Secondment (A Ricky Wilson Fan Fiction)

Lighten Up

Amy had managed to make it to lunchtime without making a fool of herself. She'd taken the tube with 'every other bugger', as Whitey had said, from Hampstead to Leicester Square that morning and walked along Long Acre, following the instructions Julie had written out for her. The office was just a short walk from the piazza in Covent Garden, though as fancy as this sounded, Amy's office window faced the brick wall of the neighbouring office. She'd imagined walking into her office to be like the final scene of the film Working Girl when Melanie Griffiths gets an office overlooking Manhattan. No such luck.

Amy had held a staff meeting with her colleagues to introduce herself and discuss the new project that they were to work on. There had been a sharing of ideas, questioning of points raised and then she had released them to begin working whilst she had had a further meeting with PA to organise networking meetings and lunches to help introduce Amy to the companies in London that she would have to get to know.

In fact, by the time Amy had ventured out of the office to what had turned into quite a miserable day weather wise, she hadn't had a chance to think about reality, about her normal life, about Daniel.

He had texted her early that morning to say good luck with the new job. She hadn't replied. He had suggested Amy phone him that evening, just to talk things over. Amy had thought about it, but that was as far as it had gone. Now, off out the hunt down a sandwich, she groped around in her handbag to see if anyone else had remembered her new beginning.

There was a message from Amy's parents saying they were thinking about her and that she should ring when she had the time to let them know how she was getting on.

Daniel had texted again, expressing his eagerness to talk to her and his worry about the fact they hadn't spoken. "Don't go dumping me then!" Amy had said to her phone as she'd rounded the piazza where a man was trying to balance tennis balls on his head.

There was a message from another number that she hadn't recognised.

Hope your day goes well. I've had my insurance assessor out this morning. Won't be any trouble getting it fixed. I'm getting a replacement car until mine's mended so I'm off back up to Leeds this afternoon. Will be back next weekend if you are around. Whitey.

Amy stopped walking, immediately making it necessary to apologise to the person behind her who had to quickly reroute themselves. A strange numbness froze her body. The text had been the last thing she had expected. How had he even got hold of her number? Er, she'd given it to him yesterday, she remembered, with her insurance details.

She took a step or two forwards then moved into a shop doorway to read the text again. She felt the need to reply straight away, but had no idea what she should say. No, she decided not to rush. This needed thinking about.

And thinking is what she did. In between meetings with part of her team to discuss sourcing advertising opportunities and where adverts would be most effectively placed for maximum impact, she had boxed Daniel away in her mind and thought only of Whitey.
_________

Ricky sat in a coffee shop just off Oxford Street. He'd been for a meeting about one of his extra curricular activities that he liked to do away from the band. A European Railway company was proposing Ricky travel from London, through France to Monaco and experience being driven in a formula one car when he got there. He wasn't completely averse to the idea naturally, it was just timing. Finding a convenient time slot in the bands every increasingly busy diary was making the project a little tricky. He'd leave it to his management to sort now. He'd done his bit and shown willing.

Now, as he sipped his coffee, his mind came back to last night and Whitey's actions. He'd thought long and hard before falling asleep the previous night as to why his friend had lied to him about something that seemed so simple. Wanting to investigate this strange behaviour, Ricky had looked to another band member for help.