March
Just a few
miles outside Pepperstock Green was the Martlesham Park Industrial Estate and
one of the biggest companies on that estate was Mitcheldean
Merchandise.
Mitcheldean’s had begun life as a mail order catalogue goods
business in the 1960’s, but in the 21st century they were exclusively an online
company.
The goods
received warehouse supervisor was twenty-five-year-old Steve Selwyn, six feet
four inches tall with dark brown hair and was a popular guy among the staff, in
particular, by the goods dispatch supervisor, Nicki Piek, who was the same age
as him and had had him in her sights since they were at school together.
She flirted
with him shamelessly at every opportunity and she would incline her head to one
side and play with her hair and behaved exactly like she did when they were
still at school.
In was the same
tactics she’d been employing for ten years, and it still wasn’t working,
because he wasn’t interested he never had been and never would be.
Because he just
wasn’t attracted to her, and he didn’t like her, he didn’t like the way she
spoke, the way she laughed, even the way she walked, in fact she didn’t walk
she slinked, and if that wasn’t enough he had another reason to rebuff her
advances, Arianna Waters.
Arianna ticked
all his boxes, he loved her voice, her laugh, and the way she walked was an
absolute delight in fact there wasn’t anything about her that he didn’t like,
brown hair, hazel eyes and Arianna was everything that Nicki wasn’t.
Arianna Waters
lived at the opposite end of village from Mitcheldean’s and had only started
working there a few days before Christmas and Steve was instantly smitten, and
the attraction was mutual although they didn’t pick up on that, but Nicki did,
and she did not like it one bit.
Nor did she
like that she was 4 inches taller than her and had longer shapelier legs, was 4
years younger and was prettier not that she would have admitted to the last
part because Nicki Piek suffered from pretty girl syndrome.
Which is when
an attractive girl thinks she is far more beautiful than all other women around
her and for that reason she thinks that she deserves to get all the attention.
So, when
Arianna met Steve and Nicki in the warehouse on her first day Nicki was at
first shocked, then upset and finally angry when she realized Steve was more
interested in Arianna than he had ever been in her.
Arianna was
still in her probation period and was used as a bit of a gofer and she had to
work in several different departments and had to work under both Steve and
Nicki at different times of the day.
This was good
for her because it meant she got to see Steve for a couple of hours every day
guaranteed, but at the same time it was bad because she had to spend an equal
amount of time working for Nicki and it was obvious that she didn’t like her
and she really wasn’t very nice to her, and she couldn’t understand why, but
she saw it as a price worth paying if it meant working with Steve.
As she walked
through the village on her way to work on the first day of spring she had a
spring in her step because it was the last day of her probation and when she
had her meeting with Elizabeth Summers in HR she
was going to request a permanent position in Steve’s department so she would
see him all day, every day, even if he didn’t see her as she saw him she would
at least be close to him.
Steve Selwyn
glanced at the clock and pretended to be busy so as not to appear as if he was
waiting for her arrival, he was trying to be cool.
She was always
on time, in fact she was always ahead of time, and that day was no exception,
the only difference being that she was even more bubbly and smiley than normal.
“Morning” she
chirped
“Well, if it
isn’t the soon to be “ex” probationer” he said
“Todays the
day” Arianna retorted and crossed her fingers
“Not that you
need it, but I got you something” he said and gave her a little gift box
“For me?” she
asked and he nodded
Her hands were
shaking when she opened the little box and then she gasped when she saw the
little gold horseshoe charm.
He knew that
she had been given a charm bracelet for Christmas by her parents and that she
hadn’t got many charms on it yet.
“It’s gorgeous”
she said, “Thank you”
She didn’t want
to simply say thank you, she wanted to kiss him, not that that was unusual, but
at that moment she wanted to kiss him more than she had ever wanted to before.
In the end it
was taken out of her hands when the claxon went off to signify there was a
delivery.
“When are you
seeing Elizabeth?” he asked
“In an hour”
she replied
“Well, if I’m
not done before you go” he said “good luck”
And the good
luck was accompanied by a squeeze of her hand and at that moment she was
convinced for the first time that his interest in her was more than just
friendship or co-worker.
So, with his
gift to her in her pocket she felt 10 feet tall as she left the warehouse for
her appointment with HR.
When they had
finished unloading a 40ft trailer he looked around the warehouse and expected
to see her excited face, but she was nowhere to be seen so he returned to his
office.
