Raymond had always used her full name. She’d given up trying to correct him. And, she supposed, in a heavily male-dominated team, Adeleine did sound a bit more serious than Addie. It was just that nobody called her Adeleine any more – it was what her dad had called her and since he’d died she’d found it painful to hear, so she’d switched to the name her friends at school used.
‘I’m fine, honestly,’ she said, instead of sharing what she was thinking. ‘Everything is under control.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Totally.’
He nodded, accepting she wasn’t going to divulge anything further. ‘You’re meeting with a client today, Adeleine.’ He steepled his fingers beneath his chin, elbows on the table. ‘It’s animportantclient. This could mean big business for us.’
‘I’m fully prepared. I promise. I plan to do a quick review of my presentation and then I’m set to go.’
‘First impressions really count.’
So he’d seen the stain. Not hard, really – it stood out a mile.
‘I can pop out, grab another shirt from somewhere nearby,’ she said. Not that she had the time, nor the funds to splash around, but what choice did she have?
‘See that you do. And Adeleine,’ he added before she could scoot back to her desk. ‘Perhaps keep a spare set of clothes here just in case and maybe get an earlier train.’
He’d delivered his instructions as if they were easy. An earlier train was impossible given the time before school care started for Isaac. The extra clothes she could do, which should’ve made her feel slightly better, except it didn’t. Still, given this was the fourth time she’d been late for work in the last fortnight, Raymond had gone pretty easy on her.
‘What was that all about?’ Sally asked when she got back to her desk. Sally had never seen eye to eye with Raymond; she pushed all his buttons, but she seemed to enjoy the challenge and she loved her job, unlike Addie.
‘I have to go and buy a new shirt.’ She indicated the coffee stain. ‘Raymond doesn’t want me meeting my client like this. And I get it. It won’t exactly give a good impression.’
Sally pulled open a packet of dry-roasted peanuts and offered them across to Addie who sat down, defeated, at her desk. ‘Fair enough. But don’t stress, you don’t have to buy anything.’
‘I don’t?’ She took a handful of peanuts. The teacake from earlier hadn’t filled her up in the slightest.
‘I have a spare shirt. And a bra, knickers and trousers.’ She leaned closer to Addie. ‘Remember how I stayed out all night a few weeks ago?’
‘How could I forget?’ It still made Addie smile, the tale of Sally’s love life which was a riot compared to her non-existent one.
‘No way did I want McTwatto know I’d been out all night,’ Sally went on, ‘so I bought new clothes on my way in and since then, kept a spare outfit here. You know, just in case. Ever the professional, me. Apart from my funny names for people.’ Sally, a massive fan ofGrey’s Anatomy, was into labelling people with a ‘Mc’ prefix. So far there was McHottie for Allan who worked in accounts, McPerv for Bob who talked to your cleavage, McMisery for Chris, the security guard, who hadn’t smiled once in the whole year he’d worked at the main doors to the office block they shared with four other companies.
Sally disappeared out of view for a moment as she bent down to open the bottom drawer of her filing cabinet. She sat back up again and passed across a shirt after making sure nobody had their beady eye on them.
‘You’re a lifesaver. Thank you. I really can’t afford to buy another one. I’ll bring it back washed and ironed.’
Sally popped a few peanuts into her mouth and swished a hand to dismiss any concern about the shirt.
Addie went off to the ladies to get changed and, being the only one in there, she lingered in front of the mirror.
What had happened to the Addie Rafferty who, despite losing her parents, had begun to find happiness on an island in the English Channel? What had happened to the girl who enjoyed baking and had once felt like it could be the start of an exciting journey for her?
Loyalty. That was what had happened.
Being loyal to her sister and sticking to the pact they’d made as young girls had cost her – she’d lost a closeness with their aunt that Susanna had never had, and she’d never followed her passion for baking since her aunt, like her sister, seemed convinced university and academia were the key to her future.
Losing all of that was worth it for the gift of her son, of course, but she greedily wanted it all – she wanted Isaac, her happiness, a job she loved and a place where she really felt at home.
But as she made her way back to her desk, she got the impression that asking for all that was asking far too much.
2
SUSANNA
Susanna Rafferty spotted the post on the side table when she came downstairs. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d picked up the post from the mat, or answered the landline, because her husband, Alex, always got there first. It had led to her worrying about what he might be hiding. He insisted everything was fine, but it wasn’t. In fact, things hadn’t been right for a while.
