This is a Love Story (7 page)

The hand on the big rectangular clock was just about to hit one, so I gathered my papers and made my way to Anthony’s office. I was nervous, a feeling that had been becoming all too familiar recently.

As I walked towards his office I spotted Sienna, walking slowly towards me with a shy smile painted across her features. She looked flustered and her eyes were a little pink, like she might have been crying. But she was still beautiful.

Her movements slowed right down, just like in the films. She was wearing dark blue skinny jeans and a retro cardigan with frills on the sleeves. Her long brown hair was sleek and shiny, tumbling over her shoulders. Yet again, she was holding a cup of tea. I wondered if there was one permanently fused to her hand.

Our paths drew closer and closer until we both stood awkwardly outside Anthony’s mezzanine floor. ‘Do you want to get past?’ I said, comically extending a gentlemanly arm to let her through.

She looked puzzled. ‘Er, no. I’m going to see Ant. Why are you . . .?’ she responded, a look of total confusion in her eyes.

‘Oh, but I’m due to see him at one,’ I told her, wondering if I’d got the time wrong. Then a cold wave of realisation washed over me.

She looked at her watch and shook it next to her ear, biting her bottom lip.

We stood there for a few moments, obviously unsure of what we should do next. Then she broke the silence.

‘I think I’m in real trouble, Nick, about what happened earlier in the car park. Shit. Bollocks,’ she said, looking as if she was about to cry.

I was really confused now. She couldn’t have caused the whole thing, could she? If she had, then yes, she was right. Ant would probably send her packing, to be honest. He doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

I opened my mouth to speak but I was interrupted. ‘Right, you two, come on in,’ said Anthony, his booming voice reverberating down the small flight of stairs leading to his den.

He ushered us in with a pair of chubby hands in an animated, impatient fashion, a look of distinct irritation all over his face. Then we stood there for a moment like confused pigeons, legs twitching.

‘Well, come on, then!’ he sighed in exasperation. He seemed really angry now. If Sienna was in some kind of trouble about this homeless guy, then why was I being dragged into it? Why was I in this room? It had nothing to do with me. And anyway, the meeting had been called early this morning, before the car park debacle. Maybe she had got into other skirmishes with this guy when I was away and this was the start of a disciplinary that I would have to be involved in. I did technically have middle management status . . .

Shit. That would be a disaster. Having to professionally punish the girl you fancy. Thanks a lot. My mind started wading through the awful possibilities. What if I eventually had to fire her? That wouldn’t exactly be a great precursor to ‘So, how about a date?’

Two chairs were positioned opposite Ant’s leather throne, which was so large that I often feared he would one day get lost in it. And Anthony was not a small man. Big in size, big in voice, big in presence. His ears were big, his mouth was big, and even his bones were big, I was sure. At 6 foot 6, he towered over most people he met, and regularly made people jump when he walked into a room (which I had to admit, I found very funny).

Although Ant and I got on well, he could still inspire a certain terror in me. He reminded me of Mr Blake, an incredibly scary teacher at my school. While we had run circles around the others, chewing gum in class and answering back, Blake used to frighten the hell out of us.

As well as being chubby, which was his most significant feature, Ant’s head was adorned with a big pile of brown curls that never seemed to be under any kind of control. He had dark, beady eyes and a round snub nose. But despite his booming demeanour, he had a nervous element to his personality. He found lengthy eye contact difficult and he tended to fiddle with things around him a lot, often pulling at the curls on the back of his head when he was thinking.

I didn’t trust him entirely, but like everyone else I found myself slithering around him like a snake, in case he used his power against me in a moment of rage.

That was another thing: Anthony was angry. We regularly heard banging from his office on the main production floor as he slammed his fist on the desk, and shouted at some poor minion on the phone. We would just cringe and keep typing.

He plonked himself down in front of us, small beads of sweat gathering on his forehead from the sheer effort of the treacherous four-metre walk from his door. I was surprised he hadn’t asked for sponsorship. Over his shoulder you could see a huge fissure in the window overlooking the car park.

