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  ‘A bit like you,’ she mumbled, realising he was not only an arse but a sexist pig for even thinking she’d make him a drink.

  Piers and Toby would never dare ask her to do such a thing but at that moment, she saw Samina coming up the stairs and poke her head around the door before pulling a face.

  ‘You have guest?’ she asked turning to Finlay. ‘You want tea?’

  ‘I’ve asked Sylvie, that’s your name isn’t it?’ Finlay replied, incredibly politely, as Sylvie realised Samina caught her glaring at him.

  ‘I make,’ Samina said, smiling happily. ‘Sylvie very busy person.’

  ‘No that’s fine,’ Sylvie said cheerfully, before turning around and walking out of the office only to be followed by Samina. ‘What a prick!’

  ‘I make his drink. Why you go downstairs?’

  ‘I need a special mug.’

  ‘Oh no you not!’ said Samina, rushing past her and standing in the way. ‘He Toby brother!’

  ‘I’m being nice.’

  Quickly, she walked down the stairs and went into the warehouse, realising Samina was following her. The others were coming in and she ignored them for a moment before pulling a mug off the shelf, then searching down the anal accessory aisle.

  ‘Samina, can you find some biscuits, please?’ she asked, only to be met with a suspicious glare from the old Indian woman.

  ‘What you do?’

  ‘Biscuits please?’

  Waiting for her to walk away, she quickly looked around and found the spray before taking the two items back upstairs and towards the kitchen. As she walked pass the office, she flashed him a smile which was only returned with a dirty look and then reached the sink, washed the cup and shook the can. Carefully, she put a small amount around the rim before carefully making him a coffee.

  Carrying the cup, she placed it beside him pulling out a penis shaped drinks coaster she never used and walked away.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said, courteously, and she smiled sweetly back before shutting the door, trying her hardest to stifle a laugh.

  ‘What you do?’ Samina asked fifteen minutes later, walking into the edit room where Sylvie was watching the new product footage Toby had put together, while checking the spelling and price.

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘He look for you, this Finlay Chambers.’

  ‘I see,’ she replied and tried to hide her guilty expression before she stopped the footage and went back into the main office.

  Sylvie spoke to the two customer service assistants, Elizbieta and Gillian, before going outside and saying ‘hello’ to the people on the ground floor.

  Eventually she returned to the office to find he was still sitting there, exactly as she’d left him.

  Taking a moment, she examined him in his dark blue silk shirt and indigo jeans. Casual but smart.

  ‘Close the door and thsit down?’ he asked as she went to her desk. ‘Could you pull up a chair and thsit opposite me, pleasthe?’

  In mid stride she stopped and carefully sat down in front of him, crossing her legs, trying her hardest not to laugh.

  ‘You sthee,’ he said and she held back something rising in her throat.

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘I wasth…’ Finlay stopped and touched his mouth. ‘There theems tho-.’

  ‘You’re mumbling. I can’t understand what you’re saying.’

  ‘Fin!’ shouted out Toby running into the room as Sylvie sat looking at Finlay who was feeling around his mouth before their eyes locked, and she felt the glare.

  ‘Whatth thdid thyou thput-.’

  ‘Do you need a glass of water?’ she asked politely, standing up and then caught Toby’s expression as he put his hand over his mouth, knowing what she’d done. ‘Oh no! I didn’t rinse the cup out properly. Sometimes we throw away products in the sink like lubricants and relaxants. Shit! I’ll get some water. It soon wears off.’

  She ran out of the office and straight into the toilet, laughing so hard.

  ‘Oh no!’ Sylvie gasped for breath. ‘I think I’m going to be sthick!’

  Twelve

  It took an hour for the numbness to wear off and, in that time, Piers had arrived and was sitting at Sylvie’s desk. Finlay hadn’t seen her since she rushed out to get some water and a man called Stephen returned with a glass. Not trusting anything or anyone in the place, he asked Toby to go out and get a bottle of water from one of the numerous cafes across the road.

