staggered a little on the steps, his eyes tight shut. ‘Come over here,’ she said, taking his arm, noting the muscle definition through his jacket sleeve, and guiding him away from the flow of people coming up the steps. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked, hoping he was going to say yes.
‘Do I look okay?’ he snapped but at least he opened his good eye to survey his aggressor. He definitely had an American accent.
Anna gave an apologetic smile. ‘I am really very sorry. Shall I take a look?’ She pointed at his eye and he flinched.
‘No, thank you. Can you just tell me how to get inside the building?’ He gave her a look that implied he doubted she had the ability.
‘This is a staff entrance. You need …’ she thought better of showing him her pass again ‘… a staff security pass to get in this door. Shall I show you?’
‘No, I think you’ve done enough.’ His sarcasm wasn’t lost on her.
‘Okay, right, yes.’ You couldn’t help some people. ‘Have a nice day,’ she said, and she waltzed up the steps. There were a few people in front of her. When they shuffled forward she swiped her card and followed them into the revolving door. She glanced over her shoulder. He was still watching her. Perhaps he was trying to get in illegally, although she couldn’t think why. Suddenly the door stopped revolving but Anna carried on, banging her head on the glass. ‘Ow!’ She rubbed her forehead. That’d be a bruise later. The door then proceeded to go in reverse and spat her out into a queue full of tutting people. This happened every so often when your card hadn’t registered properly. Anna apologised to the queue, firmly reswiped her card and gave a quick glance at the American who was smirking broadly with his eyebrows raised in amusement. Great.
She took the stairs to the second floor and scanned the office for any new faces in their area; she was keen to meet the person who she’d be working closely with over the next year. The company operated a hot-desking policy, which was a bone of contention with everyone. A few people had allocated desks for a variety of valid and spurious reasons, leaving the rest of them to fight on a first-come, first-served basis. Anna was in luck as her favourite desk was free. It was a little like an old folks’ home in that they didn’t have their own seat but they all liked to sit in a certain one – and woe betide anyone who sat in a different seat.
She plugged in her laptop and while it fired up she went to get coffees for her, Sophie and their lead designer, Karl. Anna, Sophie and Karl had met when they’d been put on the same special project a few years ago and had quickly bonded over long days, a shared sense of humour and a love of good coffee. When she returned, Sophie and Karl were behaving like a pair of snooping meerkats, both on tiptoes peering over the filing cabinets towards their boss’s office.
‘What’s going on?’ asked Anna, handing out the coffees.
‘Venti, Americano, with hot milk?’ asked Karl, not averting his eyes from his surveillance operation as he took the cup.
‘Yep,’ said Anna, trying to see what they were watching.
‘With an extra shot?’ added Karl.
‘Yes, of course. What’s going on?’
‘And the cute brunette’s phone number?’
‘Y … No!’ Anna gave him her best withering glare and he replied with a wink. Karl was incorrigible; one of the last non-PC people she knew and also the gayest straight man she’d ever encountered.
‘We think Roberta’s meeting with the project manager from West Midlands Insurance,’ said Sophie.
Anna went up on tiptoes herself but it did no good – she was already in very high heels and still too short to be able to see anything. Her mobile trilled into life: it was Roberta.
‘Anna, could you come to my office right away? I’d like you to meet the new PM.’
‘On my way,’ said Anna, but Roberta had already ended the call.
‘Cover me, I’m going in,’ said Anna, picking up her trusty project folder and coffee.
Anna knocked on the glass office door. Office was too grand a term for the small corner sectioned off with boards and a sliding smoked-glass door but Roberta was very proud of it, having battled tooth and manicured false nail to get the ‘office’ she deserved.
‘Come in,’ said Roberta. ‘Ah, Anna. You took your time.’ Anna ignored her. Roberta was an odd sort and it was best not to challenge her. ‘I’d like you to meet Hudson Jones.’ What sort of name was that?
The person sitting with their back to the door stood up and turned around. Anna noticed he was rather tall and slim in his trendy suit, good-looking in an obvious way, and unnervingly familiar. When she saw one of his eyes was swollen it all clicked into place.
‘Hudson, this is Anna Strickland, our lead PM.’
‘You?’ said Hudson, blinking with his good eye, which she noticed was a beautiful shade of blue.
She gave a nervous laugh and extended her hand. ‘Yes, it’s me. Lovely to meet you. Again.’ She gave a little nod with the last word but had no idea why.
‘Oh, you already know each other. That should speed things up. Hudson has some excellent suggestions for project team structure, operational integration and …’ Roberta was checking her notes.
‘Project approach,’ said Hudson, sounding confident.
‘That’s terrific,’ said Anna, thinking the opposite. ‘I’ll walk you through what I already have in place.’ Hudson didn’t look pleased. They had both quickly picked up on the other’s frostiness.
‘Anna will bring you up to speed. I have a very important meeting to go to,’ said Roberta, squeezing her ample form from behind the largest desk the company could provide.
‘I think we’re all in that meeting,’ said Anna, giving her printed calendar a quick check.
‘Then I’ll follow you,’ said Hudson. ‘From a safe distance,’ he added for Anna’s benefit.
It was a day of back-to-back meetings, never her favourite thing and even less so as she’d found herself going head-to-head with Hudson in the last two sessions. He was overconfident – or cocksure, as her grandad would have called it – and so far he had challenged everything Anna had raised. He had a bunch of ideas he seemed to think he could apply without knowing the first thing about their company processes and it was already starting to infuriate her.
She had a long list of things she would need to explain to him when she got the chance. The next meeting was with Karl, so Anna hoped that would offer a little light relief. She headed off to the room she’d booked, which she knew was barely more than a cupboard. When she got there the blind was down and the ‘In Use’ sign was on, so she waited. She was mulling over what to have for tea when she recognised the voices giggling inside as Karl and Sophie. She opened the door expecting to be greeted by friendly faces rather than a shifty duo caught in the act of something they shouldn’t have been doing.
Anna
