Chapter 15
The last few weeks had been a blur for Jenni.
A check-up back at the hospital had confirmed that her leg was on the mend, so now, boot- and crutches-free, she had practically skipped into work, delighted to leave the confines of her flat.
While she loved working from home, it was less of a pleasure if it was from necessity rather than choice.
Even Oscar seemed fed up with her, she thought. He was disappearing for longer spells, slinking out early and returning home later each night. Perhaps they were entering the teenage years, although at three perhaps he was past the teens now – did cat years work the same as dog years?
Her first day back in the office had been a bit of a shock.
Excited to be returning, Jenni had picked up coffees from her favourite café to celebrate.
However, as she’d pushed through the revolving door at Go Big HQ, balancing the cardboard tray containing the drinks for the team in one hand, she’d been surprised to find Lucy and Tim waiting for her.
‘Surprise! Hello, love, we thought we’d come and greet you!’ Tim practically shouted, jiggling up and down on the spot.
‘Um, hello, yes, lovely to see you both, but I really didn’t need a welcome committee,’ Jenni said, catching Lucy glaring at Tim and mouthing ‘Act normal!’ before calling, ‘Oh, it’s no trouble, we just thought it would be a nice surprise.’
‘Yes, nice, nice to see you, and to, um, help,’ said Tim, grabbing the coffees from Jenni who was now feeling distinctly suspicious. What was going on?
‘It’s honestly fine, I don’t need any help—’ Jenni tried to protest, but Lucy interrupted.
‘Here, let’s get you up to the office.’
Lucy put her arm around Jenni’s shoulder and began to steer her towards the stairs.
‘The doctor said I need to take it easy for a bit longer, so I’ll take the lift. I’ll meet you up there if you want to walk up?’
‘I told you,’ Jenni heard Tim hiss to Lucy, who tutted, but when Jenni turned to look at them both, their faces snapped into wide smiles.
‘Of course, no problem, let’s take the lift,’ Tim said, striding towards the bank of lifts and jabbing the ‘up’ button.
Lucy rushed ahead to join Tim, the two of them whispering intensely while leaving Jenni to make her way more slowly to join them. As she drew alongside them, they stopped talking abruptly and, again, plastered slightly manic grins on their faces.
‘Okay. What’s going on with you two? Has something happened? Oh, you’re not throwing a welcome back party for me, are you? Do I need to look surp—’
‘We are not throwing you a party,’ interrupted Lucy, as the lift doors pinged open and she ushered Jenni into the lift. ‘But, well, there is something, and, um…’ she sighed dramatically. ‘Tim, you explain.’
Tim pushed the button for the sixth floor and the lift –much like Jenni’s feeling of alarm – began to rise.
‘What’s happened? Am I fired? Is Clive getting rid of me? What’s going on? You have to tell me.’
Tim turned to Jenni. ‘Okay, calm down! It’s none of that. The opposite, in fact. You could see it as more of a celebration of you… perhaps.’
‘Just tell me!’ Jenni’s alarm was now turning to frustration.
‘Okay, okay. It’s just, the decor has been updated and we thought you might be a bit… we thought you might not like… it.’ He trailed off.
‘Is that it? Why won’t I like it? How bad can it be?’ Jenni said, puzzled. ‘I mean, I do have strong views on orange these days, but I’m sure it can’t be that awful.’
The lift shuddered to a stop. Lucy turned to face Jenni and grabbed her by the shoulders. ‘It’s worse than orange,’ she said solemnly.
‘Yes,’ Tim added, his face serious. ‘You need to prepare yourself. And know that we tried to stop him.’
With a jolt, the doors opened at the Go Big reception area.
‘Oh. My. God.’ Jenni gasped, frozen to the spot. ‘What the fuck is this?’
‘Don’t panic,’ said Lucy. ‘It’s just in here. And the kitchen. And a little bit in the break-out area. But other than that, hardly noticeable.’
‘Fuck,’ whispered Jenni again, ignoring Lucy’s attempt to reassure her. It was suddenly clear why they’d been so keen for her to take the back stairs, avoiding reception and the giant photos of her. Everywhere.
‘I mean, I knew he’d used them for the campaign, but I didn’t think Clive would do this,’ Jenni said weakly.
Framed photos of her, depicting the moment her feet were swept from beneath her, the armful of colourful knitwear flying through the air, and if you didn’t know what happened next, the look on her face seemed one of happy surprise rather than horror, were displayed on every wall, some so large every pore on her nose was visible.
Jenni shuddered.
Tim patted her consolingly on the shoulder. ‘Your hair looks great though, nice swish as you’re, um, falling.’
Before Jenni could formulate a response, the internal door to the office swung open and Clive strode through with a grin so wide he looked like the Joker.
‘Jenni! Our star! You’re back! Wonderful. I see you’re admiring the campaign shoot – your colleagues here tried to suggest I go with different shots, but this picture says playful abandon to me and I’m just loving this direction for us, aren’t you?’
