The speech went on for another ten minutes, but Zara didn’t hear a thing.
‘Rob! Oh my god!’ Zara whispered, as they all made their way back to their desks in silence.
‘I know love, but we all saw it coming,’ Rob whispered back.
‘I know, but still!’ Zara was totally freaked out.
‘I don’t believe this! I have barely been here to settle in, and now I’m going to be turfed out! I wish there was someone I could speak to about this. I suppose I’ll just have to wait and see what the HR person has to say to me. You could hear a pin drop in here, the atmosphere is terrible. Time to get out of here!’ Zara thought to herself.
‘Coffee?’ Zara asked.
‘In or out?’ Rob hissed back at her.
‘Out!’ Zara exclaimed.
‘Right, grab your coat and let’s go.’ Rob already had his jacket on.
As soon as they were within the safety of the second nearest Starbucks, Zara had so many questions for Rob.
‘So what do you think, what will they offer us?’ Zara was on the edge of her seat.
‘I’d say they’ll get rid of most of us, but they might offer a transfer position, in one of the other offices. So you would have the same job, but you would have to leave London, that might suit you though Zara, I know London hasn’t been your favourite place.’ Rob sipped his mochaccino in its oversized mug as he said this.
‘I know, it’s a real dilemma. I will have to cross that bridge when I come to it. Of course my first instinct is to rush back home, but I have spent so much money on rent and deposits and all that, it’s seems a bit of a shame not to give it a go.’ Zara couldn’t believe her own words as they slipped out of her mouth, after all wasn’t this exactly what she had been needing, an escape out of London?
‘I see, that’s a bit of a change of heart, it wouldn’t have anything to do with that new guy moving in, you minx!’ Rob knew how to make light of it, as he dipped his biscotti into his coffee.
‘No…! I told you he has a girlfriend. I don’t know, I just think it would seem a bit ridiculous if I went home now, like I couldn’t cope with London or something. I’m not sure if I could face that.’ Zara was really considering it now, as she munched on her biscotti. It was days like these that they treated themselves to biscotti as well as coffee.
‘When you put it that way, I see your point. Redundancy is a normal part of big city life, it doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with you, but people in smaller cities mightn’t see it that way.’ Rob was trying to see it from Zara’s point of view. ‘We are still in a sort of recession after the dotcom implosion, so redundancy is becoming the norm unfortunately.’
‘Exactly! My family are so proud and they think I am some big city executive, and I don’t think we were particularly hit by the recession where I come from, but I guess in London the effects are more immediate, more visible.’ Zara had no way of stopping her parents jumping to the wrong conclusions, or blaming a redundancy on the dotcom implosion.
‘Indeed! They probably think you are running the show down here!’ Rob looked aghast.
‘I know, if only they knew! And the girls are all so envious of my London life! They would kill me if I moved back before they had a chance to visit.’ Zara felt obliged to stick it out so that the girls could have a taste of her new life, they thought it was so glamorous.
‘I see what you mean, we really do take London for granted, I mean so many people travel here and pay a fortune for hotels and things like that…’ Rob considered how lucky he really was.
‘Totally, the girls can’t believe I can go to that huge TopShop at Oxford Circus any time I want, not to mention Bond Street.’ Zara was slowly deciding, even though it was really scary, she didn’t want to leave London. She could barely believe this herself.
‘It really makes you think doesn’t it, how much we take all of these things for granted.’ Rob dipped the last bit of his biscotti into his coffee.
‘Do you think we should go back now?’ Zara looked worried as she drank the last of her skinny latte.
‘No way! I bet everyone else has gone out for a coffee too, she said the HR people were coming after lunch, so we should be ok for a while. No use sitting around in that atmosphere!’ Rob was glad that they had brought their notebooks with them, it made it look like they were working!
‘Ok, in that case… it’s my round, tall, skinny, wet mocha?’ Zara said this without hesitating.
‘Zara! You got it right! Well done, that would be lovely thank you.’ Rob beamed at her, she really was finally mastering coffee speak.
