‘How about you Penelope, did you have a good weekend?’ Jeff caught sight of Penelope yawning.
‘Yes thanks Jeff, just took it easy, settling into my new house.’ Penelope tried to sound enthusiastic in order to hide her boredom.
‘Didn’t catch the rugby then?’ Jeff added.
‘No, I missed out on that one.’ Penelope feigned regret. ‘On purpose!’ she thought to herself.
‘What a shame, I managed to watch it at Twickers myself!’ Jeff looked nostalgic.
‘Right, back to business, I got a call from Hank first thing this morning, and he was delighted with the proposal that we sent to New York. He said the clients loved it and we won the business, which is potentially worth £3 million to begin with… you should all be very proud of your efforts, and to celebrate Hank is taking us all out for dinner on Wednesday… so mark that off in your diaries…’ Rugby talk was over now, it was time to talk shop.
‘Oh no, I hate these work things, but I suppose it has to be done… at least it will be somewhere nice, I hope so anyway. I spend enough time with these people during the day without spending the evening with them as well. What have I got in my diary today, let’s see, morning shout, east coast conference call at 11 am, oh great… manicure booked in for lunchtime, I had forgotten about that voucher I got, I booked this ages ago… good plan booking it for a Monday… worst day of the week. Now a few calls to make…’ Penelope went through her diary.
‘Peter, hi it’s Penelope..’ Penelope dialled Peter’s number.
‘Hello Penelope, how are you?’ Peter sounded surprised, but pleased to hear from her.
‘Very well thank you, look I’m sorry I had to cancel our date on Friday, you know the way it is with all-nighters, and I probably wouldn’t have stayed awake through dinner.’ Penelope was genuinely apologetic. Peter was a really nice guy and she didn’t like to mess people around.
‘No need to explain, I have had a few of those myself, are you available this Friday?’ Peter didn’t like to spend time chatting on the phone, he got to the point straight away.
‘Oh, let me just check’… ‘Pause for effect, make him think I am actually checking my diary’… ‘Friday is looking good,’ Penelope said smiling.
‘Let’s say, we go for the same restaurant this Friday, and let’s see if we make it.’ Peter sounded confident and relaxed.
‘Good, looking forward to it.’ Penelope had a good feeling about this one.
‘I’ll call you during the week to make arrangements,’ Peter added.
‘Great, talk to you then.’ Penelope smiled as she spoke.
‘Cheerio.’ Peter was gone.
‘Now he’s not the best looking in the world, but he certainly seems very sweet, and not as completely dull as the rest of them. Definitely worth giving him a chance.’ As with many people who work in the City, the hours are very very long, and it doesn’t leave much time for socialising. Penelope used to mostly date guys from work, but she found that that wasn’t ideal as she didn’t seem to have that much in common with them! But, these days, if someone nice asked her out, it was definitely worth giving him a chance. It was either that, or complete singledom forever! Penelope had been single since she started working in her current job. She spent so much time in work, there was little or no time to meet anyone outside work.
‘George, hi it’s me.’ Penelope began her daily calls by calling her best friend George.
‘Penny! How are you?’ George was always delighted to hear from Penelope.
‘Fab, I’ve rescheduled with Friday night guy, the one from last week, remember?’
‘Great stuff, where is he taking you?’ George lived vicariously through Penelope’s dating career, she was happy and settled with her lovely boyfriend and she wanted nothing more than for Penelope to find a nice boyfriend.
‘The Ivy.’
‘Nice… how did he get a reservation…?’ George was surprised, that was quite a nice place for a first date, and really difficult to get a weekend reservation at the last minute.
‘I don’t know, he knows someone, who knows someone’s sister who is in PR or works in TV, something like that.’ Penelope sounded a bit bored by this as she explained Peter’s “network” to George!
‘Lovely, what have you got on this week?’ George enquired, hoping that there was a chance for the two of them to get together to catch up in person, Penelope worked such long hours these days and often had to cancel plans at the last minute.
