Zara arrived home eventually absolutely exhausted, she felt like she could get into bed, and it was only 7.30 pm! She didn’t think that was a good idea so she decided to stay up for a bit longer. She hung around in the kitchen for a while. She was wondering where her housemates were, surely they would be home from work by now. By 8.30 pm there was still no sign of anyone. She decided to head up to her room but when she heard the front door opening, she decided to hang around to see who it was.
‘Oh hi Zara, how was your first day at your new job?’ Penelope arrived into the kitchen looking immaculate, and she seemed genuinely interested.
‘Oh hi Pen, it was ok, but I’m sooooooo tired now.’ Zara looked exhausted. ‘And the train stopped just outside Charing Cross for ages, I was nearly late, it was so stressful… I can’t believe how many people cram themselves onto the trains in London. ‘Zara mustered up enough energy to make it seem like she was a Londoner through and through, she had got to work and back in one piece and survived her first day, she was very proud of her small triumph. This feeling was not to last for too long.
‘I suppose it does take some getting used to when you first arrive. I was lucky my parents live in London so I’ve been used to the Tube and the crowds and everything, but I suppose when you come from a smaller city, it must be a huge shock to the system?!’ Penelope was very understanding.
‘It is a bit of a shock actually, there just seems to be so much to learn, and everyone else seems to know it all, I feel so lost! I can’t believe how fast people storm around the place, they would knock you over if you don’t keep an eye on where you are going!’ Zara could feel the tears welling up again..
‘I know what you mean, London definitely has its own pace, there are a few essentials you should know about that might make things a bit easier for you… let me think now…’ Penelope made a mental list of essentials in her mind that might help Zara. She tried desperately to put herself in Zara’s shoes, so that she could give her some useful guidance.
‘Ok, what are they?’ The tears seemed to stop for a while with this glimmer of hope…
‘Well, first, and the most obvious thing… always carry your A to Z, and an umbrella… no matter how sunny it looks first thing in the morning!
Zara clutched her A to Z dramatically as Pen said this, holding it like a lifeline in a stormy sea.
‘And a bottle of water, you never know when you might get stuck underground… always carry some cash with you… you never know when you might need to grab a taxi if the Tube is suspended or delayed. Then always, always bring a book with you if you are going on the Tube, it will stop you making eye contact with the odd weirdo that you might find on there.’ Zara was practically on the edge of her seat she was listening so intently, this was good advice from Penelope.
‘I don’t get the Tube, I’m scared of it!’ Zara sighed, she was more scared now than before she had heard about the potential weirdos.
‘Well, you may feel that way now… but it is the fastest way to get around London, so it’s hard to not use it if you live in Clapham… we have three Tube stations here! Clapham North, Clapham Common and Clapham South. You will probably end up using it soon, and on that by the way… never get into a carriage if there is only one person in it… make sure there are a good few people, and definitely a few girls in there! That only applies if you are on the Tube or train and it’s really quiet… which is practically never anyway.’ Penelope was thinking hard about this now, the more she spoke, the more handy tips came to mind.
Zara felt like she should be taking notes… but she didn’t want to look too much like a complete idiot! She hoped she would remember all of this.
‘About going to work… there are a few things that you should carry with you, always bring deodorant and makeup, in case you need to run for the last bit of the journey like you did today, and I usually bring a clean top with me. It gets so hot on the Tube sometimes, you can get really sweaty!’ Penelope continued in a very knowledgeable way, it seemed like she was running through a mental list.
The more Zara heard the less she liked the idea of using the Tube, but she hid this, and looked as grateful as possible with each new tip that Penelope provided!
‘It’s not a bad idea to eat on the go, or get your breakfast in work… you need to get onto the Tube before 8 in Clapham, if you want to… well… actually get onto the Tube.’ Penelope was trying to spell it out to Zara, she couldn’t understand how anyone could live in Clapham and avoid using the Tube. It just didn’t bear thinking about! Penelope could not imagine anyone going to the trouble of walking to the bus stop on Clapham Park Road, going all the way to Clapham Junction and then milling around in one of the busiest train stations in the entire country. Clapham Junction is great for those who live in… well… Clapham Junction, but there were three Tube stations around Clapham Common for a good reason!
‘Penelope… erm, I mean… Pen, what do you mean if I want to get onto the Tube I need to get onto it before 8?’ Zara looked complete confused.
‘It gets so packed that you won’t be able to squeeze onto it, that applies for Clapham Common and Clapham North, the platform is really tiny and you might feel like you are walking the plank or something! I would stick to Clapham South if I were you!’ Penelope was trying to be helpful, in reality she was scaring the bejesus out of Zara. Zara was now posed with a dilemma… should she brave the Tube and get into work faster each morning, or should she stick to what she knew. There was just too much to think about.
‘Thanks Penelope, that was really useful.’ Zara was genuinely grateful, she felt very lucky to be living with someone who seemed to know it all about London.
‘That’s quite alright Zara, let me know if you have any other questions, or aren’t sure about anything, it’s no problem at all.’ Penelope made her way up to her room, she was exhausted too… Mondays were always intense at work.
