First Impressions

Chapter Four

Anna arrived at work early on Monday morning. Even though she wasn’t due to start until nine o’clock, she normally liked to be the first to arrive. She loved the peace and quiet when no one else was around, and she often took a few moments to wander around the gallery, viewing the current artwork. Often she’d imagine what her photos would look like framed on the walls, if she was ever lucky enough to have an exhibition. And then she would sigh in frustration, because the chances of that happening were non-existent. She’d broached the subject with Mark previously but he’d told her in no uncertain terms that The Whigmore was an art gallery, not somewhere that would display someone’s amateur snaps. And he’d been so derogatory of her photography that she hadn’t dared show her work to anyone else, least of all any prospective agents. But deep down she hadn’t been able to let go of the dream, that one day, with a lot more work on her part, she might become good enough to secure an agent and have her own exhibition.

She’d woken at six this morning in a very unsettled mood. Feelings from the weekend had lingered. She was increasingly frustrated at how her life was stagnating and how much she dreaded going into work each morning. Sitting on the Tube, she’d contemplated whether she should just go for any job to get away from the toxic situation she was in with Mark and Jemima.

She was just switching on the computer at the reception desk when the door pinged open. She looked up, surprised to see anyone so early. She usually had at least half an hour to settle herself into the day before she was interrupted. Her stomach sank when Mark walked through the door. He grinned when he saw her, his smile lighting up his hazel eyes. The smile that had never failed to make her stomach flip over in the past. And even though it was over, whenever she was alone with him, she was always tempted to reach out to him. But she couldn’t do that. He was with someone else and she’d never be able to touch him like that again.

‘Anna, you’re in early!’ He walked towards the reception desk. ‘Did you have a good day off on Friday?’

‘Yes, thanks,’ she said tightly.

‘Do anything interesting?’ He was getting closer and she tried to deepen her breathing in the hope that her heart rate would slow down.

‘Oh, went out with some friends.’ She had met up with Daisy, so she was only half-lying, but the last thing she wanted was for him to find out that she’d gone for a job interview. He’d be even more smug if he found out she’d tried to get away and failed.

‘That’s good,’ he said. He’d reached the counter now and casually leaned against it, so close to her that she could smell the musky scent of his aftershave. She took a step back. ‘Nice to see you getting out and about,’ he added. ‘Not at the beck and call of your family as usual.’

The amount she did for the boys had always annoyed him. In his eyes he should have taken priority, not them, and no matter how much she’d tried to explain why she felt obliged to look after them, he hadn’t wanted to understand. He hadn’t got it when she’d gone on her photography expeditions either, or when she’d done anything that hadn’t been directly connected to him. In the logical part of her brain she could see their relationship would never have worked out, even if he hadn’t betrayed her, but all that logic didn’t stop her from being physically attracted to him.

‘We missed you on Friday,’ he said. ‘The place was in chaos without you. You’ll have a lot of sorting out to do today.’

‘I’m sure it’s not that bad. Running this place isn’t exactly rocket science.’

‘That’s because you make it look so easy.’ He inched his hand across the desk as though he was going to touch her. She tried to move to the side — there wasn’t much room behind the desk — to get away from him. What the hell was going on here? He hadn’t been nice to her in weeks and this charm offensive was alien. She sensed he was playing a game and she didn’t want any part of it.

He sighed. ‘When I said we missed you on Friday, what I really meant was that I missed you.’ His gaze was intent on her, sad puppy-dog eyes, which in the past would have her hurtling into his arms.

She swallowed, remaining as calm as possible. ‘I was only gone for a day.’

‘Yes, but it was a very long day.’ His head was only inches away from hers.

She almost sprinted from behind the reception desk and marched over to the coffee machine, changing the subject. ‘Do you want a coffee?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘I want you.’

She turned around abruptly.

‘I’m sorry?’

‘I made a mistake, Anna. Jemima is a lovely girl, but I thought the grass was greener and it’s not. I should have stuck with you.’

Not so long ago she’d have been delighted to hear those words, had even longed for him to say them. But now? Now she feared it was too late. She could see the holes in their relationship all too clearly.

‘You want me back?’ She almost whispered the words she was so shocked.

‘I do.’ He stepped towards her and put his hand on her arm. She looked up, almost drowning in the depths of his eyes. Almost.

‘And it’s over with Jemima?’

‘To me, it is, yes. But she’s, well, she’s a little bit fragile. She doesn’t look it, but underneath she’s very insecure. I’d have to let her down gently. But in the meantime . . .’

‘But in the meantime you want to two-time her with me. Just like you did to me?’