‘Nothing much, work dinner on Wednesday, date on Friday, otherwise nothing, do you fancy meeting up for drinks… say Thursday?’ Penelope was hoping that nothing would crop up on Thursday afternoon to spoil her plans.
‘Yippee, can we go somewhere trendy?’ George was delighted, she couldn’t wait to get dressed up and head out in Soho.
‘Of course.’ Penelope was already mentally picking out what she was going to wear… ‘I’m in!’… and so was George!
‘Thank god! Something to look forward to… I’ll have to get a nice new top. I get so sick of going on dates these days, they can be so dull and the only people I meet are in banking because I work such long hours. I’m going to have to start trying to make some more time for myself. I wonder if any of Charlie’s friends are cute? I have been single now for ages, it’s really making me wonder if this job is worth it, I don’t want to be still single when I’m forty and say, oh yeah well, that’s because I earned loads of money!
Chapter 9
Bus Stop
Why is it that when you desperately need one, like when it’s lashing rain and you are late for a meeting, the bus stop is a barren wasteland, and every red object in the distance promises to be a bus, not even any bus, but the one with your number on it, and then as it approaches it shrinks and turns into some silly lorry delivering bread? But the minute your phone rings or you spot a cute guy heading in your direction, or you are in no hurry at all… three buses, all arrive at the same time… and yes, all with your number on them. This theory is tried and tested for public transport, it also seems to be true for men…
Zara arrived home from work exhausted and flopped down on the couch. She felt completely shell-shocked after the announcement that day in work and she was hoping that Penelope could reassure her… she noticed that the other two were not home yet. ‘Good, I have the place to myself, I wonder if Charlie and Penelope are going to be in tonight. I might ring the girls. My phone bill is bloody huge, I ring them any chance I get. I can’t tell them about my job, they just wouldn’t understand, they would think I was stupid or something. I don’t know what to do… I don’t know what to do… I don’t know what to do… oh no, here come the tears again. Oh god, I can’t ring them now… I think I’ll have an early one, all this stress is making me exhausted. I don’t want the other two to see me like this. This is the first time in my life that I have had a problem and I have nobody to talk about it to.’
Zara stomped up the stairs to her room, keen to be out of sight if either of her new housemates arrived home.
Penelope arrived home an hour later..
‘Good it looks like Zara is out, I might have a nice bath, it’s nice to have the place to myself. Charlie won’t be in until later, he’s never here when we are, and is always here when we’re not. I wonder what it would be like to live like that, sleeping in until midday everyday… lovely… I’m actually kind of tempted to chuck it all in and become a musician.’ Penelope smiled at the thought of this. ‘I hope we find someone good on Saturday, it’s kind of a shame we have to get anyone in, we are all getting on fine, and when you add another person, it can all go terribly wrong if they are not nice.’ Penelope was in a great mood, she already had a lot on socially this week, so at least she would feel like her life was a little bit more her own, and a little less JLM’s.
At 1 am Charlie came home from work, and he had been known to take his work home with him even at that time of the morning…
‘Sshhh!’ Charlie hissed at his latest “muse”
as he ushered her through the door without turning the light on.
‘What? Why? I don’t want to shhh… what’s the big deal anyway?’ Melissa was quite tipsy, and seemingly completely under Charlie’s spell already…
‘I have two housemates, and they are asleep, and I’d like to keep it that way…’ Charlie was not in the mood for any drama from this girl.
‘Ok, ok, no big deal… I’ll keep it down. Charlie where are you taking me?’ Melissa whispered very loudly.
‘My room, is that ok?’ Charlie softened his tone a bit, he did not want to spoil the mood.
‘Suppose so. So… do you live with the rest of the band then, and how long have you been together?’ Melissa could not believe that she had kissed a musician, and she could not believe that she was in his house now – imagine if they all lived here, she could not wait to tell her friends all about it.
‘Shh, come here Melanie… plenty of time for talking… in the morning.’ Charlie put his arms around her and pulled her gently towards him.
