Olivia
‘Yeah, give me five.’
She reached for her phone and clicked open her emails.
Nothing.
It had been a month since her email to Jacob, and she’d still heard nothing back. It had taken every bit of strength not to message again; what had Cece told her? Life was too short for playing games. And if he wanted to play silent, then he could do that on his own time.
Cece … Goa … Her entire time away now felt like a very distant and surreal dream. It hadn’t taken long for her to settle into the swing of things back home. The grey skies
and even greyer landscape seemed to suck every drop of Indian sunshine from her memory.
Work had thrown her straight back into the thick of it once she’d returned from leave, Phil wasting no time in getting her back to busy again.
In one way it was a blessing – there was less time to dwell when you had no time to eat, let alone think – but in another way, it was a cruel reminder of Jacob’s words during their argument. Was this what she wanted for her life?
She clicked on her sent items and reread her message to him. Even if he replied telling her never to contact him again, at least she’d know he was alive.
Nerves ran their ice-cold fingers down her throat and began to tighten their grip around her ribcage.
The unspoken fear that she had been carrying around with her for the last couple of weeks had reared its head once again.
What if he was hurt? What if he needed help?
Olivia closed her eyes and felt the frustration surge through her.
He’s an adult and not your responsibility.
She clicked out of her inbox and straight into her junk mail. It was a ritual she’d adopted every time she searched for his reply, and there was no point in breaking the routine now.
She flicked her eyes back up to the time; three minutes to go.
Plenty of time.
‘No, I don’t want to get filler in my face, thank you …’ She scrolled down the long list of trash messages. ‘And yes, I would like to be a crypto billionaire, but I doubt you will help me get there, …’
Suddenly Olivia stopped.
From:
Helen.K.Green@
Subject:
Hello
Surely it couldn’t be?
She’d never asked for his mum’s name and even if she had, he probably wouldn’t have told her. What were the chances of someone having the same surname as Jacob?
With a name like Green, extremely high!
She stared back at the unopened email.
Two minutes before she had to be up on the executive floor with Phil …
Against her better judgement, she clicked on the email.
One minute to go.
No.
Her entire body froze, the words on the screen blurring into one squiggled mess.
‘No!’ she cried out. ‘No. No.
’
‘Olivia, let’s go,’ Phil barked, storming towards her like a balding pitbull.
‘I … I’m sorry.’ She looked up. ‘I can’t.’
Her hands were gripping her phone so tightly that all the blood had drained from her fingers.
‘What do you mean, you can’t?’ Her boss’s eyes ran up and down the length of her, searching for any obvious issues. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I need to leave.’ Thoughts crunched around in her head like a thousand tiny shards of glass. ‘I’m sorry, Phil.’ She straightened up and switched her computer off. ‘But I need to go. There’s been an emergency.’
‘Excuse me?’ His piggy eyes were wide with confusion. ‘You can’t! You can’t do this again.’
‘Rob can cover – he probably knows it better than me
anyway.’ She grabbed her bag and flung it over her shoulder, nodding to Rob, who looked equal parts shocked and grateful.
‘You can’t go!’ her boss bellowed. ‘We need you, Olivia.’
‘I’m sorry, Phil.’ She raced towards the door. ‘But someone else needs me more.’