Flight SQA016 (The Flight Series)

by A. E. Radley

  Olivia’s hands disappeared from the table and fell into her lap. A nervous expression washed over her face but she remained silent.

  “Olivia? Is something else on your mind?”

  “We didn’t confirm the situation with your accommodation.” Olivia pointed out.

  “Oh, right,” Emily realised that Olivia was clearly uncomfortable with the uncertainty. “Well, you’re right. It would be simpler to stay here but I just want to make sure that you are absolutely okay with that?”

  Olivia nodded. “Yes, I wouldn’t have said it otherwise.”

  Emily smiled wryly. “No, I suppose you wouldn’t have.”

  “So, you’ll stay?” Olivia pressed.

  “Yes, we’ll stay, but you have to promise that if we become a nuisance you tell me immediately.” Emily said seriously.

  “Why would you be a nuisance?” Olivia looked confused.

  “Well, I hope we won’t be. But five-year-olds are noisy and boisterous. Henry can be a handful.”

  “Well, sadly, I don’t think I’ll be seeing a lot of either of you,” she said as she looked at her watch. “In fact, I need to be getting back to the office.”

  “Saving the business?”

  “Hopefully,” Olivia sighed and stood up. “Thank you, for agreeing to see me again. I felt terrible about the way things were left.”

  “So did I,” Emily admitted. “I’m glad we’re past that now.”

  Olivia smiled at the acknowledgement that the argument was now truly behind them. “Me too. And thank you again for lunch. I’m sorry I can’t stay longer.”

  “It’s okay, I understand,” Emily said as she walked with Olivia to the sitting room. “Henry, Olivia is going back to work now.”

  He looked up from the coffee table where he was drawing on a sheet of paper. “Wait,” he said as he hurriedly picked up another colour and quickly ran it across the page.

  “No, Henry,” Emily said softly. “Olivia has to go now.”

  “It’s okay,” Olivia paused as he raced to finish his drawing before jumping to his feet. He dashed over and pushed the paper into Olivia’s hand. She perused it thoughtfully before looking at Emily with pleading eyes.

  “Right,” she said as she looked at the drawing, “So…this is Olivia?”

  “Yes,” Henry nodded. “And that’s the business that she’s gonna save.” He pointed to a large squiggle.

  “And that’s a giraffe.” Olivia pointed to a random giraffe next to the stick figure of herself.

  “Yes.” Henry walked away to look out of the window again.

  “It’s a metaphorical business,” Emily whispered.

  “Good.” Olivia nodded. “Because if it looks like that then I’m afraid it’s in worse shape than I thought.” They shared a laugh before Olivia nodded towards the door. “I have to…”

  “Yes, go, and thank you again. I suppose I’ll see you tonight.”

  Olivia nodded and smiled. “Yes, though I may be late.”

  “I’ll be up,” Emily assured.

  “Olivia, go and save the business!” Henry called out from the window.

  Olivia laughed. “Okay, I’m going.”

  The women exchanged quick goodbyes. Emily closed the door behind Olivia and gently leant her forehead on it and bit her lip.

  “Mommy?”

  “Yes, Henry?” Emily turned to face her son.

  “Will she be back soon?”

  Emily rolled her eyes realising it was going to be a very long afternoon.

  CHAPTER 19

  Emily sat in the hotel suite sitting room with the lights off trying to convince herself that she wasn’t spying on the Applewood Financial offices across the road. After dinner and some television, Henry had started to drop off to sleep, despite his valiant attempts to stay awake for Olivia’s return. Emily put him to bed and started to clean the lounge area of various toys and giraffe paraphernalia to ensure that the room would be clear for when Olivia did finally return.

  That had been several hours ago and the busy hum of the street below had turned silent as the evening drew on. Emily had read, browsed the Internet, and watched some television but she was too distracted to truly concentrate on anything as she waited for Olivia. At first, she would occasionally stand up and peek through the closed curtains to see Olivia and Simon busily working. On the twentieth visit to the curtains, Emily knew it was useless trying to kid herself that she was doing anything other than spying and decided to turn the lights off and open the curtains so she could see without getting up from the sofa every few minutes.