Taking Jenni’s inability to speak as agreement, he continued, ‘I can tell you’re as chuffed as I am! Jolly good. Right, see you in the Monday Motivational in fifteen minutes.’
He disappeared into the loo before any of them could reply.
‘Don’t worry, love, we’ve covered as many as we can with mental health awareness posters. You’ll hardly notice them after a while…’ Tim said, as he dumped the now-cold coffees on the reception desk, ignoring the tut from Fran who took the clear desk policy very seriously.
Taking Jenni’s arm and speaking quietly, as if calming a startled animal, Lucy guided her towards their desks.
‘And they’re everywhere, Amy, I can’t even go to the loo without seeing my fall of shame. I’ve a good mind to go to HR. It’s the very definition of employee harassment, surely.’
Amy, now crying with laughter, was unable to speak.
‘How would you like it if when you come back from maternity leave, Clive had enlarged that photo of you flashing your Spanx at the Christmas party and stuck it in reception, hmm? Imagine that plastered around the office, staring down at you while you’re trying to work?’
This sobering thought gave Amy pause and she pulled herself together, wiping the tears from her eyes.
‘Oh, Jenni, I’m sorry. It must be awful, but, you know, the campaign has done really well already, and you said that the other images, the ones with the models in, are scheduled to feed out soon, so you’ll quickly become digital chip paper.
And you know Clive likes to change the office “energy” every few months. They’ll all be taken down soon.’
‘Well, I’m working on trek-wear next so perhaps some nice tropical parrots might get me off the walls.’
‘That’s the spirit! And talking of walls, I need your help with something,’ Amy said. ‘But let’s have another coffee first.’
Jenni settled back on the bright red sofa while Amy, the sleeves of her striped top rolled up beneath black dungarees, walked over to flick the switch on the kettle.
Amy and her family lived a bus ride away and, still enjoying the novelty of being able to leave her flat, Jenni had been happy to make the short journey to visit her friend.
While Tilly, George and Simon were at the park, she and Amy could enjoy an uninterrupted catch-up.
Amy’s rental house was meant to be temporary while they found somewhere to buy, but with babies, and Simon’s job looking uncertain, they’d decided to stay put for a while, even though the tall, narrow house wasn’t ideal for a young family with pushchairs.
The kitchen and living room, where they were currently sitting, worked well in theory as Amy could cook and keep an eye on the children sat at the table at the same time, but it was on the first floor, which meant walking up and down the stairs with babies and bags of shopping ten times a day .
Amy came back with mugs of coffee, and as they drank them, Jenni showed her pictures of the stock she was going to sell at the fair in a couple of weeks.
‘Oh, I like that one – that’s lovely,’ Amy said, pointing at a cotton bag dyed a bright pink.
‘Well, you can have it if you can help me on the stall for a couple hours,’ Jenni said, looking beseechingly at her friend. ‘Just so I can go and look around the other stalls and see what the competition is. And I’ll need a loo break.’
‘I’m sure I can, I’ll check with Simon to see if he can look after the kids.’
‘Thank you – it will be much more fun if you’re there. I’m feeling a bit nervous, to be honest,’ Jenni confessed, now that she realised just how much work was involved and that the fair was so close.
‘You’ve got some great stuff, you’ll be fine. Now, have you finished your tea?’
Jenni took a last hasty gulp and nodded.
‘Right, follow me.’
Amy led the way up the stairs to the top floor where her and Simon’s bedroom at the front of the house was adjoined by a smaller room at the back. Tilly had been in a cot in her parents’ bedroom up until now, but was going to join George in the back bedroom next week.
‘I’ve cleared this corner for her cot and I need some help putting these fairy lights up, just to make Tilly’s corner a bit cuter, and the light will be softer when I have to come in for night feeds.’
‘That’s a nice idea. What do you want me to do?’
‘If I stand on this chair, can you feed the lights up to me so I don’t get in a tangle?’
As Amy reached up to snag the cable over hooks along the wall, Jenni carefully passed her each section to hang. Eventually, all in place, Amy stepped down and plugged in the lights.
‘Ta-dah!’
The little lights, trailing across the bedroom wall above the cot, cast a gentle glow on the woodland animal design of Tilly’s duvet, making the space look magical.
‘Gorgeous,’ said Jenni. ‘Lucky Tilly!’
‘Hopefully she’ll sleep okay in here and then it will be lucky Mummy, too!’
Just then, the sound of the front door opening reached them, followed by thumps on the stairs, indicating that George, Simon and Tilly were heading up to the sitting room.
‘Oh well,’ said Amy. ‘That’s the end of any peace and quiet. Come on, I know George will want to show you his dinosaurs.’
Jenni tried to look enthusiastic as, after taking one last look at the pretty bedroom, she followed Amy downstairs to ooh and ahh over George’s latest obsession.