair.
Nobody noticed at work.
Well, she was busy taking calls.
Joe was cancelling, the care home was impatient...
There were so many she actually had to warm Galen’s coffee up in the staff coffee lounge.
Galen gave her not so much as a glance as she placed his coffee down.
‘Kalimera,’Roula said, and broke the silent Monday morning rule.
He didn’t respond.
Because, yes, he had noticed—not her hair yet, but even her presence in the building was invading his peace, and now her scent was back, and he was so behind heneededto get on.
Yet he looked up, red-eyed and unshaven, and there she stood in a calf-length polka dot dress, with a matching belt and those Medusa curls...
‘What?’
‘Surly’ would best describe his tone, she thought.
‘The care home called, looking to increase Kupia Florakis’s sedation.’
He glanced up. ‘You didn’t authorise a change to her treatment regime?’
‘Of course not.’ Roula frowned. ‘I told them they’d need to discuss that with you—though she seemed fine when I saw her.’
‘You went over?’
‘Just to check for myself.’ Roula nodded. ‘We had coffee.’ Really, it had been just a fifteen-minute visit. ‘Oh, and Pandora messaged...’ She said it as lightly as she could.
‘Yes.’
‘I let her know that the message had come to me by mistake...’
‘Pandora told me.’
Galen turned back to his screen, when he would have liked to pull her around his desk and onto his knee. He wanted to kiss away that scowl he was certain was there behind the plastic smile as he told her that he’d declined Pandora.
He reached for antacid rather than the coffee.
This really wasn’t working.
‘Oh,’ she added on her way out, ‘you’ve got Hector at ten.’
‘No, no...’ Galen said. ‘Not on Monday...’
‘I know—but he felt terrible that he’d been held up on the plane, and given that Joe has cancelled...’
‘Joe is head of my development team,’ Galen said through gritted teeth. ‘Joe is working his ass off right now...’ He held his breath.
‘Oh, God!’ Roula screwed her eyes closed as she realised her error. ‘I got the gaming stuff mixed up; I’ll cancel Hector now.’
‘Just leave it as is.’