  At ten o’clock Simon left the office but Olivia remained on. Emily watched as she made telephone calls and typed on her computer for the next hour until finally she stood and started to pace her office.

  With a frown, Emily wondered if Olivia was avoiding her, avoiding the awkwardness of returning to the suite knowing that they were there. She nervously chewed her lower lip as she thought back to the conversation over lunch. Olivia hadn’t seemed at all hesitant then and she didn’t seem to even understand why Emily thought it might be a problem. But she watched Olivia slowly pace the office until she stopped by the huge glass windows and looked down at the street below. With just a short distance between them, Emily could see sadness in Olivia’s expression.

  Realisation struck that she knew hardly anything about Olivia. She travelled a lot, she worked in financial services, and Emily knew she was gay or maybe bi, but that was it. She decided to make a concerted effort to find out more. They were going to share living space for the next few days and after that Emily would be seeing her twice a week at work. She also suspected that Henry was already planning ways to spend more time with his new best friend, and if Olivia was willing then Emily certainly wasn’t going to prevent it from happening.

  Emily had spent most of the afternoon and evening thinking about Olivia, kidding herself that she was only thinking about her because of her kindness regarding their current situation. What she couldn’t kid herself about was that her feelings for the other woman were purely platonic. That didn’t change the fact that her son had to remain her top priority. She didn’t have time for a relationship, she couldn’t put Henry through the pain of another separation.

  Emily looked over to Applewood Financial, and much to her surprise, and relief, the lights were off in Olivia’s office. Finally, she had called it a day and was on her way home. Emily watched her exit the building and make her way across the quiet street towards the hotel.

  Quickly, she drew the curtains and turned on a couple of table lamps so it wasn’t obvious that she’d been sitting in the dark. She picked up her book and tried to look relaxed while she waited for Olivia. Ten minutes later, she heard the keycard in the lock and the door opened. She looked up with a smile.

  Olivia paused in surprise. “I didn’t think you’d still be up,” she commented, her tone low and tired.

  “I don’t need a lot of sleep,” Emily replied softly. “You’re back late?”

  “Yes.” Olivia nodded in agreement as she removed her coat and hung it in the closet by the door.

  Emily smiled to herself and made a mental note that Olivia hadn’t caught onto the question in her tone, only the words she had spoken. She didn’t know if this was because Olivia was tired or distracted but she filed the information away for later.

  “Why are you back so late?” Emily tried again. She closed her book, a finger marking her page.

  Olivia put her laptop bag and handbag on the coffee table and sat heavily on the sofa, still maintaining more grace than Emily thought she would in a similar situation.

  “I was attempting to make a last minute deal,” Olivia explained. “But I couldn’t. The debts are too large.”

  “Oh.” Emily found that she was surprised by Olivia’s defeat. She had somehow suspected the woman could do the impossible. “So, what happens now?” Emily asked.

  “We sell off any assets to pay outstanding bills,” Olivia said. “But more immediate
ly we file a press report, speak to the directors of the company, and then advise the staff.”

  Emily started to understand Olivia’s sombre appearance. “Are you going straight to bed or would you like a drink?”

  Olivia looked up at her and gave a small smile. “I think I’ll be staying up, but you don’t need to serve me.”

  “It’s not a problem. I was going to make a drink anyway. Tea, coffee, juice?” Emily joked, repeating verbatim her standard speech while at work.

  Olivia grinned with understanding. “Coffee, please, if it’s not too much trouble. I didn’t offer you a place to stay so you’d end up serving me beverages.”

  “Might as well make myself useful.” Emily smiled as she went to the kitchen and filled the kettle.

  When she came back into the room, Olivia was waiting for the laptop to start up.

  “You’re not planning to do more work, are you?” Emily asked in surprise.

  Olivia turned to face her. “I’m afraid I must. There are a lot of people who need to be informed that a deal couldn’t be brokered.”

