Chapter 4
Leo got out of the car and stretched his arms. It was the following Monday.
He and Caleb had taken turns driving up to the North East in a hire car.
Waterloo Bay, it turned out, was hours and hours and hours away.
At least they hadn’t had to go across London to pick Vidya up. She was coming on the train later.
‘I can smell the sea,’ Caleb said, breathing in and thumping his chest like some sort of cave man.
‘It’s just on the other side of that building.’ Leo gestured to the hotel. He wasn’t as full of energy as his friend, but it was nice to glimpse the water. Something of that childlike excitement at seeing the sea never left you, no matter how old you got.
‘When’s the admin person joining us?’ Caleb bounced on the balls of his feet, loosening up.
‘Her name is Vidya. She should be here this evening,’ Leo said. They may not know her well, but the least they could do was remember her name. ‘We should check in and then go have a little walk around, maybe?’
***
Vidya paid the taxi driver and remembered to get a receipt.
It was only then that she finally turned to look at the hotel she was going to be working and staying in for the next eight days.
The Waterloo Bay Hotel was much bigger than she was expecting it to be.
It was four floors of Victorian curlicues and ironwork, all backed by a fetching shade of pastel yellow and white. It was impressive.
When she turned, she was looking down towards the beach.
The hotel was set a little way back and halfway up a hill.
The gardens sloped down, crisscrossed by a path that descended through the foliage and ended up by the road far below.
Across the road was the promenade and then the beach.
Beyond that was the sea. She breathed in and tasted the salt in the air.
Seagulls wheeled and screamed above her, voices and the odd sound of a car floated up from below and, behind it all, she heard the steady beat and wash of the sea.
Realising that she was gaping like a tourist, Vidya closed her mouth, grabbed the handle of her case and set off towards the porticoed entrance.
She wasn’t here to enjoy the seaside; she was here to work.
Besides, she had a mission. Udeni was still wavering about whether to include the baby daddy.
Someone had to be sensible and find out – so that if Udeni decided to tell the father, they knew for certain which guy to talk to.
And as usual, the sensible one had to be Vidya.
She’d had a quick chat with Sarah and now knew that Caleb was charming and laid back but sometimes needed to be reminded to meet deadlines, and Leo was intense and aloof but was fine if you were good at your job, which was a bit of a worry.
It had been a while since she’d done actual admin work.
She was confident it would all come back to her.
Who knows, maybe her time working in digitisation and AI might actually help.
She was almost certain now that the guy she needed to get intel on was Caleb.
Leo didn’t fit the description of tall, kind, sexy and a good dancer.
Most of her colleagues who had worked with him described him as ‘uptight’, ‘nitpicky’ or ‘a pain in the arse’.
The only one who seemed to like him was Sarah, who, it turned out, thought he was wonderful and considered him a friend.
Vidya had a lot of respect for Sarah, who was not a woman to suffer fools gladly.
But being friends with Sarah didn’t exclude Leo from also being uptight and picky.
She had tried to subtly ask Sarah if she knew if the guys had tattoos. It had earned her a stern glare, and Sarah replied how the hell was she supposed to know that. At which point Vidya had decided it was best to let it go.
Just as she reached the impressive front steps of the hotel something landed on her head. Oh, no. She raised her hand and touched something wet. Ugh. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Muttering curses, she tried to flick it off her hair. But it ran down her forehead and she clamped her eyes shut. ‘Aaaargh.’
Someone came up to her and thrust a tissue into her hand. A male voice said, ‘Here. This should help.’ Then added, ‘Do you … want some help getting it out?’
She wiped the descending goop off her forehead.
‘Here.’ The tissue was removed from her hand and replaced with another. She couldn’t see her helper, but he had a quiet, calm voice.
‘Thanks.’ She used that one too and cautiously opened her eyes.
She was looking straight at a man with dark eyes that seemed to radiate concern.
When she took a step back, she recognised him as Leo.
