Chapter 43
It was time to go for it, Bella told herself, as she strode up to the elevator, which would take her to Prentice and Partners for the first time in eight months.
She punched the button and the doors pinged open. Once she was inside, she could feel her hands shaking slightly so she tightened her grasp on her briefcase and tried to slow her breathing right down. This was going to work.
Ping. She walked towards the glass double doors and could see Kitty taking off her coat. Bella smiled and tried to relax. This was her office, her job. It was going to be OK.
She stepped in, it was 8.45a.m. so just Kitty and Susan would be here.
‘Hello,’ she said to Kitty.
Kitty looked up and stared. ‘My God, you look completely different!’
‘But in a good way?’ said Bella.
‘Yes, very good. Very moderne. Gimme a hug, it’s gorgeous to see you.’
They hugged and kissed.
‘Is she here?’ Bella said this quietly; she didn’t want to spoil Susan’s surprise.
Kitty nodded and picked up the phone.
‘Hi, Susan,’ she said. ‘There’s an unscheduled visitor here for you… but I’m pretty sure you’ll want to see her.’
After a momentary pause, Susan’s office door opened.
For a few seconds, Susan’s face registered just surprise, then she smiled, half held out her arms and exclaimed, ‘Bella, oh my God. Welcome back!’
‘Hang on a minute,’ Bella grinned. ‘I’ve just walked in the door. I think we might need to talk first.’
‘Yes, of course, come in.’ Susan motioned. ‘Kitty, bring us some coffee, please. And hold my calls. Come in, Bella.’
Bella hadn’t known what to expect from Susan, but this was a very good start.
She walked into the office and was surprised to see it had been revamped. There was a compact desk at the window now and the room was now mainly taken up by three stylish leather armchairs grouped round a low table.
‘It’s the new, we’re all equals, touchy-feely thing, do you like it?’ Susan asked, pointing her into a chair.
‘It’s fab,’ said Bella, sitting down in the squashy leather and feeling very at ease in her new clothes. No skirt to ride too high, no uncomfortable heels to hoick her knees to an awkward angle.
‘You look fabulous,’ Susan said, perching in her chair because of her skirt and heels. ‘I love your hair… and is that green nail polish?’
‘Yeah, thanks,’ said Bella.
There was a pause as the two women looked at each other and smiled.
‘About the way I left—’ Bella began. ‘I am sorry about it, but I think I had a point. I’m not saying I was completely right, but I was making a point that you should have taken on board.’
‘I think that’s fair,’ Susan replied. ‘I didn’t want you to go, and I’m sorry I reacted so strongly. I don’t want you to go, in fact, I’d love to have you back.’
‘I really want to be back, Susan,’ Bella said. ‘But not in my old role, because I know it’s only been eight months, but I’ve changed too much.’
Susan didn’t say anything; she was waiting for Bella to explain.
‘I can’t put the job first the way I did before,’ Bella continued. ‘I think that might be hard for you to understand. I mean, I want to do a fantastically good job for you, but I don’t want to rule the universe the way I did before.’
They smiled at each other. ‘My son comes first. If there’s ever a choice between work and baby, he’s going to win. But that shouldn’t mean I can’t do excellent work.’
Bella took a good hard look at Susan to try and read her reaction, then carried on with her pitch. ‘I’m a very capable person, and I’ve got a lot of ability I know you can use for the hours I’m willing to devote to work.’
Kitty tapped at the door and came in with the coffees, which was perfect because Bella knew Susan was thinking hard about what she was about to suggest – and whatever scenario Susan was imagining, Bella knew her own plan would be so much better.
Kitty put the cups down, saying, ‘Nice shoes,’ to Bella to break the silence.
‘Thanks, they’re my time management shoes,’ Bella joked. ‘Instead of going to the gym, I’m going to jog home from work.’
‘So,’ said Susan, once Kitty had closed the door, ‘what have you got in mind?’
‘I want to run the new online offering for Prentice and Partners.’
‘Go on.’ Susan’s eyebrows were raised maybe a little sceptically, but she was listening.
‘Your company is going to run the first online consultancy for small businesses. Turnover of less than five million a year.
‘Business owners will log on, answer a detailed questionnaire and get an initial action plan back from us – for free.’
Sharp intake of breath from Susan.
‘If they want specific advice for their company, they can have consultancy sessions online or over the phone at an agreed rate.
‘It’s designer diffusion,’ Bella said with a smile. ‘The Prentice brand off-the-peg for the smaller players who really need it. Obviously, you can sell advertising on the site to tonnes of linked financial services – business banks, lenders, insurers and so on.’
‘Wow,’ Susan said, raising her coffee cup. ‘Do you think it will make any money?’
‘I’m willing to bet it will make tonnes of money,’ said Bella, hardly able to contain her enthusiasm. ‘You’ll have to employ new staff to keep up with demand. It’s the mass market, Susan, thousands of smaller consultancies a year instead of five big deals. It’s also incredible advertising for you. You’re going to look like the most forward-thinking company in the game.’
‘But we’re giving out advice for free.’ Susan winced at the thought.
‘I know, scary concept, but the whole lure is that businesses get something really good for nothing, and then they pay for more. Anyway, the advertising alone will pay for all the people who log on for the free stuff and then disappear.’
‘Have you got a business plan for this?’ Susan asked.
‘Of course,’ said Bella with a smile. ‘I’ll send it over.’
Susan laughed, then asked, ‘How are you going to have time to run it?’
‘Well, I’ve got a minder for Markie four mornings a week, when I’ll log on and do most of the work, from home mainly,’ Bella said. ‘Because that gives me an extra ninety minutes of time I’d otherwise spend travelling.
‘I can log on again in the evenings to keep on top of it and I’ll meet people here in the office when it’s needed, which isn’t going to be more than a couple of times a month.’