  ‘Who is she?’ Finlay asked for the umpteenth time as Piers mumbled a few one word answers and shrugged. ‘Why’ve you never mentioned her? It’s obvious she put together the documents you sent over. Did you send them over or was it her?’

  ‘What are you doing here?’ his stepfather crossly replied. ‘You were here a week ago and didn’t say anything about coming back. Is there something wrong?’

  ‘I’m concerned you’re not making enough money.’

  ‘We’ve only been doing it for two and a half years! You need at least five years to achieve a proper profit margin.’

  Finlay sat back in his chair and stared at the man. He was looking a little pale and he wondered if Piers was ill. Knowing not to be too harsh, he curbed his true feelings for a moment and realised if he upset his stepfather, he would also hurt Toby in the process.

  Not to mention his mother.

  ‘Maybe I can help?’ he said, changing tact. ‘Let me spend a few weeks seeing what everyone does and then I can make some suggestions.’ The look he received from Piers was defiant, very similar to Sylvie’s that same morning. ‘Why do you need her if you’re doing everything?’

  ‘Need whom?’

  He laughed because he knew they weren’t going to be co-operative but he was in the mood to pursue this.

  It was better than thinking about his current personal predicament in France.

  Then he heard the door open and noticed Sylvie smiling at Piers. It wasn’t the same smile she’d been flashing him earlier on. This one was warm and genuine.

  ‘Hello there,’ she said, before stopping and examining him closely. ‘You don’t look very well. Are you coming down with something?’

  ‘Something like that,’ he said and Finlay noticed they exchanged a look. ‘He’s staying here for a few weeks, wants to observe the operation.’

  ‘How lovely for him,’ she replied and walked around the larger desk, putting an arm around Piers’s shoulders. ‘I’ll do my best to tell him what he needs to know.’

  ‘I need to know everything,’ said Finlay as he watched her tap Piers’s shoulder. ‘And the first thing I need to know is where you fit into all of this.’

  ‘Fine,’ she smiled, grabbing her jacket as he looked at his watch. ‘We can set up a meeting on Monday. I start at nine thirty on a Monday and leave at noon. Tuesday and Thursday I start at seven and go home at ten but sometimes longer depending on the work load. I do twenty hours a week and invoice monthly. And the reason I work from home is that’s the agreement we made when I started, plus I get more work done. You need to know this piece of information, though it is personal but you’ll get a better picture, I have an eight year old daughter so I need to be with her as much as I can. Please Piers, don’t tell Finlay anything else about me, he’s just not interested.’

  On that note she walked towards the door and firmly shut it on the way out.

  Finlay glanced over at Piers, who was smiling at her before sighing,

  ‘What a woman!’

  One hour later Piers collapsed face forward at Sylvie’s desk.

  Toby was absolutely distraught when he called her to say if Finlay hadn’t been there he was sure Piers would have died. Sylvie managed to calm him down before arranging a time she could visit his father later on Friday. The last thing she wanted to do was run into Alice Caplin.

  As she walked into his hospital room, Piers looked pale and drawn. She knew he’d had a heart attack. It was only a matter of time considering the stress he was under about ‘Good Vibration’.

&
nbsp; He smiled on seeing her as she grabbed his hand and kissed it.

  ‘You know, your poor little son was having a breakdown last night on the phone, worried sick you were going to die. I told him you haven’t had enough red wine, marijuana or skirt to facilitate that … just yet.’

  He was about to open his mouth as she put a finger to his lips, instructing him to be quiet.

  ‘You’re going to be signed off sick for as long as it takes. This way it will cover me knowing things about your business. Nod if you agree.’

  He nodded.

  ‘I think your stepson is sort of looking down at us and, well, I have to convince him it’s a good business proposition.’

  Piers nodded.

  Is Finlay always such a …’ She scrambled her brains to find the words. ‘… a stuck up arsehole?’

  Piers smiled for a moment before nodding then shaking his head from side to side.

  ‘He’s complicated,’ he whispered. ‘Like you.’

  ‘Oh no, I’m fucked up, there’s a big difference there.’ Piers frowned at her for a moment. ‘Anyway, I’ll do my best. Just don’t let him ask you about work or me and all will be fine.’

