Even After All

Part Thirty One

Chapter Thirty One

Within a few days Mattie was back in work, despite everything she really needed to be busy. After the first night when Dylan had come home from work, she’d barely seen him. He’d taken to staying at the hotel and giving her ‘space’, not that she needed it. But she was grateful of somewhere to stay, that much was true.

Over the next three weeks the trend continued, he emailed her regularly, but their face-to-face contact was minimal. Mattie wasn’t very good with uncertainty, as the days passed she began to wonder what she’d said or done over that weekend when they were together. Had she revealed things in those moments of half sleep...heaven forbid that she’d been over friendly when she was sleepy and concussed. Something was driving him away and she had no idea what.

But she had other things on her mind, the golf weekend was less than ten days away, and before that her father was coming home. She was looking forward to seeing him. She still wasn’t sure whether it was Dylan reappearing or her recent attack that made her long for her father, but she did, desperately.

Dylan was back in New York for a few days so she felt extra pressure to make sure everything was perfect in the run up to the weekend.

Her phone was ringing nonstop, and she was getting more and more frustrated, with everyone and everything, then she answered with a snippy, “hello?”, only to hear her father’s voice.

                “I’m back!” And it was like heaven to her.

                “I’ll come to yours tonight, as soon as I’ve finished here.”

He sighed with please, “brilliant. Stay? I know you’re busy...”

For the best part of the last six years she’d avoided spending large portions of time with her father, partly because her mother wasn’t there, and that hurt, it really did, but also because she’d been weaving a web of lies about her job and she was unsure when she’d slip up, her father had no idea about so many things, things that had happened since her splitting from Dylan. Now that he was back, that her financial issues were easier, she felt ready to rekindle things with her father. She missed him so much.

And as she hung up she was determined to finish the day on schedule. She had a list of things she HAD to do every day, and she smiled enthusiastically every time she ticked something off it. Marching up to the fourth floor she made it to the meeting with the designer in charge of the room renovations, with seconds to spare. Everything was in order, bar one of the showers, but they assured her that would be sorted first thing in the morning.

Rushing back to her office she was about to call Sarah, hand over things to her, but a she reached for her phone a cough from behind her alerted her to Dylan sat in the corner of her office.

                “You look stressed.”

She sighed, “I’m trying to get things sorted...my Dad’s home. I want to go see him, but I need to sort out SO many things. We’re still waiting on the scaffolding company to confirm when they’re setting up the gantries, then there’s been an issue with the size of the brewery order.”

As she bent her head to reach for the reams of paper she’d carried around like a shield all day, Dylan came towards her and took them from her hand, “go home, I’m back now. I’ll deal with all this.” He waved the papers to elaborate the point. “Go get a bottle of champagne from the bar, on me, then go to see Jim; I won’t expect you in before lunchtime tomorrow.”

                “But...”

He held up a hand, “no buts. Sometimes you need to switch off. You need to see your Dad, you need to step away. Ok? If I see you too early tomorrow, then I’ll sack you. You hear?”