November
James Plant
worked for Shaw Brothers and had been away on an outward-bound course, one of
those team-building kind of affairs, and the first thing he did on returning
home to St Pierre was to sit on his sofa and wade through the emails that had
accumulated.
Most of them
were of no importance so they went straight into trash, the rest comprised of a
number from Daniella Williams, from the office, gently reminding him that he
hadn’t submitted his expenses lately.
He had always
found her to be an attractive woman but a bit too forceful and a bit bossy.
Luckily before
leaving for the Pepperstock National Park, “for team bonding”, he managed to
get ahead of the curve and got most of his receipts entered so it only took
some little time for him to get them up to date and fire them off to her, which
he hoped, would keep her quiet for a week or two at least.
Once he had
finished all his correspondence, his thoughts returned to Theresa, as they had
for most of his time away.
During his
enforced isolation, with no access to technology or communication devices, he
had a lot of time to think, and most of those thoughts were about Theresa, and
on his return to civilization he was eager to speak with her, but he wasn’t
getting any response on her mobile.
Theresa was the
manager of the Beaumont Manor Hotel so he decided to phone her there the next
morning and asked to speak with her and was informed by Kerry, an unhelpful
receptionist, that she was not available, so he was about to leave a message
for her to call him but instead he asked
“Is her brother
Kenny available?”
It turned out
that he was, as his was the next voice he heard
“Kenny
speaking”
“Hi Ken, its
James” he said
“Hi James, how
are things?” he asked
“Not bad” he
replied “Listen I’m trying to get hold of Terri”
“She
unexpectedly had to fly to the States on Saturday morning” he responded “And
she’s staying over there for Thanksgiving”
“Damn” he
cursed
“Anything I can
help with?” he asked
“Not really” he
said, “It’s a question only she can answer”
“Well, I’m sure
she will if she can,” he said “I’ll get her to call you”
And he had to
leave it at that.
It was much
later that day when he received a call.
“James” Terri
said brightly “Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you, but the time
difference really messes with my head”
“That’s ok” he
lied, but it was so good to hear her voice
“I was just
hoping we could get together”
“I would like
that”
“Ok great” he
said “when?”
“Well, I get
back in late on Friday which means on Saturday I’m going to be an absolute
cabbage so how about Sunday” she suggested
“So how about
lunch, but just you and me”
“Definitely” he
replied “phone me with the where and when”
He was
disappointed initially with not being able to say all the things that he wanted
to say to her, all the things that he had been dying to say since the team
bonding exercise when it dawned on him that he was in love with her, and that
came right out of left field.
But that upset
was more than offset by her proviso in reference to lunch when she added “But
just you and me”
So, he was
elated, but the only downside was that he had to wait a for a week before he
could see her, but at least they could skype, so he had something to be
thankful for.
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