AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As the Mini disappears from sight, leaving an unhealthy black cloud behind it, I begin to question the wisdom of coming here. Ava and her husband Ben, a builder, will be at work most of the time, so I’m going to be nearly as alone as if I’d stayed at home. At least Mum and Dad will be around, as they’re both retired, but I’ve got to work out what to say before I see them. I glance down at Teddy, who is watching me carefully from his bed.
‘I tell you what,’ I say to him. ‘Give me a few minutes to unpack and freshen up, and then maybe we can go for a walk, what do you think? You can help me work out what to tell Nanny.’
The sound of his favourite activity and his third favourite human being galvanises him; he leaps to his feet and follows me up the stairs, watching impatiently while I unpack. I manage to stop him following me into the bathroom, but he positively dances around me while I carry my walking boots down to the utility room and put them on. When I reach for the lead and clip it onto his collar, he can’t contain his joy any more and starts barking to hurry me up. I grab the back door key off the peg, and I’m only just able to lock the door behind me as Teddy is pulling so hard. Thankfully, once we’ve gone a little way down the street, he grinds to a halt to relieve himself, and things calm down after that. As soon as we get away from the road and onto the footpath, I release him and he bounds off in search of interesting smells, periodically checking that I’m still following him.
After turning it over in my head for a couple of miles, I realise that Ava’s right. Much as I don’t want to, I think telling Mum and Dad the truth is probably the best thing. If I don’t, and I end up losing my job, it will be much worse. Teddy is waiting for me at the fork in the path, and looks a little disappointed when I turn right back towards the village, rather than turning left onto a loop that would add another three miles to our walk.
‘I’m here all week; there will be plenty of time for that,’ I tell him as he trots beside me. When we get back to the road, I clip the lead back onto him and turn in the direction of home. Mum and Dad live in the same Victorian end-of-terrace house that I grew up in, although it’s changed quite a lot since Ava married Ben. Dad has ‘encouraged’ Ben to ‘help him’ with some modernisation projects, which seem to have involved Ben doing all the work while Dad sipped his tea and offered suggestions. The kitchen at the back of the house has been knocked through into what used to be the dining room to create an open-plan kitchen/diner, and there was a lot of faffing about with steel beams and so on to keep the house from falling down when Ben put in the bifold doors that Dad insisted on to maximise the view of the garden from the new kitchen. It’s lovely now, but there were times when I think Mum was approaching the end of her tether. For a houseproud woman, the dust and mess created by the building work was unbearable, and she managed to murder two vacuum cleaners trying to keep on top of it all.
‘Hang on, I’ll be there in a jiffy,’ Mum’s muffled voice calls when I ring the doorbell. Beside me, Teddy is whining with excitement and he launches himself forwards as soon as the door begins to open.
‘Oh, hello, Teddy love. I wasn’t expecting to see you today,’ Mum coos as she tries to dissuade him from jumping up and licking her face. It’s a few seconds before he’s calm enough that she notices me on the other end of the lead.
‘Ella!’ she cries, wrapping her arms around me and completely ignoring a newly frenzied Teddy, who is desperate not to miss out on any affection. ‘What a lovely surprise. When did you arrive?’
‘Lunchtime. I’ve got some time off work and so I thought I’d stay with Ava for a few days.’
‘Lee not with you then?’ she asks, stepping back and appraising me. ‘You haven’t had a fight, have you?’
‘He’s working,’ I reassure her. I’m definitely not going to tell her about my feelings towards Lee at the moment; the uncertainty of my job will be more than enough for her to be going along with.
‘Well, come along in. I was just in the middle of making some cupcakes for the school bazaar. Your father’s in the garden if you want to say hello. He’ll be delighted to see you.’
Leaving me to take off my walking boots, Mum and Teddy disappear into the kitchen together. As I look around the hallway of my childhood home, I feel suddenly nostalgic. Apart from Rebecca Studland’s disastrous visit, I always felt safe here, and I realise with relief that coming back home was actually the best decision I could have made for this week. I’ll enjoy Ava and Ben’s company when they’re not at work, and I’ll spend the rest of the time walking Teddy and catching up with my parents.
