LITMIR.BIZ

      Birthday Surprise

      Poppy St Vincent

      ‘You did what?’ His voice froze her with its tone.

      ‘I just thought you’d find it …’ There did not seem to be a good end to the sentence. Marie ran a manicured hand down her new dress and thought what a terrible waste. It should have been such fun.

      ‘She’s not an “it”.’ He looked at his girlfriend with hard eyes, for once genuinely angry at what she had done.

      She scowled. ‘I never thought she was. I like her. I thought you’d like her too. I wanted you to be proud of me.’

      ‘OK.’ He sat on the sofa, leaned back and closed his eyes, then breathed in and out, just once but deeply, before he instructed her, ‘Tell me what you’ve done.’

      She sat on the floor at his feet, curled her hands around his right leg and leaned her cheek on his knee. He could not see her face as she talked but that suited her.

      ‘It’s Ali; you know Ali. You know that she’s in a different department to me, accounting.’ She tried to pre-empt his question. ‘You know I have liked her for ages, we talked about that.’ Her cheeks coloured with a blush as she remembered what she had whispered in his ear. ‘Ali and I, well, we’ve talked before, but since my promotion things have … developed.’

      She paused and pushed her head back a little, waiting for a comforting gesture, feeling the gentle weight of his hand on her head, but none came and she continued.

      ‘Well, you know I have to manage departments, and hers is one of them. I am her boss’s boss. Her boss, Mike, is a sweet guy, and terrified of me.’

      She turned and looked at him for the first time, her neat eyebrows raised in a question.

      ‘No,’ he assured her. ‘I have never been scared of you. It’s never going to happen. Now get on with it. We don’t have a lot of time and I am going to give you a real hiding before she arrives.’

      ‘But you can’t! Not tonight! I am supposed to … I am …’

      His eyes bore down on her. She turned away and nestled again, holding on to him tightly, continuing in a smaller and less confident voice. She knew if she argued at all it would be worse for her later. Even now she could feel her façade crumbling.

      * * *

      It had started properly about two months before. Mike had come to see her in her new role as his boss. As he often did when he spoke to Marie, he stood slightly farther away from her desk than would be considered normal and ran a shaking hand through his short hair as he spoke.

      ‘Do you mind if I speak to you about Ali? The thing is, she keeps coming in late, and when I speak to her about it she just laughs and says that’s why I get paid more than her.’

      He paused and looked wistfully at the door.

      Marie tipped her head to one side, causing waves of chestnut hair to curl on one shoulder and rest on her navy suit jacket. Her brow furrowed. ‘Seriously? That’s what she says? And you just took that?’

      ‘Er … yes. She thinks it’s my job to cover for her. I have spoken to her, but I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind, because I know you are looking over … after my department now.’ Mike shifted a little on his feet. It had not occurred to either of them that he could have sat down.

      Marie sighed but cut it short. ‘Sure, I will sort it out.’ She looked back at her work, and refrained from saying, ‘Don’t let the door hit you …’ though it could not have been more obvious.

      Within twenty minutes Ali was sitting across from Marie. All Marie had asked was ‘How are you?’ and now she was listening to a rather high-pitched account of her recent run-ins with Mike and how unfair he was. Ali had had her hair cut, a new bob, almost a pixie cut, which suited her large brown eyes and made her monologue seem almost cute to Marie, but not quite.

      ‘We need to talk about being late,’ Marie interrupted. ‘About you being late, that is. You can’t be. You also can’t tell Mike that it’s his job to hold the fort for you when you are. It’s his job to bollock you if you’re late. God knows, if you were in my department I would. And now, of course, effectively you are in my department so don’t treat me as though I will let you get away with anything because I certainly won’t. I would make mincemeat of you if you spoke to me like you speak to him.’

      And that’s when it happened. Ali opened her large brown eyes and looked up at Marie with surprise. Her olive skin took on a dusky pink hue and her lips formed a perfect round O of surprise.

      Marie, who had told off plenty of adults, had never seen one react quite like this. She watched in silence as Ali transformed before her. She dipped her pretty little head as though Marie had pushed it down, her skin flushed a deep pink, and her lips moved as though to form an objection that never quite appeared.

      Ali’s lowly posture reminded Marie of an ex-girlfriend, a very lovely girl with whom Marie had spent six months during her twenties. She remembered how she herself had responded when rebuked, the same shyness, the same almost virginal reaction. She thought also of her present lover, Ben, and how amused he would be by all this. And she saw a temptation, a possibility, and a delightful opportunity. All of these visions, ideas and possibilities came together as she watched Ali look down at her hands, which held one another on her lap.

      Without missing a beat she said, ‘And do you know what I would do if you were in my department? I would make it so you never even thought of being late again. My people just don’t do this. You know that, don’t you?’

      Ali’s shy smile faltered

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