by Jo Iles
Jessie spied Charlie exiting the lift. He spotted her too, and made an immediate beeline for her. She could tell instantly by his face, which was reminiscent of a thundercloud, that he was in a foul mood and was most definitely not a happy bunny this morning. Perhaps Sonia had told him to sling his hook. Jack had said she couldn’t stand Charlie.
‘What the hell was that stunt you pulled last night?’ Charlie fumed as he frog-marched Jessie by the elbow towards the waiting shuttle bus.
‘Good morning, Charlie,’ Jessie said, trying her best to sound assertive despite the shock she felt at both his greeting and his less-than-gentlemanly manhandling of her. ‘I’m sorry, you’ve lost me. What stunt did I pull?’ she asked, stopping still in her tracks.
‘Do you know how rude you were?’ Charlie replied with another question rather than enlightening her.
Jessie considered his question for a moment. Had she been rude at dinner? Despite having felt so tired, she really didn’t think she had. Jessie knew she had her flaws, but she felt confident that rudeness wasn’t one of them.
‘I’m sorry if you feel that way Charlie, but I wasn’t rude to anyone last night. I came back early because I could hardly keep my eyes open,’ she said, doing her best to rack her brains for the cause of Charlie’s venom.
‘That and the rest,’ Charlie virtually spat. ‘You sat there practically a mute all night. You didn’t even make an effort. Plus, I could see you giving dirty looks to Sonia all night. She saw as well.’
Jessie was stunned. People always commented on her social skills and talent at talking to anybody. Granted, she’d been a bit deflated on account of the long day, but she had still chatted away to Rowena about her horses, and had fielded polite questions to the Hong Kong food thief whose name she couldn’t remember. And as for the dirty looks, she didn’t have a clue what Charlie was banging on about.
‘You’re talking out your arse, Charlie. Would you care to know all about Rowena’s family estate and the names of her fifteen horses? I’m pretty sure I could give you an accurate rundown. Or perhaps Mr Chan’s latest business dealings with the New Land Development Company would be more of interest to you? I know where he’s having lunch today if you’re interested?’ Jessie asked sarcastically, staring him down, refusing point blank to get on the bus.
Charlie looked taken aback. He stared at Jessie, then gave his head a slight shake.
‘I’m going to work,’ he said abruptly, and got on the bus.
What could Jessie do? She couldn’t exactly go back to her room and stew. She was here to do a job, even if she wanted to give her boss a black eye. It would have been a grander gesture to shun Charlie and take a cab. But she didn’t know where the office was. So she got on the bus.
They rode the fifteen minutes into the CBD sitting next to each other but in utter silence. The more Jessie thought about what Charlie had said, the more angry she felt about his words and also how he had said them. She’d been nothing but affable and agreeable on this trip, and he’d just been a vindictive bastard towards her for no apparent reason. If that was the real Charlie, then she wasn’t interested in knowing him. Every now and then she could hear him release an audible sigh. Jessie felt even more annoyed with him. Even his breathing patterns were getting on her nerves now.
Jessie and Charlie barely spoke two words to each other that morning. Charlie was whisked off to meetings and Jessie put her professional hat on and got stuck into the project to which she’d been assigned. She was to head up the resident Hong Kong research team, pulling and analysing data on China’s shadow banking sector and the potential implications of some reforms from the Chinese government that everyone thought were imminent.
Jessie’s earlier nerves evaporated as she buried her head in work. She liked what she was doing and her temporary little team had seemed to respond well to her suggestions and delegation. She was relieved that she hadn’t been out of her depth once so far, and her outfit choice seemed to be working its magic—on everyone aside from Charlie, who was doing his best to avoid eye contact as he moved from meeting to meeting.
When one of the girls in her team offered to take her for lunch, Jessie jumped at the chance. Although she wasn’t really one to hold grudges, she didn’t fancy having a silent and awkward lunch with Charlie. Her new colleague was called Nancy and she took her to a local dim sum restaurant, hidden down a maze of side streets. The hygiene of the establishment was slightly questionable, but the food was good. Jessie very much doubted Charlie would be going anywhere similar, given his choice of swanky dinner venue the night before.
