Woman to Woman (22 page)

“Of course I’ll file Aisling said, relieved.

“Just show me where to start.”

She was leaning over a cabinet in the file room looking for Ms Sandra Burke’s file when Vivienne walked in at a quarter past one.

“You’re not at lunch?”

Aisling looked flustered.

“I didn’t know when lunch was she said. There’s so much filing to do, I just thought I’d keep working.”

“You’ll be working through lunch often enough without starting on your first day Vivienne commented.

“Caroline was supposed to bring you to the canteen but she obviously forgot, I’m sorry.”

Amazing, thought Aisling, Ms Ice Queen is actually apologising for something. She was even more amazed when Vivienne told her to take a break and get a cup of coffee from the percolator in her office.

“Leave this until after lunch she added. The canteen is in the basement, although it’s not precisely a canteen, more a badly equipped kitchen. There’s a kettle, a fridge and a microwave in case you want to have something hot. Go down the corridor and take the second left,

OK?”

“Fine.” said Aisling.

“I’m going to Baggot Street. Do you want anything from the shops?”

“No thanks, really. I’ll just get a cup of coffee and I’ve brought a sandwich.”

“Well, get some proper coffee from my office, won’t you,” Vivienne added. And I’ll see you later this afternoon to see how you’re getting on.” She smiled briefly, then opened a filing cabinet near the door,

selected a file and left as quietly as she’d come in. Marginally cheered up, Aisling left the file room and thought briefly about going down to the canteen for lunch.

If Caroline had accompanied her, she would have been delighted to meet the rest of the staff. But she just didn’t feel up to marching in on her own, explaining who she was and what she was doing here to a bunch of curious strangers.

Instead, she knocked gently on Vivienne and Caroline’s office door and, when nobody answered, went in for some coffee.

She took a biscuit as well and looked at the desks with renewed interest. So Vivienne was the World’s Greatest Mum, she thought. Presumably, she wasn’t such a tough career woman at home. Maybe they’d just got off on the wrong foot.

Some people were naturally prickly and needed time to get comfortable with others, she decided charitably.

At her desk, she ate her tuna fish sandwich hungrily and drank a Diet Coke. She’d found a recent copy of Style in one of Elizabeth’s wire baskets and she flicked through the pages, only half concentrating on an article about summer camps as she wondered how the boys were getting on at theirs.

She hadn’t planned on sending them to the day camp for the whole summer, but she’d no option now that she was working. Thank God that Fiona had offered to pick them up at three the first week.

“Only until I get sorted out,” Aisling said firmly when Fiona offered to help.

“You can’t spend your whole summer minding them.”

Brave words. She was finding it hard enough to cope with her first day at work without feeling like an idiot.

She’d just taken another bite of her sandwich when her door opened suddenly and a very tall and very dark man walked in. He was heavily built, with the sort of tan which spoke of lots of outdoor pursuits. He had a shock of jet black hair and a suit to match.

“Aisling, isn’t it?” he said in a deep voice.

“Yes,” she answered.

“Hello.”

“I’m Leo Murphy.”

He advanced with one large hand held out and leaned over the desk. The way his eyes roamed over her made Aisling feel uneasy.

She didn’t know whether it was his intense gaze or the way he was smiling like an alligator who had spotted his lunch, but she felt, well uncomfortable.

Since he was still holding out his hand, she reached out her left hand, the one without tuna stuck to it, and awkwardly shook hands. He held her fingers for much longer than was necessary and, when he released it, he smiled, a very self satisfied

“Aisling, I’m delighted you’re going to be with me when Liz is away.”

Nobody else had called the other woman Liz, but Aisling instinctively knew that Leo Murphy would enjoy shortening his secretary’s name, turning the elegant Elizabeth into the snappy Liz. “Liz, bring your notebook in here now.” She could just imagine him saying it. She hoped he wouldn’t start calling her Ash, only her closest friends and family called her that.

“I hope you’ve been made to feel at home.” He pushed aside a pile of files and sat on the side of her desk, his big body I dwarfing Aisling as he leaned over her.

Tuna, mmm. Health-conscious, are we?” he didn’t wait for her to reply.

