by S M Mala
Sylvie had sent Finlay a couple of messages through the week and he hadn’t replied. She wondered what had happened but realised he probably had moved on to something else. One thing that puzzled her, and she wasn’t complaining, was that Stephen was keeping away from her which made her happy. But staring at Finlay’s desk didn’t give her the same feeling.
‘Hey Sylvie,’ she heard Della say as she poked her head around the door. ‘What have you got planned for the weekend?’
‘Work and more work. I have to come in on Saturday to go through this,’ she sighed, seeing the paper on her desk she’d have to cross check. ‘What are you up to?’
‘Well I thought you’d never ask,’ she said closing the door and coming closer. ‘I’m going out on a date and you never guess with whom?’
Sylvie could tell from the woman’s face who she was talking about and forced a smile feeling her gut slump.
‘Tell me?’ she said feigning excitement.
‘Finlay Chambers,’ she said quietly. ‘He called me up and wanted to know what I was doing tonight so I managed to get a sitter and he’s taking me out to dinner. Isn’t that a turn up for the books?’
Sylvie noticed she looked genuinely excited and nodded feeling an almighty pang of jealousy, followed by hurt she’d not experienced for a long time.
‘You’ll have a lovely time. He’s quite funny,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘And he’ll take you somewhere swish and expensive.’
‘He said he wants to go out in Islington. I think he lives in West Hampstead, which isn’t that far,’ Della grinned before moving closer. ‘I knew he fancied me, I could tell.’
‘Who wouldn’t? You’re beautiful!’ Sylvie felt genuinely happy for the woman as she was radiating a glow. ‘I hope you have a lovely time.’ She glanced at her screen. ‘I have to crack on.’
‘I’ll tell you everything on Monday,’ she laughed and walked out with a spring in her step as Sylvie’s smile faded for a moment and she wanted to cry.
‘Silly stupid old me!’
That evening, after doing the washing and getting ready for the weekend, Sylvie looked at her emails and started to work. She felt fidgety and couldn’t concentrate as she wondered if Finlay had been playing a game and she fell for it. Standing up, she walked to the mirror and examined her reflection.
‘Oh dear,’ she said letting out a sad sigh and pulling back her hair into a ponytail.
Checking on Daisy, who was snoring gently, she ran a bath and threw one of her many left over bath treats from last Christmas in it, as she waited for it to fill. Slowly, she stepped into the hot water and lay back, looking at the tiles and knowing she needed to re-grout and change some of the boxing of pipes then smiled, before lifting up her feet to examine her toes.
One perfect foot and one mangled. She wiggled her feet and realised she’d have to do her nails after she bathed then lay back.
All she could think about was Finlay and Della going out for a meal and having a lovely time. She considered whether he would kiss her then, knowing Della, she realised they’d probably make love and start a secret relationship, which her and the others would have to ignore at work. Sylvie shrugged and sank deeper into the water, blowing the bubbles on the surface and feeling upset.
She really liked Finlay.
He was rude but funny.
His dry sense of humour and his joyous laugh then she recalled their kissing.
It seemed a million years ago even though it was only last week. She realised that’s what happened when you don’t get a lot of sex action, you remember the crumbs you receive and his crumbs were like big wedges of cake to her.
Finlay laughed. Della was good company and he watched her drain her glass of wine, looking flushed and very gorgeous.
‘That was a wonderful meal,’ she sighed, resting her chin on her knuckles. ‘Thank you.’
‘My pleasure,’ he replied, smiling back at her before glancing around the restaurant. ‘How’s work? I’ve not been in for most of the week.’
‘How comes?’
‘Busy with the other businesses,’ he lied, knowing he’d been at home for most of it trying his hardest not to walk in as he didn’t want to see Sylvie. ‘I’m waiting for some reports to come through and they’re taking forever.’
‘About our company?’ she said, frowning for a moment. ‘Shall we get another bottle?’
‘Let’s,’ he said gesturing the waiter and ordering it.
