Page 10 of Things We Need to Say (Second Chance Love Stories #2)
Emma woke up late the next morning, and had to jump in the shower and dress hurriedly to make it into work on time.
She’d slept fitfully during the night and had fallen into a deep sleep when she should’ve been getting up.
Jay had gone out early. He’d left a mug of tea on her bedside table, but it was already cold and she didn’t have time to make a fresh one.
She took a mouthful of it, grimaced and headed out of the door.
She didn’t want to be late, didn’t need to give Heather an excuse to have a go at her.
As she sat on the Tube, she contemplated all that had happened the previous day.
It had certainly been eventful. As she’d predicted, Mary had texted Jay back straight away, and that had been followed by a flurry of messages.
Leaving them alone, Emma had run a bath and then had gone to bed, but she’d still been awake when Jay had come in. They’d made love, slowly and tenderly.
She felt as though something had shifted in their relationship, as though an invisible barrier had been removed.
She’d loved meeting his nan and hoped there would be many more get-togethers.
Maybe in time she would even get to know the rest of the family.
That was something she longed for. To be part of a family.
Her mum and dad had had her later in life and there had been no more children.
She didn’t know why and they’d never discussed it with her.
Both her parents were only children, so there were no aunties, uncles or cousins.
Even her grandparents had passed away by the time she was a toddler.
Her parents both had good careers, her father a doctor and her mum a solicitor, and they’d taught her to be hardworking at school and self-sufficient.
There’d been little outward show of affection.
For the most part she didn’t miss it — how could she miss something she’d never had?
But as she’d grown older and had seen how other families lived and loved, she’d yearned for her parents to show her affection.
In an attempt to earn their approval she’d worked hard at school, but no matter how hard she’d tried it just hadn’t seemed good enough.
They valued academia, but she wasn’t naturally academic.
She preferred the practical side of things and working with people.
They’d visibly shown their disapproval when she’d decided to study hospitality management and, while she was at university, they had retired and bought a property in Portugal.
They didn’t come home and, during the rare times Emma had visited them, she’d felt that she was an inconvenience, getting in the way of their busy social life.
The thought that maybe one day she could be part of a proper family, one that, if Jay’s nan was anything to go by, took life by the horns, filled her with hope.
The only thing she had to do now was to fight the fatigue of a broken night’s sleep and get through her shift without falling foul of the hateful Heather.
* * *
‘You’re late!’ Heather threw the accusation at her the moment she walked through the door. Emma looked at her watch. Five minutes. She was five minutes late. Tired and on a short fuse, she bit her lip and forced herself to apologise.
‘I’m sorry.’ Emma turned to her desk and groaned quietly at the huge stack of paperwork sitting on it.
Heather continued, oblivious to her apology. ‘Timing is crucial in this industry. You may think you’re only five minutes late, but your five minutes delays everyone else as well.’
Emma could see her point if she was talking about service, but not when the only one who was waiting for her was Heather, who had probably spent the time devising ways to torture her for the rest of the day.
‘Yes, of course, you’re right. And I’ll make the time up at the end of my shift. What’s this?’ She gestured towards the paperwork.
‘Health-and-safety documents. They need to be uploaded onto the system today.’
‘Right.’ Emma tried not to groan again. She knew that keeping everything up to date was important, but today she’d rather be cleaning rooms than processing this lot in the same office as Heather.
‘I’ll just grab a quick coffee and then I’ll crack on. Do you want one?’
‘No, and don’t think you can waste any more time chatting in the staffroom.
As I said, that lot needs to be finished today, ready for the management meeting tomorrow.
And when you’ve input it all, I want a list of anything that might be outstanding so that it can be booked in to be done.
You won’t be going home until it’s all finished, so don’t think it’s an excuse to faff around. ’
‘Okay,’ Emma said. She hung her coat up, sat down at her desk and prayed that by the end of the day she wasn’t falling asleep over her computer.
‘Right, well, I’ve got a meeting to go to. I’ll see you in about an hour.’ Heather grabbed some papers and sailed out of the office, trying to look as though she had somewhere important to go to, while Emma did her best to resist making rude gestures behind her back.