‘No, no, it’s not like that.’ His grip tightened, but she shook him off and stepped away. This time he didn’t move towards her. ‘It’s you I want to be with, not her. But she is the boss’s daughter, so I’m going to have to tread very carefully.’

Anna felt a cold, hard lump settle in her chest as she realised one woman would never be enough for Mark and he didn’t care who he hurt in the process. She wondered if he’d used the same line on Jemima? That Anna was flaky and he’d have to let her down gently. She seethed at the thought of it.

‘I’m sorry if it’s not working out with you and Jemima, but that’s nothing to do with me. Our relationship is in the past and that’s where it’s going to stay.’

‘But, Anna!’

‘No buts, Mark. We have to work together, so I’d like to keep things civil, but that’s all.’ She moved back behind the reception desk and smiled as the door pinged open.

Mark glared at her and said in a low growl, ‘You might just live to regret that.’

Jemima swept into the gallery, her long cream cashmere coat swishing around her calves, knotted tightly at her slim waist. Her dark hair cascaded down her back and, as ever, her beautiful face was exquisitely made up.

‘Darling, hello.’ She put her arm proprietarily around Mark. ‘It’s a lovely morning.’

‘Feels like ages since I’ve seen you.’ He leaned down and gave her a peck on the lips.

She giggled. ‘Even if it is only a short while that you left our warm bed.’

Anna cringed at their canoodling. Honestly, she was better off out of it — she just didn’t see why they had to flaunt it in front of her face. Jemima was like a cat marking her territory. If only she knew the conversation that had taken place moments ago. That would wipe the smile off her face. Although Anna doubted she would believe it.

Jemima turned her attention to Anna. ‘Well, I hope you’re ready for work, Anna, there’s a lot to do following your day off. Gregory, our debut artist, has been in touch and he’s got lots of questions for you, so I suggest you deal with all his queries as soon as possible. We want to make sure he feels like he’s being heard.’

‘Of course.’ Anna anticipated there would also be a backlog of other emails too, emails that no one had bothered to open in her absence on Friday.

‘Mark and I have lots of paperwork to do in our office, so if you could bring us both a coffee and then leave us undisturbed.’

‘My pleasure,’ Anna replied through gritted teeth, guessing there wouldn’t be a piece of paper in sight.

* * *

After taking the coffees into the office and resisting the temptation to accidentally spill the mugs on them both, Anna returned to reception. As she had expected, no one had bothered to open any of the emails since Thursday and there were several from Gregory, growing increasingly annoyed that his previous emails hadn’t been answered. Anna sighed and set to catching up with everything, pacifying Gregory in the process.

In reality, it wasn’t even her job. She was employed as the receptionist, with Mark as manager and Jemima his assistant. When she and Mark had been together, she hadn’t minded the extra work. It had given her a chance to develop her skills, even if she was fully aware it allowed Mark to get away with doing very little. But then she had been the one coming up with the ideas, and it made her feel important in his eyes. Having orders snapped at her by Jemima was a completely different matter. Jemima had been brought in as Daddy’s little girl to learn the ropes. In theory she was supposed to be learning the job from the bottom up, experiencing all the jobs in the gallery so that, one day, she could take over. Anna had always suspected Jemima was only here to give her something to do, to stop her from lunching with her friends and spending Daddy’s money. There certainly didn’t seem to be much learning going on.

At twelve-thirty Jemima breezed through reception and said, ‘I’m going out to lunch.’

‘You will be back in an hour, won’t you?’ Anna asked, not entirely hopefully. She couldn’t go for her own lunch until Jemima was back — and that was getting later and later these days. In fact, she’d started bringing sandwiches into work. Although she wasn’t supposed to eat in the gallery, quite often it was the only way she got a chance to eat at all.

Mark left the gallery shortly after Jemima, throwing a glare towards Anna as he walked out, and once more she was alone. She sat back in her chair as she watched him go. She really wasn’t sure she could carry on much longer like this.

Predictably it was closer to two hours by the time Jemima arrived back. This time she was arm in arm with Mark and the pair of them were grinning like Cheshire cats. She waltzed through reception towards Anna, waggling her left hand at her.

‘Look what we’ve just bought.’ She thrust her hand towards Anna. Even from a distance Anna couldn’t have failed to notice the huge rock on Jemima’s finger, or the way it glinted in the early afternoon sunshine.

‘You’re engaged.’ Her voice came out in a croak. ‘Congratulations.’

‘Thank you,’ Jemima said. ‘I can’t wait to tell Daddy.’

