Rhys rolled his eyes. ‘I thought you said we were going to take this softly-softly.’
‘Ditch what?’ Anna asked.
‘Ditch that job and come and work with us again,’ Vijay said, and he didn’t seem to be joking in the slightest.
Anna looked at the surrounding offices through the glass wall of the one she was in. It was no longer the three-person operation it was when she’d been involved. ‘I know you asked me to stay on after Spencer died, but you’re bigger now! I would have no idea how to manage the bookkeeping for this size of operation.’
‘Forget bookkeeping!’ said Vijay, cutting in. ‘You have Spencer’s shares. Technically, you’re a partner. Come on board doing something else.’ He pulled a disbelieving face and added, ‘You can manage the office if that’s really your bag.’
Anna looked once again at the team of bright young things buzzing around the open-plan space outside the meeting room. ‘Don’t you have someone to do that?’
Rhys saw where Anna was looking and waved a dismissive arm in the colourful crowd’s general direction. ‘Yeah, but they’re creative types, and they’re like we were when we started – young and stupid. They think everything we say is gold dust.’
‘They would’velovedthe name Avocado,’ Vijay said drily.
Rhys ignored him. ‘What I’m saying is that we need someone around who’ll tell us we need a “does what it says on the tin” name for a time management app. Someone like you, Anna.’
Anna stared back at them. She had the feeling she might cry if they said any more. ‘You really want me back? Just me? On my own? Even though I walked away three years ago and haven’t been involved since?’
Both guys nodded.
‘We understood why it was hard,’ Vijay said, sobering. ‘We found it difficult too. It was only not wanting to let Spencer down, wanting to make BlockTime a success for him, that kept us going to start off with. Will you think about it? Because the best person to develop your app is you.’
Rhys must have seen the look of pure horror on Anna’s face because he quickly added, ‘Not the technical side like Spencer did, of course, but theheart. That’s why BlockTime worked…’ – he paused to look across at Vijay, who nodded encouragingly – ‘because we were all passionate about it.’
‘And who better to understand what an app for connecting grieving people needs to do than someone who’s been through it themselves,’ Vijay added. ‘I’m sure the pair of us would wade in and make all sorts of mistakes.’
Anna took a moment to digest that. For so long she’d avoided these two, and any mention of BlockTime, because it had made her think of Spencer and all he’d done, and that made her think of all she’d lost. But now she was remembering there was joy to be had thinking about all they’d accomplished together too. It was quite a revelation.
‘Okay,’ she said. ‘I’ll think about it.’
Chapter Forty-Seven
BRODY’S PHONE LIT up with Anna’s picture in the background behind the button to accept an incoming call. ‘Anna?’ he said as he held the handset up to his ear.
‘Brody,’ she replied. And that was it. No chatter about her day, no random questions from out of the blue. Brody frowned and waited a few more seconds. There was a loud bang in the background.
‘Are you okay, Anna? What’s that noise?’
‘Fireworks,’ she said, sounding slightly puzzled. ‘It’s Bonfire Night – had you forgotten?’
‘I suppose I had. The nearest displays are probably twenty miles away.’
Anna harrumphed. ‘Can’t forget around here. They’re going off every few seconds.’ And then she fell silent again. Most odd. It had been a few days since they’d spoken but she’d been so brimming with ideas and energy about this app idea when they last chatted, he presumed she’d been busy.
‘Is something wrong?’
‘No,’ she said quietly, and then he heard a gentle huff. Not of exasperation or humour, but as if she were trying to work out how to word what she wanted to say.‘But there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a few weeks.’
Brody’s stomach dropped. Oh, God. She was going to say New Year’s Eve was off. She had something better to do. And someone better to do it with. Even though he hadn’t committed to going, knew he would probably pull out in the end, he didn’t want the possibility of it to disappear just yet. ‘Go on,’ he said, steeling himself for the worst.
‘I know who you are.’
Brody frowned harder. ‘And I know who you are…’
‘I mean that I know who you are in terms of what you do – or what you used to do. I know your full name is BrodyAlexanderSmith.’
For a couple of seconds Brody heard nothing but the blood rushing in his ears. ‘How… How did you work that one out?’ There was no point in denying it.