Oh, this was embarrassing. She was supposed to be giving off super competent vibes, which was hard to do when you were swearing about bird poo in your hair.
‘I … er … have I got it all?’ She wiped her hands on a fresh tissue.
He examined her hair solemnly, giving her a moment to study him in return.
He was handsome, in a classical kind of way, and had an air of precision about him.
Everything he was wearing was neat. Flawless suit, ironed shirt, straight tie, even his hair was tidy.
It seemed that Angie’s assessment was right.
This guy definitely didn’t seem the type to have a one-night stand.
‘You’ve removed most of the … er … solid bits, yes. The rest should wash out.’ His gaze dropped to her hands. ‘Oh, I’d wash those very carefully. Seagulls carry a lot of germs.’
She rubbed at her hairline. Gesturing towards his hand, where he was gingerly holding the used tissues, she said, ‘You too.’
‘In some places they say it’s lucky if a bird poos on you,’ said another voice, laughter threaded through it.
Caleb. The man who might have got off with her sister. She tamped down the irritation at his amusement and said, ‘You must be Leo and Caleb. Hi. I’m Vidya. I’m helping you with your due diligence work. I would offer to shake your hands, but …’
‘Sarah’s replacement,’ Leo said, mournfully.
‘Oh, right. Hi.’ Caleb glanced at Leo and rolled his eyes. ‘Ignore him,’ he said. ‘He doesn’t deal very well with change. It’s nice to meet you, Vidya.’
‘I guess I should go check in and see if I can do something about … this.’ She waved a hand to indicate her hair.
‘There are some toilets on the left as you go in,’ said Leo. ‘We’ll bring your bag in for you.’ Leo, still not smiling, took the handle. ‘Come on.’
Vidya walked into the hotel with Caleb in front of her and Leo behind. She couldn’t help feeling the situation had got away from her a bit.
***
Leo could still feel the bird poo on his hands from touching those tissues.
He’d washed them already, but they still didn’t feel clean.
Spotting a hand sanitiser bottle at the reception desk, he took a detour to sanitise his hands before he went over to where Caleb was sitting, slumped back on one of the plush chairs, Vidya’s suitcase standing next to him.
The hotel had once been grand but now felt faded.
The atrium they were sitting in had a reception desk at one end and a wide-open space with tired-looking chairs clustered in groups.
An enormous chandelier and a grand piano tucked away in the corner suggested that this room was sometimes used for events.
Right now, it had an old-fashioned air of gentility about it.
He took the chair next to Caleb. ‘I guess she’s not come out yet?’
Caleb shrugged. ‘Probably trying to wash the stuff out of her hair and then dry it under the hand dryer. That would take a bit of time, I guess.’
Leo imagined it would. She’d had her black hair in a plait over her shoulder. If she had to unplait it to clean it, it would take a very long time. His sisters usually took hours to do their hair. ‘I suppose we have to wait and mind her luggage,’ he said.
His friend gave him a sidelong glance. ‘We’re not on the clock yet.’
That was true. It was Monday evening. They didn’t officially start the project until tomorrow.
Tonight was meant to be about getting here, settling in and meeting the liaison from the hotel.
Leo’s leg twitched. He needed a walk. He had been sitting still or driving for far too long today and he needed to burn off some nervous energy.
A brisk walk would have been ideal. Instead, they were sitting here waiting.
Caleb smiled. ‘Be nice,’ he said. ‘She’s not used to you like Sarah is. You have to put your human face on.’
What Caleb called his ‘human face’ was when Leo had to pad out his usual bluntness with meaningless phrases.
He didn’t see the point of it. He was still conveying the same information.
Okay, maybe when imparting bad news or pointing out a flaw …
but otherwise, what was the point? That said, it did seem to make a difference in a professional setting, so he did his best. It reminded him of his parents.
Emote, darling! Show more emotion. Not like that.
More convincingly. Widen your eyes. That’s better.
‘Vidya seems nice,’ Caleb said. There was laughter in his voice again.