  “It’s past midnight,” Emily said with a look at her watch.

  “Would you be asleep if your livelihood was on the line?” Olivia questioned, though not unkindly.

  “No, I suppose I wouldn’t,” Emily agreed.

  Olivia’s smartphone started to vibrate on the coffee table. She picked it up. “Stuart, thank you for calling me back.”

  Emily felt that she was intruding so returned to the kitchen to finish making the coffee. Olivia’s conversation was audible from the kitchen.

  “Yes, I understand that but really it is your place—” Olivia appeared to get cut off. “I know you’re upset but…” Olivia spoke again and paused before continuing. “Of course, yes…” “I can certainly understand your point of view. But I assure you that we have done all we can.”

  Emily slowly and quietly made the coffee, knowing that eavesdropping was impolite but not being able to stop herself.

  “Well, your opinion of me is, quite frankly, irrelevant,” Olivia said firmly and Emily could tell by the change in volume that Olivia was now pacing the room as she softly spoke. “Of course if you don’t feel you can do it then it will fall to my team.”

  Emily had delayed all she could and entered the room with two mugs of coffee, silently placed them on the coffee table, and sat on the sofa.

  “That’s…disappointing,” Olivia said and Emily could hear an angry man shouting down the phone. She held the phone to her ear with one hand while pulling back the curtain to look out of the window with the other. “Very well, yes, well, you leave me with no option.”

  Emily heard the man shouting some more and Olivia sighed and spoke one last time. “Of course, yes, we’ll make the calls in the morning.” She hung up and closed her eyes for a moment as she gripped the phone in her hand tightly.

  “Are you okay?” Emily asked softly. Olivia’s eyes flew open. Either she was surprised that someone was there or surprised that someone cared enough to ask, Emily wasn’t certain.

  “Yes, that was the owner of TCA Engineering,” she indicated the phone as she crossed the room and sat back down. “He refuses to take any responsibility. He claims we’re making him into a scapegoat for our own failings.”

  “That’s crazy,” Emily declared. “You wouldn’t have been brought in unless there were serious problems.”

  Olivia smiled. “Precisely, but he doesn’t see it that way. We have cascaded a message to the employees not go to work tomorrow but we still need to speak to them all individually, explain the situation and advise them of their legal rights. He’s refusing to help or to instruct his own Human Resources department to do it.”

  “So what happens now?”

  “We do it,” Olivia said with a sigh. “This news will obviously be difficult for people to accept, but it would have been slightly less hurtful if the message was at least conveyed by someone they knew, like a colleague who worked with them and found themselves in the same situation. Now I will need to divide the names of five hundred and eighty-three people between my staff and we have to call each one of them.”

  Emily’s jaw fell open. “Five hundred and eighty-three calls?”

  “Yes. Well, five hundred and eighty-two as the owner is obviously aware of the situation.”

  “How will you do that?” Emily asked, still in shock of the scale of the job.

  “If I have the two other partners, their assistants, seven members of the insolvencies team, two members of the restructuring team, Simon, and myself making calls, that makes fifteen of us, so around thirty-eight calls each. Say, five minutes per call, although allowing for some to be unavailable and the others who will not wish to speak to us, it will take about three hours,” Olivia picked up the steaming coffee mug and held it in her hands.

  “Sounds tough,” Emily said sympathetically. “But you’ll be making the calls yourself?”

  “Yes.” Olivia took a sip of her beverage. “I won’t give jobs out to my staff that I wouldn’t do myself. Besides, they need an extra person to make the calls. It’s a necessary evil.”

  Emily regarded the tired woman in front of her. She was surprised at Olivia’s hands-on approach but then everything she had seen about Olivia so far led her to believe that she wasn’t a stereotypical boss.

  “Do you want something to eat?” Emily asked. “There’s some food in the fridge.”

  “I was going to call down to the kitchen.”

  “I thought they’d be closed but special treatment for you, right?” Emily chuckled.