Jessie was glad she was getting to see some of the real Hong Kong, and she drank in the sights and sounds around her. It was her first experience braving the lunchtime slow-moving crowds of the city and she was struck by the fact that everyone seemed to go for lunch in groups and eat out in a restaurant. Some places had long queues of young professionals in business attire stretching down the street, all of them chatting away or playing on their mobile phones at a million miles an hour. In England, Jessie always grabbed a quick sandwich and ate it back at her desk, barely taking her eyes off her computer screen or a report she was reading.
Back at the office and Jessie had just sat down again when she felt a gentle tap on the shoulder. She turned to see Charlie standing there. Funny, she hadn’t heard him breathing.
‘Can I have a quick word with you?’ he asked quietly, looking furtively around the open-plan office space.
‘Sure,’ Jessie replied, and walked as elegantly as she could towards the empty pantry area.
‘I thought we could go in a meeting room…’ Charlie began before a stern look from Jessie stopped him. ‘Or this is fine I guess,’ he conceded.
‘You wanted a word?’ Jessie said firmly, turning to look him squarely in the eye and folding her arms across her chest.
Charlie paused, looking at Jessie as though seeing her for the first time. She had never been so short with him before as she had been today. Jessie stood patiently, waiting for him to speak, not letting her strong body language waver.
‘Yes, about earlier,’ Charlie began, then stopped. Jessie said nothing to fill the gap. ‘You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?’ he smiled, running a hand through his hair. Jessie didn’t say a word.
‘Look, I may have been a bit out of order having a go at you the way I did this morning. I wanted to say I’m sorry.’
‘A bit?’ Jessie repeated.
‘Okay, well a lot. I don’t want to blame the jetlag but I’m going to anyway. I spoke to Sonia today and to apologise for your behaviour last night, but she put me right, much the same way you did this morning. I guess I saw things in a different light compared to everyone else. Apparently Rowena and Mr Chan thought you were delightful company and Sonia was impressed also. Jessie, I’m sorry. Can we be friends again?’
‘Yes, I suppose,’ Jessie replied, unable to stop herself from smiling at the compliment about her being delightful company. ‘Do you want a tea?’ she asked as she started to make herself one.
‘Nah, I’m good thanks. Glad we’re back to normal though,’ Charlie said as he disappeared out of the pantry.
Jessie shook her head as she brewed her tea. She wondered what Tom would have to say about Charlie’s recent behaviour towards her. She doubted he’d be too impressed, and it would serve as yet another black mark on Charlie’s already blackened card.
‘Oh, and Jessie,’ came Charlie’s voice as he stuck his head back around the pantry. ‘Sonia’s such a joker. You owe me a few bucks to cover dinner last night. Fifteen hundred should just about cover it,’ he said matter-of-factly before disappearing again.
Jessie narrowed her eyes at the space where Charlie’s head had been seconds ago and huffed. Fifteen hundred bucks for a dinner she’d hardly eaten thanks to Mr I’ll-Help-Myself-To-Your-Food, aka Mr Chan or whatever his name was. Jessie wondered if the fact that Charlie had got lumbered with her share of the bill was the root cause of his ins
ulting behaviour. She hoped jetlag had had something to do with his lack of perception, but the more she thought about it, given his reaction to that original taxi fare from the airport, the more she thought that he was miffed over the money. No, no, her generous Tom would not be impressed at all.
Chapter 45
The next couple of days flew by in a blur for Jessie. She engrossed herself in the project at hand and took every opportunity to learn as much as possible about Hong Kong from her team, in the hope that she would get some free time at the end of her stay. Nancy had become her regular lunch partner, and she quizzed her continually about the best sights to visit and most authentic places to go for food. Jessie found herself sucked into the Hong Kong hectic lifestyle of working late, staying up later, and tottering around constantly in her high heels. The flat shoes she’d brought with her hadn’t seen the light of day since that fateful dinner on her first night. The only anomaly in her routine was that while the local staff all rolled into the bank around nine in the morning (or thereabouts), Jessie couldn’t quite reconcile herself to taking a full hour for lunch and so found herself turning up soon after eight each day, only to be welcomed by the cleaning crew and zero reception staff.
