Executive Affair (19 page)

‘That's a really good way to lose your job … sleeping with the boss!'

Claire sat on the couch sheepishly as Fiona delivered her lecture.

‘It seemed so right at the time,' she said feebly.

‘You can't say that I didn't warn you!'

‘I know. But I couldn't stop myself. It was inevitable from the minute I got there. Every word we said during the week was leading to it. If you saw him, Fi, you'd have to admit he's very sexy … He's got this sort of … aura …' Claire struggled to explain herself.

‘It's called charm, Claire.'

‘I don't think it's just charm. In some ways he's so down-to-earth that you'd never know he gets paid ten times our salary.'

Fiona threw her eyes to heaven before asking, ‘Was the sex actually worth losing your job over?'

‘Yes, it was hot!' Claire giggled girlishly, pulling her knees up and resting her chin on them.

Fiona allowed herself a lightning smile. ‘He'll probably ignore you when he comes back. Are you prepared for that?' she demanded, stern again.

‘He doesn't come back to work until next week. If he's really awful to me, then I'll just look for another job.' Claire shrugged.

She was playing it down to Fiona, not ready to admit that it wasn't just sex, that it went deeper than that. But she needed something more substantial before going out on a limb with her feelings; she needed Robert to come back and prove that what had happened between them wasn't just a fling.

They settled down and watched TV for a while. Claire sat quiet in her thoughts, an irrepressible smile playing on her face. Fiona darted a few unnoticed glances in her direction before asking, ‘You're not in love with him, are you?'

Claire looked up with a grin. ‘Definitely not. It's just lust.'

Fiona threw a cushion at her and called her a tart.

‘How was Hong Kong?' Emma asked, spooning the froth from her cappuccino.

They were dining alfresco on the busy street. Claire had only been away for a week but North Sydney felt bewilderingly alien. She missed the bizarre routine that the bid team had fallen into in Hong Kong. The late hours, the smoking breaks, the relentless rain.

‘Loved it. Didn't see much of the sights, though – we were working too hard to have any fun.'

Going out for lunch with Emma was a nice break on her first day back at work. She took a hungry bite from her sandwich.

‘It's been like a morgue here, with everyone away,' Emma complained. ‘Even James was out sick for a few days.'

‘Oh, who did the Payables?'

‘Alan Harris filled in. He and James have been cross-trained in each other's roles. Did you see much of Brian and Robert in Hong Kong?'

‘We were all in the same room together, working our guts out.' Claire controlled the urge to tell Emma what had really happened in Hong Kong.

‘Sounds boring and too much like hard work!'

‘Did Michael get that download okay?' Claire moved the subject onto safer ground.

‘Yes,' Emma confirmed. ‘I sent him all the account-detail history and the supplier master records. He's going to use it as test data on the dummy system he has over there.'

Emma triggered an image of the Dublin office in Claire's mind. Some nostalgia crept onto her face.

‘Robert was asking about the progress last week. I told him I would call Ireland when I got back …' Her voice trailed off at the unwelcome thought of having to talk to Michael.

‘I'll call him, if you like,' Emma offered quickly.

‘Thanks.'

The phone rang until Audrey in reception picked up the call.

‘Hi, Audrey, is Frank in the office today?' Claire asked.

‘No, he's on leave. He's not back for another two weeks,' Audrey answered, bright but busy.

‘Okay, thanks.'

Another cheque for DC Solutions needed her signature. It was for $400,000 and, again, the commission rate worked out at twenty per cent, double the ten per cent that Steve Ryan had
spoken of at kick-off. She had not seen a copy of the contract that Frank had promised to produce if they continued to do business with DC Solutions. But that didn't mean it didn't exist and she couldn't possibly hold off on the payment for two weeks until Frank returned. She eventually signed the cheque on the basis that $400,000 was within Frank's authority limits and it was possible the twenty per cent had been agreed to before kick-off.