  “Yes,” Olivia admitted. “They know my habit of skipping dinner.”

  “Wait, what?” Emily looked up. “You skipped dinner?”

  Olivia looked like she had been caught underage drinking by strict parents. “Well, I didn’t have time. There was so much to do.”

  “You haven’t eaten for twelve hours?” Emily shook her head at the thought. “I’m making you something to eat. The hotel will take ages and you need to eat now.” Emily hurried into the kitchen and Olivia followed her with her drink in her hand watched as Emily pulled out various ingredients from the fridge. “How about a sandwich, or do you want something hot?”

  “Um,” Olivia paused, clearly torn between wanting to eat and not wanting Emily to feel obliged to serve her. Soon hunger overcome her concerns. “May I have a sandwich? I don’t want anything too heavy.”

  “Of course, chicken salad?”

  Olivia’s eyes lit up and she nodded. “Thank you, you don’t need to do that, I can—”

  “You flew a night flight in to London, went straight to the office where you’ve been working all day, literally, and most of the night too, actually. I’ve been drawing giraffe pictures most of the afternoon.”

  Olivia leant against the counter and sipped her coffee. “Where did the giraffe obsession come from?”

  “I’m not sure.” Emily smiled as she started to make sandwiches. “One day about two years ago the television was on and there was a news report about a baby giraffe being born in some zoo. Henry literally ran for the screen and was staring at it like it was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. I showed him some photographs online and he was giggling at how ridiculous they looked. From then on everything has been giraffes.”

  “Has he ever seen a real giraffe?” Olivia asked.

  “No, not in the flesh. Time and money meant that I’ve never been able to make it happen. But I’ll take him to the zoo one day, although I doubt I’ll ever get him to leave again. By the way, thank you so much for the giraffe hoodie, he absolutely loves it. He claims that he never would have gotten better without it.”

  “Thank Simon. I asked him to get a few things and he saw the giraffe hoodie and thought it would be perfect. It seems he was right.”

  “I have a lot to thank Simon for,” Emily said seriously as she opened the fridge. “He’s such a nice guy.”

  “He is,” Olivia agreed. “I dread the day he leaves.�
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  “He’s thinking of leaving?” Emily asked.

  “Not to my knowledge but the day will come. He is young and probably doesn’t want to be a PA for the rest of his life.” Olivia sighed. “He’ll be impossible to replace.”

  “Maybe he’ll stay for longer than you think?”

  “Maybe,” Olivia allowed although her tone was clear that she didn’t believe it.

  “I have to ask.” Emily turned around and regarded Olivia with a butter-stained knife in her hand. “Why the hotel?”

  Olivia looked confused. “Excuse me?”

  “Why live the majority of your life in a hotel rather than buying a place of your own?” Emily clarified as she put a sandwich on a plate and handed it to Olivia.

  “Oh.” Olivia took the plate. “It’s close to the office.”

  “It definitely is,” Emily agreed. “Don’t you feel like you want to get away from work sometimes though?”

  “Why?”

  “Have a break, do other things?” Emily prompted.

  Olivia took a bite and thought for a moment before replying. “I don’t think I really have anything else.”

  “No hobbies or interests?” Emily asked in between bites of her own sandwich.

  Olivia considered it for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t have time for anything else.”

  “So you’re in an endless circle: You work all the time because you don’t have anything else to do, and you don’t have any time to do anything else because you’re always working.”

  Olivia smiled. “I suppose so. What do you do? Outside of work I mean?”

  “Well, outside of work there’s Henry and, with my schedule, there’s not a lot of time for much else. But if I wasn’t working then I have plenty of hobbies I’d be getting involved with. I love reading and writing. I play sports, love yoga, I used to play the piano but I’m a little rusty these days, and I bake.” Emily laughed as she picked up her coffee mug and clasped it. “If I didn’t work, I’d be able to fill the day with hobbies.”

  “If I didn’t work, I don’t know what I’d do.”

  “Do you love what you do?” Emily asked.