Feeling slightly concerned that Sienna might see them, I tucked my ideas behind the clipboard I was holding. I didn’t want her to think I was a brown-nosing loser panicking about getting fired (which is, incidentally, exactly what I was).

‘Right, you two,’ Anthony said again, moving a brightly coloured A4 photo frame out of the way and leaning back to reveal an oversized and very satisfied-looking tummy. One of the buttons had come undone, showing a flash of pale skin covered in coarse dark hair. Gross.

‘We have obviously had some drama this afternoon,’ he went on, turning towards the cavernous crack in the glass behind him, then looking back at Sienna with a frown. Yes, this was definitely what the meeting was all about.

She sank down into her chair, looking very guilty. I started to feel the panic rising as I imagined having to fill out procedure sheets and hold a meeting with her in a month’s time to find out if she had learned her lesson, or whatever the course of action in these cases might be.

Ant started to speak again. ‘But aside from that, which seems to be sorted out now, we have another problem. Tom called in sick this morning and he won’t be able to make the trip to America.’ He rubbed his chin with one hand.

I leaned back in my chair and looked down the stairs to Tom’s desk. Of course – his chair had been empty all morning. I’d just assumed he was at a meeting. I was a bit pissed off that it might mean the trip was cancelled.

But wait. If Sienna had been called in, this must mean . . . Oh, please, say it means what I think it must mean . . .

‘Sienna, I know you’re relatively new, but I think you’ve settled in well so I want you to work with Nick on this one,’ he announced. Sienna blushed a little and smiled at me as she put her cup of tea on Ant’s chunky wooden desk.

‘Sienna, I want you to create a series of articles for a ten-page supplement for
Digimax
on the annual gaming fair in Florida. Nick will be the man behind the illustrations and photographs. How does that sound?’

Silence filled the room as both our original assumptions were blown out of the water and replaced with something utterly wonderful. I wanted to break this silence like a small child. I wanted to punch the air with delight, leap onto my chair and ruffle my boss’s hair with joy. The man who I’d previously viewed as a fat obstacle to my happiness was now worthy of carving into a statue and worshipping. He had gone from nagging me, making girls cry, and keeping us in late, to setting me up on a work trip with one of the fittest girls I’d ever seen . . . I wanted to run over to Sienna, pick her up and jump onto the plane with her now. My head was suddenly swamped with images of us waking up in a hotel bed together in one of those ‘whoops’ movie moments, where everything is sexy and turns out to be OK, and not shit, like reality.

Sienna looked flattered. Overcome. Delighted, even. But still, neither of us managed to actually speak.

Maybe I could take her on a date on the trip. The possibilities flooded my mind and I immediately told myself off because it was against my new ‘colleagues + relationships = bad’ rule.

‘You two aren’t in the mood for talking today, are you?’ Ant chuckled, pulling out a can of Diet Coke from his mini fridge. The cool snapping sound of the ring pull cut sharply through the awkward chasm of quiet.

‘Sorry, that’s great news. Thanks ever so much. And I want to talk to you afterwards about what happened earlier . . . I can explain it all,’ said Sienna, looking really nervous now. I noticed her feet shuffle inwards and her hands flex on her lap. Her body language radiated fear.

‘Look, just forget about it. I don’t know what happened, but we don’t have time to worry about it right now. Pop into my office before you leave for the day. I do want you to go on this trip – I think it would be great experience for you,’ he said, warming up a little after his brusque opening.

She turned her face towards mine and bit her lip. Damn, she was sexy.

‘Is that OK, Nick?’ asked Ant, leaning over the desk and waking me from my daydream as he pushed his sloppy jowls in my direction.

‘Yes, yes, of course. It’ll be great to work with Sienna on this,’ I replied, trying to sound as cool as possible when actually I wanted to kiss him on the cheek and give him a ‘best friends forever’ bracelet.

Ant turned to Sienna. ‘So, we need to book you some flights. You’ll be leaving tomorrow morning and it’s a three-day thing. All right?’

There was barely time for the poor girl to think, even if it wasn’t all right.

‘Yes,’ she replied quickly. ‘Actually, Ant, I need to just ring home and check, you know . . . that everything will be OK,’ she added quietly, obviously trying not to be rude to me as I was clearly the party with the least information.

