“You better believe there’s a problem!” Mary hissed. “The place has gone bust!”
“What?” Courtney almost screeched the word. “What are you talking about?”
“The business has gone bust!” Mary said, throwing her hands in the air. “We’ve only just found out. I arrived here half an hour ago to find this sign posted on the door.”
Mary pointed to a sheet of A4 paper taped to the customer entrance. Courtney stepped closer to read it.
Ashford Furniture and Furnishings Ltd has ceased trading with immediate effect. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Blinking in disbelief, Courtney read the sign a second time, and then a third.
“I don’t understand,” she managed to say, turning back to Mary. “What happened?”
“Who knows?” Mary said with a shrug of disgust. “But if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that Lee Ashford has finally managed to run the business into the ground. He’s a dodgy one, that Lee, and hasn’t a clue what he’s doing. Nothing like his father, God rest his soul, who took pride in this place and looked after the staff and the customers. Ever since the old man passed away andLee took over at the helm, this shop has been going downhill, fast.”
Courtney tried to absorb this news. “I thought the place was doing well. We’ve had plenty of customers.”
“Customers only get you so far,” Mary replied. “If you don’t know how to manage the business, you’re doomed, no matter how many customers you have. I suspected Lee Ashford was making a hash of things, but anytime I asked questions, he just brushed me off. I had no idea it was as bad as this, though.”
Mary gestured to the sign taped to the door, and then to the other staff members lingering around. “Now we’re the ones to pay the price. Out of a job, the lot of us!”
“But…but… they can’t just go out of business, can they?” Courtney said. “And we can’t justlose our jobs. That’s insane!”
“I’ve been phoning Lee Ashford for the last half hour and he isn’t answering,” Mary said. “We’re all frantic. No one knows what’s happening. As soon as I phoned a few other staff members to find out if they knew anything, everyone hurried down here, hoping for answers. That stupid sign on the door is all we’ve got.”
Courtney glanced at the faces of her colleagues. Everyone looked panic-stricken, talking to each other as they tapped on their phones, searching for information. Feeling her heart rate rocketing, Courtney gulped down some air.
“So, what do we do?” she asked. “Do we just wait until the owner comes and tells us what’s going on and what we should do?”
Mary gave her a sympathetic look and was about to answer when her phone beeped.
Courtney’s phone beeped, too. Everyone’s phone beeped.
When she looked at the message that had arrived, Courtney saw it was from Ashford Furniture and Furnishings. Exclamations rippled through the crowd of staff members asthey all turned their attention to their phones to open the message they’d received.
With shaking fingers, Courtney tapped the new message on her phone screen and read the text.
Ashford Furniture and Furnishings Ltd has ceased trading. As a consequence, we regret to announce that all staff are redundant with immediate effect. While the company goes through the formal liquidation process, an insolvency practitioner will deal with all matters and will contact redundant staff in due course regarding any potential claims through the Redundancy Payments Service.
Only after reading the text message several times did the facts begin to sink in. Courtney had lost her job.
Lost her job.
A high buzzing noise rang inside her head as the ground spun and tilted beneath her feet.
“Courtney, are you okay? Oh!”
As Courtney’s legs threatened to give way beneath her, she felt a steadying hand grab her arm and keep her upright.
“Courtney!” Mary cried out, now holding her with both hands. “Oh, don’t faint! My goodness, you’re in no condition to pass out, love!”
Thoughts of her baby tucked safely inside her stopped Courtney from crashing to the ground, not in a faint, but in complete shock. But she couldn’t fall over and risk hurting her child. Maternal instinct kicked in and kept her upright, if only by the skin of her teeth.
“I’m okay,” Courtney managed to croak. “I just… I can’t believe this. I don’t understand. We’re… we’re allsacked?”
Mary looked grim. “Yes, love. I’m afraid it looks that way.”
In the cacophony of raised voices and shouts of anger now swirling around her from the rest of her assembled colleagues, Courtney failed to notice her aunt and uncle getting out of thecar and walking over to where she stood with Mary. When she felt a hand on her back and turned to see her Uncle Colin standing there with a kind look of concern on his face, it was all she could do not to start sobbing.