***
‘Oh my god ring! It’s Monday, and we are supposed to be going out on Wednesday. It’s nearly lunch time, oh no!’ Penelope stared at her phone.
‘Hi, it’s me…’ Penelope decided to take action.
‘Pen, what’s up?’ George sounded concerned.
‘I’m freaking out…’ Penelope hissed.
‘Don’t ring him!’ George instinctively knew what she was thinking.
‘How did you know that’s what I was going to say?!’ Penelope was stunned, George had completely read her mind.
‘Oh, I just knew… now look, it’s Monday morning, he is not going to contact you during work hours, you of all people should know that, it’s just too busy. He will ring or text you soon, and don’t worry he hasn’t forgotten about it. And he knows exactly what he is doing if you ask me.’ George had a good feeling about Alyx.
‘Do you think?’ Penelope sounded a little calmer.
‘Totally. Listen, I find it helps to just not think about it. So just try to put it out of your mind for the moment,’ George advised.
‘How?’ Penelope quizzed.
‘Do you not have work to do?!’ George was pragmatic as always. Working in a Soho ad agency was nonstop, there were no peaks and lulls like in banking.
‘Not busy at all this week, bloody typical,’ Penelope sighed, ‘and it’s not like I can just work on a few designs… you are so lucky to be paid to be creative all day!’
‘I know, I know… I’m living the dream here… Well, there’s only one other thing… online shopping!’ George grinned, she knew this would work.
‘George, you’re right! What would I do without you?’ Penelope smiled down the phone.
‘I don’t know,… I don’t know…, you can thank me in Kir Royales. Anyway Pen, what is it about this guy? I have never seen you like this before!’ George sounded very supportive.
‘I have no idea, I think maybe because I wasn’t expecting to meet anyone interesting, that my guard was down and he swept into my life so unexpectedly. I’d kind of given up on meeting anyone interesting after a string of really boring dates. He was just so gorgeous George, and he just seemed quite down to earth as well. I know I only had a brief chat with him, but I have a good feeling about him. It’s hard to explain really.’ Penelope sounded pensive as she said this. She hadn’t felt like this in years, and she barely knew the guy. I guess some people just have a certain charisma.
‘I would tend to agree with you, and it’s not often that I say this, but I do think he is good enough for you.’ This was a first for George, she was usually very protective of her friend. She’d been there through all of the bad breakups and she was very keen for Penelope to meet a nice guy and be as loved up as she was.
‘Really? George… I don’t think I have ever heard you say that before.’ Penelope sounded pleasantly surprised.
‘Ok, well you get on with keeping your mind off him, chatting about him on the phone… really isn’t helping! Oh by the way, before I go, has Richard been in touch?’ George asked.
‘Richard?… oh, Richard Lord? No, not since the weekend. I think we said we’d go out on Thursday.’ Penelope sounded bored, she didn’t want to talk about “bloody Richard”.
‘Right, well try thinking about him instead then… and start planning your weekend,’ George advised.
‘But’s it’s only Monday!’ Penelope exclaimed.
‘Ahem, have you forgotten where we are?… This is London, if you don’t plan ahead, you get left behind.’ George chuckled.
‘Yes, mum!’ Penelope sounded like a twelve-year-old.
‘Right, oh dear, don’t call me that… it makes me feel… like a grownup!’ George exclaimed.
‘Sorry George, anyway, speak to you later.’ Penelope felt so much better now that she had spoken to George, a great sense of calm descended upon her.
‘Bye.’ George was gone, back to her Mac and pantone.
‘She’s right, now that I think of it, she’s always right. I need to stop thinking about him, it’s driving me mad. Online shopping here I come!’ Penelope discreetly took her credit card out of her wallet and stood it up on her keyboard.
Back in SW4 the atmosphere was less frenetic.
‘Hey Charlie, how’s it going?’ Gerry waltzed into the living room where Charlie was playing guitar.
‘Cool, I have just mastered the Staunton lick.’ Charlie didn’t even look up as he said this.
