grab us some coffee.’
Kelli dramatically slunked onto the office chair opposite. ‘Thanks, Ben. Really appreciate it. I promise I’ll go when I’m off the blob.’
I heard a rustle of fabric and the bell tingling as the door opened and quickly closed again. Nervously I peeked around my filing cabinet to check the coast was clear.
‘S’all right. He’s gone,’ Kelli said, swinging her feet up. I crawled out from under my desk and picked off large pieces of fluff from my creased skirt. ‘You slept here again then?’
‘I don’t know how it happened. I was working on the European trips and the next thing Ben’s coming through the door waking me up. He really can’t find me like this, not after what happened last time.’ Kelli and I both winced at that memory.
A few weeks ago I’d been burning the candle at both ends to get a pitch presentation finished for a new tour operator we were hoping to partner with when I’d fallen asleep at my desk. Ben had found me drooling on one of the slides and when he’d woken me so abruptly I’d accidently spilt a whole mug of cold tea over my laptop. The laptop where I’d collated all our hard work and hadn’t saved a copy, meaning all that effort was for nothing. The technicians hadn’t been able to save anything as brown drips puddled around my keyboard. Ben had shrugged that it was just one of those things, a lesson in the importance of backing up our work, but I knew he was pissed off.
When we first started this business I had visions of us spending our days working hard but having fun with it, and our evenings wrapped around each other in bed. I hadn’t realised how much this company had pushed us away from each other. The come-to-bed eyes had been replaced with looks of disappointment.
I glanced at the clock; it was gone nine a.m. I wouldn’t have time to get home and change without Ben wondering why I was so late. I’d just have to hand iron the crumples in my skirt and hope he wouldn’t notice I was wearing the same blouse as the day before. I pulled on my black, scuffed heels and scurried to the bathroom to try and sort out the bird’s nest masquerading as my hair.
‘I’ve got some make-up you can borrow if you want?’ Kelli called out behind me. Glancing at the purple bags under my bloodshot brown eyes, my sallow, almost greyish skin and the furry coating on my teeth, I accepted. Moments later I resembled less the night of the walking dead and more the morning of the walking dead. Heavy powder caked my cheeks, a smear of maroon lipstick and a flick of thick kohl completed the look. I wasn’t sure if it was an improvement but at least I’d got the crusty sleep from my eyes and rubbed the creases from my face. My hair was another matter – in desperate need of some TLC I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d managed to visit a hairdresser, let alone had some home hair care. Wiry, dull and sticking up in tufts, it looked a mess.
‘’Ere, just try and pin it back.’ Kelli handed me some grips.
‘Thanks, Kel, I really appreciate this.’ I took them and smiled at her, hurriedly pulling strands of hair from my face and prising a hairgrip in.
‘No probs, boss. I, erm, didn’t mean what I said about you being a psycho control freak either.’ She scuffed her shoes on the floor.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ I said with a half-smile. The dinging of the bell caught us both.
‘Kel?’ Ben called out. ‘They didn’t have your half-fat, extra-tall, two-shot latte so I got you a normal filter coffee that’s apparently for someone called Heyli.’
Kelli left me to continue sorting myself out. ‘Right, fine, thanks.’
‘Is Georgia here? Why is her coat on the floor?’ I heard his trousers rustle as he bent down to pick up my jacket that I’d dropped in the hurry to make myself presentable.
‘Erm, well, er …’ Kelli mumbled.
‘I’m here!’ I walked out smiling, trying to look as fresh and well slept as I could. ‘Sorry, I must have knocked my jacket over as I nipped to the loo.’
‘Hey, morning,’ Ben said looking slightly bemused by the new look I was rocking on my face. ‘You … erm … look nice today. Here, they didn’t mess up on your order.’
‘Thanks.’ I blushed and quickly sat at my desk, acting as normal as I could. I gratefully took the steaming coffee from Ben, trying to ignore his furrowed brow that suggested he was trying to work out what was different about me. ‘So, you ready for our staff meeting?’
‘Yep.’ He pulled himself together and headed over to his desk.
Staff meetings were in all the business management books I’d been trying to read; OK, well, I’d downloaded the audio books onto my iPhone as they helped drown out the noise of rowdy school kids getting the same bus as me to town every morning. Apparently staff meetings were vital in ensuring that all tasks are evenly distributed, targeted and have measurable results, as well as checking in with your colleagues in a bid to strengthen team relations … or something like that. I never could concentrate on the droning voice on 1001 ways to improve your business when some spotty teen was playing Justin Bieber out of their tinny phone speakers.
When I’d suggested we hold weekly staff meetings both Kelli and Ben had tried not to laugh at me. With just the three of us working here, plus the occasional visit from Ben’s godmother and previous owner Trisha, they’d scoffed that we didn’t need them but I’d insisted. Mostly because I needed to make sure that every ball we were juggling wasn’t being dropped.
‘Kel? You ready?’ I called out.
‘Yeah.’ She grabbed a notepad, mostly full of her angst-ridden scribbles, and sat on the edge of the sofa, ignoring my pursed look when she flipped her feet onto one of the chenille cushions.
‘Great, so …’ I scanned my tired eyes down my to-do list, mentally reminding myself to add steam clean the floor and bring in a spare change of clothes that I could leave under my desk, in case I pulled an all-nighter again. Just in case. ‘We’ve got the visuals back for the summer campaign that I sent both of you. I didn’t have time for your feedback so signed it off but trust me it looks really good. Then coming up this week we’ve got the tour going to Iceland; Kelli, will you make sure that you email the tour guide with everyone’s passport details?’ She nodded. ‘Actually, I can just do that; it’ll only take two minutes. We also need to send the updated itinerary out. I’ve started that so may as well finish it,’ I said, crossing a line through it.
I ignored Ben’s quizzical look and continued to scan down my list.
‘OK, so next on the agenda is the Indian tour leaving in a couple of weeks. As you know this is proving to be one of our bestsellers and definitely where we need to be focusing our energy, so although the demand is there I really think we need to question our relationship with the visa company that we’ve been using.’
‘What’s wrong with them?’ Ben asked.
‘Well, nothing. I just think we could do a better job if it was all in-house. Apparently streamlining a business’s services only adds value.’ I ignored them both raising an eyebrow at me. ‘I’ll look into that –’
‘Georgia,’ Ben cut me off.
‘Yep?’ I looked up from my list.
‘Is there anything you want Kelli and me to do?’
‘Oh