After their tiff, Charlie hadn’t exactly been a very visible part of Jessie’s trip. He was friendly enough when their paths did cross in the office or at the hotel, and Jessie didn’t think he was going out of his way to avoid her, but he just wasn’t around much. Jessie got the impression he was planning something unrelated to what she was doing in Hong Kong. It was hard to say what it was specifically, but he wasn’t his usual focused self in the office. Jessie noticed he was coming in late, going on long lunches, and leaving the office unusually early. What he was doing with all this extra downtime, Jessie had no idea, but she doubted he was going sightseeing. What’s more, he didn’t seem remotely interested in the Chinese shadow banking assignment, which, as far as Jessie was concerned, was the raison d’être for their visit. He hadn’t asked her for any progress updates as was his usual management style. Jessie had been sending him updates regardless, but his responses had been short, sometimes no more than a simple thanks or cheers. Normal Charlie would have been making suggestions left, right, and centre and asking numerous additional questions.
Jessie wouldn’t have ordinarily said anything to Charlie regarding his conduct, but the top directors and some of the travelling honchos had noticed Charlie’s lack of presence. Jessie had clocked some raised eyebrows and muttered words of discontent concerning Charlie’s whereabouts on more than one occasion.
She wondered what could be up with him, but all her inventive imagination could come up with was that maybe he had one eye out the door. Maybe he was looking for other job opportunities already. Maybe he wanted to move to Hong Kong. Jessie kept coming back to this last point. What if Charlie moved to Hong Kong? How would she feel about that? Heartbroken? Desolate? Lost? A few months ago she would have thought it the end of her world if Charlie had moved banks, let alone continents. Now, she wasn’t so sure she felt the same strength of emotion.
Chapter 46
It was Saturday—which technically meant she should have had a day off and should have been visiting The Peak, or the markets, or going on the Star Ferry… but no, Jessie was in the office. It was eight-thirty on a Saturday morning and Jessie was the only soul in the office, such was the dedicated-to-her-work kind of gal that she was. She had hoped that by working through the weekend she would be able to complete her report and have a few days to spare to get to see more of Hong Kong than just the Hong Kong office.
She’d managed to get everyone else on her team to have all the necessary graphics and raw data accumulated. Now all she had to do was integrate this with her own research and analysis, possibly adding some further padding to her recommendations here and there. The end was definitely in sight, and Jessie could see three days or maybe even three and a half days of longed-for tourist activities ahead of her before her return flight back to England.
Jessie had just booted up her computer, and was heading to the pantry in search of beverages to keep her going for the next couple of hours. Water and coffee were on the menu this morning for Jessie. As she walked through the vast and empty open office she saw movement in one of the directors’ offices which lined the perimeter of the space. The directors all enjoyed stunning views of the harbour, whilst the worker bees all sat in the interior space with no natural daylight whatsoever. The door to the office was slightly ajar, and Jessie edged forward, training her eyes on the crack in the door, looking for any further movement. It was probably just the occupant catching up with some directorial duties on a Saturday. As much as she wanted to believe that, Jessie knew that there was a more realistic chance of her going out on a date with Johnny Depp. Something was off.
Jessie continued edging silently closer towards the open door, and almost jumped out of her shoes when a phone rang, breaking the silence. She felt rooted to the spot, and very aware that her breathing seemed to be audibly loud. The phone rang twice and was then answered by a male voice.
