There's No Accounting For Love

Chapter Thirty Six

It was the following Thursday and Alan was talking with Angie in his office, whilst Clare was stock-taking in the upstairs stationery room.

"I'm really annoyed with Bob," said Alan "he left it up to me to arrange this office meeting and now he wants me to be the one to present it. I don't think I'm ready for this. I think he purposely made an outside appointment so he could avoid doing this himself."

"Oh well," said Angie "You're the one who said doing things you don't like are character building, so there you are. It can only do you good. That's exactly what you said when I told you Clare didn't like doing the stationery."

"The difference being, Clare is good at the stationery, she does it properly." said Alan. "It's running much more efficiently since she took it over and the costs have come down. Besides which, if she asked me to give the job to someone else I probably would, but she hasn't so where's the problem?"

They went on to talk about their usual subject; Clare.

"How much longer do you think it's going to take, Angie?"

"I don't know, it depends on the person. The first year is usually the worst, the first birthday of Hal's and the first Christmas without him and so on, I've told you that before. In the bible Jacob worked seven years for the hand of Rachel in marriage and then another seven years." said Angie, mischievously.

"For crying out loud, Angie, I'm only flesh and blood!" said Alan.

Angie laughed. "She's really gotten under your skin, hasn't she?"

"Yes, you could say that." said Alan. He sighed heavily. "Oh, what can I do?"

"You carry on being there for her, like you're doing now. Maybe you could ask her to your flat to watch a video? You've certainly got a lot in common, that can only be a good thing. You'll just have to wait and see."

Angie left Alan's office smiling, but he'd found the conversation depressing.

'Why is it so damned difficult? What if she's never ready?' he thought. 'What if she doesn't fancy me?'

That night Alan had a nightmare. The words 'wait and see' ran around and around in his head, until he was ready to scream and he woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. It had nothing to do with his love for Clare, however, he had stomach problems and had to make a mad dash for the bathroom. He hoped he'd be feeling well enough for the office meeting the next morning.

Although he felt drained, he didn't want to cancel the meeting. He wanted to get it over and done with as soon as possible, so at 11.15 am sharp the staff assembled in the upstairs office, which was full to capacity. Feeling stupid and self-conscious he opened the meeting. He could feel all eyes upon him, but was determined not to blush.

"Thank you all for coming," he said "I won't keep you very long. This meeting has been called to tell you of the new arrangements within the office and to remind you of certain company rules, which seem to have been forgotten lately. Firstly, the empty room next to Angie and Clare will become Mary and Catherine's office, they are moving over there this afternoon." Mary and Catherine pricked up their ears, delighted to hear that news.

"Bob says he doesn't want anyone coming to my office, or to Angie or Clare's office for that matter, without good reason. No more hanging around getting in the way down in the Partner's Corridor." The 'kid brothers' knowing this applied to them, grumbled amongst themselves and shuffled their feet.

"We would remind you there is a dress code in the company. Men are to wear suits and ties and women are to wear knee length or longer skirts, no mini skirts or low-cut tops." Alan shot a look at Jessica, who stared brazenly back at him, refusing to avert her eyes. He noticed Angie nudging Clare's arm. An acute feeling of embarrassment crept over him, but he carried on regardless. "Clare keeps the Terms and Conditions of Employment, if anyone would like a copy." he said.

He looked across at Clare and was tempted to smile, but she was looking amused and he could tell what she was thinking. He continued. "We expect you all to arrive at work at 8.45 am sharp every morning and leave no earlier than 5.15 pm, although there are no complaints in that direction, but we have received complaints about bad language. This mostly applies to the downstairs office, I believe and neither Bob, nor I, think this is appropriate. What you say in your own time is up to you, but during office hours no swearing, please. We have some very prestigious clients and we mustn't let them down. We pride ourselves on being very professional and we intend to keep our standards high."

Alan paused and looked around at the staff. "I think that's all, unless any of you have any matters which you would like aired?" No one made any comment. Gary pulled a rude arrogant face, but Alan ignored him. "Oh, there is one more thing," said Alan "We had trouble arranging this meeting, several appointments had to be cancelled, so in future can all staff leave the first Friday morning in the month free for office meetings? A copy of the points of this meeting will be placed on the notice boards. Well, that's all then, except to say you've all worked very hard lately and you will receive a bonus with your next month's pay. Thank you for your time."

Suddenly, the staff appeared animated and there were gasps of surprise all round at the thought of the bonus. Happily, the staff dispersed and Alan walked down the stairs with Angie and Clare, through the reception area and back to their offices.

"I didn't enjoy that one bit." said Alan, as he reached his office door. "I'm going to make a coffee, would you two like one?"

"We could tell by your face, it was funny wasn't it Ange? I thought you did very well, for an amateur." Clare laughed.

Angie giggled. "I expect you'd fancy a fag now, wouldn't you?"

The 'guys' continued to pull his leg for the rest of the morning and he thought,

'Oh well, it's going to be another one of those days!'

Soon after the meeting, Alan saw Mary and Catherine come to Clare's office and thank her for sorting out their problem and that afternoon they were installed in the empty office next door. They were delighted to be away from the dreaded Gary at last.