Chapter 24
24
‘Why are you turning left here?’ Sarah said as Drew veered off the dual carriageway. ‘The sat nav said to go straight.’
‘I don’t think it’s right,’ Drew said. ‘I’m sure this way is quicker.’
‘Why would the sat nav tell you a way that wasn’t the quickest? That’s the whole point of it, isn’t it? And you’re nearly out of battery. If you keep going the wrong way, it’s going to run out before you get there.’
‘Trust me,’ Drew said. ‘I’m sure we can get in this way too.’
Ten minutes later, and they were at a standstill. Clenching her fists, Sarah maintained the air of silence as they waited for the traffic to clear.
‘Are you sure you wouldn’t just rather head somewhere else to eat first?’ Drew said half an hour later as they finally approached their destination. ‘You know the food here’s not meant to be that great. I was reading some reviews online. It said the portions were really small.’
‘It’s a buffet,’ Sarah replied. ‘I’m sure there’s going to be enough food. Besides, look at me.’ She clasped her hands around her belly. ‘I’m pregnant. They’re bound to bring me more food. Pregnant people always get more food.’
‘But what if they don’t?’
‘Then we can get something afterwards. There’s no point spending extra money we don’t have on food we might not even need. Let’s see what they’ve got there first, then we can go and get more if we need to.’
His response came in the form of a disgruntled grunt. Staring out of the window, Sarah shook her head and tried to let it wash over her. The entire journey felt like Drew had been trying to put her off going this evening, from the amount of time he took to get ready, to insisting they head inside and have a cup of tea at his mother’s when they dropped the children off. At the petrol station, he had dropped his debit card in a puddle, after which he spent five minutes drying it off before insisting on using it in a cashpoint machine just to check that it worked. Now he seemed intent on slowing down at every set of traffic lights, ensuring he hit them all on red and completely ignoring whatever the sat nav told them.
‘Are you all right?’ Sarah asked as they took the final turn into a narrow underground spot. The tension in his mood had resulted in a nervous pain rippling through her abdomen. ‘Is it me?’
‘What?’ Drew pulled into a car parking space and cut the engine. ‘Is what you?’
‘This mood. This silent treatment.’
‘I’m not being silent.’
‘Drew, you’ve hardly said two words to me this entire drive.’
As if confirming this, he offered yet another grunting response. Sarah sucked a slow breath in through her nose. ‘Fine, be like that. But whatever it is, you need to either tell me or deal with it. I’ve got enough to think about right now. If you don’t want to be there when the baby’s born or?—’
‘No.’ Drew showed his first real sign of animation all evening. ‘It’s not the baby. Of course I’ll be there.’
‘Then what?’
A short pause followed. Drew stuffed his keys into his pocket. His eyes looked out of the window and back again. ‘You’re right. That’s probably what it is. I’m probably just nervous about the baby. It’ll be fine, though. You know that, don’t you? It’ll be fine.’
‘I’m sure it will,’ Sarah said. Although for the strangest reason, she was sure he didn’t meet her eye as he spoke.
Now that Drew had managed to draw out the evening as much as possible – the cup of tea at his mum’s was a stroke of pure mastery – he realised he had gone about it all the wrong way. What he should have done was arrive early. Super early. While they were still setting up. Then they could have grabbed some food – using Sarah’s pregnancy as a perfect excuse to get the kitchen to whip something up a little ahead of schedule – then snuck off upstairs, while he complained about how sad it was that people never came to support things like this. Then they could have been safe and sound, tucked up in the king-sized bed, and everything would be right with the world. Now, most of the free wine would have been consumed, and tongues were likely to be looser than ever. He was such an idiot.
‘You know, I don’t think I’m feeling well,’ Drew said as, in the hotel foyer, he handed over his details and credit card and waited for them to check the booking. ‘Maybe I’ll go straight up to the room first. Have a bit of a lie down.’
‘Are you sure?’ Sarah asked, lifting up a hand and placing it on his forehead. ‘You feel okay. Don’t you want to show your face first?’
He shook his head, willing his temperature to rise. Saying he wasn’t feeling well was one of his first truths all day. He felt like he was about to have an aneurysm. It wasn’t the best excuse in the world, but it should at least work.
‘I think I’d rather go straight upstairs.’
‘Well, I guess I’ll go in by myself then,’ Sarah said.
‘What?’ Drew scribbled his name on the piece of paper that had just been placed in front of him. ‘Why? Why would you do that?’
‘Well, to show we’ve come. You signed us up for this, didn’t you? That means they will have taken us into account. They’ve probably based the amount of food on who said they will be coming.’
‘No one’s going to mind about that. Plus, we should probably take the bag up to the room.’
‘We can take your bag for you, sir,’ said the man behind the check-in desk as he replaced the piece of paper with a key card.
‘Oh, that would be brilliant, thank you,’ Sarah said.
‘Yeah, thanks,’ Drew said with a tight smile as he handed the bag to a man in a red waistcoat. His foot had started tapping nervously. There had to be something he could do. Some way he could get through the night without Sarah coming into contact with anyone from the office. He was about to feign a full-on fainting episode when something behind Sarah’s head caught his eye. His lips twitched in a smile.
‘Have fun at your event,’ the man at the check-in said. ‘The party’s in the?—’
‘Yes, we will,’ Drew said, whipping his arm around his wife and steering her back toward the lift and away from the screen that boldly displayed all the event locations at the hotel that night. A quiver of excitement rattled through him. After all, one Christmas party was as good as the next.