Ant nodded understandingly. He knew something I didn’t, and I wanted in. Why would she need to check that she could go? Please don’t tell me she lives with overbearing parents who won’t let her come out and play . . .

If she has to check with her parents that she can go on a work trip, then they must be a nightmare. Does she still live at home? She’s twenty. I started imagining the poor sod who comes back to her place after a night out and then has to endure an awkward breakfast with a pair of overprotective, prudish accountants or something . . . God.

But really I had no idea what she was talking about. I was making huge assumptions. Perhaps it wasn’t her parents she lived with, maybe it was another man. I wondered again if she was with anyone. I’d never heard her mention anything, but she seemed so private anyway, I doubted she’d tell me. I prayed the situation, whatever the hell it was, wouldn’t stop her coming.

Sienna dashed out of the room and then it was just Ant, me and the buzzing sound coming from his drinks cooler. ‘Actually, I have some ideas I wanted to present to you, while we have a minute.’ I started to hand over the twenty-page document I had prepared, hoping I hadn’t typed a load of inane rubbish.

He jabbed the pages with his chubby digits, and it felt like an unwanted intrusion. There was already oil on the first page from where he had food on his hands. For Christ’s sake . . .

‘Hmm, this looks great, Nick,’ he said in the slightly patronising manner of a parent responding to their child’s cack-handed paintings.

This looks great? You haven’t even bloody read it, you tosser.

‘Well, there’s quite a lot there. I was thinking you might need a bit longer to go through . . .’ I tried to demand more of his time, but Sienna was back already.

She had a wide smile on her face. This must be good. Ant’s attention was gone.

‘Yep, I’m in,’ she said briskly.

‘Are you sure that’s all OK?’ he asked sympathetically, his greedy eyes looking her up and down.

He fancies her! He bloody fancies her!
I must get to the bottom of this. I hate not being the centre of attention, and I hate not being in the know.

‘OK, well, that’s just great. You can leave a couple of hours early to prepare. Just call me if you have any questions – and remember, Sienna, I need to see you just before you go,’ he continued as he stood up to usher us out. ‘One more thing: don’t forget your passport!’ he added, raising his voice a little. Another button popped, revealing a huge belly button. I wondered for a moment – if anyone got lost in there, would we hear their cries of distress?

As Sienna and I left his office, I wondered how to handle this. It was like a dream come true, but looking too happy would definitely freak her out, and I was still a bit pissed off that Anthony had dismissed my work. He didn’t even know Sienna that well and all of a sudden it was like everything revolved around her. He would normally have read my ideas with interest, he was always encouraging creativity, but now there was something different about the office. The dynamic had shifted.

But still – how should I react to the news of our trip? Being too blasé would just make her feel alienated. I also had to be careful with my choice of words. Already I had told her how she reminded me of my sister. My sister? God knows why I said that. I think it was some kind of defence mechanism to push her away because I was worried she didn’t like me.

However, telling her she reminded me of my sister was probably the ultimate sin. Worse than saying she was cross-eyed, bad at spelling or pigeon-toed (she is none of the above, and even if she were all three I think I would still fancy her).

I have a habit of filling quiet moments with stupid chatter rather than intelligent vocal contributions to society. ‘So, what do you think?’ I said, turning to face her at the entrance to the main office floor, my hands shaking a little. I thought I’d been nervous before the meeting, but I was really nervous now. If I did anything stupid, everyone would see.

‘Oh my God, Nick, I’m so excited!’ She started to jump up and down, using my arms as support. Sparks of electricity danced between us and I felt them. Each and every one. I suddenly felt overwhelmingly tense in her presence and needed to excuse myself. ‘Look, I have to go, got so much to do before tomorrow! Got to clear out the remains of my ex-girlfriend tonight!’ I said unblinkingly. There was a pause and I noticed her expression had melted from a smile into a look of horror.

‘I mean, erm, not her actual bodily remains – her clothes and stuff . . . Ha ha, got you there!’ I said. Foot-in-mouth syndrome had taken hold.

She smiled again, but still looked slightly disturbed.