Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
ABIGAIL
Bringing a shop bought baguette into work for lunch felt like a special day for me.
I usually had cheap noodles or a homemade sandwich on boring sliced bread, but after finding that money under my table this morning, I wanted to treat myself.
I hadn’t bothered with an expensive coffee, though.
I wasn’t that extravagant. We had free coffee at work, why would I waste precious pennies on a fancy one?
Mind you, it would’ve been nice. I did like a fancy latte every now and then.
I was poor as fuck, but I didn’t care. I wouldn’t let it get me down. There was a reason I’d spent money over the last few years, and it was a good fucking reason. Some things were more important than having money in the bank.
I strolled into the office and sat down at my desk, placing the paper bag with my baguette into my bottom drawer, and then I switched my computer on. I had a busy day today. Back-to-back meetings this morning, followed by a wedding I was officiating this afternoon, and I let out a long sigh.
“That bad, huh?” Jess, my work bestie who shared the office with me, asked.
“I just have a lot of meetings, but it’s fine. It’s not the worst day.”
“Are you sure about that?” She cocked her head and gave me the look that told me she didn’t buy my fake, breezy, nonchalant air. Not so fake then.
“I’m sure,” I said to reassure her. “I have a wedding later. You know how much they cheer me up.”
“That reminds me, Simon from IT came in earlier to tell me the systems might be down at some point today. They’re doing work on them. Some upgrade or whatever. I wasn’t really listening.”
“Does that mean we get to go home early?” I smirked, giving her a cheeky, wishful thinking kind of wink, and she laughed.
“Doubtful. When do we ever get perks like that?”
I heard my phone ring in my bag, and I reached down to get it. When I saw the name on the screen, I stood up.
“I have to take this,” I said, rushing for the door to leave the office. “Sorry, it’s important.”
Jess didn’t care, she just shrugged and carried on with her work. I let it ring as I speed-walked away from the office, down the hallway, then clicked to accept the call as I stepped out onto the stairwell where no one could overhear me.
“I didn’t expect to hear from you again,” I said with my heart in my mouth.
“I didn’t expect to be calling you again, but I thought you’d want to know.”
“Know what?”
I gripped the phone tightly, waiting for his response.
“We found another one. We were gonna take care of it ourselves, but...” He paused then sighed. “I figured I’d let you know first. I dunno, it felt like the right thing to do.”
“That’s because it was,” I replied. “Can you send me the details?”
“Sure. I’ll email them over now.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate you letting me know.”
I went to hang up, but stopped when he said, “If anything goes wrong, you will call me, won’t you? I still don’t know how I feel about this.”
“I’ll call, but don’t worry. I will take care of it. You did the right thing.”
“I hope so,” he said, then the line went dead.
I stayed in the stairwell for a few minutes to compose myself, and then I clicked on my emails and saw his name in my inbox. I opened the message, read the details, then deleted them, permanently.
“Time to get to work,” I sighed, and pulled the door to the hallway open and headed to my office.
“Is everything okay?” Jess asked, still giving me the look of concern that’d been on her face when I first walked in this morning. “You look pale.”
“I’m just tired. I haven’t been sleeping well.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
I was about to say no, but I remembered something, and thought it might be worth a shot.
“Maybe. Do you remember that night, when we bumped into you at that Italian restaurant in town, Alessia’s?”
“Last year? Sure. I remember,” she said, her brow wrinkling in confusion.
“I was with my parents. It was the night he got the all clear from the doctors, and we were out celebrating.”
“Oh yes!” Her eyes widened with recognition. “That’s right. We were there too. My mum had decided to take me and Ava out for an early birthday meal.”
“That’s right,” I reiterated, nodding. “You took a photo of me and my dad, on your phone, and then you printed it off because of how happy we looked. You wanted me to have a copy that I could frame.”
“I did,” she exclaimed, and then her smile faltered. “Is everything okay with your dad?”
“He’s fine, but I can’t find the photo.”
“Do you want me to forward a copy to you? I’m sure it’s still in my camera roll somewhere.
” Jess took her phone out and started to scroll through her photos to find it, humming and tutting to herself, then muttering, “I must’ve deleted it.
I don’t know why. I’m so sorry, Abi. I should’ve sent you a copy when I took it. I’m such an idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot. Don’t worry. It’s fine.”
I had hoped she’d still have it on her phone, but I knew it was a long shot. Why keep a photo from a year ago, when she’d already given me a hard copy?
“I kept getting reminded that my storage was low, and I have so many photos of Ava, I guess I deleted it accidently.”
It wasn’t an accident. She just deleted it. It wasn’t her fault. But I was sad that I wouldn’t see it again. I loved the look of pure happiness on my dad’s face in the photo.
“It’s okay. I’m sure my copy will show up soon,” I said.
“I hope so.” She sighed, and smiled apologetically. “I know how much that photo meant to you. Your dad had been through so much with the cancer. I know it affected you badly, and you were all so happy that day, after he got the all clear.”
“We were. They were happy memories.”
It was just a photo. I had to remember that. Worse things happen. I couldn’t let the fact that it was missing, probably taken, get to me. I had far more pressing issues to deal with.