‘You’ve got it all figured out,’ said Susan with a smile. ‘Why do I feel as if I’m going to have to let you have a go at this?’
‘Well…’ said Bella still smiling, ‘it’s either give in to my outrageous demands, or I take you to industrial tribunal for constructive dismissal during maternity leave.’
‘Ouch— that would look bad… woman boss and everything.’
‘Very bad,’ Bella agreed.
‘Bella, I’m so proud of you,’ Susan said with a warmth Bella had never heard before.
And Bella suddenly felt tears at the back of her eyes. Really? Susan was proud of her.
‘You remind me of myself at your age,’ Susan went on, ‘but I think you’ve made better choices.’
‘Susan!’ Bella protested. ‘You’re running your own internationally successful company.’
‘Yes, but I could never work out how to do this and have a family.’
Bella heard a tone of regret in those words and realised this was the first time Susan had ever told her anything personal about herself.
‘I was sure I had to choose,’ Susan continued. ‘And I’m happy with my decision because I don’t think I would have achieved all this with a family. But I’m sorry I reacted badly to your pregnancy – I’m probably a bit hung up and a bit regretful. And I’ll be so happy for you if you can make it all work.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Bella. ‘We’ve been fed a whole lot of crap about careers and babies and I don’t think you can have it all. You can have some of it, some of the time, if you’re lucky and work really hard.’
‘You’re making good choices,’ Susan said, then added with a smile, ‘But won’t you miss walking into the big boys’ offices and telling them it’s OK, you’re here to sort things out?’
‘Ah well… probably a bit,’ Bella replied. ‘But I can always come back to that later. I’d really like to try and make this new idea work.’
‘Who do you want to help you set it up?’ asked Susan. ‘Chris?’
‘No. I think Chris and I had better stick to our separate empires for the moment. What about the new girl?’
‘Milly?’
‘Yeah. I’ll meet her and see if we can get on. Hector— well,’ Bella wanted to be tactful. ‘I’m not sure he’s my type.’
‘I’m not sure if he’s mine either,’ Susan said. ‘Hire someone new if you like, a tech expert if that makes sense,’ she added, with what sounded suspiciously like enthusiasm.
‘So, we haven’t discussed?—’
‘Money?’ said Susan putting her cup down.
‘I’m working fewer hours, but I’m not working part-time. I’m afraid this is not a chance for you to slash my wages,’ Bella said, trying to sound firm and not at all nervous.
‘Relax, this is a fantastic new venture,’ Susan answered. ‘I’ll raise you by twenty per cent, make you a partner in our new internet arm and give you a twenty-five per cent profit-share in it.’
‘I was thinking thirty-five per cent,’ Bella said straight away, although inside she was already screaming with excitement.
Susan caught her eye and smiled. ‘You haven’t lost your edge! OK, what about thirty per cent?’
‘Done.’ Bella held out her hand and Susan shook it, then Bella jumped up from her seat and had to shout out, ‘Yeeeeeees!’
Susan, standing up too now, looked at her in disbelief but Bella clasped her in a hug. ‘It’s the new, touchy-feely thing, do you like it?’ she giggled, squeezing Susan hard.
‘Oh my God,’ Susan gasped. ‘Trousers, trainers, green nail varnish… office hugging!’
They both laughed, Bella feeling ridiculously happy. This was going to work, and she was going to repay Susan a hundred times over for this chance.
‘When do you want to start?’ Susan asked.
‘I’ll come in and meet the new girl next week and work out if we need to hire someone else. Then I want a couple of months behind the scenes before we do a big launch, say in March or April.’
‘OK,’ said Susan, raising her eyebrows. ‘So, I’ll start paying you in a week’s time then.’
‘Yes, please,’ said Bella. ‘Otherwise I’ll be repossessed.’
‘Keep in close touch, and I’ll be reading your business plan very carefully,’ Susan warned.
‘I will. This is going to be fantastic; I’m very, very excited.’ Bella was finding it hard to stop grinning.
‘OK, keep your cool, I’ll hear from you soon.’
They were standing beside Susan’s door now.
‘One other thing,’ Bella added with a gleam in her eye.
‘Ye-ees?’ Susan was wary.
‘I have to take you shopping, Susan, you need modernising. The couture suit, padded shoulder, stiff hair thing… it’s a little, tiny bit over.’ Bella crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping she hadn’t gone too far.
But Susan burst into laughter. ‘We’ll see, Bella. Bring me a bottle of the green nail polish… maybe I’ll start there.’
Susan’s mobile began to trill as Bella opened the door. ‘Bye and thank you, Susan, from the bottom of my heart and all that. You won’t regret this.’
Susan had the phone in her hand and managed a quick, ‘I hope not! Bye,’ before she answered with a brisk, ‘Hello, Susan Prentice?—’
Bella closed the door and was back in the reception.
Kitty looked up. ‘So, are you going to tell all? Are you back?’
‘I’m kind of back in a week’s time, but I can’t tell you anything yet,’ Bella grinned broadly.
‘But you promised?—’
‘It’s so exciting!’
‘What can be exciting enough about work to shout out yippeee like an idiot in front of Susan?’
‘It wasn’t yippeee it was yeeeees,’ said Bella.
‘You’ve obviously gone a bit mad on your long break.’
‘Something like that… but I’m starting to feel much better. Really good, in fact. See you soon, Kits, take care.’ Bella was heading for the front door.
‘You can’t just go without telling me anything!’ Kitty called after her.
‘Oh yes I can.’ Bella smiled mischievously.
When the lift pinged her out onto the ground floor, Bella strode – full of optimism and happiness – out of the office, enjoying the long, comfortable strides she could take in her trousers and flat shoes.