‘I’d better go to my room and unpack,’ she said, her voice wobbly. ‘Then I’d better respond to him, otherwise he will keep trying to get hold of me. I shouldn’t be too long.’
‘Take whatever time you need. I’ll bring your tea into you when it’s ready.’
‘That’s kind. Thank you.’
Tasha unpacked her things quickly then sat on the edge of her bed. The bed felt comfortable beneath her and she looked forward to sleeping in it later on. It was only now that she was away from Riley and somewhere peaceful that she began to realise how exhausted she actually felt. Another message pinged into her phone, so Tasha picked up her laptop and opened it, needing to get her contact with him over and done with.
It took a little while to go through his diary and emails for her to collate the information Riley would need for the next few days and weeks. She copied Dale in to the emails, adding a note at the end of the message that Dale could email her if he needed any further explanation about any of it.
Tasha pressed send and immediately relaxed. Moments later her phone screen lit up.
Tasha saw Riley was trying to call her again and closed her eyes, feeling exhausted. She let the call go to voicemail, but then realised she was going to need to call him back and listen to him trying to persuade her to withdraw her resignation if she was going to get any peace.
Riley answered immediately, causing her to believe he had been waiting for the call. She was not surprised.
‘Tasha, I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.’
How typical of him to only think of himself, she mused, unsurprised.
‘Tasha?’
‘I’m still here, Riley.’ She tried to calm her flustered thoughts. ‘You’ve probably seen the email I sent to you and Dale.’
‘I haven’t read it yet,’ he said sullenly.
She hadn’t expected him to have done. ‘I’m sure Dale will though.’
‘You’re really sticking to this resignation then?’
‘I am.’
‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this. I know I was rude, but you know how stressed I am at the moment.’ She waited for him to continue, knowing him well enough to sense the change about to come in his tone. ‘It’s that Callum Preston’s influence on you, isn’t it? Don’t think I didn’t notice him waiting for you outside the apartments in his car.’
And there it was.
Tasha felt her temper rising. She had expected him to need someone to blame because Riley rarely ever thought he could be the one to have caused any damage, but it irked her to think he could believe she was soft enough to let anyone influence her to leave a job.
‘I would hope you know me better than to think I would make choices just because someone else expected me to.’ She hoped he got the message that she was not only referring to Callum but to Riley’s expectation that she would change her mind simply because it suited him.
‘I suppose I do.’ There was a moment’s silence and she knew he was building up to play the hard-done-by person. ‘How can you do this to me, Tasha?’
‘Do what?’ she asked, irritated with him for being so predictably selfish.
‘Abandon me just when I need your support most of all.’
‘Riley, we both know you have enough people around you to make sure all your needs are well catered for.’
‘So you’re refusing to change your mind?’ he asked huffily.
‘I am.’ It was an enormous relief to reiterate her initial decision directly to Riley. ‘I’m going now. Dale can contact me if there’s an emergency but I’ve decided I need some time to rest and gather myself after working for you these past few years. I’d like to say it’s been an incredible experience.’ Feeling mean, she added, ‘Which some of the time it was, but you expect a lot from someone, Riley. Even if you aren’t aware that you do. Long hours, not brilliant pay and what might have seemed exciting initially,’ she said, thinking of all the film sets she had been thrilled to visit and the actors she had met over her time with Riley. ‘But I’m over all that now.’
‘What do you want then?’ He sounded exasperated.
She decided that if he didn’t know her well enough, having shared a lot of accommodation and spending so much time in each other’s company, then she had no inkling how to begin trying to explain her feelings to him.
‘What I want right now, Riley, is to have some time to rest and think. And that’s what I’m going to do.’
‘Wait! Don’t go before telling me where you’re staying.’
