Broken Wings (Contemporary Romance) (3 page)

After walking for about half a mile, she noticed another car approaching.
“Hell, why not, what do I have to lose?” Angelina once again started waving her arms frantically. This time the car slowed down, and then pulled up alongside her. She waited while the driver wound down the window.

“
Hello, can I help you? Do you need a lift?” asked the handsome young man, who seemed genuinely concerned.

“
Thank you, yes, yes please, that would be great. “My car died a death about half a mile up the road. And as you can see, it’s pretty dark out here and my mobile phone is flat so I could not call anyone either.”

The young man studied Angelina curiously as he beckoned for her to climb in. As soon as she slammed the car door shut, he pulled off.
“So where can I drop you?” he asked.

“
I live in Kendal town about a mile up ahead if it’s not too much trouble,” offered Angelina.

“
No trouble at all, I was heading that way myself.” For the rest of the short journey, they both sat in relative silence until they reached Angelina’s road.

“
Okay, you can drop me off here if you like. I can walk the rest of the way,” she said cautiously.

“
If you’re sure, I really don’t mind dropping you off home.” The young man looked to Angelina, and waited for her response.

“
No, really, thank you, I can take it from here. Thank you so much for the lift, I really appreciate it.”

Angelina went to close the door, but the young man shouted after her,
“Can I at least have your name?”

Angelina pondered his question for a few seconds before answering.
“Angelina, my name is Angelina.”

The young man smiled.
“Joshua, my name is Joshua.”

“
Thank you again, Joshua.” And with that, Angelina headed off down the road towards her cottage which was situated at the far end.

“
Damn car,” she cursed to herself as she fumbled with her keys in the door. The first thing she did once she closed the door was to call the RAC Breakdown and Vehicle Recovery. Following a lengthy call with the operator, Angelina then ran herself a hot bath, lit all the candles around her bathroom and poured herself a large glass of wine. Feeling exhausted and fed up, she picked up her wine, grabbed her book off the table and made her way up the stairs to the bathroom. There was nothing she loved more than to relax in a steamy hot bath with a good book and a glass of wine on a Saturday night. Losing herself in a book was great escapism and right now she was escaping into the wonderful works of William Blake’s breath-taking poetry. His words were like magic to Angelina, his poetry like a perfectly woven blanket, every last stitch intricately and perfectly sewn into its rightful place.

Chapter
Three

The following Sunday morning, Angelina jumped out of bed as she heard the Breakdown Recovery pulling up onto her driveway. She wrapped herself in her soft white robe before heading downstairs and opening the front door. She watched curiously as the two men struggled with her old car.
Note to self, make this the year I buy a new one
. She smiled at the thought, wondering how on earth she was going to get the money to finance a new car. One of the two men approached her with a form to sign. “If you could just sign here please.” Angelina placed her signature inside the little box on the form, thanked the man and hurried back inside the house.

She gulped down her coffee, placed it down onto the kitchen table and ran upstairs to put on her running clothes. Every Sunday morning without fail, Angelina went for a long run up to the lake. At least she didn’t need her car for that, she thought. As she closed the door behind her and braved the cold, it was a beautiful crisp autumn day and the sun was peeking through the clouded sky. She did a few warm up exercises before heading off down the road towards the lake. Angelina often ran the distance of a half marathon at weekends. The morning was still, not a soul in sight and that was just how she liked it. Taking deep breaths now, she picked up a steady pace until she reached Lake Windermere. On arrival, she stopped and did some more stretching exercises and ran a further two miles to her marking point. The ground was perfectly crisp and she loved the sound of the grass crunching beneath her feet; as cold as it was, the winter sun was shining from afar and its warmth was welcoming. The early morning birds were chirping away and Angelina was lost in her run.