‘Ni-ice.’ Can I take a look at your guitars?’ Gerry motioned towards the six guitars lined up majestically against the wall.
‘Yeah, sure, the rest of them are up in my room. How are you settling in?’ Charlie asked.
‘Great, no problem, girlfriend likes it too. She thought the two girls were nice, thank god! I couldn’t put up with any issues, If you know what I mean.’ Gerry rolled his eyes as he said this.
‘Totally! That’s why I keep myself nice and single.’ Charlie grinned at him.
‘I caved last year, I think I just fell in love or something, I was clinging to the single life too, but she is just gorgeous. We’ve been going out for nearly a year now,’ Gerry explained.
‘A year, wow, that’s amazing.’ Charlie was impressed.
‘I know, longest ever.’ Gerry sounded surprised himself.
‘Pretty impressive. Here, have a look at this Strat, it was a limited edition. I got it on Denmark Street, here… hook it up.’ Charlie picked up the guitar.
‘It’s beautiful, perfect sound… pink though?’ Gerry wasn’t too sure about the colour.
‘The chicks love it, girls love pink… don’t you know anything?’ Charlie laughed.
‘Good point, do people not think you are a poof though? Baby pink guitar screams G.A.Y, no?’ Gerry wasn’t convinced.
‘No way!’ Charlie roared back.
‘Ok, just checking.’ Gerry backed down immediately, the subject would never be mentioned again.
Chapter 12
Crossroads
Later that night Zara tossed and turned in bed, she was finding it impossible to sleep.
‘I can’t sleep, I can’t sleep, I can’t sleep, I can’t sleep. I keep needing to go to the loo too! I just can’t relax. The meeting with the HR dragon really freaked me out today. I didn’t get a chance to speak to Rob, because his meeting went on really late, and I just had to get out of there. I can’t stop thinking about what she said. Either redundancy, or potentially interview for a job in the Manchester office. Manchester! I can’t believe this has happened to me. I was holding out hope that they wouldn’t make me redundant, but when she actually said it, it hit me like a tonne of bricks. Redundancy! And Manchester! I don’t know anyone in Manchester. Imagine having to move again, to the other end of the country. I wouldn’t even be guaranteed a job there, I would have to interview for it, and I probably wouldn’t stand a chance, the others have all been here for ages, and I’m still only finding my feet.’ Periodically Zara stared at the time blinking at her in red on her radio alarm clock, it was making her feel worse.
4 am
… … 4.59 am
… … … … 5.17 am
… … … … … … 5.48 am
… … … … … … … … .6.05 am
… … … … … … … … … … … … 6.32 am
… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … 6.47 am
‘Ok, well I suppose I may as well get up then. It’s nearly 7 am after all. I am so tired, I just want to sleep.’ Zara reluctantly made her way down to the bathroom.
***
‘Morning sweetie.’ Rob beamed at Zara as she walked in just before nine.
‘Morning Rob, how did the meeting go?’ Zara yawned.
‘Fabulous, I negotiated myself a fat redundancy package! They were wittering on about moving me to the Manchester office, Manchester! The cheek of them, that’s where I came from, and I’m not moving back there, now that me and Mikey have settled in London.’ Rob shrieked as he threw his wrists up in the air.
‘They mentioned Manchester to me too, not sure that I fancy that though. It’s been hard enough for me just settling in here.’ Zara didn’t see the point of moving again so soon.
‘You don’t have to tell me that! Remember how scared you used to be of the Tube? And the experimental coffee outings?’ Rob smiled at Zara.
‘I know, and that was only a couple of weeks ago.’ Zara could barely believe how much she had grown in a few short weeks in London.
‘They’ll be giving a pretty good redundancy package, I think I’ll take the money and run.’ Rob was really pleased with himself.
‘They didn’t mention money to me at all yesterday, how much do you think we’ll get?’ Zara still wasn’t convinced, they hadn’t mentioned money to her at all, worryingly.
‘Should be three months basic, and then a month for every year you have been with the company. The whole thing is tax free too.’ Rob rubbed his hands together gleefully.
