Chapter 3
Walking into the office on Monday morning Grace was confused by the crowd that had gathered around her desk.
She never usually drew that much attention.
After all, she had only worked for the station for a little over a year, joining the workforce more or less straight out of college.
Grabbing a coffee from the machine, she made her way across the floor towards her desk, craning her neck as she tried to see what all the commotion was.
“What the...? Who are they for? They are beautiful!” She gasped as she took in the large oversized basket of flowers that sat on her desk; it stood almost a metre tall and was just as wide, filled with roses, orchids and lilies, with fronds of greenery framing the riot of colour.
The scent was amazing as she leant forward, inhaling deeply.
The girls flanking her giggled as one of them handed her the small handwritten envelope that had arrived with the delivery, her name emblazoned across it.
Her heart began to pound as her mind raced.
Who had sent her flowers? Well, they weren’t just flowers really, that was doing them somewhat of an injustice.
Sasha nudged her, urging her to open the card.
They too were as desperate as she was to see who had sent the overblown gesture.
Turning the small white card over she took in the phone number and name that had been scrawled at a jaunty angle across the back. Accompanied by a single x.
“Who’s Alex? Have you got someone tucked away that you’ve been keeping secret from us?” The girls erupted into loud cackles of laughter as the colour rose freely in Grace’s cheeks. She was confused.
“I don’t know anyone called Ale.....oh. No! No way!” She gasped as she fanned herself with the small card, blocking out the chat that was going on around her. Sasha moved to her side noticing the less than impressed look that was now plastered on Grace’s face.
“Hey, you okay? Who’s the mystery guy?”
Grace stared blankly forward. How could she tell her friend that the lead singer of one of the most popular rock bands of recent years had just sent her flowers?
She had no idea why he had felt it necessary either but she knew that Sasha wouldn’t let it drop unless she filled her in with some details.
Grabbing her friend by the arm she headed back across the room and out into the corridor where she filled the overexcited woman in.
“Oh my God! You have to call him! Call him now, here use my phone. He left his number on the card, didn’t he?”
Staring at the phone Sasha thrust toward her, Grace couldn’t understand why the girl was so hyped.
“No way am I calling him! Why would I call him? I’ll just send a thank you note to his management company.
It will just be his PA’s number. He probably sends everyone he comes into contact with flowers or gifts or whatever. ”
“Are you for real? The guy chased you through the corridor on Friday! Believe me, I have met loads of celebrities doing this job and not one of them has sent anything like that to anyone I know just to say, ‘Hey thanks for shoving my mic on for me!’ He gave you a freakin’ number to call him.
Why would he give you a number if he didn’t want you to call?
” Sasha threw her hands in the air in exasperation.
“Look, just keep it to yourself. Last thing I need is to be the centre of the office gossip, okay?” she pleaded with Sasha, wanting to just get back to her work and forget the whole thing. She’d drop the flowers down at reception later; there was no way she was taking them home on the bus.
Returning to her desk following the afternoon production meeting she had to endure with the less than perfect anchor couple of the morning show she worked as a runner/dogsbody for, she rested her head in her hands trying to massage away the tension that had formed at her temples.
Her mind began wandering to the evening she had planned.
Bottle of wine, movie and her best comfy sweats.
Bliss. What more could a girl want after the day she was having?
At twenty three, Grace was in her dream job.
Okay, she may be on the first rung of the ladder but it was a ladder she was more than ready to climb.
She had been lucky to land the interview let alone the job.
Fresh out of college, her tutor had introduced her to the head of the TV company whom she knew well.
After putting in a good word for Grace, all she had to do was show up for the interview and try not to make a complete idiot of herself, which as far as she was concerned was easier said than done, but she had managed to secure the job, enabling her to stand on her own two feet, ridding her of the financial burden she felt she had been on her parents.
Standing, she lifted the flower creation from her desk using both hands. Tracey on reception would love them, she had no doubt about that. Besides, they were far too ostentatious for her humble flat.
As she placed them on the main front desk in the foyer she felt a little guilty at giving them away; they obviously cost a fortune.
There must have been at least twenty of each flower tucked away in the ornate creation.
