Never Really Over

Chapter 29

November 2018

Beth is convinced that being Spanish means she was simply not designed for British winters. November has only just started and already she is over being able to see her own breath in the morning whilst she de-ices her car. She keeps forgetting to adjust her alarm time to allow her an extra 10 minutes to scrape the windows and thus is about to make herself late for work for the second time this week. Her navy plaid blazer and skirt did not work well with tights and the bare legs above her knee length boots are red raw from the cold winter air.

"Happy Birthday Beth," she mutters to herself when she finally gets behind the wheel. What a way to start your birthday.

It's tradition in the Everton office that people bring treats to work on their birthday. Beth has never understood this; surely on your special day you should be the guest of honour and not expected to provide everyone with their elevenses snack, but who is she to argue with the rules?!

The weather makes her 10 minutes late. The detour to pick up a selection of cheesecake slices from her favourite shop adds another 20 minutes. Beth isn't worried about sashaying into the office half an hour late, because she knows that everyone else in the office is as sick as she is of having a box of Krispy Kremes on someone's birthday, and the cheesecake will make them forgive her anything.

Beth arrives in the office to a chorus of 'Happy Birthday' which she laps up along with hugs from everyone on her team. She deposits the cheesecake in the fridge in the break room to chill for later, then heads to her desk. Alongside the birthday bunting hanging from her PC monitor, the confetti scattered across the desk and the balloons floating from the back of her desk chair, is a large bouquet of flowers.

Beth hates having a birthday towards the end of the year; she will often end up with Christmas themed birthday presents, or even worse, gifts wrapped in Christmas paper because 'we just had some there'. In the past, birthday flowers have been a mix of red and white winter blooms, but whomever sent this bouquet, knows her distaste for a Christmas themed birthday, and has instead sent a beautiful mix of pastel-coloured roses, chrysanthemums and carnations.

"There's no card?!" Beth peers over the flowers looking quizzically at Keira. She shrugs off her blazer, the office is uncomfortably hot, and her roll neck will keep her warm enough.

Keira resists the urge to roll her eyes, of course the flowers are from John, and Beth knows it too.

"If you look closely," Keira's eyes don't leave her computer screen as a smile plays on her lips. "I think there's an olive branch in there."

Keira hangs onto the latest developments in the ongoing saga that is John and Beth's relationship like her gran waits for her Inside Soap magazine every week; she knows that they are not talking at the moment, and they haven't been since returning from the World Cup. Beth was at Wembley to watch John winning the Community Shield in August, but she did not see him afterwards.

"What?!" Beth starts fingering through the delicate blooms, then she notices Keira is laughing lightly at her and her cheeks flush as pink as the roses as she gets the joke. "Oh."

Beth is easily distracted at the best of times, but on birthday, when she thinks it should be illegal to have to work, she is worse than ever. She spends most of the morning looking over the message from John that she woke up to:

Happy Birthday Beth, have the best day x

It was so impersonal, and it hurt. But when she scrolled up, she could see exactly why John was being so cool with her. Three missed calls on the day of the Community Shield; she had posted pictures from Wembley on her socials, he had known she was there, but she had purposely not seen him. She scrolled further; the next messages were from as far back as July, the first, just after Beth's flight had departed Russia.