AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Oh, yes – right. I think when you’ve done it so many times, like I have, it just gets a bit, well ... old.’ He looked at her a long moment. ‘Do you mind if we get out of here?’
Thea was disappointed. She had been looking forward to showing him The British Library. ‘All right. Just let me get my bag.’ Thea walked over to her desk and picked up her bag. As she turned around to go, she noticed that one of the filing cabinets was slightly ajar. ‘That’s odd.’
‘What is it?’ Miles called from the door.
Thea pushed the cabinet door shut, realising that Edward must have opened it for some reason. She hoped he hadn’t taken something home with him. He was her boss, and the chief archivist, and the one who had the most experience, decades of managing the museum archive, so it was his prerogative if he chose to work at the weekend. But taking material home, archived material, unless it was your own material you were working on, was strictly prohibited.
Thea walked over to the door, where Miles was waiting for her, took one more look around the room, and switched off the light before closing the door. She locked it and put the keys back in her bag. She turned to face him. ‘What shall we do now?’
Miles looked at his watch.
Thea sighed. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve got to work this weekend?’
He reached out and tucked a dark wisp of hair behind her ear. ‘I’m sorry to disappoint, but there’s this big contract, and the law firm need my expertise.’
Thea wasn’t surprised. How many weekends had started out like this? They would get to spend one night together, and then he would have to go the next day. ‘It’s just not fair.’
He nodded empathetically. ‘I know, but then I suppose that’s my fault for being such a hot-shot lawyer.’
She nudged his arm playfully. ‘Yes, it is. Why can’t you do a boring job like I do?’
He looked at her a long moment.
She knitted her brow. ‘What?’
‘Oh, nothing.’ He glanced at his watch again. ‘I got a text, so I’d better go.’
‘All right.’ Thea took his arm, and together they walked down the hall, up the stairs and along a corridor that led to an exit through a door into the main atrium of the museum. The door closed and automatically locked behind them. They left via the side entrance into Montague Place.
Miles stopped outside the entrance. ‘Well, I’d better head off.’
‘Isn’t there time to have lunch together before you go?’
He glanced at his mobile phone and vigorously shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not.’
Thea’s face fell. She perked up when she had a thought. ‘Will you have to work this evening? Perhaps we could meet up after work?’
‘That’s a thought. I’ll try. I’ll text you. Work might go on until really late, though. You know what it’s like with the time difference.’
Thea didn’t know personally, but she understood he was working with clients from different time zones all over the world. ‘It’s a shame, isn’t it, with the modern technology like Teams and Zoom, that you have to live and work abroad. Why is that? Can’t you ask for a job here?’ She stared at him. She really hadn’t meant to bring that up. A part of her was quite happy in her ordered, structured little life, with her own little flat. Sometimes, she wasn’t sure she wanted to share it with anybody – not all the time.
She’d voiced that thought to Tanya once, who’d scoffed at the notion of a permanent long-distance relationship. ‘If you were really, really in love with him,’ she’d said, ‘then you wouldn’t be able to bear being apart for a minute, let alone weeks on end, and the thought of not seeing him at the end of the working day, of not living together, well ... that’s just crazy in my mind.’
Thea stared at Miles, thinking about what Tanya had said. He still hadn’t responded to her question.
He looked at his watch. ‘Look, I’ve really got to run. I’ll let you know if I can make it tonight, okay?’
‘And if not? When will I see you again?’ It wasn’t something she normally asked. It was always very fluid, very as and when.
‘I don’t know.’ He put an arm around her shoulders. ‘Look, I’ll make it up to you about this weekend, I promise.’
‘I’ve got some leave coming up. When is yours? We could go away for like a whole week, rather than just a long weekend. I even thought of flying to Hong Kong to surprise you, but I don’t know where you work.’
He shook his head vehemently. ‘That would not be a good idea at all.’
‘Why not? Of course I couldn’t surprise you at your place of work, or the hotel, but I could phone you from the airport.’
Thea had been mulling this over. She’d even looked it up. It was only a five-hour flight from Hong Kong to Nepal. Would he accompany her to meet her mum? The look on his face said there was no point even asking. He looked appalled at the thought of her just turning up in Hong Kong, and that was before she had even had a chance to suggest meeting her mum.