“I’m pretty health-conscious myself. Rugby, you I know.” He patted his bulky chest proudly.

“A man’s got to work out, don’t you agree?”

“Absolutely.” she answered.

“I can see we’re going to get on very well,” he continued!

“Come on down to my office when you’ve finished lunch. I’ll go over what I want from you.”

“Yes, Mr. Murphy.”

He slid off the desk and headed for the door.

“And Aisling,” he turned to give her the benefit of another feral

“It’s Leo, not Mr. Murphy. We don’t stand on ceremony here.”

She rinsed her hands in the tiny bathroom on the third floor and

knocked on Leo’s door. “Come in, Aisling. Have a seat.”

He sat behind the desk and stared at her. God, there was something about him she didn’t like. She didn’t know what it was, but there was definitely something odd about him.

“You haven’t worked for some time, I believe. Pat’s been very good to take you on, I’m sure you appreciate that.”

Aisling felt sick. The way he made it sound, Pat had given her the job for services rendered, the sort of services you wore a French maid’s outfit and stockings for.

“Of course, I understand that you’re going through a rough time,” Leo

“It can’t be easy. We’ll make this as pleasurable as possible, of course. We run a tight ship here and I need to know you’re behind me one hundred per cent. Liz will fill you in on the day-to-day details of the job.”

He paused and Aisling wondered if she was supposed to say

“That’s great, Mr…. er, Leo,” she said.

“I want to work. I know I’m a bit rusty but I’m a hard worker. Elizabeth will be here for the next two weeks, won’t she?”

“Yes. But when she’s gone, don’t hesitate to ask me anything.

Anything,” he repeated in a syrupy voice. That’s all for now.”

He picked up his phone and started dialling a number.

Aisling got up to leave, anxious to get back to the solitude of her little office.

“Can you get me the Law Directory?” he asked suddenly.

“It’s on top of the cabinet over there.”

He held the phone to his ear but his eyes were on her

She turned around and was suddenly struck by the thought that her cream skirt really needed a slip underneath it. Was he watching her, eyes taking in her VPL, she thought, horrified.

She blushed furiously.

Thanks.” He took the book and she left the room rapidly.

Outside, she took a long, deep breath and wondered what was wrong with her. He hadn’t said anything awful, had he? So why was she so spooked?

When Caroline popped her head around the door at five to two, Aisling was delighted to see her.

“Sorry I didn’t get to see you for lunch. I had to race up to Grafton Street to look for a present for my husband. It’s his birthday on Wednesday and they have shirts in Arnott’s that he’d love. Did you find the canteen?”

“Vivienne told me where it was,” answered Aisling, ‘but I had a sandwich here. I didn’t know anyone and I thought I’d wait until I met everyone, you know,” she finished lamely.

“That’s awful!” declared Caroline.

“I’ll kill the girls for not coming and getting you. We’ve got two juniors who are so scatty that they’d forget their heads if they weren’t screwed , on. And I bet you never had any coffee, either, did you?” “Yes, I did. Vivienne told me to get some from your office,” Aisling said. “Come on down and get another one now and I’ll send the motorbike courier off with your percolator this minute. Leo will go mad if he doesn’t get his coffee in the morning, you know!”

She laughed at this and Aisling decided not to ask about Leo’s decidedly odd behaviour. She could have picked him up the wrong way. It was only her first day after all. No doubt things would look different the next day with Elizabeth to guide her through the maze of office politics.

“I don’t want mash. I want chips!” declared Paul crossly. pushing his plate away from him. “You can’t have chips,” snapped Aisling.

“You’re not leaving this table without eating your dinner, mash and all.”

She scraped the last bit of mashed potato out of the saucepan onto her plate and dumped the saucepan noisily in the sink. Granted, the dinner wasn’t one of her better efforts.

But mashed potato, fish fingers and beans were all she’d felt up to cooking after her first day at work.

They should have been eating a delicious lasagne she’d made on Saturday. But she’d forgotten to time the oven to cook the damn thing.

Phillip said nothing. He stuck his fork in the small hillock of mash he’d made in the centre of his plate and slowly mixed the beans into it until he’d made a pale orange mess. Since the boys had come over from Fiona’s at half six, just ten minutes after Aisling had got home, Phillip had been stonily silent.