I hate to admit it, but maybe Lee was right about this too. I’ll try very hard not to think about what’s happening at work, and do my best to enjoy my enforced holiday, however long it is.
8
I’m sick with nerves as the bus makes its way towards the office. The email arrived on Thursday, when I was sitting in the back garden of my parents’ house, chatting to Dad about nothing in particular while Teddy dozed beside me. I tried my best not to think about work while I was away, taking Teddy for long walks and enjoying the company of my family, but every time my phone pinged with an email during office hours, my heart raced. The email itself gave very little away, which is partly why I’m so anxious now. I open my phone and read it for probably the hundredth time, begging it to reveal a clue that has so far eluded me.
Dear Ella,
We are writing to inform you that our investigation into your conduct is now complete. Thank you for your patience. We would like to invite you to a meeting on Monday at 11a.m. to discuss the results and next steps. If you would be so kind as to confirm your attendance by replying to this email, I would be grateful.
Kind regards,
Sharon White
HR Manager
Still nothing. I showed it to Lee when he got back from his first induction week on Friday, but he barely glanced at it before reiterating that I’d be absolutely fine and I had nothing to worry about. I’m far from convinced, though. If they were just going to hand my laptop back, apologise and put me back to work, wouldn’t they have scheduled the meeting for nine so as to make the most of the day? I made that point to Lee as well, but he accused me of overthinking it.
It hasn’t been the most successful of weekends, really. Lee is obviously loving his new job at Harmony and didn’t shut up about how great it is for most of the time, whereas I’ve been a bundle of nerves worrying about the meeting. Things got off to a bad start when I realised he’d totally forgotten his promise to book a table at the Italian restaurant, and of course they were completely full when he rang. He did get a Chinese takeaway and a nice bottle of wine as an apology, and he’s also made a booking for next Friday, but it doesn’t help with the general feeling that I’m not on his radar at the moment. I’m not sure why I’m so cross about the restaurant, because I was so stressed I hardly ate any of the takeaway anyway so it probably would have been a waste, but it’s the thought (or the lack of it in this case) that counts, isn’t it?
If I were being generous, I’d describe Lee’s attitude over the weekend as ‘insensitive’, but I’m not feeling particularly generous towards him at the moment, so I’m going to go with ‘bloody annoying’. Whenever I tried to explain how I was feeling, he shut me down, but I’ve had to endure a pretty much blow-by-blow account of his week, interspersed with rapturous descriptions of how wonderful everything is. He even expected sex, despite the fact it must have been blazingly obvious that I wasn’t in the mood. In the end, I obliged him as I could see he was in danger of going into a major sulk, but it was purely functional, from my side at least. He didn’t seem to notice my lack of participation, and even had the audacity to say, ‘There, don’t you feel better for that?’ as he rolled off me afterwards. Thankfully, he’s got another three weeks of induction training at Harmony’s sales office in London, so I’ll have the flat to myself during the week.
After five years of doing this journey, I’m on my feet and ready for my stop almost without thinking about it. The problem with having an appointment at eleven o’clock is that there are fewer buses outside the rush hour, so I’ve had to catch one that gets me here with over half an hour to kill before the meeting. I definitely can’t face eating anything, but I reckon I could manage a sip or two of coffee, so I make my way to the coffee shop near the office. I hurry inside and join the short queue, ordering an espresso and taking a couple of lumps of sugar to make it palatable. I wouldn’t normally go near an espresso, but the idea of my usual skinny latte, or any form of milky coffee for that matter, makes me want to heave. As soon as I’ve paid, I turn and start scanning to find a table, only to spot a familiar face.
It’s Ruth, and she doesn’t look pleased to see me. This is all I need, a bad omen if ever there was one. I can’t ignore her, as we’ve made eye contact now, so I slowly make my way over to her table.
‘Can I join you?’ I ask.
‘If you like. It’s a free country,’ she replies flatly. ‘Are you coming back today then?’ she asks once I’ve sat down opposite her and the initial silence has started to become awkward.
‘I hope so.’
‘What does that mean? Either you’re coming back or you’re not. They said you needed time to deal with a personal issue.’
