Chapter 3
A week later, Vidya sat in the weekly team meeting. She had already given her update about the AI project and how they were slowly rolling it out. Making her stay for the whole meeting was just a ridiculous power play on her manager’s part.
While Harry, her manager, droned on about other projects they were supporting, she ran through her plan.
It had been a whole week and Udeni hadn’t changed her mind about keeping the baby, so this was really happening.
Which meant she had to make good on her promise to try to find out some information about the father of the child.
Before she could do that, she had to confirm which one of the guys had a tattoo on his chest. Of some sort of magical creature.
Udeni was so vague. It was so unhelpful.
She looked down at her notepad, where she’d doodled a stick figure and a rudimentary sorting hat.
The words ‘Legal Team B’ caught her attention and caused her to startle. Her empty mug clattered to the floor, and Harry stopped talking to look at her. ‘Everything okay, Vidya?’
‘Yes. Sorry. Dropped my mug.’ She retrieved it.
‘As I was saying,’ Harry continued, ‘Legal Team B are being sent up to Waterloo Bay on the North East coast to do the due diligence on a hotel that the Somersby chain wants to take over. They have requested admin support and specifically requested Sarah.’
Everyone nodded. Sarah, a pleasant Black woman in her fifties, said, ‘I know about that. That’s in four weeks’ time. That’ll be fine.’
‘They want it done sooner,’ said Harry. ‘So, it’s actually next week.’
‘Oh … oh, no can do,’ said Sarah. ‘I’m on holiday for two weeks from next week.’
‘But they asked for you specifically.’
Someone laughed. ‘I expect that’s because it’s with Leo Jones. No one else wants to work with him.’
‘That’s right,’ said Harry. ‘Leo Jones and Caleb Fotherill. And we know you work well with them, Sarah.’
Vidya sat up straighter. Caleb was one of the potential candidates for operation baby daddy. Leo Jones was the one that Angie was certain they could disqualify.
‘Except I won’t be working with anyone for two weeks,’ said Sarah, pointedly. ‘Because I’m on holiday.’
‘Oh. Right. Yes. Well, in that case we’ll have to send someone else.’ He looked around the table as a lot of people tried to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible. ‘Clearly, you’re all keen,’ he said sarcastically. ‘How about this – any volunteers?’
Vidya’s heart sped up a notch. Here was a chance for her to work alongside two of the three guys and subtly find out more about them without resorting to weird and intrusive questions. This was an opportunity. She had to take it. ‘I’ll do it.’
Everyone turned to look at her.
‘Vids, it’s eight days. With Leo “are you sure you’ve done this right, check it again” Jones,’ someone said.
‘Sure.’ She cast about for a good reason. ‘Legal have had the AI assistant for a while and aren’t using it. It would be good to find out why not. Besides, I … could do with a break. Er. Sea air.’
‘You’ll mostly be seeing the inside of the legal archive room.’
‘I don’t mind.’
‘Well, that’s excellent,’ said Harry, writing something down. ‘Come talk to me later about the details. Thanks, Vidya. Now, moving on to the next item.’
Vidya sat very still and stared at the doodle on her notepad. Okay. Step one was on its way.
***
‘What do you mean, Sarah’s not available?’ Leo demanded down the phone. He was in the office he shared with Caleb. ‘I spoke to her about this last week.’
‘But the dates have changed.’ Harry, the head of the administrators, sounded tired and apologetic on the other end of the line.
‘They have?’ Leo clicked on his emails. Had he missed one? He scrolled through the unread ones. As he scanned the screen, an email popped up. He swore.
He glanced over the half partition at Caleb, who was frowning quizzically at him. ‘Did you know the dates for the Somersby hotel thing had changed?’
Caleb’s eyes were focused on his computer. ‘Just seen it. Oh, the timescales have shrunk too. We’ve got about eight days to get it done. Are we getting more people? That’s not enough time otherwise.’
‘Not that I’ve heard of.’ Leo scanned the email again. ‘This is an impossible task to do in that time.’ He turned his attention back to the phone. ‘Harry, can we have an extra administrator? There isn’t enough time to get the work done with just three people. We’ll have to come to some other—’
‘I’ve spoken to Charlie and he says that you and Caleb were still the best people for the job.
He’s confident you can do it with only one other person on the team.
I’ve found you an administrator who is free to come with you.
At very short notice, I might add. You’re just going to have to manage. ’ Harry’s voice was clipped.
Charlie. If his boss had agreed on their behalf, there wasn’t much he could do about it. ‘Is there any chance we can have more time then?’
‘Look, Leo. I don’t think so. You’ll have to talk to Charlie, but this is Somersby. You know what they’re like.’
The Somersby chain of hotels were a big client. They had been acquiring a lot of smaller hotels lately. They were very relaxed about what they were billed for but expected huge amounts of flexibility from the team in return. Leo hated that.