Anna glanced at Mark and he smiled smugly back at her, as though his words this morning had never been spoken.

‘Let’s go now, then.’ Mark looked down fondly at his fiancée. ‘You don’t mind holding the fort this afternoon, do you, Anna?’

‘I don’t mind.’ Anna reached for her bag and coat. ‘But I haven’t had my lunch yet so I’ll take over when I get back.’

She kept her back straight and her eyes on the door as she tried to walk away in as dignified a manner as possible.

‘Just half an hour, if you don’t mind,’ Mark said as Anna opened the door. ‘You can take a longer lunch tomorrow.’

She walked out without turning back, not least because she didn’t want either of them to see the tears that were welling in her eyes. It wasn’t that she was upset about them getting engaged, or that she wanted Mark for herself. It was more the way he’d tried to manipulate her that very morning, and then how smug they were at their engagement. If she’d thought her work situation was bad this morning, it had just got a whole lot worse.

* * *

Sat in the nearest café with a cappuccino in front of her, Anna reached for her phone. She needed to get on the job sites, refresh the categories of what she was looking for and find something new. She’d settle for anything right now.

As she was scrolling through the adverts, the phone’s ringtone startled her. When she saw the name of Daniel Redfern on the screen, she was even more surprised.

She answered it hesitantly. ‘Hello?’

‘Is that Anna Wright?’

‘Yes.’

‘Daniel Redfern here. I’m phoning about the interview you attended on Friday.’

‘Oh, okay.’ She hadn’t expected to hear from him again. Most employers these days didn’t bother to let you know if you were unsuccessful.

‘I’m phoning to say that I’d like to offer you the job.’

‘You would?’ Today was beginning to feel surreal.

‘Yes.’

‘I’m, er, a bit surprised, that’s all.’

‘Well.’ He paused. ‘You were the best candidate for the job, all things considered.’

‘All things considered?’

‘Yes, well, do you want the job?’

‘I . . .’

She didn’t know what to say. She thought back to the encounter in the gallery earlier. Although she and Daniel hadn’t hit it off, would working for him be worse than working in the same place as Mark and his new fiancée? At least her emotions wouldn’t be involved.

‘I’d love to accept,’ she said.

‘Great.’ He sounded relieved. ‘Well, obviously it would be on a trial basis. Say three months?’

‘Yes, okay.’

‘That would give us the opportunity to see if we suit each other.’

‘Of course.’ It would give her some breathing space, a chance to be paid while still getting away from Mark. And even if she didn’t like him, she knew she could learn a lot from Daniel Redfern.

‘So,’ he said. ‘How much notice do you have to give at your current job?’

‘A month.’

‘Ah. I don’t suppose you could make it sooner, could you?’

‘They do owe me holiday. I could use that in lieu of my notice, so, say, two weeks?’

‘That would be great. I’ll ask for a reference from your current employer and then hopefully we can make this official.’

‘I’ll look forward to it,’ she said, before ending the call.

She sat for a while in a daze. She’d woken up this morning feeling as though her life was stuck and now her whole future was about to change. For the first time that day, Anna smiled. She might be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, but she felt elated at the chance she was about to take.

She arrived back nearly an hour after she had left. Mark was pacing the reception area, looking angry and red in the face.

‘I thought I told you, you could only take half an hour for lunch?’

‘I’m entitled to a full hour and you have no right to stop me from taking it.’

‘Well, now that you’re back, I’m going to join my fiancée in celebrating our happy news.’

‘Oh,’ Anna said, pretending to look surprised. ‘Has she gone ahead without you?’

‘Please make sure you stay open until five. I don’t want you slacking just because we’re not here.’

‘Wouldn’t dream of it,’ she said with a smile.

She waited until she was sure Mark had left and wouldn’t be coming back before switching on her computer and writing her letter of resignation. After printing it off she folded it into an envelope and placed it on his desk where he would be sure to see it, first thing in the morning. Then she took a copy of Amateur Photographer out of her bag and read it from cover to cover, relishing that she was skiving off work, just like they were. At five o’clock on the dot, she grabbed her coat and bag and locked up the gallery, a smile on her face.

The next morning, she arrived back at the gallery at two minutes to nine o’clock. Mark was in front of her, trying to unlock the door with unfamiliar keys.

‘You’re late,’ he said as she reached him.

She made a show of looking at her phone. ‘No, I’m not. I’ve got two minutes to spare.’

‘But you’re usually so early.’ The key turned in the lock and he pushed the door open. Anna moved inside to turn off the alarm.

When it was quiet once more, Anna said, ‘Well, maybe things are going to be different from now on.’

