Daydreamer

Lucy

“Woah, this is nuts,” I muttered under my breath, all of my nerves superseded by shock. The office was completely unrecognisable. Something nudged my leg, and I looked down to see a small, scraggly terrier at my feet, his tail wagging as he stared up at me. He looked just like Benji.

“Lucy!” I tore my eyes away from the actual animal in Felix’s office to focus on Tabitha. She was smiling, which was a little disconcerting. I managed a small one of my own as she bounced, yes bounced up to me (also disconcerting – Tabitha was not a bouncy human). “You’re here.”

“Well, yes I—” I was cut off as the wind was knocked out of me by Tabitha’s hug. What the hell was going on?

“It’s so good to see you again,” she said, swaying me from side to side. It took a moment for my shock to fade and return the hug. When she finally pulled back, she kept both her hands on my shoulders to keep me near her as she searched my face. “You look fabulous.” A blush crept over my cheeks at the unexpected praise, and I bit my lip. “Does Felix know you’re here?”

“No, I…” I felt my blush deepen as I started to realise how mad my plan was. “I wanted to surprise him.”

The last thing Felix would want in a workday would be a surprise visit from me. When I worked here his pace was relentless – back-to-back meetings with not even a lunch break. The man was a workaholic. I shuddered at the memory of his anger at being interrupted during his negotiations with the Framlingham Estate when I’d brought him a birthday cake. How could I have forgotten about that? I’d been stupid thinking I should surprise him. Work Felix didn’t like surprises. I’d let myself be lulled into a false sense of security recently by Little Buckingham Felix, but I’d forgotten that this version – the one that ruled the office with an iron fist – was not kind, sweet, funny and hot (well, okay maybe he was still hot – it was impossible for him not to be, but that’s where the similarities ended).

“Oh dear,” I whispered. “I think maybe this was a mistake.” I tried to take a step back from Tabitha but her grip on my shoulders tightened and she frowned down at me.

“Hey, no way are you shooting off again,” she said, removing both her hands from my shoulders and looping her arm through mine so she could steer me further into the office space. Since when did Tabitha and I walk around arm-in-arm? “He’s in a meeting at the moment, but I’ll show you around the place whilst you’re waiting. You won’t recognise it.”

The dog at our feet barked once and Tabitha laughed. My eyebrows went up. I could count on one hand the number of times I’d heard this woman laugh. Her arm dropped from mine as she bent down to stroke the dog, who immediately flopped onto his back so she could scratch his tummy. After sufficient tummy scratches, Tabitha further shocked me by reaching down and scooping up the scraggly ball of fluff in her arms. To be clear, this was not a non-shedding dog, not by a long stretch – her previously pristine suit jacket was now covered in cream fur. The dog licked her jaw and she giggled.

“Lucy, meet Pippin,” Tabitha said, and I automatically lifted my hand to give Pippin scratches under his cute little face. A small smile tugged at my lips at the name. “He’s our new office dog.”

“Office dog?” I said, my eyebrows going up in surprise.

Tabitha frowned at me. “Yes, it was your idea, wasn’t it?”

My mouth fell open but the ability to speak deserted me as I remembered my advice from months ago. I looked away from Pippin and Tabitha, my eyes darting around the office: plants everywhere, desks strewn with personal effects, walls painted warm colours, a beautiful, fancy coffee machine taking pride of place in the central area, flanked by brightly coloured, comfortable looking sofas and funky armchairs. Tabitha let Pippin down and he trotted off to a large, fluffy dog bed next to the sofas.

“Where are the walls?” I muttered, focusing on the far side of the office. Instead of the walls and the heavy oaks doors into the partners’ offices, there was floor-to-ceiling glass. Light streamed in through into the communal space, which was no longer bleak, dark and grey.

“Oh, they were the first thing to go when Felix started making the changes,” Tabitha said, linking arms with me and drawing me further into the office. “After what happened to you…” I stiffened and her words cut off. “Oh Lucy, I’m sorry, hun. I didn’t mean to just blurt that out. I–I…” she paused. When I looked at her, I was shocked to see unshed tears in her eyes. “I’m so sorry about what happened.” she was speaking in a very-un-Tabitha-like broken whisper now which didn’t sound right at all.

“Hey,” I said, trying to make my voice firm, “It wasn’t your fault and I’m okay, I promise.”

“I should have reported him,” she said, still with that broken voice. “If I’d have known that he was going to do it to you and the others I would have done, but I just… I need this job and I didn’t think anyone would believe me.”

“It’s on him, Tabitha,” I said. “His behaviour is on him.” I reached across and gave her hand a squeeze. “Listen, I’m sorry he targeted you as well. I didn’t know about that either. I know now that Will and the unfair office environment were why you were…” I hesitated, not quite knowing how to phrase the next.

“A raving bitch?” Tabitha put in for me with a smile which I managed to return. Thankfully that broken quality in her voice had receded, as had her tears.

I cleared my throat and glanced away. “Er, I wouldn’t say that… I just⁠—”

“Hey, it’s okay,” she said. “I’ve been reliably informed that I was a bitch. I’m cool with it.”

“Yup, total b-word.” We both turned to see Lottie and Vicky approach. Lottie had a big smile on her face and Vicky’s expression was set to her normal piercing gaze.

“Thanks, Lots,” Tabitha returned on an eye roll.

“You can always rely on me to bring the honesty,” Lottie said. “Hello, stranger,” she said to me as she pulled me in for a hug. Hugging was clearly the new office protocol. “We missed you.” Lottie pulled back and scanned me from head to foot. “You look hot.”

