Chapter 23 #2
Ashley turned up, looking a little wired. She shut the door to the room and slid into the seat next to him. ‘You ready for this?’
He nodded. ‘I think so.’
Ashley tilted her head. ‘What’s that?’ She tipped her chin towards the envelope.
Sampath didn’t answer but raised his eyebrows and gave her a rueful smile. She would know what it was.
‘Oh,’ said Ashley. ‘Oh, Sampath, no. I mean … I can see why you’d want to leave, but … you can’t. What am I going to do here without you?’
Sampath shrugged. ‘I thought about it a lot. I got into this business to make people happy. This place …’ He gestured to the carefully staged photos around the room.
‘It’s all about the money and the glamour shots.
I’m really grateful to have had the chance to learn from people like you, but …
I don’t think it’s for me.’ He shook his head. ‘It doesn’t bring me joy.’
Ashley sighed. ‘And in this life, if there isn’t joy, what even is the point? I know.’ She grimaced. ‘Well, I can’t say I blame you. What are you going to do next?’
‘Well, I have to work my notice for a couple more weeks, but I’m looking for an events job.
Weddings would be nice, but maybe it’s time to go back to events.
Just do something that’s more of a job. Not something that has the happiness of two people riding on it.
’ Leaving Grant’s company hadn’t been a difficult choice, but leaving the wedding business had.
He loved being a wedding planner, but the pressure he put on himself was too much.
Lihini had always said he was his own worst critic.
Maybe finding joy for himself, rather than trying to create it for others, would be an easier path to tread.
Ashley gave his arm a gentle squeeze. ‘I’ll miss you.’
‘We’ll keep in touch, though,’ he said. ‘I fully intend to email you every time I read a book I think you’d like.’
‘I would expect nothing less.’
Another colleague came in and they both stopped talking. A few minutes later, when Grant walked in, the tension in the room went up a notch.
Grant put his fists on the table and glared at Sampath. ‘Well, explain yourself? How did the most promising event we had on the table – no expense spared, mind you – fall apart like this?’
Sampath sat up straighter and cleared his throat. ‘The bride found out that the groom was cheating on her.’
A murmur went through the room.
‘Hmm.’ Grant straightened up and crossed his arms. ‘And how, exactly, did the bride find this out.’
‘From what I gather, she found messages between them.’ He forced himself to maintain eye contact. The breakup was nothing to do with him. He had to keep telling himself that. He had done everything in his power to remain ethical.
Grant gave a grunt. ‘The client is very unhappy.’
Sampath sighed. ‘Of course he is. He got found out philandering. I was the one who had to organise Kalpana getting back to the UK. It’s no surprise if he transfers his anger to me. But I did everything they hired us to do. I sent reports back daily. You can check.’
Grant huffed again. Sampath knew that Grant couldn’t really fault his work.
He continued, ‘Because they were the ones who called off the wedding, we don’t have any issues with breach of contract.
They hadn’t fully decided on what they wanted yet, so there were minimal deposits made.
Marcus has signed off the cancellation fees,’ he said chirpily.
‘So there’s no financial downside. And, since I also used the trip as an opportunity to do some reconnaissance work for other events, we are now in a position to offer some nice, flexible wedding packages for people who want a destination wedding in Sri Lanka. ’ He finished with an upbeat grin.
‘But we lost our chance to be in Wedding Fayre,’ Grant growled.
‘We might still make it into the industry gossip page,’ Ashley muttered.
Sampath nudged her under the table. Not the time to make jokes.
‘I hold you responsible for this fiasco,’ said Grant.
‘I’m sorry about that,’ Sampath said to Grant.
‘Like I said, Marcus will calm down soon. So maybe he’ll come to you the next time he plans a wedding.
’ The very thought left a bad taste in his mouth, but it was true.
Marcus had already begrudgingly admitted that he couldn’t actually fault Sampath’s research and service.
He didn’t dare think what Kalpana would say about him, though.
Given how upset she had been when she left, probably nothing that nice.
‘Given this mess, I’ll have to seriously consider your future at this company—’ Grant began.
‘On that note …’ Sampath slid out his envelope and passed it over to his boss. ‘That’s my resignation letter. I will work my notice period, so I can make sure that all the new contacts I made are properly reported and logged before I leave.’
Grant goggled at him.
Sampath stood up. ‘I believe the next item on the agenda is future planning. That’s not really relevant to me now, so I’m just going to go to my desk and do some work. Okay?’ He smiled as pleasantly as possible and walked out.
At his desk, he let out a long breath. That had gone better than he’d imagined. He looked down at his coffee mug. He needed a fresh cup.
The final week in Sri Lanka had been awful.
He had thrown himself into his work, making sure he collected as many contacts and information for the company as he could.
When he called the day before Marcus flew out, to check that there weren’t any further issues that needed to be dealt with, Marcus had been curt, but civil.
In the circumstances, it seemed the best Sampath could have hoped for.
He still wasn’t sure he’d done anything wrong when he pulled away from Kalpana. She was still his client and he took his role seriously. But he wished he’d found a better way to explain it.
He hadn’t stopped thinking about her since they’d parted. Everything reminded him of her. The sky, the earth, the flowers, the food … everything. The worst part was that normally he’d escape his troubles by disappearing into a book, but those reminded him of Kalpana too.
Coming back to the UK hadn’t made things any better.
He still couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Pretty much every night, he pulled up her mobile number on his phone and stared at it, not daring to press to call.
What could he say? She had asked him not to contact her and he respected her need for space … But he couldn’t carry on like this.