‘It’s Melissa!’ Melissa shrieked, and pulled away from him.
‘That’s what I said…!’ Melissa was so drunk that she believed him.
‘Whatever!’ Melissa didn’t actually care, she was having the best night of her life.
***
In EC1 Penelope sat at her desk and opened up her to do list for the day.
‘Wednesday already, the weekend is in sight. This week hasn’t been too bad actually, no late nights or anything like that, nice for a change. Let’s see what have I got on today, oh no! The bloody team dinner.’ Penelope had forgotten about the team dinner because she had been so busy looking forward to seeing George on Thursday.
‘Good morning Penelope.’ Thomas, Penelope’s manager, breezed in to her office.
‘Good morning Thomas.’ Penelope was a little startled, he did not have a meeting scheduled with her, and he wouldn’t usually just drop in. In fact it was challenging to get any time to speak with him at all, as he was usually so busy.
‘I have set up a meeting with Jeremy for you,’ Thomas announced to Penelope with one eyebrow raised, waiting for her reaction.
‘Jeremy?’ Penelope was a little shocked, this was all happening very fast, it was very real, very immediate.
‘Yes, Jeremy Eubank, your new mentor.’ Thomas was beaming at her now, he was delighted that Jeremy had agreed to mentor Penelope.
‘Oh yes, yes of course, how silly of me, I’m really looking forward to it,’ Penelope gushed.
‘Oh dear, I had totally forgotten about the ‘Partner’ conversation. I didn’t think it was all going to kick off now… I was thinking, way, way into the future… oh no, I’m not sure I really want this. I can’t say no though, that would be a serious career limiting move.’ Penelope mused with an unwavering smile until Thomas had left her office.
Later that evening the Capital Markets team assembled in the lobby, Penelope had a change of work clothes with her for occasions such as these, but decided against using them, after all none of the guys would alter their appearance for a work dinner, then again… most of them were married, and not single and on the lookout like her!
‘Ok, let’s head off, two of the partners brought their drivers and we can all fit. We are meeting in the lobby in ten, everyone ok with that?’ Chris announced.
‘Yes, ok,’ they all mumbled.
‘I can’t even remember where they said we were going, one of the Conran’s no doubt, great, hopefully there’ll be champagne, that will ease the pain of it all. I look ok I think, well, I’m not trying to impress any of them, but I suppose you never know who you might bump into…’ Penelope decided that maybe it would not be so bad after all.
In no time they were seated and chatting about work, and only work. Penelope was savouring her first glass of champagne.
‘Thank god for champagne, these guys are so boring… I had better make sure that I don’t get drunk though… I had a tiny lunch because I knew I would be eating out, probably not the best idea to be shooting champers on an empty stomach. Oh my god, is that Richard? No, it couldn’t be! I’ll try to have a good look without being too obvious about it, I don’t want to look like I’m checking guys out here.’ Penelope leaned back on her chair and glanced sideways in Richard’s direction. His profile was unmistakable, Richard was 6ft2, and terribly slim, he tended to layer clothing to bulk his wiry frame out. He had naturally tanned skin (from all the foreign holidays growing up) and white blond hair. He had a nose that unmistakingly resembled the Royal Family set. He had ice blue eyes that complemented his blond features and tanned skin. He was an old University friend of Penelope’s, she had very much fallen out of touch with him once she had started working in London. He used to tower over Penelope in University, and he had a slightly gauche quality, he was never quite comfortable in his own skin. Richard always wore expensive, conservative clothes, keen to demonstrate which “set” he was a member of. George had always been convinced that Richard fancied Penelope, but as far as Penelope was concerned he was firmly in the friend zone! He was a welcome sight on this boring Wednesday evening however. ‘It’s definitely him, what should I do…? Wait for him to see me and come over, or go over there? I’ll have another drink and think about it. I wonder what he is doing in London? I thought he was off living in a castle in Scotland. Maybe it’s not him… no, no, it’s definitely him. Right I’m going over… here goes…’ Penelope slipped out of her seat gracefully, and headed towards Richard.