‘Don’t go digging too deep as you don’t want to get certain people into trouble now,’ she said lightly, leaning closer. ‘There’ve been a few hiccups but luckily they were smoothed over.’
‘Tell me,’ he said, nuzzling his nose against her ear.
Finlay knew he could easily take her to bed but he didn’t feel like it. His main interest was to find out how devious Sylvie was now he was back on track.
‘Are you using me for information?’
‘I’ve signed the agreement to let the company continue until the end of next year give or take a few things. You’ll be receiving the letters tomorrow morning,’ he replied, knowing he had held back on Sylvie’s copy which he had at home. ‘If I find out something bad about the way the company is being run then what can I do?’
‘And what do I get in return?’ she said, her voice very low as their faces were millimetres away from each other.
‘That would be telling,’ he replied and looked into her eyes.
The waiter turned up with another bottle and Finlay waited for the drink to be poured then smiled.
‘Is Piers a real fuck up then?’ he asked, sipping his wine and leaning back. ‘He’s my stepfather, and god I love the man, but I know if he ran that company it wouldn’t work as well as it does.’
‘Sylvie’s the brains and sometimes you find she has to wipe a lot of arse to make sure mistakes are covered and there have been some mistakes, I’m telling you.’ She smiled for a moment. ‘You’re not finding out things to get her into trouble are you? She’s a good woman you know with a sound heart.’
‘How comes?’
Della took a deep breath and looked at him squarely in the eye for a second.
‘When my husband left me, over eighteen months ago, I was a wreck. Sylvie realised something was wrong when I kept making stupid mistakes and, eventually, I broke down. Told her he fucked off leaving me the mortgage, credit cards and the kids. I had no money as he was the main earner. Well, to cut a long story short, she got me to meet with a financial advisor who sorted out my money woes.’
‘So she’s a broker?’ he laughed at the idea for a moment.
‘She knows for a fact how money can really break you when you don’t have it. That poor woman was put through the wringer when her husband died. His mother lent him some money years ago and she wanted it back, regardless of what Sylvie was going through. She was forced into selling her family home, bloody large house in Bedford Park, within weeks of burying her husband.’ Della sipped her wine as Finlay didn’t want to show his surprise at the news. ‘I know she said she was completely broken, and broke, for a short time as it was being sorted. She never forgave her mother in law for literally trying to put her and her daughter on the streets.’
Finlay didn’t want to admit it but he was missing Sylvie and now he felt sorry for her.
He sat back and looked around the restaurant remembering when they were sat in the sofa of her local pub laughing about nothing.
‘Do you think she’s deceitful?’ he asked only to find Della let out a loud laugh before putting her hand over her mouth. ‘I take it that’s a ‘no’.’
‘Don’t you like Sylvie?’ she asked and he noticed the bewilderment on her face. ‘Didn’t you stay the night round her home not so long ago?’
‘Can’t remember but Stephen was pissed off about it. What’s the attraction?’
‘Ah you see Sylvie is unobtainable, that’s why he wants her. Also I think he likes the idea she knows more about that business than he does. And Toby,
yes Toby has a massive crush on her because she looks after him and protects the man when he does cock ups, and god does he cock up with the editing.’ Della started to laugh out loudly. ‘Finlay, you should be indebted to Sylvie for reining your family in. Without her, that company would have gone bankrupt in six months.’
He kissed her.
That was the least he could do.
Della was very drunk and she offered to go back home with him but the kiss didn’t feel the same as Sylvie’s and he knew that meant he wasn’t going to enjoy sleeping with her. If he was going to sleep with someone for the first time since his separation, he wanted to get a thrill.
Drinking a glass of scotch, he sat in his living room without the lights on and couldn’t get Sylvie out of his head. He knew he was trying hard to find fault with the woman but everything he heard made her sound wonderful. Finlay felt troubled by this as he knew, most nights since they kissed, he was thinking about her constantly.
He lay back and slowly started to fantasise about making love to the saintly Sylvie.