‘No way? Tax free!?’ This made Zara perk up.
‘Yep, because it’s a one-off payment, and it will hopefully tide you over until you get a new job. I always temp in between jobs to keep the money coming in, that’s actually how I got this job, I came here initially as a temp you know. Have a look at what your contract says, and then work out how much you’ll get. You should get three months tax free… giving you three months to get yourself a new job.’ Rob gave Zara some guidance.
‘I had no idea there would be any silver lining,’ Zara said slightly relieved.
‘Always a silver lining darling! Always a silver lining!’ Rob smiled at her.
‘Now, that’s not so bad! I really don’t want to relocate to Manchester now!’ Zara thought to herself.
***
‘Hi,’ Pen said.
‘Hi Pen,’ George answered, she knew what was coming next.
‘He still hasn’t contacted me yet!’ Penelope was getting really nervous now.
‘That’s probably because you don’t stop thinking about it!! You know what they say about a watched… erm… kettle or something… well, it never… boils, no pot, I think it was pot, well anyway, you know what I mean.’ Pen knew what George was getting at, even if the words weren’t exactly right.
‘Oh my god! This is driving me mad!’ Penelope sounded tense.
‘Are you not busy this week?’ George was trying to be practical.
‘No, the partners are all over at some quarterly in New York until Thursday, so we are all having a bit of a break, the one time I could do with being busy.’ Penelope sighed.
‘Did Richard call you yet?’ George tried to distract Penelope.
‘Who? Oh, Richard Lord, no, no, not yet. Listen, I’ve got to go, something’s going on outside my office, speak to you later.’ Penelope saw there was some commotion outside her office.
‘Bye.’ George hung up.
‘Simon, Roger, what’s going on?’ Penelope peered out of her office.
‘The shit has just hit the fan, Mortimer announced his resignation in New York, at the bloody quarterly meeting, without any warning at all, no rumours, nothing! He’s going and that’s it.’ Simon put the phone on mute and hissed this at Penelope.
‘Oh my god, have our guys been on the phone?’ Penelope went pale, this was not good.
‘No they are stuck in the meeting but, John Bartlett managed to sneak out to make a quick call under the
guise of “insulin injection”, I mean they just couldn’t say no, and they are holding it in the hotel our guys are staying in, so he used the phone in his room.’ Roger butted in with the details as he steered Penelope away from Simon and the phone.
‘Genius!’ Penelope whispered to him.
‘I know! Look we are calling an emergency meeting in half an hour, Scott and James are about half an hour away, so we’ll wait for them to come back. We are very, very lucky to get wind of this now, even the guys in the States won’t know until the end of the day, if even. I doubt it’ll be common knowledge yet, I mean he probably just wanted to tell them in person?!’ Roger whispered to Penelope, Simon was still on a call trying to get as much detail as possible, he couldn’t put it on speaker because it was incredibly confidential and he was struggling to write and hold the phone.
‘Hmm, maybe. The implications are huge, is he taking his equity stake with him?’ That was the first thing that occurred to Penelope.
‘I presume so, hence the call, details are very sketchy at the mo though. Jamie is our man, he has done a lot of work with the partners on internal stuff, firm strategy, that kind of thing, so he can advise. I don’t know whether Jamie is going to tell the others that he told us, but better to be prepared all the same.’ Roger sounded grave.
‘I completely agree,’ Penelope replied gravely.
‘Guys, the other two are half an hour away, so… meeting in the boardroom when they get back, ok with you?’ Simon asked.
‘Fine.’ They all said, they were counting the minutes!
‘Never a dull moment in here… ok, quick google search on Mortimer, went to Yale, industry contacts… hmmm… maybe he’s heading back into the retail industry? He’s got a lot of previous experience. I wonder if he is going to take early retirement?’ Penelope got onto the intranet immediately, she was speed-reading all of the copy on Mortimer.
‘Oh, text message! I bet it’s George!’ Penelope nearly jumped out of her skin as her mobile vibrated loudly on her desk.
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