He had been
sitting at his desk for about ten minutes when the phone rang, which took him a
few seconds to locate.
It was part of
the company phone system but was portable, so he wasn’t tied to the office when
he was on a call, which made it convenient to use, but sometimes difficult to
find.
He found it on
top of the filing cabinet with Arianna’s fleece on top of it, which he thought
was odd, she always complained about the cold in the warehouse, so she always
wore her fleece and his as well sometimes.
With the fleece
in one hand and the phone in the other he pressed the green button and said
“Warehouse!”
“Hello Steve”
“Is that
Arianna?”
“Yes” she
replied, and her voice cracked
“Are you ok?”
“No”
“Why, what’s
wrong?” He asked with concern
“They’re not
keeping me on” she replied
“What?” he
asked in utter disbelief
“I’m leaving”
“That can’t be
right, when?”
“Today”
“Today?” he
asked as he left the office
“Yes, I’m
leaving now” she said weekly
“Now?” He
repeated with alarm “I don’t understand”
“I’m not good
enough” she sobbed
“Where are
you?” He asked when he left the warehouse and emerged into the main reception,
but when he saw Nicki standing on one side of the entrance wearing a smirk he
began to comprehend what had happened
“I’m outside,
I’m waiting for a cab” she said just as he stepped out into the sunshine.
“Oh Steve” she
exclaimed when she saw him
“Come here” he
responded with his arms outstretched and she ran between them.
“What am I
going to do?” she sobbed
“Hey its ok”
“It’s not
though” she said “Because I won’t get to see you every morning”
“Well, if it
comes to that, you’ll have to see me every evening instead” he assured her
“Really?” she
asked as she lifted her head from his chest, and he answered by kissing her
The kiss only
ended when the taxi pulled up, and he turned and looked into the smiling face
of the taxi driver who was an old school friend of his brother, Billy Carlin.
He kissed
Arianna once more on the mouth and then opened the back door, so she could get
in.
“I will see you
later” he said and squeezed her hand before he closed the door on the Taxi’s
precious cargo.
He knew she
would get home safely, but he still said
“Look after her
Billy”
“No sweat” he
replied then Steve blew Arianna a kiss and the cab drove away.
When he went
back inside Nicki was still there and after watching him kiss Arianna she
wasn’t smirking anymore, and she turned on her heels and stomped off.
Also assembled
in reception were a group of half a dozen supervisors who had all had been part
of Arianna’s probationary training and they were as perplexed as Steve had been
when he first heard that the firm was letting her go.
Having seen
Nicki’s delight at Arianna’s sobbing figure he was pretty sure that she had
reported something to HR to paint her in a bad light.
After sharing
his suspicions with the assembled group, they decided that they should pay a
visit to HR and set the record straight.
The delegation
to HR met with Elizabeth Summers who was at first bemused, then confused,
followed by horrified and then finally deeply apologetic.
Frantic
meetings between upper management and the whole HR department followed which
resulted in the reinstatement of Arianna, providing she would accept it, and to
that end Steve was asked to deliver the news to her.
After the taxi
dropped Arianna at her parents’ house she had an up and down kind of day where
she would be in tears one moment because of the loss of her job, because she
loved working up at Mitcheldean’s, and then total elation because Steve Selwyn
had hugged and kissed her, and in between the two extremes she dared to dream
that she had imagined her dismissal but not the kiss.
She had a vague
recollection that he had said that he would see her later, but she wasn’t sure
if it was the traditional farewell “see you later” or that she would actually
see him later.
It was during
one of her periods of reflection that there was a knock at the door, she was
going to ignore it, because she didn’t want to see anyone, and when she looked
in the mirror she thought it more likely that no one would want to see her, but
she took a deep breath and opened it and to her surprise it was Steve, and she
instantly forgot how she looked and kissed him.
They were
sitting on the sofa after he had given her the news about her
reinstatement
“So, if I come
back will I still be on probation?”
“No” he replied
“And you will be working full time in Goods in”
“So, I’ll see
you every day?”
“Yes, every
day”
“Oh”
“Well, you
don’t have to” he said “you can choose whichever department you want”
“No, I want to
but….”
“But what?”
“Well, if I see
you every day, does that mean I won’t get to see you in the evenings?”
“No” he said
and smiled “it doesn’t mean that”
“Oh good” she
said, and she kissed him again
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