Emma spent the next half an hour shifting through the paperwork and trying to get some sense of order out of it. She badly needed caffeine to help her focus, so while Heather was out of the way she decided to run to the staffroom to grab a coffee.
A man she’d often seen working behind the bar was lounging in a chair as he sipped his drink.
He was incredibly good-looking, tall and tanned, even in the depths of winter, with dark hair and deep-brown eyes.
He’d always been friendly towards her and said hello, although like most of her colleagues they hadn’t had a chance to get to know each other properly yet.
‘Hiya, Emma, isn’t it?’ he asked as she filled the kettle and searched for a mug.
‘That’s right, and you’re . . .’
‘Nick.’
‘Hi, Nick.’
She spooned coffee into the mug and drummed her fingers on the worktop, waiting impatiently for the kettle to boil.
‘You look like a woman in a hurry.’
‘I’ve got a pile of health-and-safety paperwork needing urgent attention.’
Nick groaned. ‘The dreaded health and safety.’
‘Yes, but it’s got to be done, although it goes back months.’
‘And tomorrow is the management meeting,’ Nick said. ‘And your lovely line manager, Heather, needs to catch up, but can’t be arsed doing it herself.’
‘Not for me to comment,’ Emma replied, trying to be diplomatic. She poured the water into her mug and splashed in some milk. ‘Anyway, nice to meet you, Nick, but I’ve got to go. Health and safety waits for no one.’
* * *
The coffee helped her focus and once she had everything in order, by room and date, it was easy enough to input it into the database.
An idea came to her to set up a spreadsheet by room and type of document, with dates for when everything needed to be renewed.
Rather than writing a list, she could send the spreadsheet to Heather.
She knew Heather would pass it off as her own at the meeting, but at least Emma would have a copy she could update so Heather wouldn’t be able to spring any last-minute surprises on her in the future.
As she worked, Emma thought about what Liz had said. How was she going to get inside Heather’s head, to find out what was really going on? She decided she’d try again to invite her out for a drink again or for a coffee. If she kept on, surely even Heather would run out of excuses.
* * *
In the office at Diva’s, Jay was planning the functions for the next few weeks.
If he could get ahead, he’d finally be able to have a look at the recipe book, which was burning a hole in his bag.
Although he anticipated that the recipes would be rustic, providing proper working-class East End food, he hoped they’d give him the basic principles to work on and finesse for the competition.
He was putting together a food order when Liz walked into the office. For a moment he was startled by her appearance. There were dark smudges under her eyes and she was even paler than usual.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked as she sat down at the desk next to him.
‘Yes, I’m fine. Think I must have a touch of food poisoning.’
‘That’s not good!’
‘Oh, not from anything we’ve cooked! Must have had some dodgy shellfish. We went for a trip to the coast yesterday. You know how I can’t resist.’
He frowned at her. Liz was gushing. She never gushed and he knew a cover-up when he heard it.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes, of course I’m sure,’ she said sharply.
Liz didn’t snap at him either. Something was definitely wrong and he hoped it wasn’t what he was thinking.
She’d worked hard to overcome the anorexia she’d been hospitalised for when she was seventeen, but he knew that it could be triggered at any time.
Something bad must be going on because, even when her father had died and there had been all that trouble with Nikki and Alex, she hadn’t allowed it to affect her recovery. So what on earth could it be?
‘If you’re ill, maybe you’d be better off tucked up in bed,’ he replied gently.
She brushed him off. ‘No, I’m fine. I’m sure the worst is over. And we need to get on with the plans for the week.’
‘I’m ahead of you there. I’ve been working on them already.’
She smiled wanly at him. ‘That’s good, then.’
‘Can I get you anything to drink? Tea? Coffee?’
She paled even more, if that was possible, at his words,. ‘No, I’m fine, thanks.’ She reached in her bag and pulled out a bottle of water. ‘Probably better to stick to this for the moment. It seems to be the only thing I can keep down. So come on, tell me where you’re up to.’
They spent the next hour focusing on the week ahead, making sure they had enough staff booked in and detailing who would be in charge of each event.
Then they put plans in place for bookings further ahead, so that they could get staff on board.
When they’d finished Liz sank back in her chair, looking exhausted.