Without warning, she slipped on a rock on the grassy bank and lost her footing completely. She tried desperately to claw at the frozen grass unsuccessfully as she slipped into the ice cold water. Fear took over and she panicked as she tried with all her might to stop herself from submerging into the water. Before she knew what was happening, she felt a hand grab hold of her arm and pull her water-logged body out of the freezing lake.

“
You again? What is it with you? You really should be more careful,” teased Joshua as he pulled her onto the bank.

Mortified and embarrassed, Angelina looked into his eyes for the first time; they were mesmerizing,
“Thank you so much, I am not usually so clumsy. I run up here all the time and nothing like this has ever happened to me before.” She was shivering now, the lake was sub-zero and she was wet through.

Joshua took off his sweatshirt and handed it to her.
“Here, put this on before you catch your death of cold too.” Smiling, Angelina gladly took the sweater and pulled it over her head as she stood up with the aid of Joshua. For a brief moment, their eyes locked, neither one saying a word, until a dog broke the silence as he came up sniffing behind them, swiftly followed by an embarrassed owner who quickly ushered the dog along.

“
I guess you will need another lift home then?” Nodding her head and feeling rather embarrassed, Angelina followed Joshua back to his car and was glad to be in the warmth. “Okay, now this time I am going to take you to your door, I don’t want any arguments! I promise you I am not a serial killer, just an ordinary guy wanting to do the right thing…” Joshua turned on the stereo and headed off down the road, back towards the town. On arrival, Angelina gave him directions to her house and Joshua slowed down as he pulled onto her driveway. “Glad to see your car made it back to you in one piece!” he said, laughing.

“
That car is the bane of my life, and I plan on replacing it as soon as I can afford to,” she retorted jovially. “Look, I can’t thank you enough, Joshua. I am sorry to have caused you so much trouble again.”

“
Not at all, don’t mention it, you have livened up what would otherwise have been a pretty dull Sunday morning, and for that I thank you.”

Angelina started walking towards the house, but she slowed down.
Mmm, should I ask him in? No, no, no, don’t even go there. Angelina, keep on going and don’t turn around, just take the key out of your pocket and open the door!
But something was preventing her; she turned around and watched as Joshua climbed into his car.
Well if he wanted a coffee, he would have asked for one!
She convinced herself and opened the door, slamming it behind her and berating herself for having entertained the idea in the first place. She peeked through the dining room window and watched as he disappeared off down the road.

For the rest of the day, she could not get Joshua out of her head. Much to her annoyance, his rugged good looks had not gone unnoticed. She tried to get into her writing but the words would not flow at all; her thoughts were clouded by this man she hardly knew. She recalled his deep brown eyes and sighed as she rustled up a salad for herself.
“I just don’t need this,” she said out loud to herself.”

After lunch, she tried once again to slip into writing mode but no words were flowing through to her fingertips. She sat staring at her laptop until she gave up completely and shut it down.
“Great, the last thing I need is a distraction,” she mumbled to herself as she stood up and left the room. She wondered why she'd never come across Joshua in the town before; he clearly likes to run along the lake too, she thought. Maybe he works away or something. The afternoon passed by uneventfully and slowly. She spent the rest of Sunday getting her work clothes ready and finishing a write-up for the paper before heading off to bed early.

Chapter
Four

Angelina stretched her arms before rolling over to check the time; Monday morning had come around far too quickly for her liking.
“Oh no, it can’t be.” Jumping out of her warm bed and tripping over her feet, she darted to the bathroom. Angelina cursed to herself for over-sleeping. “How did I sleep through my alarm? It could wake a bear up,” she muttered to herself. It was 9:30 a.m. by the time she reached her office. Her boss checked his watch as she made her way hurriedly to her desk. Jayden shook his head in mock concern.

“
Couldn’t you get up this morning Angelina?”

“
Don’t start, Jayden; I’m not in the mood this morning.”

“
Oh dear, someone’s in a grump today.”