‘Richard, I thought it was you, how are you? It’s so lovely to see you.’ Penelope beamed at Richard as she approached him.
‘Oh my god, Penelope, how lovely to see you. That’s right you work in the City don’t you?’ Richard seemed genuinely surprised to see her.
‘Yes, yes I do, but what are you doing here… just on a visit?’ Penelope enquired, the rest of Richard’s party simply stared, it wasn’t really the right moment for introductions, she couldn’t stay away from her table for too long.
‘I work in the City now too, I couldn’t keep myself busy in that draughty castle, it’s beautiful, but it will be more suitable for me when I retire.’ Richard looked pensive as he said this.
‘I know what you mean, I think I’d feel very out of the action if I lived rurally.’ It was Penelope’s idea of a complete nightmare! “Country pile” was synonymous with “torture chamber” as far as she was concerned. Functional wellies… yuk!
‘Exactly, I certainly didn’t want to become old before my time,’ Richard grinned at her.
‘Hmm… a bit late for that!’ Penelope thought to herself.
‘So when did you move here?’ Penelope enquired.
‘About a month or so ago, it’s going well so far, living in the parents pied à terre in South Ken… how about you?’ Richard shot back, keen for details.
‘Oh no, the others are beckoning, I’m out for a work dinner, I think the MD is going to give a speech, I had better head back, look here is my card, please give me a call and we can catch up properly, that’s my personal mobile number.’ Penelope got a little flustered as she saw the MD standing up, glass in hand, she handed Richard her card, having scribbled her personal mobile number on it, and was back in her seat within seconds.
‘Will do, lovely to see you again Pen,’ Richard beamed at her.
‘Likewise, see you soon,’ Penelope sighed as she walked away.
Once Penelope was well out of earshot, Richard’s brother Tarquin leant over to whisper to him.
‘Richard, so was that her?’ Tarquin said.
‘Certainly was, and she’s even better looking than I remembered…’ Richard sat back in his seat with a mischievous and truly satisfied grin on his face.
‘She certainly is a looker, lovely legs…’ Tarquin added.
‘Harry, I think I will be taking that apartment in Chelsea now, can you make the arrangements… and let me know when I can move in?’ Richard wasted no time arranging a place to stay. His friend Harry had a lovely a
partment going to waste!
‘Should be all sorted in a week or so, I think it’s actually empty..’ Harry hadn’t really been paying attention, he couldn’t understand why on earth Richard would want to move out of a castle and back to London. He thought he was positively barking!
‘Good, I’ll arrange for my things to be moved down from Scotland,’ Richard announced. The deal was done!
‘Which hotel are you staying in down here? There is no pied à terre is there?’ Harry asked, he hadn’t really been listening, but he was the one who knew one of the guys on Penelope’s desk in the bank, and he was the one who had told Richard that she would be here tonight.
‘There is actually, but there is someone living in it. I’m at Claridge’s… always Claridge’s Harry, it’s a family tradition.’ Richard smirked, he couldn’t believe his luck, the plan was going swimmingly.
‘I see, well I’ll sort out that apartment for you as soon as possible.’ Harry was bored of this now, the deal was done, it was time to move on to other topics of conversation.
‘Wow! That was great. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He was so pleased to see me. I’m really glad that I went over, imagine if I hadn’t bothered. I hope he calls…’ Penelope was delighted with her brief encounter with Richard, anything to take her mind off work. For the first time in ages she felt properly connected to her past, her pre-City days. First Charlie, and now Richard.
A couple of hours later it was bedtime for Penelope…
‘Oh no, I’m so pissed… way too much champagne, and I could barely eat after speaking to Richard. Better not make too much noise…’ Penelope tried her best not to make too much noise as she went up to her room.
‘Oh, hello…!’ She walked straight into Charlie and a girl on the stairs.
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