Chapter Seven
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 somethingshe’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 darkhair 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.’
