Glass Ceilings (27 page)

She fixed him with a
stern
gaze
and said,
‘Well
,
don’t let me delay you
.’
Turning briskly, she threw
him
a quick
, smiling nod
, and then
open
ed
the door
to head
to her
waiting
vehicle
.

She
fe
l
t
her spirits lift as
soon as
she drove
along the conveyor road and
away from the refinery. The sun was shining warmly and
the sense of spring was almost tangible
.
A re-energising influence
seeped
into her
.

If only this job didn’t require me to be penned up in an office so much of the time
,
she thought wistfully
.

S
he
was settling
i
n to enjoy the sweet, though brief,
sensation
of
freedom,
when she
noticed
the sun glinting off something
in the distance
, near the refinery’s
water
pumping station. I
t looked like the reflection from
a windscre
en. B
ut
if it was a car,
w
hy wasn’t it
parked
in
one of
the b
ay
s
provided
, right outside the station
?

As she d
rew
closer,
she realised
the flash she’d seen
was
indeed
from
a car
’s windscreen
, she could just make out
the vehicle’s
shape among the undergrowth.
The way it was parked hin
ted
at
a deliberate attempt to hide it from anyone passing
.
Her radar ga
ve a
tiny
jerk
and
she
took her foot off the accelerator
. It was standard
procedure for
RCL
staff travelling the conveyor road to check on
any stationary
vehicles
, as a safety precaution.
It was a private road and break-downs could wait some time for rescue.
I
t crossed her mind that i
f
the car
was from
RCL’s
vehicle
pool
,
it
would have two-way radio co
mmunication with the refinery
,
and could
call for assistance
if there was a problem
.

But radios can fail.

There was no avoiding it, s
he had to stop and check
.

In a swirl of
dust,
she
pulle
d into a parking bay
.
When she got
out,
she slammed the
door loudly
as though to announce her presence
,
and
th
en wondered why she
’d
felt
this
was necessary
. Was
it because
of the stories she’d heard about the pumping station
?

But they’re just
vulgar gossip
,
she admonished herself,
and I shouldn’t be giving them any credence.

As she made her way around the side of the building towards the other
vehicle, she could hear
scrabbling noises
comin
g from the car
,
and
caught a glimpse of some
frantic
activity
inside
it
. She stopped dead in her tracks.

Oh no
....

Two distraught countenances
were visible through
the steamy window for a
fraction of a second
,
before
they hurriedly withdrew
from sight. Frenzied movements erupted inside the car.
Arms and legs banged against doors, windows and dashboard, and items of clothing flicked around the cabin like crazed moth
s diving on floodlights
. Verity gave an appalled gasp and
turned
her back on the car, trying
to gather her thoughts.

Kerry, my PA, is
‘at it’
in a car, at the infamous pumping station,
with a man not her husband.
Verity screwed up her face and groaned.
What have I done to deserve this?

The sounds
of desperate action subside
d
,
so she
slowly
turned around again
and
wal
ked over to the car. At her
r
ap
,
Kerry
rolled
down
the window
without meeting
her boss’s
eyes
,
and stared
fixedly ahead.
Although Verity couldn’t see
all
of
t
he man
’s
face
,
only the
fiery
, shameful
blush on his neck and
jaw line
, she
recognised him from his p
rofile. It was Roger, one of RCL’s electrical engineers
.

She
scowl
ed
and
said sharply,
‘What the
—’
then
bit her lip
. She
took a
breath and
then
said more calmly
, ‘You are both to return to work
immediately
,
and
report to my office first thing tomorrow morning.
Is that understoo
d?
’
Her
commanding
tone
drew silent nods
.
With a final reproachful glare at them both
, Verity turned
on her heel and
marched
back
to her car.

Great,
she thought angrily
,
just what I need right now,
an
AWOL, adulterous
PA and
a
randy
engineer.

She
launched herself
into the car, slammed the door and accelerated away f
rom
the scene
with a spray of gravel
.
If only she coul
d have left the memory behind as
easily.

Distra
cted by the incident, she drove
right
past the transfer station and
continued
all the way to the bauxite mine.
Once there, she made her way to
the manager’
s office
, somewhere she’d always felt secure and welcome
. It occurred
to her
that this unpla
nned visit could be beneficial.

Luckily
Alan wa
s in, and although
her
arrival was
unexpected, he appeared
pleased to see
her.

‘Verity, what a s
urprise! I wasn’t expecting you.
’

‘Hello Alan. Yes, sorry about this
impromptu visit
. A
spur of the moment
thing
. I hope I’m not
interrupting
you in the middle of something
?’

‘Nothing that can’t wait. And to what do we owe this honour?’

‘
I wondered if we could call a special meeting
with
all availabl
e staff.
Just a quick one, so I can
thank them in person for their contributions
during the VIP’s visit
. What are the chances
...?’

Alan was already buz
zing his secretary. He threw
Verity a proud smile as he spoke into the intercom, ‘Lucy, can you come in
please? Need you to arrange a meeting
, pronto
.’

The day
ended well, after
all
, despite the incident with Kerry
.
As soon as Verity got
home,
she poured herself
a
drink
and
took it
in
to
the gar
den
, where she could
sit and enjoy
the
setting sun’s
last rays
.
Three Bells
Jack
follow
ed her enthusiastically, jumping onto her l
ap and waving his tail under her nose as she sat drinking her wine. And later, while she busied herself in the kitchen preparing dinner, he
wound his lithe tabby body
around her
leg
s
,
purring loudly
.
She opened a can of his favourite cat food and filled
a clean
bowl
sporting the initials ‘TBJ’
,
surrounded by love hearts.
Claire had
laughed when Verity bought it, declaring
it a wussy bowl for a boy cat, but Jack didn’t care as long as it w
as regularly filled
.

She called him over
for
his dinner, and then
put on a Nora Jones CD a
nd hummed along to it
while char-grilling
slivers of
Haloumi cheese. She drizzled olive oil and lemon juice over them and made a garden salad accompaniment
, and then carried her meal over to the table
.
She glanced
over at Jack
as she
sat down
. He
was sitting beside his bowl
,
cleaning behind his ears
as
though he’d finished eating
.
But he’d
hardly touched
his
food
.
Verity frowned.
It was very unlike him to have an unfinished, not-licked-clean bowl every evening.
Was he unwell? He certainly didn’t look it, q
uite the opposite in fact.

‘Aren’t you hungry tonight, mate?’

He
graced her with
a feline grin
before carrying on with
his grooming.

She shrugged.
That’s cats for you.

Later, curled on the lounge with
Jack
’s warm, purring body beside her, Verity
stroked his velvety
grey head and
tried to
read
, but her mind wouldn’t shut off. The
past few days’
pressures–Royce
’s betrayal
and insulting condescension
, the conflict with Reardon
, Kerry’s behaviou
r, the impending EC meeting–
kept going around and around in her head.
The
company
’s livelihood
and
that of
all its stakeholders was like an ever-present entity
,
resting
heavily
on her shoulders and
breat
hing down her neck
.

If only I had someone here
to talk things over with
, someone whose intelligence and strength I could draw on
....

But she shut down that
thought
as soon a
s it
emerged
.