for a very long time. I hated having to drag myself away.
At the front door, Ash gave me a long, heated kiss that had us both breathing heavily.
‘Who needs exercise? This is definitely pushing up my heart rate,’ said Ash, pushing my hair back over my shoulder.
‘I wish I could stay.’
‘Don’t worry.’
He kissed me again and it was another minute before I came up for air. ‘I really do have to go.’
‘I know.’ He bent and teased my lips again. I felt my resolve weakening but fear raised its ugly head. There was a chance I might not get the report done in time.
‘I’ve got to go.’ I pulled away and put a good metre between us so I wouldn’t be tempted again.
‘I’ll text you tomorrow. Dinner Friday?’
I grinned at him. ‘Or Saturday.’
He raised a cocky eyebrow in response. ‘You don’t need to play hard to get now. I’ve already had you.’
‘Or I had you.’ I tilted my head with a superior smile and turned and walked away, wishing with every step that I could have stayed.
Even now, on Monday morning, I was still rather pleased with that quip and the accompanying smile carried me all the way to Alastair’s office. Just outside, my phone beeped and I paused. Normally I’d have ignored my phone but a slew of distracting texts yesterday had reprogrammed my response to the text alert.
Morning, sexy girl. Hope you slept well. Looking forward to Friday. x
I glanced at Alastair’s closed door.
Morning, Ashwin Laghari. Could have sworn we said Saturday. x
Before I could even put my phone back in my pocket, the message came back.
How about we compromise… and do both. xxx
I smiled and, inside my chest, my heart did a funny little bunny hop of happiness.
‘There you are, Claire.’ Alastair, a man of few words, waved me in. ‘The Ashdown Report—’
‘Don’t worry, it’s all done. I just need to get Ros to print off a dozen copies, bind, and distribute them.’
‘Ah, that’s why I wanted to see you. The client’s had a change of heart. They’ve decided that they’d like to look at a different sector of the construction industry, education rather than retail. I’m afraid we’re going to have to start again.’
That would be the royal we, would it?
‘And I know education isn’t your area of expertise but you’re a quick study and we’ve got all the stats and data on the market.’
Yes we did but they weren’t at one’s finger tips. We would take some time digging them up.
‘Won’t take someone like you that long to get up to speed.’
No, not more than a day or so.
‘Obviously we’ll bill them for your hours to date, so it’s not a problem.’ His smile was optimistic. ‘You know how it is. What the client wants, the client gets.’
I kept a bland smile on my face. Not a problem? No, not for you mate. That flaming report had taken hours and hours. I’d worked all last night, finishing at four and waking at six. I’d had two hours of pretty shitty, restless sleep. Linking my fingers, I twisted them together wondering what he might say if I slammed both hands on the desk and told him what he could do with his ‘what the client wants’ line.
‘They want it by the end of the week. Not going to be a problem, is it?’
Of course, it wasn’t; it never was, but bloody Alastair was already looking at his computer screen. Dismissed, I turned and walked out, every step weary. I’d only walked a few paces when I realised something odd was happening to me. My throat was doing a strange convulsing thing and I couldn’t seem to control the odd hiccoughing in my diaphragm. No! I was not, not, not going to cry.
Oh God, I’m going to cry.
Picking up my pace, I darted to the ladies’ loo, praying there were no other eager beavers in this morning. Slamming one of the doors and fumbling with the lock, I dropped onto the loo seat and sank my head in my hands. The Ashdown report had taken over a week to perfect. Pulling a whole new report together by Friday on top of everything else I needed to do this week… shit. The sob bubbled in my throat and I gasped, trying to fight against it. I did not cry at work. Never. I sucked in a deep breath. Held on to it. Breathed out slowly.
Breathe, Claire. Breathe.
Even with the slow, careful breathing, it took a whole ten minutes before I felt as if I could even stand up. It was just extreme tiredness. Two hours of sleep did that to a body. I had this. I could do the report. It would just take a lot of hours.
I finally emerged from the ladies, fifteen long, panicky minutes later and strode to my office, rolling up my metaphorical sleeves as I went. I could do this.
When I finally allowed myself the treat of checking my messages at half past six, hoping there might be a few texts from Ash, my spirits nose-dived when I realised there hadn’t been anything since the first ones this morning. I read them again, a little sunshine dancing in my heart. He’d obviously had as busy a day as me. The thought gave me a sense of solidarity. Me and Ash hard at work, both bossing it. We were so similar above and below the surface.
There was a text from my mother.
Hi darling, can we change the time tomorrow? Could you make it 6pm instead of 7.30? See you soon xxx
I closed my eyes. Damn, I’d completely forgotten. Reluctantly, I picked up the phone.
‘Hi Mum, it’s Claire.’
‘Hi, darling. Did you get my text?’
‘Yes, that’s why I’m ringing. I’m not going to be able—’
‘Claire, don’t you dare say you’re not coming.’
‘Mum, I can’t. I’ve just been given—’
‘But darling, it’s the last time we’ll see you before we go.’
‘I know, Mum—’
‘We’ll be gone for four months.’
To be fair, with Mum and Dad’s imminent departure on a four-month cruise, tomorrow’s date had been reserved for two weeks. It was a measure of my state of mind that I’d forgotten. I normally kept a pretty good handle on my diary.
‘Okay, Mum. But let’s stick to seven-thirty.’ That would allow a couple of additional hours in the office.
‘But then it’s late for the girls and Alice wants to leave at a reasonable hour because she has a yoga class in the morning.’
Alice had a yoga class! I rubbed at my forehead trying to ease the tightening bands of headache gathering there. Bully for bloody, bendy Alice.
‘Well, she should have thought about that, earlier. We said seven-thirty two weeks ago.’
‘Claire, please,’ sighed my mother in her familiar referee voice. ‘Your Dad and I really want to see you before we go. And you work far too hard, darling. Take a night off.’
If it weren’t for the fact that this really was the only chance I’d see them for four months, I might have stood my ground.
‘I’ll see you at six, then,’ I said with finality and hung up, annoyed at myself for being annoyed at Alice