Twenty five
‘Why ya face drawn?’ her mother asked while drinking a cup of tea in the kitchen as Sylvie packed her laptop in her bag. ‘You shouldn’t be working today. You work too hard for that lingerie company.’
‘I need the money,’ she said quietly, looking at her mother and wondering if her hair would thin as much as hers when she was seventy four. ‘I’ll be back about two. Take the money and treat yourselves to lunch.’ Sylvie handed her a twenty pound note before giving her a hug and walking into the living room to see her daughter. ‘I’m going now but be good for grandma.’
‘Yes mummy.’ Daisy was playing a game on the Wii and wasn’t diverting her eyes. It looked like she was skiing. ‘Where are we going to lunch?’
‘Discuss with grandma and tell me when I come back,’ she sighed, seeing it wasn’t even nine. ‘And don’t play Wii before you go to class and speak to your grandmother please.’
She left and walked out of her home, towards Chiswick Park, and headed to the building. It felt colder today and she was huddled in a large jumper as she unlocked the door, and turned off the alarm, locking the door from the inside. Knowing she had a long list of things to do, she ran up the stairs, plugged her laptop in and started to work quickly.
After eventually piling through the purchase orders to cross check the stock, Sylvie walked into the edit room. She looked through the rushes and immediately did rough cuts to help Toby, who had been hijacked into working in the delivery area. Then she repackaged as many of the outstanding edited items before putting them into the hard drive.
By noon she was shattered and just as she was about to make a cup of tea, she heard something from downstairs. With no one around and radios not blearing in the background, she realised someone else was in the building.
Her heart sank wondering if it was Stephen.
She opened the middle drawer and tried to find the biggest and most dangerous vibrator to hit him with if he got fresh. Sylvie waited in her chair as footsteps came bounding up the stairs and she glared at her screen to compose herself.
‘Hello Sylvie,’ she heard Finlay say and did a double take as he stood at the door.
‘Oh, hello,’ she replied, realising the last time she saw him was the day they’d got frisky in the edit suite. Something twisted in her tummy. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Needed to get some papers,’ he said brightly as she immediately put her head down and carried on working, knowing where he’d been the previous evening, her gut plummeting. ‘I left them here! I thought I’d lost them.’
It didn’t take a genius to figure out he had been avoiding her so Sylvie smiled and got up, walked to the kitchen and checked the fridge, throwing out the old items left over the weekend. She didn’t want to talk to him so filled the kettle and waited for it to boil. Standing by the sink, she looked through the window and noticed the kids coming in and out of the swimming pool.
‘How are you?’ he asked as she turned to see he was standing by the door, his hands in his jacket pockets. ‘It seems like ages since I last saw you.’
‘I’m fine,’ she nodded and smiled before grimacing, wondering why she was feeling a little sick.
‘Can I get a cup?’
‘Yeah,’ she said and reached over for a clean mug as she felt his hand on hers.
Sylvie pulled away and carried on making the tea.
‘I’m trying to find fault with you,’ he said quietly, as she ignored him and bent over to get the milk out of the fridge. ‘I can’t believe you’d work all these hours if you weren’t getting something out of it.’
‘You think I’m stealing money?’ she sighed, not even surprised by the comment. ‘Think what you like Finlay. I know the truth.’
Sylvie stood there for a moment knowing nothing had changed with the arsehole and felt a stab of disappointment, hoping he was nicer than her first impressions.
‘There you go,’ she said handing him a cup and walking past. ‘I’ve got a lot to do today so if you don’t mind, I can’t make chit chat while I’m embezzling the company funds.’
‘Sylvie, I didn’t mean that,’ he groaned as she heard his footsteps follow her back into the office.
Sitting down at her desk she sipped her tea and started to work as he sat opposite her and stared for a moment. She wasn’t going to look at him.
‘I went out with Della last night,’ he said quietly. ‘It was a really nice evening.’
She ignored him.
‘She’s a very beautiful woman.’