Zara flopped onto the couch in the Wiccan living room, well and truly mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. She had literally never taken in so much information in one day in her entire life. She only hoped that it would be downhill from here.
***
The very next day Zara considered getting the Tube, for all of about three seconds, and then chickened out and got the bus and the train again instead. At 11 am her mobile rang, and she snatched it up quickly, very grateful for the distraction in work.
‘Zara, hi it’s Simon.’ Zara was at a bit of a low ebb the next day when Simon called. She was struggling with people’s names in work, she chickened out of getting the Tube in the morning, it was not going well…
‘Hello there, how are you?’ Zara was really pleased to hear from Simon, if he would take the spare room that would be great, they could both figure the Tube out together. It would be a relief to have at least one friend in London.
‘Crap, if you must know! I didn’t get the job in London.’ Simon sighed glumly.
Simon sounded terrible, he was really dying to move to London and this job was a major excuse to move down south.
‘Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that. So you won’t be taking the spare room?’ Zara’s faced dropped, but she tried not to sound too devastated.
‘’fraid not, oh well, I think I’m going to go off and drown my sorrows now. By the way, I bumped into the girls in The Roxy on Saturday night, they were lost without you!’ Simon was trying to be nice, but it was having the opposite effect on Zara, she had completely put the weekend to the back of her mind, but it all came flooding back…
‘Oh no, oh no, the tears again!’ Zara thought to herself.
‘Oh no, I have a work call coming in, I better go. I’ll speak to you soon, and sorry again about the job.’ Zara got him off the phone as soon as possible, she didn’t want him to hear her blubbing into the phone. ‘Oh god, tissues, I need tissues, look at the state of me.’ Zara thought to herself. She thought it was the right thing to do to get the call over and done with so she composed herself to call Penelope.
>
‘Penelope Chesterfield, Capital Markets.’ Penelope answered the phone reluctantly, she hated when the number didn’t show up on her mobile.
‘Hi Pen, it’s Zara, Zara from the house, sorry for ringing you during work but…’ Zara was shocked to hear Penelope’s ‘professional voice’, she sounded like a different person
‘Just a moment…’ Penelope headed out to the coffee area, so that she could have a bit of privacy.
‘Em, Ok, well…’ Zara stuttered, she was really shocked by Penelope’s abrupt manner, she was actually quite nice at home.
‘Sorry about that Zara, I never like to let them know that I’m taking private calls in work, I had to pretend you were a client.’ Penelope sounded like herself again, Zara was relieved.
‘Oh I see, I thought I had caught you at a bad time or something. The thing is that Simon, my friend from home, didn’t get the London job, so he won’t be taking the room.’ Zara could feel the tears welling up again, thank god nobody was around her desk to see her.
‘That’s such a shame, I will have to place an ad, and god, the only time I can interview is at the weekend, we really have cut it a bit fine. We should all be there though, because we all have to live with the person. Right!? Can you be there next Saturday? I will cancel my appointments and I’ll make sure Charlie will be there. I’ll put the ad in right away, to get things going.’ Penelope was about ten steps ahead of Zara – Zara had thought that the landlady would get the other housemate for them, this all sounded a bit like too much hard work.
‘Shit! I was going to go home that weekend, I can’t go now… it would look really bad… especially considering she’s cancelling things, oh no! I was living for my trip home.’ Zara thought to herself
‘That’s fine Pen, I will keep that Saturday free.’ Zara tried to hide her disappointment.
‘Great stuff, I better go, they can see me through the window, and I look far too happy to be speaking to a client, thanks for ringing, see you later.’ Penelope was keen to get back to her desk to draft the housemate ad, the sooner they got things going the better.
‘Bye.’ Zara couldn’t believe all of this was happening.
‘Oh no! I had picked out what I was going to wear on Saturday night and everything, I can’t believe this. Why is this happening to me? Interviewing bloody housemates. What a joke, I have never interviewed anyone in my life. Chocolate, I need chocolate!’
Zara headed out to get some much-needed chocolate, and it was only Tuesday!
***
To: [email protected],
[email protected],
Subject: New housemate ad!
Hi Everyone,
Here is what I’m going to say for our ad, it’s going into Loot tonight, so it will appear in the Wednesday edition. If I have left out anything let me know. Charlie I’m going to give your mobile number because Zara and I are in work all day, I hope this is ok, and we need you to be home next Saturday because we are going to see people then.
Single Room for Rent in a houseshare, SW4. Preferably young professional, non-smoker. £450 pcm ex bills. Please call Charlie at the number below or email [email protected].
Cheers
Pen
Chapter 7
Inaugural Weekend
In EC4 Penelope was getting agitated, she hated all the bravado that went on with the guys she worked with. Being one of only a few women in work really had its drawbacks sometimes. She just knew that these guys would make a mountain out of a molehill, and she was not wrong.
