AllFreeNovel
Share Us
25
Rebecca
I was twenty minutes late to my meeting and for the first time in my life I couldn’t have cared less. I’d felt like not coming in at all, to be honest, but, of course, my need to do the right thing (for everyone else, that is) had prevailed. I’d got dressed on autopilot and had made my way in on the tube, although I couldn’t tell you anything about the journey. All I could think about was Clive lying on the pavement. Was he dead, or had they managed to bring him round? It felt like the not knowing was worse, even if it turned out to be bad news.
I knocked on the conference room door and went in without waiting for an answer.
‘Sorry,’ I said, slumping into the one empty seat next to Amanda.
Mike Walbeck, who was notoriously a stickler for time, gave me a look as though he was desperate to make some sarcastic comment, but then probably saw my face and thought better of it.
It felt like everyone was starting at me, actually, so god knows what I must look like. I needed to pull myself together, really, otherwise I might as well have stayed at home, but I couldn’t seem to stop shaking. When I tried to get my notebook and pen out of my bag, it took me ages to get hold of them.
‘Right. Where were we?’ said Mike Walbeck, going off on one about budgets and social media campaigns and other things I had absolutely no interest in hearing about.
I caught Amanda’s eye at one point, and she gave me one of her condescending smiles. I tapped my pen on my desk, trying not to let my mind run away with me, but it was full of images of blue lights and bodies lying on the ground and sirens wailing in the distance.
‘Amanda, can you give us a heads-up on the summer party event?’ said Mike. ‘Tyler Martin has been in touch to say that he wants to start sending out invitations within the month.’
‘With pleasure,’ replied Amanda, sitting back in her chair and crossing her legs. ‘As you know, Tyler came to the UK at the beginning of the year. I showed him a few different venues in London and together we decided that The Savoy was the perfect choice for us. It’s quintessentially English, has great food and comes with that air of British luxury that he was after. He particularly loved the idea of a drinks reception in The American Bar.’
I bit my lip. Trust her to pass The Savoy idea off as her own, even rolling out the exact same phrases I’d used with Tyler myself. She wasn’t even acknowledging that I’d had anything to do with it. I felt a flicker of frustration, but Amanda and her petty one-upmanship were the least of my worries. All I cared about was whether or not Clive was OK. I wondered where he was now. Were they operating on him, perhaps, if they’d managed to get him breathing again, trying to fix his hip? Was Jack there with him, telling him everything would be all right?
‘Excellent work, Amanda,’ said Mike, doing a sort of mock applause. ‘He’s not an easy man to please, so kudos for giving him exactly what he wants.’
‘Yes,’ simpered Amanda. ‘He was very specific. He’s got an exceptionally clear vision for how he wants things to be.’
Sweat popped on my forehead and I wished I could open a window. I just had to get through this meeting and then I would be able to calm myself down.
I felt better when I got back to my desk and I could pretend to be too busy to do anything except stare morosely at my screen. I sipped at a glass of water and blew my nose, opening a document for effect, although I wasn’t planning to do anything with it.
I could feel Freya’s eyes boring into me and realised I was going to have to tell her. It was obvious that I wasn’t myself, and I couldn’t really pretend to be.
‘Is something wrong?’ she asked, looking concerned.
I sighed. ‘You could say that. My elderly neighbour, Clive, got knocked down by a car outside our flats. I had to call an ambulance. My other neighbour had to do CPR right there in the car park.’
Freya’s jaw dropped. ‘Oh my goodness. Is he …?’
I shook my head. ‘I don’t know.’
Freya shoved a whole bottle of Rescue Remedy at me. ‘You poor thing,’ she said. ‘Here, take as much of this as you need.’
I tipped about half a bottle of the liquid down my throat, not caring what the side effects might be (I doubted there would be any, since I suspected the whole Bach remedies thing was a placebo, anyway).
‘It’s Clive I feel sorry for,’ I said, an image of him lying there motionless popping into my mind’s eye.
I remembered how traumatic it had been for Nan when she’d fallen down the stairs, never mind all the other stuff that must be happening to Clive. His heart had stopped beating. Could he really recover from that? Had we been quick enough? If Jack hadn’t been there, it would have been too late, I knew that for sure. I wouldn’t have been able to save him.
‘Good job your neighbour knew CPR,’ commented Freya, taking the Rescue Remedy back and downing the other half of the bottle herself.
‘I’m so glad he was there because I was completely useless.’
‘I’m sure you weren’t,’ said Freya, kindly.
‘I was. I just sort of froze.’
‘Well, it’s understandable, isn’t it?’