  Finlay had watched them from outside. They were oblivious to him standing there. He hadn’t heard what was said but he knew it was secretive as Piers nodded a lot as she spoke. On closer examination, she was very pretty but still there was something about her he didn’t quite trust. He touched his lips where they’d been numb the day before and knew she had something to do with it. She kissed Piers gently on the cheek, stroked his face and walked out.

  He waited a moment then decided to walk straight in front of her, purposely bashing her side in the process.

  ‘Oh god I’m sorry!’ he said, as she bent over, recoiling in pain from obviously being winded.

  Flicking her hair back, she glared up at him and he swore she was saying something before forcing a smile then standing straight up.

  ‘Fine!’ she said breathlessly but with a cheery expression. ‘Got to go!’

  She walked quickly down the corridor before he took the opportunity to shout out,

  ‘I’ll see you nine thirty on Monday! Have a nice weekend Mrs Mather!’

  Thirteen

  Sylvie sat on the sofa with her best friend of over thirty seven years in her living room, as they shared several bottles of cava. Daisy was upstairs on the computer.

  ‘You think that’s a good idea? To cover for him? You know you’re going to get yourself into all sorts of shit when they find out what he hasn’t done,’ said Nalini, topping up their glasses.

  She examined her friends grey chin length bob, her fine eyes framed by expensive glasses and her lipstick still attached to her skin thanks to some twenty four hour Max Factor stain. Nalini was classified as a British Asian though born in Hillingdon, whereas they both classified Sylvie ‘not a proper paki’ as she had the looks but lacked the authentic culture.

  ‘Why not come clean and take the credit?’ continued her friend.

  ‘He’s been very kind to me. You know I needed the job when that husband of mine died. He knew about what happened with the bitch mother in law but Piers didn’t have to employ me.’ Sylvie sipped her drink. ‘It’s the least I can do to repay him.’

  ‘What’s the worst that could happen? It’s not as if it’s losing money hand over fist.’

  ‘They’re going to realise Piers can’t run a company and he just wants to prove himself, that’s all.’

  ‘The thing is they’ll eventually find out it’s all you. And what about your percentage share? Does his wife know about this yet?’

  ‘No, I’m saving that all up for when the time comes.’ She started to laugh. ‘I mean, how am I going to tell my child she’s got some money tied up in the future with a distributor of pocket rockets?’

  Nalini started to laugh when Sylvie heard Daisy’s footsteps come bounding down the stairs and smiled at her cheerful grin. Her child had long dark hair, very light brown skin and beautiful almond shaped eyes. She was also the most beautiful thing Sylvie had ever seen in her life.

  ‘Now mama,’ she said authoritatively. ‘I think next year we should go to Europe for our holiday.’

  ‘Okay?’ Sylvie replied, noticing how Nalini’s eyes lit up in amusement. ‘We might not have enough money, little one.’

  ‘We will,’ shrugged her daughter.

  ‘Where do you want to go? Maybe we can come too!’ laughed Nalini.

  ‘South of France as some of the girls at school said they went last summer,’ announced her daughter as Sylvie’s smile immediately slipped, being automatically reminded of the most recent thing she’d met from that part of the world and disliked intensely.

  Finlay Chambers.

  Walking into the office the following morning, she was shocked to find Finlay sitting at her desk. Sylvie made a point of smiling brightly when she entered any room. Unperturbed at being ignored, she went to Piers’s space and set up her laptop.

  ‘I’m going to get a drink, would you like one?’ she asked politely, not even bothering to say ‘hello’ to him as he hadn’t even attempted to acknowledge her.

  ‘No thank you,’ he tersely replied as she walked to the kitchen and made a quick cup of tea before returning.

  Sylvie noticed a few small groups huddled together as she stopped to look down from the mezzanine for a second.

  ‘Come on guys,’ she said gently. ‘We’ve got a lot of orders to fulfil today. Piers will be fine and I’ll talk to all of you later on this morning.’

  From the looks being returned, they didn’t seemed too convinced.

  She went back into the office and sat down.