He would try talking to Charlie, but he doubted he’d get anywhere.
‘Okay, fine,’ he said. ‘Email me and Caleb the details. We have to be in Brussels on the fifteenth. So, we’ll have to head back to London that morning at the latest.’
‘Noted,’ said Harry.
Leo remembered to say ‘thank you’ before he put the phone down.
When he’d hung up, Leo put his head in his hands. ‘Aargh. Charlie. He did this on purpose, didn’t he?’
Caleb wheeled his chair to the side, so that he could peer round the computer screen at Leo. ‘Well, if you antagonise the boss in front of his friends …’
‘But I was right.’
Leo re-read the email a third time. ‘I had it all arranged with Sarah to do our admin support. Damn it all.’
‘Is Sarah busy next week?’
‘She’s going on her cruise, remember.’ He glanced over and saw Caleb quickly cover up his blank expression.
Fair enough. Caleb didn’t know Sarah as well as Leo did.
‘She needs a break,’ he said, quietly. ‘It’s the first holiday she’s had since her aunt died.
She’s been spending most of her evenings and weekends sorting out her aunt’s stuff. ’
He liked Sarah. She was an extremely competent administrator.
One of the few people that he could trust to get everything right without having to check her work.
They had learned to work together when they’d been assigned to a project together a few years ago, and now they were friends. Sarah was always their administrator.
Caleb grinned. ‘So, you’re going to have to work with a new person? Oof. Am I going to need to pack body armour?’
Leo glared at his friend.
Caleb sobered up. ‘Seriously though, I know what you’re like. Don’t give this new person a hard time.’
‘I don’t give people a hard time. I just like to be thorough.’
Caleb raised his eyebrows. Leo sighed. ‘Fine. I will do my best to deal with the uncertainty without having to check their work. Okay?’
‘Good. If there’s something you want checked, why don’t you send me in to do it?’ Caleb’s smile was back. ‘I have people skills that you don’t.’
Leo nodded. ‘I’ll bear that in mind.’
He opened the email again and re-read it, slowly this time, so that he could be sure he’d absorbed the information. He looked at the administrator’s name. Vidya. He didn’t think he knew her. He stared at the name for a moment and drummed his fingers. Then he called Sarah.
‘I know, I know,’ she said, without even saying hello. ‘But I can’t come to the north with you.’
‘I wasn’t going to ask you to. You’re on holiday,’ he said. ‘I’m offended you think I’d forgotten. I put it in my work calendar. Specifically, so that I could avoid anything that required too much admin support during that time.’
Sarah gave a little laugh. ‘I’m sorry, Leo.’
He grunted. ‘Tell me about this Vidya person, then. Is she any good?’
‘She’s very good,’ said Sarah, firmly. ‘You have nothing to worry about. She’s practical and thorough.’
That was reassuring, he supposed. Sarah’s judgement on competence was probably sound. ‘Hmm,’ he said.
‘She’s nice,’ said Sarah. ‘I’ll have a chat with her, if you like.’
‘Could you? That would be good. Getting to know how people work, and all that, takes so long, and we really don’t have much time.’
Another soft laugh. ‘Caleb says you’re freaking out,’ said Sarah. ‘Relax, Leo. It’ll be fine.’
He would believe it when he saw it. He changed the subject. ‘How did it go with your aunt’s flat? All sorted?’
‘I think so. It’s empty now, so the estate agent can come and take photos. Thank you for your help at the weekend.’
‘Oh, it was nothing.’ He had spent some time helping Sarah pack and shift boxes to give to charity. He was glad that he had, because there was too much stuff for one person to deal with, and Sarah was clearly exhausted. He could still hear the tiredness in her voice. She needed this holiday.
‘Ah, you’re a good man, for all your funny ways,’ said Sarah.
There wasn’t much he could say to that, so he said, ‘Well, enjoy your holiday. Come back refreshed.’
‘I will.’
After Leo had hung up, Caleb peered around his computer monitor.
‘Did you tell Sarah I was freaking out?’ Leo demanded. ‘I’m not freaking out. I’m having perfectly legitimate concerns over staffing and time frames for this project.’
Caleb rolled his eyes. ‘You are freaking out. Just a little bit.’
They stared at each other for a moment. Aside from Sarah, Caleb was probably the only other person that he worked smoothly and in sync with. This project was going to be difficult, but he had Caleb with him. Maybe it would be okay.
‘I’d best get this done, now that I’m suddenly much busier than I was,’ Leo said. He threw another glare at Caleb. ‘Stop gossiping with Sarah about me.’
Caleb grinned. ‘Oh, but it’s so much fun.’
Leo shook his head. He opened the folder he was working on. A lot of the standard contracts were digital only now. He could work with them, but he did like to review things on paper. He smoothed the page down and started to read. There was something so reliable about paper.