Chapter 1 February – Three Months Ago
February – Three Months Ago
Martin Middlewood, MD of YorkMart Supermarkets, resigned his position in the same manner that he had run the company: like an ineffectual, irresponsible wimp.
But after the Middlewood fiasco, the board were desperate to keep the shareholders sweet and they finally found they needed her: this woman who had foreseen all that would happen.
She knew they’d resolved to appoint a ‘Messiah’ who would undo all the damage and restore faith in the company for the shareholders, but in the meantime they’d appoint someone to hold the fort.
And that someone was Tam Remington. She was determined to blind them with her shine.
She knew YorkMart inside out; they would find no better.
At night, lying in bed, she visualised her future, willing it to manifest: the board realising her brilliance and declaring: My goodness.
Why are we even looking for anyone else when we have Tam Remington in the big chair?
Let’s double her pay immediately and worship her.
The big soft leather MD’s chair felt wonderful under her bottom, like a queen’s on her rightful throne.
But not even that would be a patch on telling her family about it.
She couldn’t wait for the next Sunday lunch, which, as luck would have it, was a mere few days away.
On the first Sunday of every month, Tam’s family gathered at the family home for an elaborate roast. In the long run-up to her June wedding, this had increased in regularity, with the invitation extended to her fiancé Harris’s mother, Davina Bullivant, and Tam’s best friend, Natasha, who also happened to be Harris’s twin.
Tam’s mother, Samantha, was a superb cook and seized any opportunity to show off her culinary skills.
They had a table in their dining room long enough to accommodate a state banquet if needs be.
Ironically, that’s what it always felt like too – more formal than informal, best manners at the ready. Absolutely no elbows.
Tam’s brother, Jame, always brought along his long-term girlfriend, Meredith, who hardly said a word.
Sometimes, Tam couldn’t even remember if she was present or not, she was so invisible.
Her sister, Hellen, had never brought a partner to lunch.
Tam wasn’t sure if she’d ever had one. If she had, she’d probably eaten them after sex.
The moment of revelation fell beautifully into her lap.
Jame started waxing lyrical about a boat he had his eye on buying, not because he was passionate about sailing, but because owning one would impress people.
Hellen, a barrister, counteracted with a boast of her own about a case she’d won, eviscerating the defence witnesses, and then her father, Thomas, shouted down the table, as a joke: ‘Anything you’d like to add to the family achievements, Tamantha?
’ There was a hic of laughter from Jame before Tam swallowed in preparation and then said,
‘Not really, unless you count being installed as MD of YorkMart.’
Jame almost choked on his pork loin.
‘Good one,’ said Hellen with a snort.
‘Really?’ was all her brother contributed, when he’d regained his composure.
‘I’d hardly lie,’ Tam replied.
‘Well, you did once lie that you’d landed the part of Cinderella in the school play,’ supplied Hellen, and Tam’s face distorted into incredulity.
Was that the best her sister could drum up as a response: the lie-that-wasn’t-a-lie incident that happened when she was ten?
The teacher had announced the cast list to the class and said, Tamantha Remington will play Cinderella and Bernice Mason will be one of the chorus, which Tam had taken as gospel.
But Bernice’s father had put a lot of money into the school coffers and there was an abrupt change of the dramatis personae.
The teacher was very apologetic and beefed up Tam’s role in the chorus, but a non-speaking-part waltz with Prince Charming’s assistant Dandini did nothing to lessen her disappointment.
Her sister, though, had preferred to believe she’d out and out lied.
She never had been one for giving anybody the benefit of the doubt.
Then Harris backed her up, which was nice because when Tam had first told him about the promotion he’d not whooped as she’d really wanted him to.
He’d used the excuse that he was just shocked into silence, but Tam had wondered for the slightest moment if he had been a tad jealous, something for which she felt immediately guilty. As if.
‘It’s true. Tam is the new acting MD of YorkMart as from this week.’ But he’d used the word she had deliberately omitted because she knew it would leap out, become the focus word. And she was right.
‘Ah, acting,’ said Hellen.
‘Well, still . . . excellent, I suppose. Even if it’s only temporary,’ said Thomas.
Davina and Samantha exchanged glances and Tam wondered what all that was about.
‘Good job I’m not an acting surgeon,’ guffawed Jame in response, gesturing with his glass of claret pompously.
‘Especially this week, when I had a particularly challenging surgery on a detached retina.’ With that, he sucked all the attention his way.
And Tam’s big moment disappeared as quickly as it had come.
Later, when Tam nipped to the loo, passing by the kitchen where Harris and his mother were in the process of clearing away the lunch things, she heard something that made her hang around the door and eavesdrop.
‘What on earth is she thinking of?’ asked Davina in the sort of whisper that could never really be a whisper for someone who spoke so naturally loudly all the time. ‘You do both realise that there is a high likelihood of you having twins when the babies come along.’
‘Yes, of course we realise this,’ said Harris.
‘And Tamantha will have to give up her job to look after them, of course, so why on earth is she pursuing promotion?’
‘Don’t worry, Mum, when the children . . .’
But Tam didn’t hear the rest because Meredith rounded the corner with a stack of plates and she had to abandon her spying. She only hoped that Harris had put his mother right and told her that it wasn’t any of her business what would happen when – or if – children came along.