  All night she thought about what was going to happen and how she was going to effectively lie about her capability, then make out Piers to be more competent than he was, without potentially losing her job.

  ‘So Sylvie, where shall we begin?’ Finlay asked turning his chair to look at her.

  ‘You tell me,’ she replied politely and realised he was wearing an expensive suit without a tie. Any other time she would have found him attractive but something about him made her want to stomp on his foot. ‘You have the questions and I can only fudge the answers.’

  ‘You,’ he said.

  She tried to not notice he looked a little like his mother, knowing that would only tip her over the edge and want to smack him hard on the nose.

  ‘Sly!’ she heard Toby say as he flung open the door and ran towards her.

  Sylvie held out her arms and hugged the big, cute teddy bear who had sunk to his knees.

  ‘Are you okay?’ she gently asked stroking his hair as he pressed his head to her breast.

  Discreetly, she pushed him away knowing he probably wanted boob care more than emotional sympathy. As Sylvie glanced at Finlay, she noticed the absolute disgust on his face at seeing what his brother was doing. She pulled Toby back and let him nestle in her cleavage a few seconds longer before grabbing his shoulders and looking straight into his eyes.

  ‘Your father will be fine. If you don’t feel up to being at work then you shouldn’t be here. It’s very worrying,’ she gently said and noticed Toby nodded.

  ‘Hang on a minute! It’s not up to you to decide who does what!’ she heard Finlay bark.

  ‘Don’t you dare speak to her like that!’ snapped Toby as Sylvie wanted to laugh at Finlay’s shocked expression. ‘You don’t speak to Sly like that, no one does.’

  ‘Seems like a suitable nickname,’ she heard Finlay Chambers mumble and realised he had no heart compared to Toby, but maybe he had a valid point. ‘Look Toby, we have to have a meeting. I’m going to be here until Christmas because-.’

  ‘Christmas!’ she shouted out loudly before seeing Finlay smile at her. ‘Why so long?’

  ‘As Piers ran the company and no one else can do it, I said I’d help out until he’s better.’

  ‘But that’s nearly three months,’ she said, trying to control her breathing and watchi
ng Toby sink backwards and sit on his heels.

  ‘What about your wife? You need to go and see her,’ said Toby seriously. ‘You can’t stay here!’

  Sylvie watched Finlay smile for a moment as if he’d stumbled on something. She noticed how he looked at his brother sweetly before flashing a dirty look in her general direction.

  All Sylvie knew is she had to brief the others on what to say and fast.

  The look on their faces was priceless. It would only take a matter of weeks to find out everything and sell the company or close it down.

  That was his plan.

  Toby stood up and walked out the office but not before signalling Sylvie to follow. Finlay noticed she shook her head discreetly from side to side before glancing over. The stare she was giving, he couldn’t quite gauge the thought behind it.

  ‘Mr Chambers, for whatever reason you think it would be a good idea to stay here, I assure you it won’t. We’re a close knit team and Piers has taught us all how to cover for him when he’s away.’ She sat back in her chair and smiled, her usual fake smile saved for him. ‘I really hope you’ve not come here with a negative attitude as that would be unfair.’

  Leaning forward and resting his chin on his knuckles, he stared back at her. The woman didn’t look worried or defiant just puzzled. Again, he couldn’t figure out how old she was as there was no record of her anywhere. For all he knew, she could be embezzling the company and Piers would be none the wiser.

  ‘What are you thinking? Or is that too personal?’ she quietly asked. ‘All I ask is don’t go upsetting Piers and Toby. They’re really kind people and so are the rest of the guys who work here.’

  ‘But are you genuine, Mrs Mather?’

  ‘It’s ‘Ms’, actually.’

  Sitting back in his chair he realised she wasn’t going to back down but decided to turn away and smile to himself.

  He realised she was a single mother, divorcee, probably flirting heavily with Piers and Toby to keep her feet under the table as she was more than likely shit at her job. Somehow she had managed to worm her way in because she couldn’t get a job that would allow her to work from home. It was obvious she was scared at being found out but Finlay had her number, all because his silly stepfather and brother fancied something exotic.