AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Although it’s a Friday, I have the day off today. I’m going up to London for my final meeting with Mr Holdsworth and Rebecca. We’ve scheduled it for 11.30, so we can go to the pub for a farewell drink afterwards. He did offer four o’clock, but I wasn’t wild about going for a drink with everyone after work on a Friday, as they’d all be up for making a night of it and I have work in the morning. Even though it’s only been a month since I was doing this every day, it feels odd to be putting on a suit and getting the train to London. At least I don’t have to pay for parking, as I can leave my car behind the café and walk to the station.
My pass has been deactivated, so I approach the receptionist in the lobby and she calls Mr Holdsworth to come and collect me. I realise that I’ve probably passed her every day for the last six years and I’ve never spoken to her in all that time. I look around the lobby, remembering the day I came here for my interview. I try to think whether she was in reception on that day, or the day I started work, but nothing comes.
‘Ah, Daisy. How lovely to see you! You look well, how are things going?’ Mr Holdsworth looks genuinely pleased to see me, which is nice.
‘I’m very well thank you, Mr Holdsworth. The café is starting to turn a corner, I believe. How about you?’
‘Yes, all good. We’ve had a few changes since you were last here. Mr Speke has left the business to pursue other opportunities, and Rosemary has gone with him, do you remember her?’
‘Yes, she was his PA.’
‘That’s right. Anyway, Rob has been acting partner since he left, and is doing very well indeed. He may find himself in the role permanently. We’ve also posted an advertisement for a new junior, and the applications are coming in. I’m hoping that, somewhere in among them, there is an applicant as promising as you were. Shall we go up?’
He lets me through the barrier, and we take the lift together. The office looks unchanged, apart from the fact that everyone turns to look at me as I walk in. I can feel their eyes on me as I follow Mr Holdsworth to his office, where Rebecca is already waiting. I spot Rob, ensconced in Mr Speke’s office, and wonder briefly what prompted Mr Speke to leave so suddenly. I thought he’d be there until they dragged his corpse out.
The formalities don’t take long. Rebecca takes me through my redundancy package, which is enough to cover my salary for several months. I sign the forms, hand in my pass, and she informs me that the money will be in my bank account early next week.
‘I’ve taken the liberty of booking a table at an Italian restaurant round the corner for your farewell lunch,’ Mr Holdsworth says. ‘I hope that’s okay. I know you and Grace are fans of the Lord Nelson, but there’s no way we’d all get in there, and Rob informs me that this restaurant is very good. I wanted to give you a decent send-off.’
As we troop out of the building and head towards the restaurant, Grace falls in step next to me. I haven’t heard from her since the day I left, which doesn’t altogether surprise me, but she’s obviously keen to make up lost time now.
‘Are you okay, Daisy? What are you doing now?’
‘I’m fine, thanks. I’m working full-time at the café and doing my best to turn it around. It’s a long road, but it looks like we’re making progress. How about you? I was surprised to hear that Mr Speke had left. I thought he was a lifer.’
‘Is that what they told you?’ Grace starts to giggle, and I look at her quizzically.
‘One of the cleaners had a hospital appointment, so she came in to clean the offices around an hour later than she normally does,’ Grace tells me, keeping her voice low so as not to attract attention. ‘She was expecting everyone to have gone, but there they were, going at it hammer and tongs in his office!’
‘Who?’
‘Mr Speke and Rosemary, of course!’
‘No!’
‘Yes!’ says Grace. ‘I knew they were up to something, but nobody believed me, even you. Anyway, she was completely traumatised and filed a complaint.’
‘Who, Rosemary?’
‘No, the cleaner. Do keep up. Anyway, there was no way he could stay after that, so apparently they’ve moved to Scotland and he’s starting a new firm up there.’
‘And you didn’t text me immediately because…?’
There’s a pause, and I notice that she’s no longer meeting my eye.
‘I’m really sorry I haven’t been in touch. You and I were the only senior accounting techs, and I know that means my name must have been in the frame as well. Although I’m obviously pleased that I still have a job, I felt bad that my job cost you yours. I wasn’t sure what to say to you, and then the longer I left it, the harder it got.’
She’s so contrite that I decide to put her out of her misery, as far as I can.
‘Look, the truth is I was struggling with trying to do my job and look after the café. If Mr Holdsworth hadn’t made me redundant, I might have ended up resigning anyway, so it’s all worked out for the best. You can stop feeling guilty, okay? Now, tell me more about Mr Speke and Rosemary. Was there much fallout beyond them leaving? I don’t even know if either of them were married.’
‘He’s married, but apparently his wife knew all about it and was happy to turn a blind eye as long as they were discreet. It stopped him pestering her for sex, so she silently condoned it. Apparently, it had been going on for years. Rosemary was starting to want more, to come out of the closet, as it were, but he was worried that it would damage his professional reputation if people knew he was in a relationship with his PA. The irony is that, by trying to keep it secret, they completely torpedoed both of their reputations, and his wife is threatening to take him for all he has. She may have been complicit, but she doesn’t want to give up her comfortable lifestyle to fund her husband and his bit on the side.’
‘How do you know all this stuff?’
‘I’ve been on a charm offensive with Rosemary, making her cups of tea, going with her to get sandwiches at lunchtime and so on. Did you never notice? I hoped that she might let her guard down and reveal something if she thought I was her friend. After it broke, I rang her to check if she was okay, because it was all very sudden and I didn’t believe a word of what Mr Holdsworth had said. She sang like a canary. Ah, here we are.’
The restaurant is as good as Rob promised, and the lunch is a jolly affair. I stick to sparkling water, as drinking during the day makes me terribly sleepy, but the others don’t hold back and there are a fair number of empty wine bottles on the table by the time we’ve finished eating. At one point, it looked like Mr Holdsworth was going to make a speech, but thankfully he thought better of it. What would he have said? ‘We love you, Daisy, which is why we had to get rid of you’ doesn’t quite strike the right tone, and he obviously can’t reveal what really happened.