‘Yes she is and lovely with it,’ smiled Sylvie, before looking at him. She wasn’t quite sure why she was on the receiving end of one of his super glares. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’
‘I kissed her.’
‘I’m happy for you,’ she said realising she felt bile rise to her throat so she sipped her tea. ‘Don’t go using her because you want to get your own back on the wife. That’s not nice.’
‘Is that what you think I’m going to do?’
‘Isn’t it?’
‘I admit I want to get my own back on Juliette to make me feel worthwhile.’ As he said it, she could see he was upset and didn’t know what was going on in his head. ‘She broke our marriage vows not me.’
‘And sleeping with someone else will make you feel better? What about the other person? How do you expect them to feel knowing they’re being used by you and your ego?’ she asked as he stared blankly at her. ‘Call me old fashioned but I would never want to be used as a revenge fuck and that’s what you’re going to do.’
Sylvie watched him for a moment and noticed his bottom lip was starting to wobble. She was stuck to her seat as he stood up and walked out. Jumping to her feet she followed.
‘Finlay,’ she said as he tried to rush down the stairs and she grabbed his arm and turned him around.
His eyes had welled up and she could see he was on the verge of tears as he stood three steps below her. Sylvie gently pulled him closer and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him gently as she felt his face against the crook of her neck. Then he wrapped his arms around her body as they stood there for a few minutes. Finlay gently pulled away and looked at her as she smiled at him.
‘You know I’m going to try and kiss you?’ he whispered. ‘Are you going to object?’
‘If you find yourself at the bottom of the stairs then you’ll know.’
Staring into his eyes she noticed his lips and leaned forward as he kept his head perfectly still. Sylvie put her nose against his cheek and smelt his soapy fresh skin for a second before moving her mouth closer to his.
Then she kissed him gently and closed her eyes, feeling his soft lips starting to work with hers. With all her might she pulled away and smiled.
‘I can kiss and hug you better, I can at least try,’ she said quietly as Finlay turned around and walked down the stairs then out of the building.
Sylvie was stumped on what had just hap
pened.
Monday morning she knew everyone would be frantically working. All weekend she couldn’t figure out why he’d left and decided not to think too hard about it, realising he had his own demons. As she walked into work it was cloudy, which made the surrounding area look like someone had put a grey wash over everything. She saw his car and shrugged before walking into the building.
‘Sylvie! Sly!’ she heard Toby call out from the other side of the room before running over with a bright smile. ‘Thanks for putting the rough cuts together. I’ve been so behind.’
‘It’s okay.’ Glancing up she frowned for a moment. ‘Is your brother in?’
‘Yeah, he’s been here since the crack of dawn by the sound of it,’ he shrugged before grinning at her. ‘And my beauty, how are you? I heard you’ve been working really hard. Is Daisy much better now?’
‘Yes she is,’ she replied, before walking towards the mezzanine and up the stairs.
She stopped in her tracks when she saw Finlay talking to Della in the office, so she changed her route to see Elizbieta and Gillian.
‘Hello ladies, did you have a good weekend?’ she asked taking off her jacket and trying not to glance over at Finlay.
‘Yeah it was really good,’ smiled Gillian before flicking over a glance at Della. ‘She has pulled the high flyer. That woman has got some front!’
‘She deserves to be happy,’ Sylvie smiled, begrudgingly.
‘She throw herself at every man that come her way. What sort of respect is that?’ asked Elizbieta looking unimpressed.
‘Have you thought he might be throwing himself at her?’ she replied and went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and noticed Della walking out, with a massive spring in her step before going back to her desk.
Sylvie nodded and smiled at Della before composing herself and walking into the office.
‘Morning!’ she said brightly and realised he hadn’t looked at her. ‘Shitty weather, don’t you think?’
Still no answer.
Sylvie was beginning to think he suffered from some mental disorder she wasn’t aware of. Taking out her laptop, she plugged it in and sipped her tea before opening her desk.