‘Hello,’ said a very familiar voice—Charlie. Jessie now found herself even more rooted to the spot, if that was even possible. She felt her jaw slacken and her mouth drop open. What the hell was Charlie doing here, and what was he doing in that particular office? He wasn’t supposed to be here, and he definitely wasn’t supposed to be in there. Charlie was senior but he wasn’t that senior. Jessie found herself unsure of what to do. Should she continue on her merry way to the pantry and forget she ever saw Charlie? Or should she go and say hello and ask him what he was doing? Or, should she try to snoop some more and try to figure out what he was up to without him seeing her? Jessie quickly calculated the possible outcomes in her head and opted for option number three—some further covert snooping was the new order for the day. She shuffled closer to the door as silently as she could manage.
Charlie was still on the phone, but he’d lowered his tone and Jessie could only make out the occasional word.
‘Equity… Sonia… sell… legal…’ was about the entirety of what Jessie could hear. Jessie ducked down behind the desk just outside the director’s office. The door to the office was open about six inches, and by gingerly raising her head above the parapet, aka the desk, Jessie could see Charlie walking backwards and forwards across the office waving a piece of paper in his hand. After two more minutes of barely audible dialogue with whomever he was on the phone with, Charlie hung up and moved to a filing cabinet. His back was directly facing her, and Jessie hoped he didn’t have eyes in the back of his head at that moment. He was rifling through the cabinet, obviously looking for something. He eventually must have found whatever it was he was after, because he closed the filing cabinet with a triumphant slam and the next thing Jessie heard was a photocopier revving away at full blast.
Jessie took this as her cue to leave, and she scuttled off to the pantry to make her coffee. On her way back to her desk, doing her best to act normal, she noticed the office door was now firmly shut. She wondered if Charlie was still in there, or if perhaps he had seen her retreating, eavesdropping back and had closed it to give him some privacy.
Back at her desk, Jessie tried to concentrate on her work, but her mind was running riot with questions and various hypotheses, each one more outlandish than the last. What it all boiled down to was that Charlie was up to no good. If he was allowed to go rifling through someone else’s filing cabinet and start copying stuff, why would he be doing that first thing on a Saturday morning in a deserted office? Definitely up to something fishy. Jessie hoped he wasn’t in any trouble and crossed her fingers that he wasn’t doing anything illegal.
But Charlie was a big boy, she told herself. He hadn’t asked for her help, so she couldn’t exactly volunteer her services in this situation. Whatever mess he’d gotten himself into, he would have to fix it by himself. Of course, resigning herself to this conclusion didn’t quell Jessie’s curiosity. She wondered whom that offic
e belonged to. The bank didn’t put the names of the directors on their office doors, probably due to the fact that they all moved around so much—Finance First Bank did seem to be somewhat of a revolving door at the senior level. Jessie knew she had to find out which director used that office. It would help to answer a few questions—or at least discount some of her crazier theories—and possibly suggest even more questions. Jessie glanced at her computer clock. It was approaching nine-thirty and she’d achieved the sum total of diddly squat so far that morning. So much for all her good intentions of finishing her work early.
Jessie forced herself to knuckle down, telling herself she really wanted to get her work done so she could have some play time. She deserved it. She’d been working her nuts off (figuratively speaking) all week, and a few days of touristy fun was her reward. She wasn’t going to let seeing Charlie playing silly beggars ruin her much needed opportunity for adventure and excitement.
‘Hello stranger,’ came a cheerful voice over her shoulder.
Jessie felt herself jump a mile in the air and her heart miss several beats. What the hell was he doing here?
‘Hi,’ Jessie squeaked in reply, putting her hand to her heart in an attempt to encourage it back into a more regular rhythm.
‘Why so jumpy, Jessie? You’re not up to any funny business, are you?’ Charlie asked, a playful smile appearing across his face, as he craned his neck to see what was on her computer monitor and pretended to check through a pile of papers on her desk.
‘Certainly not,’ Jessie defended herself, feeling slightly affronted seeing as how it was Charlie asking that particular question.
‘Hold on, hold on. Keep your hair on, Jess. I was only joking,’ he said, holding his hands up in a pose of surrender.