Feeling guilty at being away all day and for snapping at Paul, Aisling tried again.

“Please eat your dinner, boys,” she begged. There’s ice cream for dessert and we can go to the video shop afterwards for a treat, all right?”

“Do I have to eat this, Mum?” wailed Paul.

“I’m not hungry.”

Count to ten, Aisling. She tried the honest approach.

“Paul, I’m very tired because I’ve been working all day. I’m sorry that dinner isn’t very nice but it’s the best I can do.

Please eat it.”

For once, it worked. Taken aback by such candour, Paul stuck his fork into a fish finger and ate a bit. And another bit.

Seeing his twin eating, Phillip stopped making fork tracks across his mash and actually ate some.

Thank you God, Aisling said silently. She didn’t care what she’d promised the previous night, she just had to have a drink tonight.

Back from the video shop, she left the boys watching Flipper for the millionth time and went upstairs to have a bath.

She stripped off her work clothes with relief and put on the peach-coloured satin dressing-gown she’d treated herself to the Christmas before. Soft and silky to the touch, it had always made her feel faintly glamorous. But not tonight. Only a two-week stay in a health farm and four hours under a beautician’s expert care would make her feel anything other than a harassed working mother with smudged mascara, aching feet and limp hair from her hurried walk to the car after work.

Aisling added a liberal dose of Body Shop Neroli essential oil to the steaming, foamy bath. Five drops were enough to relax you, the instructions said. Five wouldn’t have a chance, she thought, counting

out ten. With a glass of icy white wine the last bottle from Michael’s precious wine rack by her side, she lay back into the bubbles and let the day wash away from her.

The sensation of warm water gently taking the aches and pains away was pure bliss. She took a big sip of wine and wriggled her toes with relief. High-heeled shoes were definitely the wrong thing for work.

What she needed was a pair of low-heeled ones like Vivienne had worn. She had a black pair which would fit the bill perfectly, even if they were a bit old. They’d look fine if she polished them up. There just wasn’t enough money in the kitty for a new pair.

As the water cooled, she reached up with her left foot and twisted the hot tap on again. Heaven.

For the first time since Michael had left her, she wasn’t thinking about him or crying over him. Worrying about how she was going to cope when Elizabeth was on maternity leave, not to mention dreading working for the distinctly seedy Leo Murphy, was occupying too much of her mind to think about her absent husband. He’d got her into this mess, she thought venomously, but she had to get herself out of it. And she would, damn him.

“Fine, it was fine,” she said airily, when Fiona rang full of inquiries about her first day at Richardson, Reid and Finucane.

After all Pat had done about getting her the job, Aisling couldn’t very well say she felt like she’d just run a marathon and was dreading the next day, could she?

Tat was in court all day or he’d have been in to see how you were getting on,” Fiona explained.

“But he said Vivienne and Caroline were going to explain everything to you. How did you get on with them? Caroline’s very nice but Vivienne always sounds like a bit of a workaholic to me.”

“Caroline’s lovely,” Aisling was able to say truthfully.

“I

didn’t see much of Vivienne, really. Elizabeth, the girl I’m replacing, was out so I did the filing all day. It was simple enough, but pretty tiring. You see, I didn’t want to admit that I couldn’t use

the word processor so that’s why I volunteered to file. And I met Leo Murphy. He’s a bit different she ventured.

“Yeah, Pat says he’s an acquired taste Fiona answered.

“He’s only been there a year or so, but he’s great at conveyancing apparently. I’ve never met him. What’s he look like?”

Picture Jack Nicholson in The Shining, Aisling thought.

“Very dark haired and well built was what she said.

“He prides himself on being muscular she couldn’t resist throwing that in.

“He plays rugby and believes men should work out “Gosh, you sound very well acquainted already!” chuckled Fiona.

“Is he a bit of a hunk?”

“Not really, no.” If only she knew.

“Do you think you’ll enjoy working there?” Fiona asked seriously.

“I was on edge all day wondering how you were getting on You and me both, Aisling said to herself.

“I really want it to work out for you Fiona added.

“Oh Fee, it’s wonderful Aisling said warmly. She had to lie so she hoped she was doing it convincingly.