Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,69

she had worked conferences with before and surprisingly, Vaughn had included Roger – the new trainee she had spoken to earlier. It was unusual for a trainee to have such an opportunity and she could only assume that Cole had recommended him. She knew from first-hand experience that Cole was an excellent trainer and if he felt that someone deserved a chance then he would always push them forwards.

Despite the tone of Vaughn’s e-mail, Elise found herself suddenly excited at the prospect of such a big challenge. The only problem she could foresee was persuading Dale to let her go – previously the conferences had been local and had only taken up the usual working day; she wondered if now that Vaughn was on board, the company would be doing more of these larger venues which would make sense if they wanted to continue to grow.

Still considering how to broach the subject with Dale, she dialled Celeste’s internal line and waited for her friend to answer.

“Celeste Brown.”

“’Leste, it’s me,” said Elise, “How are you?”

“Elise!” she squealed, “Where the hell have you been? I was worried sick about you after Saturday. Olivia reckoned that she saw you leaving with Vaughn but I know that was just sour grapes. Are you feeling better now?”

“Yes, much,” Elise replied, hating the fact that she was lying to her friend yet again. Maybe as they would have a couple of days together at the conference, she could perhaps give her a potted version of the situation. She felt that she owed her friend that much at least.

“Great! Listen, have you heard about the conference on Friday? Isn’t it exciting?!”

Elise smiled at the sheer enthusiasm in her friend’s voice.

“Yes, I’ve just picked up the e-mail now. It should be really good. What are your travelling arrangements? I have to go down early on Thursday with Vaughn – I think he wants me to help set up” she ad-libbed. She suspected it was nothing to do with setting up but now was not the time to go into that.

“Really?” her friend sounded disappointed, “That’s a shame, I was hoping we could travel together – you know, a real girly road trip!”

“Sorry,” replied Elise “no can do – my e-mail explicitly says that I have to travel first thing Thursday with Vaughn. Maybe we’ll be able to do the return trip together?” she added hopefully, knowing full well that if Vaughn had anything to do with it she wouldn’t be doing the return trip with anyone other than him.

“Yeah, maybe...” her friend sounded doubtful. “I’m not allowed to leave ‘til after work on Thursday although they are letting us go at 4pm to allow a bit of extra time for travelling. Roger reckons it’ll take about 3 hours to get there so should arrive in time for dinner.”

Roger, eh? Interesting.

“Well that’s great, then” replied Elise, “we’ll be able to have a catch up in the bar after dinner – should be a real laugh. Can’t wait!”

“Me either! – Listen I’ve got to go, the other phone’s ringing and I’m on my own over here – catch you later, hon!”

Celeste hung up and Elise found herself listening to the internal dialling tone. She replaced the receiver and sat pondering for a few moments; how on earth was she going to square this with Dale, particularly this close to Christmas?

Elise made sure she got home well before Dale and began to prepare some tea – she also put the coffee pot on. Dale loved coffee but hated the stuff that came out of the machines in most offices.

Unlike her, Dale was at the top of his profession and it was rumoured that he would soon make partner in his firm. For his sake, Elise really hoped that he would and God knew the extra money would come in handy. Nothing had actually happened yet though so she just continued to cross her fingers and hope that one-day it would.

Secretly, she thought that if he really was completely at the top he might start believing in himself as a man again, and maybe all the rubbish would stop. A leap too far perhaps but, on the basis that this had all started when he had realised he would never father children, she had always put it down to him feeling less masculine than other men. Becoming a partner in a prestigious accountancy practice and being at the top of his game...Well, that was a pretty masculine statement and she really hoped