Her twenty-seventh birthday was the following week. She was going for dinner with Fiona in the evening, celebrations being limited to a few glasses of wine because of work the next day. She picked up the
Yellow Pages
to book the restaurant. As she was flicking through, the computer software section caught her eye. She impulsively had a look for DC Solutions, interested in seeing their advertisement. She couldn't find them.

She logged onto the Internet, to the Telstra homepage, and did an online search. There were no hits.

Maybe DC Solutions is just a trading name and their listing is under another name …

She pulled out the cheque from the stack that was still on her desk. The invoice was attached to the back. There was no other name on it but DC Solutions. She couldn't see a phone number.

This is very strange. They must have a phone number.

She carefully checked all the print on the invoice again.

Is DC Solutions a legitimate company?

The headed paper did have an ACN number, which at least told her that they were a registered company.

I guess I could get the company checked out
…
I have the ACN.

She phoned Australian Corporate Reporting and requested a company search. It would take a few days, she was told. She
had just put down the phone when James came into her office, looking frazzled.

‘Are those cheques ready for me to take?' he asked, pointing to the uneven stack on her desk.

‘Yes, but I want you to hold onto the one for DC Solutions … I want to check something out on it.'

‘It's already a week overdue. Alan only paid the urgent stuff while I was off sick,' James said as he lifted the cheques from her desk.

‘Look, why don't you put it in Friday's mail rather than today's? They won't get it until the start of next week and we'll have time to cancel it if there's anything wrong.'

There was a Hong Kong number showing on the display panel of her phone. The shrill ringing was demanding an answer despite her fluttering stomach.

‘Claire.'

It wasn't Robert.

‘Hello, Tony.' She couldn't disguise her disappointment.

‘How are you?' He didn't wait for an answer before continuing. ‘I'm tying up some loose ends on the bid … Robert can't find where you saved the last version of the model … He asked me to call you.'

He doesn't want to call me himself.

‘It's in the S drive. Version 10.' She gave him the appropriate directions, her voice flat.

‘Okay … let me look while you're still on the phone … Right, I see it now.'

‘Bye, then.'

She was about to hang up when he said, ‘Hold on – can you transfer me through to Frank?'

‘He's still on holiday, Tony.'

‘Damn!'

‘Why did you need to speak to him?' she asked. ‘Maybe someone else can help.'

Tony paused before responding. ‘It can wait. When will he be back?'

‘Not until Monday week. Are you sure it can wait?'

‘It will have to.' Tony wasn't happy.

Claire put down the phone with hurt welling inside her. Robert had asked Tony to call her instead of picking up the phone himself. He was avoiding her, just as Fiona had said he would. Had she been stupid to expect something more?

Emma barged in on her thoughts.

‘I've just talked to Michael –'

Michael was the last person she needed to hear about right now.

‘Things are on track at his end,' Emma went on. ‘Testing will be finished this week. Live transfer of the data is scheduled for next weekend.'

‘Does he need us in the office over the weekend?' asked Claire rather absently.

‘No, he can do it all from Dublin. He can get right into our system from there. It's very slow, though, that's why he's testing offline. All we have to do here is get James to complete the online training. Then we'll be up and running.'

Emma was on her way out when she stopped at the door. ‘He said to say hello to you.'

‘James?'

‘No, silly. Michael.'

She had been back at work a full week. She hadn't heard from Robert. There had been no phone call from Hong Kong and no
phone call when he got back to Sydney yesterday morning. He hadn't even come around to her office to say hello.

She received a message from Susan just before she went home. It was Monday morning in Ireland.

Hi
,

Thought I'd drop you a line before starting work (I'm really not in the mood to be here today). I met Michael over the weekend. He was with Karen. I know I'm not allowed say this, but she seemed very nice. He said that he had been in touch with Australia quite a bit – was that with you? I need to know if the war between you two is still on or not. I gave him the frosty treatment on Saturday night, just in case. I called in to see your mother over the weekend. She's very lonely without her only daughter and she was thrilled to see me. I had my dinner there. I think she wants to adopt me …

Love, Susan.

