“Last night, for getting a little tipsy.”
“Not that I am aware of, although you were not a little tipsy, you were rat faced.” He smiled.
“I wasn’t that bad,” she protested, but even she didn’t sound completely convinced by her claim.
“Steph, you tried to call for a cab on the remote control to Charlie’s TV.”
She giggled at the notion and vaguely recalled it.
Jon stared at her seriously and added, “And that was pretty much your reaction to it last night.”
“Sorry, I know you don’t like me when I am drunk,” she said sincerely. “I think Linds and I may have got a little carried away,” she admitted.
“Mmm, you got carried all the way home.” He grinned, but then turned serious to say, “But if you had got a cab, anything could have happened to you in the state you were in and then I dread to think of how you would have made it up to the flat in one piece,” he mused.
“Are you angry with me?”
“Yes, no, maybe a little, but only because I want you to be safe and you seem to put yourself in danger when you drink. Promise that you will start to be more aware of how much you drink and the consequences to it?”
She nodded. “I will, I promise. I don’t really remember anything about last night,” she realised.
Jon frowned slightly, “Try to eat something, please.”
Three
Steph had insisted that Jon drop her at the tube station to avoid anyone seeing them arrive together, drawing conclusions about them, especially the right ones.
She arrived in the accounts department and felt odd going into Dave’s office, so chose to sit at her own desk and was still there when Dave arrived behind her. “I thought you were using my office today?”
“I know, but I didn’t want people to get the wrong idea,” she explained.
“Sod ‘em. I will be back later this afternoon to hand over my diary and stuff, but in the meantime you should get settled in my office because you can’t discuss prospective investments with new clients in your pod,” he sensibly pointed out.
Steph shrugged her agreement when the sound of the phone ringing from Dave’s office halted their conversation further. Dave looked at Steph and gestured for her to go and answer the phone. She duly obliged and almost broke into a canter as she went to pick up.
“Miss Pryor, good morning. How are you this morning?” came Jon’s voice down the phone line a little too brightly.
“I am fine, as I was at breakfast.” She smiled.
“Glad to hear it. Now I have given your holiday selections to our people and asked them to email you their comparable deals, but I have called about business; Peter Robertson, Jonah Mason and Gordon Alexander are from the Richards retail group and they are due here at half past ten to discuss what they want from us in terms of investment and what we will get in return.”
“Right,” replied Steph.
“But I am tied up with Dave, so I will meet you and them in accounts at half ten and then leave you to it, darling, but can we have a working lunch at one to discuss your meeting with them?”
Steph felt reassured that he really was talking business, but somehow she missed her cue to reply.
“Steph? Stephanie are you still there?” he asked impatiently.
“Sorry. Can I invite Sonia Hansen to join me if she’s free?” Steph immediately went on to explain the reason for her request. “She knows retail better than me and will come from a different perspective and her quarterly figures were impressive in spite of a recession and she hasn’t had her busiest period yet.”
“Yeah, good idea. I’ll call her and ask her to meet you in your office,” he said.
“Dave’s office,” she corrected.
“What?” asked Jon sounding irritated again.
“I meant it’s Dave’s office, not mine,” she replied, reluctantly now.