She fobbed Tracey off with some excuse that they were left behind on some set upstairs and were now surplus to requirements.
The less people knew the truth the better.
When the receptionist was preoccupied with an enquiry, Grace had a moment of madness as she quickly snatched a single rose, lily and orchid from the elegant display, sure no would either notice or miss the three flower stems. Waving goodbye to the woman behind the desk Grace headed out into the warm early summer evening air, lifting the stems to her nose as she did.
They were from Alex Carter and they had been addressed to her after all.
It would have been extremely rude to not keep at least some part of the display.
There was no better feeling than turning the key in your own front door after a less than enjoyable day at work. Throwing her bag under the console table in the hall she headed off to hunt down a vase for the flowers before she would snuggle down in front of the television for the night.
Forget the action movie she had planned on watching, she’d had a better idea on the journey home.
Setting up her glass and nibbles on the coffee table, she huddled under the throw as she pressed the play button on the remote control.
The music thumped through the speakers. Grinning to herself, she allowed the hysteria that was emanating from the small antiquated box that she called a television wash over her.
She hadn’t been lucky enough to see them play live but the DVD version was a good substitute.
She just loved their music. Taking a sip of her wine she rested her head back on the sofa, closed her eyes and allowed Alex’s smooth voice to wash over her like warm honey.
She had been a fan since their very first single had been released.
To be fair she had more of a thing for the drummer rather than the front man, having spent hours ogling the magazines that offered up pictures of the band wearing next to nothing.
Christ, some of the pictures that were printed in those things were almost obscene.
Alex had a reputation for being a player; the string of celebrities he had dated was as long as Grace’s arm, and the tattoos weren’t really her thing.
She didn’t mind one or two tastefully done ones but as well as the full sleeve he sported he also had some on his chest along with a great big design that covered the majority of his back.
Her mind drifted back to their meeting last week; she could remember the citrus-like smell of his aftershave.
He was definitely better looking close up and in the flesh.
She never normally got star struck but something about him had made her feel very jittery as she’d tried to talk to him, and what was with the whole running her hand over his shirt thing?
Christ, she’d never done that to any of the celebs she’d dealt with before.
Retrieving the small white complementary card that had accompanied the flowers from her purse, she read the number again, running her finger over where he had written his name.
Alex Carter had sent her flowers! The giddiness she should have felt earlier suddenly hit her as she leapt from her prone position to do a little happy dance around the sitting room and out into the hall to grab the phone.
She had to call Sasha or she would just never sleep now.
“Alex Carter sent me flowers!” she almost yelled down the phone as soon as her confidante answered.
“Whoa, you idiot, you nearly deafened me! What happened to the cool as a cucumber Grace? The ‘I bet he sends everyone flowers’ Grace. Did you call him yet?” Sasha had become one of her closest friends since moving to Scotland when she started this job, leaving behind her family and close circle of friends.
“Of course I haven’t! I told you, I’m not going to either. I guess I just got a little overexcited. Sorry.”
Grace had no intention of using the phone number he had provided, that would just be too creepy.
She didn’t want to come across as some kind of groupie hoping to get his attention.
No, she had managed to find the address for his management company on the internet which had allowed her to send a thank you email from her work email address.
That had been the sensible, grown up, responsible thing to do.
She had been brought up with good manners and there was no way she wouldn’t have said thank you for the flowers, even if she didn’t want to speak to him directly.
Sasha, of course, spent the next twenty minutes trying to convince her otherwise.
She even offered to call the number for her friend, coming up with every conceivable scenario that he had actually provided Grace with his personal mobile phone number on the card.
She, however, wasn’t naive enough to believe that.
“Well it’s your loss, honey. As far as I can see he is yours for the taking, but I know I’m never gonna convince you of that, and don’t think I can’t hear that you have his music blaring out in the background! Oh, you know what? I give in. I’ll catch you tomorrow.”
Grace settled back down to watch the end of the concert DVD, carefully studying the main man as he performed in front of thousands.
He looked so at home on the stage, smiling as the guitarist bantered with the crowd, getting them to repeat chants as he and Alex held out microphones towards the audience.
No. It was a nice dream, but a dream was all it was.