Claire left for home, lost in thought as she made her way to the station. It was strange hearing from Susan that her mother was lonely. It struck a chord, reminding her how far away she was from Dublin, and home.

Am I feeling homesick?

The city trains weren't running; there had been a minor derailment. She made her way outside to catch a bus. It was going to take forever to get to Bondi.

She arrived at work on Tuesday morning to find that Paul had sent her a dozen red roses. She put them in a vase with bad grace. His hot and cold attitude was really starting to annoy her.
Emma came in to wish her a happy birthday.

‘Who bought you those beautiful roses?' she asked, picking one from the vase to smell.

‘Paul. I don't want them. You can have them.'

‘Don't be so ungrateful! By the way, this is a little something from me.' Emma took one hand from behind her back with a flourish to reveal a box of chocolates and a card.

‘Oh, thanks, Emma!' She smiled and opened the card.

Have a swinging Birthday – Leave your bra at home!

She laughed, her good humour restored. ‘Thanks a lot – it's going to get pride of place on my bookshelf.'

Claire settled down and worked through the backlog that remained since her trip to Hong Kong. She tried not to think of Robert. She was packing to go home when he came in.

‘You just caught me, I was on my way home.' Her voice was cool and she didn't meet his eyes.

He looked at the roses in her arms and the card that she was in the process of removing from the bookshelf as he walked in.

‘Oh … it's your birthday.'

‘Yes.'

‘Happy birthday,' he said, giving her a slow and intimate smile.

‘Thank you,' she said primly, moving purposefully towards the door.

‘Would you like to go to dinner tonight?' His voice was hesitant, finally sensing her coolness.

‘I have something else planned.'

‘Well, maybe lunch tomorrow?' he persisted, trying to make eye contact.

‘I don't think so. Goodnight.'

She walked away, leaving him standing alone in her office,
a bewildered air about him that would have made her laugh in other circumstances. She had been extremely rude, considering he was her boss. She decided that she would look for a new job as soon as possible. It would be too hard to maintain a professional distance, to pretend nothing had happened between them, and not to show how much it hurt.

He waited in her office for a few minutes, foolishly expecting her to come back. He had been looking forward to spending the evening with her and cursed himself for not calling her during the week. When he thought of the roses and the fact she was meeting someone for dinner, he felt worse.

She was late for work the next morning, arriving at nine-thirty, flustered from rushing. Robert was hovering in the Finance area, speaking to Alan Harris. She gave him a quick glance as she opened her office door. She had barely taken off her jacket when he came in, shutting the door behind him and pulling up a seat so that he was uncomfortably close.

‘You're annoyed with me,' he said flatly, searching her face for a reaction to his statement.

‘No, I'm not. I have nothing to be annoyed about,' she denied, looking at the picture on the wall behind him with feigned interest.

‘Are you upset because I didn't call you last week?'

‘That's your prerogative. I just want to get things back on a professional level straight away,' she said, playing with her pen now that she couldn't look at the picture any longer.

‘Hang on a minute. I thought we'd left things on a positive note in Hong Kong and that we would talk when I got back. Have you changed your mind?' He was frowning now and
moved back in his seat as if baffled.

‘Haven't you?' Emotion was creeping into her voice.

He leaned forward. ‘Claire, I've obviously done something wrong and I'm sorry.' He was about to take her hand in his but saw the discouragement in her face and pulled away.

‘There's no point in being sorry if you don't know what you've done,' she said sharply.

‘I'm sorry that I've upset you in any way. Please tell me what it is.'

He was looking at her intensely and she could feel a slight weakening in her resolve.

‘Robert, I'm trying not to make a big issue out of this. Not calling for ten days tells me quite plainly that you're not interested. And that's fine by me.' She was pleased with her tone, it was matter-of-fact and quite dismissive.