He frowned at her. ‘What does that mean?’

‘You’ll find out soon enough,’ she said. ‘No Jemima this morning?’

‘No, she’s, er, a little under the weather today. She might be in later.’

‘I see, a bit too much celebrating last night, then?’

‘Well, you only get engaged once,’ he replied, smiling smugly at her.

She turned her back on him and switched on her computer, imagining his expression when he opened the letter that was waiting for him on his desk.

She was scrolling through her emails when he stormed back into reception from his office, waving her letter at her.

‘What’s this all about?’

She turned to him and smiled sweetly. ‘I’d have thought that was quite obvious. It’s my letter of resignation.’

‘But you can’t go.’ He paused. ‘Why do you want to go? Is it because I’m engaged? Is the thought of me marrying someone else too much for you?’

‘No, it’s not because you’re engaged.’ It was a part-truth. ‘It’s because I’ve got a new job. A better one.’

‘What job? What could be better than this? The Whigmore is one of the most prestigious art galleries in the West End.’

‘Where I’m employed as a receptionist, on a receptionist’s wage, even though I’m the one who contributes most to the running of it. Whereas you and Jemima are paid so much more than me for doing . . .’ She paused. ‘Tell me, what is it you actually do?’ She knew she was sailing close to the wind, but she’d spent so long biting back her words and her feelings and she wasn’t prepared to do it anymore.

He spluttered. ‘How dare you?’

‘What are you going to do? Sack me?’ She smiled.

‘I’ve a good mind to, yes.’

‘Fine.’ She reached for her coat and her bag.

‘No, no, don’t go.’ He barred her exit. ‘At least, if you go now, you won’t get a reference and you’ll need that for your new job, won’t you?’

‘Yes, I will. But I’m sure you’ll give me a good reference. Well, at least an accurate one, which amounts to the same thing.’

‘And what makes you so sure of that?’ He seemed confident he had the upper hand.

‘Because you wouldn’t want Jemima to find out about our conversation yesterday morning.’

‘What conversation?’

She laughed. ‘Oh, Mark, you must remember — the one where you said that you’d rather be with me than her, but you had to let her down gently because she’s so fragile.’

He paused for a moment. ‘And why would she believe you?’

‘Because I’m pretty sure they’re the same lines you used on her when you were seeing me. And when I quote you word for word, I think she’ll recognise them and know I’m telling the truth.’

When his face paled, she knew she’d hit the bullseye. Mark was far too lazy to be original. She almost laughed out loud, but stopped herself just in time.

‘Fine, I’ll give you a reference, but only if you work your full four weeks’ notice.’

‘I’ve given you four weeks.’

‘No, you’ve only given me two.’

‘The last two weeks I’m taking as the holiday you owe me, so you don’t need to pay me for that.’

‘But two weeks isn’t long enough to find a replacement.’

She forced herself not to smile. ‘Then maybe Jemima can help out? She was given the job to learn the ropes and she’s been here long enough. It should be easy enough for her to fill in for a lowly receptionist until you find a replacement.’

Mark moved towards the reception desk and looked down at her. Softly he said, ‘Anna, you know you’re more than just a receptionist. You’re very much more than that.’

‘Everyone is replaceable,’ she answered coolly, delighted for once that his puppy-dog eyes and cajoling compliments didn’t move her one little bit.

‘Morning, everyone.’ Jemima breezed into reception and then stopped in her tracks. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, am I interrupting something?’

‘Not at all,’ Mark said, pulling himself together. ‘Anna here has just handed in her notice. I was trying to persuade her to stay but she’s obviously impervious to my charms.’

‘Oh, you’re not going, are you?’ Jemima asked, barely able to keep the glee out of her voice. ‘Where to?’

It was then Anna realised Mark hadn’t even bothered to ask her where she was going.

‘I’ve got a job as an assistant to a photographer.’

Mark scoffed. ‘You and your photography. You were always more interested in that than real art.’

‘Who’s the photographer? Anyone we might know?’ Jemima asked.

‘You might, yes.’ Anna paused. ‘I’m going to work for Daniel Redfern.’

‘ The Daniel Redfern?’ Jemima asked, her eyes wide.

‘The very same,’ Anna replied, smiling. She looked at Mark — his face was puce, but he quickly rallied himself.

‘Well, you won’t last two minutes with him,’ he said. ‘He changes his assistants more often than most people change their socks.’

‘We’ll have to see,’ Anna said as Mark turned on his heel and slammed his office door behind him.

For a moment both women stared after him, then Jemima glared at Anna before following Mark into the office.