‘Do you know what? You’re right. I should go for one drink, at least.’
Sarah gave him a puzzled look. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes, definitely. Come on then,’ he said, casting one more look at the screen to make sure he knew where he was going. ‘It’s this way. On the second floor.’
Using the elevator ride as a moment of respite, Sarah propped herself up against the side. The back spasm she had been experiencing was still going, although it had swapped sides now. Maybe one day, when they didn’t have a mortgage on a house she hated and barely enough money to treat the kids to a day out, she would see a chiropractor or a physio. She wasn’t exactly sure what the difference was. Meanwhile, Drew was turning his phone over and over in his hand like it was some kind of card trick. Wouldn’t it be just their luck for him to drop it just after they’d spent all their money on the kids’ Christmas presents? At least his mood had changed. He was chirpier than she’d seen him all night.
‘Do you want to put that in my bag?’ Sarah said, reaching out her hand. ‘And you can give me your wallet too? There’s plenty of room.’
His eyes went down to the phone in his hand, as if surprised to find it there.
‘Okay. Thanks,’ he said and handed her the items.
The elevator doors pinged opened.
‘After you,’ Drew said, stepping in front to hold the doors.
A smell of freshly baked bread drifted in from the hall around them as men and women with wine glasses stood at tall tables speaking in subdued voices. It was a pleasant enough foyer with large windows, ornate ceiling, and large double doors that lead through to another room. Her first impression was that it wasn’t the most jovial of office party atmospheres. Then again, who had the energy for that on a Friday evening after a full week at work?
‘I guess the food must be in there,’ Drew said, pointing to the double doors. ‘Shall we?’
‘You lead the way.’
Tugging at her dress, Sarah followed her husband towards the main room, where if anything, the atmosphere was even more unsettling than outside.
It was the quietness that was unnerving her, she realised. No one was talking at anything above subdued whispers. Glancing at her watch, she frowned. At this time, she would have expected half the people to be shouting across the room at one another. Or at least laughing. Hardly anyone appeared to be laughing. And where was the woman who always tried to drag everyone along to do karaoke after these things? Was her name Trish? Surely, she would be somewhere singing along. Only there wasn’t any music at all. Slowing her pace to a stop, she looked around.
‘I don’t think I recognise anyone,’ Sarah scanned the room in search of a familiar face.
‘Of course you do. Look, there’s Jo from accounts.’ Drew lifted his hand and waved at someone Sarah couldn’t make out. Whoever it was, they didn’t appear to respond.
‘Come on, let’s grab some food.’ Drew said, taking her by the elbow and leading her to the doorway. ‘I’m sure there’ll be some more people you know here, somewhere.’
With an unidentifiable feeling of trepidation, Sarah headed through the double doors. ‘There,’ Drew nodded across the room. ‘There’s the food. Why don’t you grab a plate, and we can take it upstairs to the room.’
‘Really?’ Sarah was having a hard time trying to piece together what exactly about the situation was causing her to be so on edge. ‘You don’t just want to say hello to a couple of people first? Have a couple of drinks?’
Wrinkling his nose in a most peculiar manner, Drew shook his head. ‘Honestly, I speak to these people every day. I spend all day in the office with them. It’s you I want to be here with. You that I want to spend time with.’
He lifted his hand to her cheek. A warming sensation bubbled through her. With all their time spent on the kids and now the book, it was sometimes tough to remember how sweet he could actually be. And he was right, of course. He probably spent far more time having one-to-one conversations with these people than he ever did with her.
‘Fine,’ she relented. ‘We’ll grab a plate. But if someone wants to stay and chat with you, you have to be polite, okay? You can’t use me as your excuse.’
‘It’s fine. Honestly. Look, everyone’s already talking to each other anyway.’
Sarah cast her gaze across the room as she moved towards the buffet table. He was right. Everyone in the room seemed to be deeply engrossed in one conversation or another. Dozens of little clusters were spread out around the space, including a small group by the door and two or three more propped up against the wall. They were a very huggy bunch, Sarah thought, noting one particular woman who seemed to be going around squeezing everyone in sight. More a family than an office. She had never realised how close Drew’s working environment was before.
When she placed her second shrimp satay onto her plate, it hit her.
‘Drew,’ she hissed. He was going ahead in front of her, piling up his plate like it was the last time he expected to eat for a month. ‘Slow down. Come here.’
He stopped and glanced over his shoulder, at which point, Sarah beckoned him back towards her.
‘What is it?’ he said, his eyes darting around in their sockets. ‘You need to come down this end. Have a look at some of the bruschetta. And we should probably grab an extra plate for desserts too. We don’t want to forget those.’
‘Drew, look around,’ she said, putting her plate down on the buffet table. ‘Don’t you notice anything odd here?’
‘Like what?’
‘Well, firstly, I still don’t know anyone. Not a single person.’
With a jowl wobbling shake of his head, Drew grunted his response. ‘It’ll be all the pickers and drivers. They have a massive turnover every year. You know that. Probably half the staff are new. More even.’
‘Maybe.’ Sarah was having a hard time shaking the scepticism in her voice. ‘But then that doesn’t explain why every single person in the room is wearing black. And why nearly half of them are crying. Drew, I think we might have got the wrong floor. I think we’re at a funeral.’