Jayden both admired and resented Angelina; he had been overlooked for promotion in favour of her some years before and this had never sat well with him. He had been attracted to her from the first day she'd walked into the office all those years ago. Unlike most of the women in the office, Angelina was very private; she never discussed her personal life or gossiped. She was different and he liked that about her. She fascinated him. He knew deep down she had been the best person for the job, however, this hit is pride hard and he hadn’t felt the same way about the company since.

Angelina threw her jacket over the back of her chair, ignoring Jayden, and went to grab herself a coffee from the small sparse staff kitchen. Idiot, she thought. If he put as much effort into his job as he did in taunting her, he would have been promoted long ago. She could never understand why he was always on her case; one minute he was making her life as difficult as possible and the next she would catch him looking at her in a way that made her feel self-conscious. She could never figure him out.

As she flicked through her emails, she smiled as she noticed an email pop up on her screen from Lucy, asking her to meet for lunch at around one o’clock at their usual coffee shop. Thank God for Lucy, thought Angelina, smiling.

“I’m surprised you have anything to smile about; not only are you late this morning, you also missed the 8:30 a.m. meeting regarding our new client,” said Geoffrey her boss in a rather curt manner.

“
I didn't know anything about a meeting this morning.” She checked her mobile phone and then hurriedly glanced through her emails. And there it was, an email from Geoffrey at five o’clock Friday evening, requesting all seniors to attend a meeting on Monday morning.

“
I’m so sorry, Geoffrey. I didn’t receive your email before I logged off on Friday.”

Geoffrey considered her for a brief moment.
“I also mentioned it to your assistant Jayden before I left the office on Friday.” Geoffrey threw Jayden a curious lingering look before heading back into his office.

Jayden, well, that figures, thought Angelina; he knew I would not have seen the email, and he also knew he could have sent me a message if he really wanted too. Angelina had had just about enough of Jayden; he was determined to see her fail.
“Jayden, I want to have a private word with you please.”

He stood up and followed Angelina into the meeting room, closing the door behind them.
“Why, Jayden? Why didn’t you call me? You knew I didn’t see that email, and you were still here after I left. You are supposed to be my assistant, yet all you do is make my job as difficult as possible on an almost daily basis. I’m sorry, Jayden, but I'm going to ask for you to be transferred to another department. I cannot work with you any longer, I can’t trust you and I need an assistant I can trust and work with.”

Jayden just glared at Angelina, the silence between them becoming more uncomfortable as the seconds passed by.
“That promotion should have been mine, I have been working here far longer and until you arrived here, that promotion was practically mine. Yes, I am pissed off. Who wouldn’t be, and to be honest I don’t particularly want to work for you. So go ahead, endorse my transfer, it’s probably best all round.” Jayden then stood up and without another word he left the room.

Angelina was stunned; she had not been expecting that at all. His words lingered in the air as she tried to understand what the hell had just happened. She felt there was something more to this. She had always treated him fairly and always taken his ideas on board, even running them past Geoffrey on many occasions. God, she needed a lunch with Lucy today!

Lucy was already sitting in their usual place by the window on the comfy over- sized leather sofas when Angelina walked through the door with a dejected look on her face. “What’s with you today?” she asked, genuinely concerned.

“
I have had the day from hell. I had a run-in with Jayden this morning; you won’t believe what he did this time.”

Angelina filled Lucy in on the events of her morning at the office; two skinny lattes later, they were both laughing and Angelina felt a lot lighter for off-loading.
“Well, I have something that will cheer you up; Richard is having a bit of a get together tonight at the Hare and Hounds. One of his long-time friends is home on leave and he wants to celebrate. He rarely gets to see him these days as he’s always away and when he does come home, it’s never for very long. I have only met him a couple of times myself briefly so I don't know him very well myself, but he's a bit of a looker, and single by all accounts! So anyway, he’s gathered all his friends for drinks tonight. What do you think? Are you up for it? You need a night out, Angelina, just come down for one drink, pretty please, just for me.”