Leo tensed a little, sensing he was being teased. ‘Hard to tell from the few minutes we spent with her.’ Although, he realised now that he had met her before. He was pretty sure she was the woman who had been wearing that odd Zorro costume at the work anniversary party a couple of months ago.
‘Pretty,’ said Caleb.
Well, yes. He had spotted that. It was hard not to. Everything about her was generous – curves, lips, eyes. Such beautiful big eyes. He looked away. ‘That’s not exactly appropriate. She’s a work colleague.’
‘Just pointing it out, in case you hadn’t noticed.’
He knew better than to respond to that. No matter what he said, Caleb would make a big deal of it and tease him. Caleb noticing a woman wasn’t news, but he himself rarely did.
‘She reminds me of someone,’ Caleb said. ‘Like, off the telly or something.’
Leo had no idea who that might be, so he just shook his head.
‘From what I gather, she’s single.’ Caleb was still watching him.
‘Caleb.’
‘Right. Right. Work colleague,’ said Caleb, grinning. ‘Sarah says she’s very efficient.’ He looked down at his phone. ‘She says, “please remind Leo that people are motivated by praise”.’ He tilted the phone to show him, where it did indeed say that.
Leo flicked a piece of lint off his leg. ‘Yes. She told me that last week.’
He liked Sarah. She was a ruthlessly efficient administrator.
They’d got to a point now where they barely needed to talk to each other at the start of a job.
She did her bit, seamlessly making sure everything was in place for Leo and Caleb to do theirs.
It was going to be hard having to train someone else to that level of efficiency.
There was bound to be a lot of lag time where they were sitting around when they could have been working. Like they were doing right now.
‘I miss Sarah,’ Leo said, with feeling.
Caleb gave him a sympathetic nod. ‘Maybe it’ll be good for you to work with someone different. You know, see other people …’
Sarah had called Leo again to reassure him that Vidya was sensible and efficient. Rather worryingly, she’d also said, ‘She’s very good at automating systems and doing AI things. From what I heard of this project, you’re going to need some of that to get you through the workload in time.’
This worried him more than he liked to let on. While he had no objection to AI-derived automation in principle, he didn’t want to be the one to test it. He should probably tell Caleb what Sarah had said.
A smartly dressed woman with red hair came up to them. ‘Excuse me, gentlemen, are you from the Somersby legal team?’
‘Yes, we are.’ Leo rose to his feet.
‘I’m Stella. I’m your liaison person. Welcome to the Grand.’ She had an East Yorkshire accent, which was a little different from what he’d come to expect as ‘Northern’.
They shook hands. Stella looked around. ‘I was expecting three of you.’
‘Our colleague, Vidya, will be joining us,’ Leo said. ‘She had an encounter with a seagull, so she’s just in the bathroom …’
‘Oh, no,’ said Stella. ‘That’s awful.’
He caught sight of Vidya walking across the room towards them, her hair had been scraped back into a low ponytail and looked damp. ‘Here she comes now.’
Stella turned away from him to talk to Vidya. ‘I heard you encountered the seagulls already. I’m so sorry. They are such a pain. They don’t work for us, unfortunately, so we can’t fire them.’
He watched as Vidya’s serious expression was replaced with a smile. Caleb was right. She was pretty.
‘I think I’ve washed most of it off,’ Vidya said.
‘Did it get on your clothes? We have a laundry service …’
‘It’s okay,’ said Vidya. ‘Luckily, I caught most of it in my hair, it seems.’ She reached for her suitcase.
‘Do you need a few moments to find your room?’ said Stella. ‘I was going to show you where you’ll be working.’
Vidya glanced from Leo to Caleb and said, ‘Just let me check in and then we’ll stick to the plan.’
Efficient. That was good. Leo would happily drag her suitcase around for her if it meant getting this done on time. His legs were complaining; that walk was getting quite urgent. He reached for the bag, just as she did.
She looked up. ‘It’s okay,’ she said. ‘I’ve got it.’
Feeling slightly chastened, he followed them to the reception desk.