Trade Convention and getting the copy finalised for the website. You said you’d have the new “what’s happening” page live by last week … and well … it’s still not gone up.’
‘It was yesterday that you asked me to do that. Not last week,’ he said with a slight frown.
‘Oh really?’ God had it only been yesterday? ‘Well, either way it needs to be sorted, please.’
‘Consider it done,’ he replied with a wink that made my lady parts do a funny wiggle.
I cleared my throat, forcing myself back on track. ‘Thanks, and finally I was also thinking that we should look into each learning a new language? Take a class over lunch or something like that? It would really help with attracting new clients and in building relationships with foreign guides if we can speak their language.’
Looking expectantly at their faces I could tell my new idea had fallen on deaf ears.
‘I think that might be one for the future maybe?’ Ben said softly, trying not to laugh as Kelli yawned dramatically.
‘Yeah, maybe we can re-visit that soon, although I’ve read that Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world, so we really should be hitting that market. Oh and then last but not least, I’ve managed to get a meeting with Hostel Planners later this week to see if we could tie in some of our tours with them.’
‘You didn’t say.’ Ben’s deep brown eyes caught mine. A flash of confusion and hurt flickered across his face.
‘I only found out this morning, I-I mean last night,’ I stuttered.
‘You want me to come with you to that? You know your list is sounding pretty heavy – it might be best to share the load a little, Georgia?’ He tilted his head at me.
‘It’s all under control. Trust me.’ I smiled weakly, not wanting to look at Kelli who I could feel was giving me a look that said she knew things weren’t under control.
‘If you’re sure.’ Ben wasn’t letting this go.
‘Ben, I’m sure,’ I said, a little more forthrightly than I’d meant to. I softened my tone. ‘Sorry, I think you’ve got enough to look after with preparing for the convention. How’s your speech coming on? Do you want to practise it with us? Maybe you could send it over so I can check it before you go?’ I tried to say it as lightly as I could, hoping to sound like a caring colleague, not a control freak who needed to keep tabs on exactly what it was he would be saying.
‘It’s all under control.’ He grinned, tapping a finger to the side of his head.
‘But you have written it down?’
Ben smiled and waved his hands around. ‘Yeah, it’ll be fine.’
He hadn’t written it down. He always said that he preferred to speak off the cuff, but just the thought of that made me physically shiver. I nodded and added write Ben’s speech onto my notepad. I’d just try and sneak it into his pocket so it would be there if, sorry when he needed it and he’d come back thanking me for helping him.
‘Right, so, anyone else got anything to add?’
Ben shook his head but Kelli raised a skinny arm. ‘It’s not really work-related but my band are playing at the Academy tomorrow night.’
‘Wow, that’s amazing!’ Ben said.
Kelli blushed. ‘Nah, it ain’t the real Academy, it’s the one in Rusholme above a curry house but still it’s a gig. I guess.’ She paused collecting her thoughts. ‘So, I wondered if you both wanted to come? I’ll put you on the guest list if you fancy it. You know, if you weren’t too busy or anythin’?’ She nibbled her thin bottom lip.
‘Course we’ll be there. Won’t we, Georgia?’ Ben said, interrupting me from scrolling through the calendar on my phone.
‘It might not be your kinda vibe but the booze is cheap and you get ten per cent off any curry and free poppadums if you come.’
‘Georgia? You in?’ Ben persisted.
‘Yeah, yeah sounds good,’ I said distractedly giving them both a tight smile. ‘Right, let’s get down to work.’
It had turned out to be a good day actually, minus the dramatic, unprofessional start. We’d had four walk-ins who booked tours on the spot and another six who took brochures away, making all the positive noises of coming back to pay a deposit. I was just in the middle of my emails when my phone buzzed: Mother calling.
‘Hi, Mum, I haven’t got long. I’m pretty snowed under,’ I answered quickly.
‘You always say that,’ she tutted, and I rolled my eyes. ‘Well, I won’t keep you, it was just to check that you haven’t forgotten about tonight.’
Tonight? Tonight? My mind raced through my mental to-do list. What was tonight?
‘Erm … Yep. It’s all under control,’ I lied.
She breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Great. Your dad is so excited to see you. We’ll let the rush-hour traffic die down before we head out. You know he doesn’t like to drive when all the maniacs fill the roads,’ she babbled. ‘What time is the restaurant booked for again?’
I paused. Then suddenly it all came rushing back. I quickly glanced at my calendar to check I was right. Yup. Shit. Today was my dad’s birthday and weeks ago I’d promised my mum I’d get us a table at Chez Laurent’s, the fancy French bistro that the Manchester glitterati raved about, the place where you needed to reserve stupidly far in advance.
‘Erm, nine p.m.,’ I lied.
‘Perfect. Right, well I’ll let you get on. See you later, love.’
I said goodbye and hung up, my stomach in knots. I forgot what I was doing and hurriedly found the phone number for the restaurant, crossing everything that there would be by some miracle a last-minute cancellation for tonight.
No such luck.
The snooty receptionist, talking in a blatantly fake French accent, told me that ‘eet just wasn’t posseeeble’.
I told her to leave it and focused my attention on scouring the net for other possible options, my workload suddenly seeming less important. I’d set alarms on both my phone and email reminding me to buy my dad a gift and book this place but every time they’d pinged I’d cancelled them as I was always in the middle of doing something else. I could kick myself now. After the stressful end of last year, I’d planned to really treat him for his birthday, to celebrate in style that he was still here with us when we had so nearly lost him. I sighed, mentally slapping myself in the face for being such a terrible daughter.
All the finest five-star restaurants were either fully booked, didn’t answer the phone, or only had tables at five p.m. in two weeks’ time. Now I was really behind. By this rate I’d be pulling another all-nighter just to catch up on what I’d not got done today.
I sighed loudly, which caught Ben’s attention. ‘You OK, Georgia?’
‘You don’t happen to know any Michelin-starred