I blushed again. “Felix has an obsession with buying me jumper dresses.” Lottie’s smile grew huge.

“I bet he does.”

“You’re back,” Vicky said simply. No hug from her, but that wasn’t a huge surprise. Office protocol or not, a hug would be a step too far for Vicky.

“Er, yes,” I said hesitantly. “I just popped in to say hi.”

“I was incorrect and acted on poor information when I last saw you,” Vicky continued. Now that I was really looking at her, I could see the subtle signs of stress on her face. Her jaw was tight, her face looked pale. “It was wrong. Very wrong. You have my sincere and deep apology. Had I known you’d be coming in today I would have prepared it in writing.”

I shook my head. “Vicky, it’s fine. You don’t have to⁠—”

“It is not fine,” she snapped, shocking me with the uncharacteristic display of emotion. “You were hurt.” She shut her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, there was real pain there. “I was wrong, and I’m never wrong.”

“Vicky, I⁠—”

“I’m never wrong except for the one time that it mattered, when it was about someone being hurt, not just about making more money. That time I was wrong.”

“Okay, but Vicky it’s over now. And we all make mistakes.”

“Not me. Not until now.”

“Come on, Vics,” Lottie said in a gentle voice. “We talked about this. You need to give yourself a break, right? Maybe now you’ve seen Lucy for yourself you can let this go.”

Guilt swamped me for staying away for so long and not answering messages from everyone. Vicky had clearly been imagining the worst. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner, Vicky,” I said. “But honestly, I’m fine. I’ve been writing and it sort of sucked me down a rabbit hole so I could forget about everything else. But I should have let you know I was okay.”

Vicky’s eyes went wide. “You have no responsibility to let me know anything. I’m the one with the responsibility.”

“Vics, you can’t be—” Lottie started but Vicky cut her off.

“I was in a position of responsibility. I was the boss. I should have seen what was going on. I should have insisted on taking things further when I saw Will with you at the party.” She lowered her voice. “I have difficulty reading people. It’s a problem.”

Lottie sighed. “You’re better than you think you are, Vics.”

“Only because I have you to help me,” Vicky returned. “And you tried to tell me about him, but I did not listen to you. Unforgivable. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to prepare the numbers for the meeting this afternoon. Numbers I understand.” She turned on her heel and strode away from us, her back poker straight and her shoulders stiff.

Lottie sighed again. “She’s taken this hard. I expect that by the time you leave, she’ll have a five-page apology printed out for you.”

“Oh dear, poor Vicky. It wasn’t her fault.”

“Vicky’s hard on herself and she’s not used to making mistakes.”

“She’s lost weight,” I said, and Lottie nodded.

“Vics finds emotions tricky. When she’s upset she can’t really express it properly so it sort of manifests physically. Not eating is one of the ways I can tell she’s upset. She struggles with some of the textures and…” Lottie broke off and bit her lip. “Sorry, I really shouldn’t say too much. It’s not really mine to share, and trust is really important with Vics.”

“Is she still having trouble sleeping?” Tabitha asked and Lottie nodded.

“I’m not sure what to do to snap her out of it, to be honest. She’s never really been this bad before. It might help now that she’s seen you’re okay.”

“I hope so,” I said, watching Vicky behind the glass in her office. She was typing at a furious pace, a look of fierce concentration on her face.

“Maybe your brother should pay us a visit again.”

“Mikey?” My eyes went wide as I looked at Lottie who was grinning. “Mikey was here?”

“Oh yeah,” Tabitha put in. “Your hot brother stormed in here and gave us all what for. It was quite spectacular.”

I groaned. “Oh no, he’s such an over-protective numpty.”

“I don’t think anyone could ever describe that man as a numpty,” Lottie said through a smile. “And he made quite the impression on Vicky.”

“He did?”

“I’ve caught her looking at his website a few times. That photo of him next to his tools and that massive table he custom-made? Vicky stared at that for half an hour straight last week. I thought she’d had a stroke.”

“Vicky fancies my brother?” I had to swallow back laughter. Vicky and Mikey were total opposites. The last man I could see Vicky with would be my rough-and-ready, flannel-wearing, unshaven, bitter-drinking, scruffy brother. I’d never even seen Vicky wear a pair of jeans.

Lottie shrugged. “Weird I know. But since she found out about what happened to you, the only time she’s seemed at peace was when she was looking at that photo of your brother. I’ve never seen her behave like this. You wouldn’t believe the number of blokes that try to get in her pants, and she brushes them off like flies. But then they’re all pretty-boy business types, maybe she needs a real man like Mike. No offence, Luce – I know you kind of like pretty-boy business types.” Lottie winked at me, and I gave her a shy smile.

“Enough about blokes,” Tabitha said, linking arms with Lottie and me and dragging us both further into the office. “Let’s show you round, Lucy. Look, the conference room wall has gone now as well. Felix wants a more open environment. No more silos and not sharing ideas. And it’s working. Way more communication, everyone pulling together. Profits are actually up. It’s crazy.”

We came around the corner and that’s when I saw him. He was sitting in the middle of the conference table, holding court. Everyone’s focus was on him and what he had to say. But when he glanced up from his laptop and opened his mouth to speak again his eyes locked with mine and he stopped mid-sentence. Surprise crossed his expression before that wide glamorous smile lit up his face. Everyone was still watching Felix. Some frowned in confusion at his silence. Others turned to see what he was looking at. I froze like a rabbit in the headlights as he rose from his seat.