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‘Sorry Lorna, I mustn’t have heard you.’
She looks at me admonishingly. Suspiciously. She always looks at me in this way—like I’m some poor, pathetic sob story. Like she can’t believe I’ve managed to con someone into giving me this job. She loves to think she’s my boss. She’s not. Technically, the departmental manager is my line manager, though she’s never around. She’s too busy acting as a PA to the head of the English Department, or so she likes to think. She would never sully herself with the likes us in the main office. Perhaps that’s why Lorna feels she needs to take charge of things and that includes taking me under her wing—and chastising me for everything.
‘What was that about?’ Lorna asks sharply.
I feign ignorance.
‘Professor Stanhope,’ she presses.
‘Oh, nothing. He was just asking about lecture slides.’
She eyes me a moment longer than necessary, like she’s deciding whether to believe me or not. Lorna could be such a bitch.
She must have accepted what I said because she continues, ‘I thought I said I needed the staff surveys. I don’t see them on my desk? Have you put them somewhere else?’
‘They’re just there, on the shelf,’ I say, pointing to a shelf at the back of the room.Where you told me to put them. I know she was hoping to catch me out, thinking I hadn’t done the work yet.
‘Next time, could you put it on my desk? That way I won’t waste time looking.’ I highly doubt Lorna had ever admitted to being wrong about anything in her entire life.
‘Sure.’ I swallow down the indignity and make a mental note of just how many more minutes I have to suffer this place.
I watch the clock on my computer. I’m in a hurry today. I’m not one to normally stick around the office after my shift has ended, but I’m particularly rushed today. One more minute. I put on my raincoat and grab my bag.
‘See you tomorrow, Lorna.’
She waves at me distractedly. She’s still sorting through the surveys.
It’s only half four in the afternoon but it’s almost fully dark because the sky is so grey and overcast. I rush to catch the bus that takes me down the hill and away from the university’s main campus and into the town centre of Castle Eden.
Chapter 4
Leyna
The bus is awful. It’spacked and humid. Normally I hate taking the bus as I love the walk into town, down the hill, past the student union and the old church with the adjacent park, but today it’s the fastest way to get to where I need to be. The driver seems to perform magic tricks as he squeezes the bus along the incredibly narrow streets that snake around the town centre, clearly built for horse and carriage and not double decker buses. Only four more stops. I’m glad I don’t have further to go. The constant swaying is already making me feel sick.
I get off the bus on Charlton Road and quickly walk down the path, passing the greengrocers, the vape shop, and the nail place that reeks of chemicals. I cut across the market square and take the path behind the County Hall. Small drops of rain are starting to fall but it’s not far now.
