Chapter 26
When I walked into the building on Monday morning, my heart was heavy. I hadn’t heard anything from Ellis. I didn’t know if he had seen the show, or worse, that he had seen it and just didn’t care. The lift opened onto my floor and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Ellis was sitting at his desk.
I smiled broadly at him. “Morning, Ellis.”
“Morning, Mr Munroe,” he said, not even smiling. I sighed. He hadn’t seen it. He didn’t know, and he was just back at work.
“Nice to see you back.” I smiled meekly.
“Liz couldn’t find someone to cover and asked me to come back.”
I nodded and headed into my office.
I sat down behind my desk with a sigh, all my hopes deflating as the breath left my body. I was defeated.
* * *
About an hour later, the door knocked, and I looked up as Ellis entered with my coffee and a muffin and his iPad, ready to go over the day.
“Thank you,” I said and lifted my coffee to go and look out the window as he spoke. I couldn’t bear to look at him, knowing I had messed everything up, with no idea of how to get it back to where it should be.
He reviewed the day. Mostly run of the mill stuff. We had a new acquisition coming up, and later there would be a meeting to discuss the options and viability of the move so soon after the JLC deal.
“Will there be anything else, Mr Munroe?”
God, I wanted to hear him calling me Aiden again. “No, Mr Baxter. That’s everything. Thank you.” I heard the office door closing and I sighed. This time, I flopped down onto my office sofa and covered my face with a cushion, cursing everything that had led me up to this point.
* * *
A few hours later, I was still sitting on the sofa, wallowing in my own misery, when the door knocked again. Ellis walked in carrying some food and set it down on the table in front of me. “I thought you could do with some lunch.”
I snorted. “I don’t have much of an appetite.”
“Self-pity doesn’t suit you.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
He said nothing else. He turned and walked back out of my office. I looked at the food he had brought in. Teriyaki steak from Wagamama and a Buddha beer. I closed my eyes and felt my heart splinter even further.
He had been right though; the smell of the food was driving me crazy and my stomach had started to growl in response. I needed to eat.
* * *
Just as I was thinking of giving up for the day, there was another knock at the door, and a delivery person walked in with a bunch of red roses.
“Mr Munroe?” he asked. I nodded, signed for the delivery and looked at them.
Ellis was nowhere to be seen as the delivery man left.
I set the flowers on my desk and lifted the card from the middle.
I saw it. I’m proud of you.
Ellis xox
My heart flipped in my chest. He’d seen the TV show; the message to Sylvie had worked. I smiled and smelled the gorgeous roses. I was the first to admit that I probably had more work to do, but I had made a good start. Now I couldn't wait to see what the next day would bring.