“You’re either mad or stupid.”
“Well maybe if you did a bit of exercise, you’d feel even better about yourself. Oh, but hang on, you don’t need to, your heads fat enough already!” A piece of toast came skimming past my head and landed on the polished floorboards behind me at my feet.
Tutting, I placed my hands on my hips. “Oh, no, unless you follow the five-second rule, you can’t eat that now, Scars.”
My baby sister was also unimpressed by Dominique and Poppy’s laughter and stomped her little foot loudly. “You can all go fuck yourselves!”
“Oh, come on, Scars, take a joke. Teddy was only stirring you because she knows how much you loathe exercise,” Dominique shouted, only for Scarlett to flip her off as she marched past her on the way to the stairs. “That’s so childish,” she murmured, carrying on with her breakfast.
Due to Scarlett’s temper tantrum, I ended up missing my usual breakfast, and it meant I had to stop by the café below Bricks and Mortar. Taking my vanilla latte and fruit salad upstairs into the confines of my cubicle, I sat behind my desk, enjoying them both while quietly reviewing a set of plans. I should think about coming to work early every day. It’s so peaceful.
“Good Morning, Teddy.”
“Oh, Jesus, Spencer!” I jumped out of the chair, throwing the remnants of my fruit salad over my desk. “You scared the hell out of me!” I screeched as I frantically mopped up the juice with reams of tissues.
“I’m sorry, Teddy, I didn’t mean to startle you.” He clung to the edge of the glass and awkwardly rubbed at the back of his neck. “And here I thought I came in being quite noisy too.”
“Well, you weren’t!” I had just yelled at my boss. Cringing, I swiftly apologised, my voice a dull whisper, “I’m sorry.”
Naturally poised, and ready to yell back at me, I expected quite the dressing down. However, to my surprise, Spencer’s mouth snapped shut, forming a thin disapproving line. Chocolate brown eyes glared right before he stalked into his office, the door slamming behind him. I flinched.
What in the hell was wrong with me, and what did I just do? I sank back into my chair and flopped forward, banging my forehead on the desktop. Ground; please swallow me. Spencer looked so mad, not that I blamed him; he wasn’t the one in the wrong, I was. I’d snapped for no apparent reason. Nor was it his fault I’d slept like crap or my nightmares had returned.
I straightened in my chair and peered over at the closed door; I needed to either eat humble pie and apologise or quit. Then again, Spencer wouldn’t accept my resignation over something so small. Humble pie it had to be.
Pushing off my chair, I fixed my appearance and bravely made my way to his office. I raised my hand and knocked on the closed door, tentatively waiting for a response.
His response came clipped and sharp. “Come in!”
“Spencer, may I speak with you…please?” Whom was I kidding? I was a timid little mouse currently shaking in her designer heels.
“Take a seat please, Ms McGovern.” If the stiff nod and the formality of his tone as well as the furious tapping on the keyboard were anything to go by, I’d say he was highly irritated with me.
“Yes… Mr Hughes.” I swallowed the lump of pride in my throat and slowly flopped into the chair in front of his desk. My eyes misted over. “I... I have come in here to apologise for my outburst earlier. I honestly don’t know what came over me.” Ashamed, my chin tilted heavenward.
His hardened expression softening, Spencer sighed. “Look, I shouldn’t have gotten angry with you; it was entirely my fault for sneaking up on you anyway.” His brows creased in concern. “You okay?”
“Perhaps it’s just tiredness as the girls, and I went out to celebrate my promotion, and as you can imagine, we got in pretty late.” Relieved Spencer wasn’t about to write a formal warning, or worse – fire me, I sagged against the backrest. “Again, I apologise.”
“It's fine, we’re all human, so in my book, it means we’re entitled to have the occasional difficult day.” Spencer smiled warmly, putting my mind at ease. His chocolate, brown eyes were reminding me of someone I knew, making me smile. “I’ll be sure to make more noise the next time I arrive early though.” He chuckled.
“Thank you. I won’t hold you up anymore, Spencer, and I’ll get back to work,” I replied softly before strolling back to my desk.
However, my mind wasn’t relaxed. Instead, I spent the remainder of the day in a daze, the ability to focus, gone. Regaining that focus and control before everything became overwhelming had to be my new goal, and I knew precisely where to start – the gym.
“Hey, I’m home!” Poppy hollered sauntering into the kitchen where I was busily prepping salad vegetables at the island bench as I listened to the various piano tunes on my Spotify playlist.
“Hi, Poppy, how was your day?”
Hanging her tote and satchel over the back of a bar stool, her brow wrinkled. “You’re home earlier than normal, Teddy. Is everything okay? You seem a little distracted?” she murmured, watching slivers of Lebanese cucumber slide from the cutting board into a clear glass bowl filled with spinach and rocket leaves.
“No, nothing’s wrong.” I gave a swift shake of the head and started dicing Roma tomatoes trying to ignore the disbelieving gaze staring at me.
“I call bullshit. Tell me what’s really going on, or do I have to shake it out of you?” Poppy forewarned rounding the bench. Carefully, she extracted the sharp knife out of my shaking hand, setting it down on the counter.
Taking one look into those coffee brown eyes, I dissolved. “Yesterday, as I left work, someone was watching me in the garage. I think it was…” I choked on my tears, unable to speak his name. I didn’t have to.
“Are you sure? Maybe it was just a homeless person or somebody who looked like – him?”
Poppy and I had met after her father’s job transferred him from London to Melbourne, merely months before my life changed forever. She was the one and only person I had openly told about my sordid ordeal. Mind you, when your best friend finds you crying your eyes out and trying to swill an entire bottle of scotch stolen from your father’s liquor cabinet, it was bound to raise a few concerns.
Her forthright manner always had a way of making you open up, even when you’ve tried to tell her, repeatedly, that you weren’t in the mood to talk about it. Without her friendship, coming to terms with my past may never have happened. Her support hadn’t ever wavered, sealing the bond we now shared, one so much stronger than sisterhood.
“No, I can’t be certain, unless he has an evil twin. I’m sorry. Perhaps it was just my imagination, and it was just a homeless person?” Who was I trying to convince more, her or me? I smiled weakly. “That’s why I went for a run early this morning, and to the gym this afternoon. I have to regain control over my life before it takes hold of me again.”
“That’s right, you do. Just keep focusing on the positive influences around you, and you’ll be fine.”
“Thank you for always being there for me.”
“I’m always here if you need me, but next time – don’t hide your issues from me, okay?” Poppy chided sternly, wagging a finger at me. Clear and direct; an approach she’d mastered and used in her skills as an English teacher at Beaumont Grammar, a prestigious school in Melbourne’s northern district.
“Okay, but I won’t say I promise to either,” I said, turning my guilty gaze away from her under the pretence I was grabbing the knife to finish my food prep. Some secrets just weren’t meant to be shared; it was against the rules.
“Mm, I’m starving. What’s on the menu tonight?” Dominique asked eyeing the small feast spread over the long wooden