‘I have to keep moving around in this meeting just to stay awake, I’m so bored. It must be annoying them that I am fidgeting so much. Could these idiots just make a bloody decision! I bet they will decide to go with the first proposal after all these discussions. They are so full of hot air, all prancing around in front of the partner.’ She was dying of boredom in a meeting that had gone on for hours longer than it really should have. The “right” answer had been obvious to her from the beginning, and everyone’s opinion was of course valid, but her intuition was screaming at her that the first proposal was the one!
‘Looks like it’s going to be an all-nighter again tonight Jeff.’ Christopher feigned regret as he said this, but they were all really delighted to be showing the partner how “dedicated” they were by working such long hours, especially with promotion time looming.
‘I’m afraid so, did everyone hear that, cancel your plans… it’s going to be a late one tonight.’ Jeff came back into the meeting room and announced the bad news to the group.
‘Oh my god! Not another one! I hate all of these delays! When I bet they will just go with the first proposal. This kind of thing always happens on a Thursday, never a Monday or a Tuesday, they leave everything until the last minute and then we are in all night on a Thursday, and still recovering from it by Saturday. Penelope was getting so frustrated with all of the late nights, she had no life outside work these days, and more to the point no chance of meeting a nice new boyfriend, she had been single for ages! She also had to regularly let her friend George down, and this was becoming all too common these days.
‘Absolutely, we need to review these five proposals and the figures, to make sure it’s perfect, in time for the meeting in New York on Friday.’ Christopher was delighted with himself, and he couldn’t wait for the trip to New York.
‘They have gone through them all a few times each already. There is NOTHING else that can be done to the figures, I hate this “face time”… Penelope gave them a big fake smile, there was no way that she was going to show that she was not one of the team.
‘Let’s order in food, any preferences anyone?’ Jeff had the phone in his hand, already, he knew their orders practically off by heart at this stage… but it was polite to ask!
Time marched on..
10 pm…
… … … … 11 pm…
… … … … … … … … 12 am…
… … … … … … … … … … … … 1 am…
… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … .2 am…
‘Is that the final decision Jeff, we’ll go with the first proposal?’ Christopher announced this as if it was some kind of revelation.
‘What a surprise! I’m absolutely exhausted, and then I need to be back in here for 7 am tomorrow.’ Penelope was sick of having to work so late all the time, when the decisions could be made so much faster, if it wasn’t for all of the male politics that she was constantly surrounded by.
‘The first proposal is the final decision, there wasn’t much we could do with the figures…’ The whole team was in agreement, a few hours too late for Penelope’s liking.
‘There are too many egos in this room… they will all be fighting over the phone now to call the partner to let him know which one we are going with. I knew Jeff would grab it first.’ Penelope was mentally in the taxi on the way home already, her bed was beckoning to her from SW4.
‘Hank… Hi, Jeff here, we have made a decision, yes, we are going to go with the first proposal, we have tweaked it and it’s perfect now. I have left a copy on your desk, you can review it first thing and then we’ll get them to print it out in the New York Office.’ Jeff was positively bursting with pride.
‘Jeff looks like he is going to explode he is so proud of himself, he did none of the actual work, what a joke. You would swear he did the whole thing single-handedly the way he is going on. I’m surprised he didn’t offer to run a copy over to the Partner’s house personally.’ Penelope was getting a bit grumpy now, the proposal was done… it was time to go!
‘Great work guys, time to call it a night. See you all in a few hours. The taxis are waiting downstairs to take you all home.’ Within seconds the fourth floor was cleared, and everyone was down in the lobby.
‘3 am… finally home… I wonder if there is any point in going to sleep at all… two and a half hours is hardly going to do me much good. I think I’ll cancel my dat
e with Peter tomorrow… or I mean tonight… I’m going to be exhausted. I don’t want to fall asleep in my soup… after all… he could be the one…’ Penelope drifted off to sleep, even though her mind was still buzzing with facts and figures, her exhausted body won the battle… and she fell fast asleep.
***
The next morning Zara was up bright and early, she had been in work for nearly a whole week now, and every day things were getting a little easier, she was still struggling with the commute though, and had not plucked up the courage to get the dreaded Tube…
‘Morning Charlie, what are you doing up so early?’ Zara was surprised to see Charlie, he was never up at this time of day.
‘Hey Zara, I have booked the studio today, so I had to be up early, it costs a fortune per hour, and I don’t want to waste time. Did you see Pen last night… I haven’t seen her in days?’ Charlie rummaged in the cupboard for the cereal.
‘No, I was going to ask you the same thing.’ Zara was delighted to actually have something to talk to him about, they really had run out of small talk at this stage.
‘I’ll give her a ring later, are you in tonight?’ Charlie mumbled.
‘I think I’m out with work for drinks.’ Zara sighed nonchalantly, she was relieved that she did actually have plans, she felt like such a loser with no friends in London yet, especially considering how Charlie and Penelope led such glamorous lives.
‘Cool, I’ll be out with the lads, maybe see you later…’ Charlie mumbled, he didn’t really understand Zara and he never knew what to talk to her about, she was nothing like the girls that he knew.
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