Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,71
hold a conversation with his boss, let alone drive home – unless he had topped up later which wouldn’t be unheard of. Who knew what went on in his sad and corrupted world?
She was however concerned about one thing though.
“Dale, did you drive home?” she asked. At this point in time, she was less worried about the damage he could do to himself and more about any hurt he could inflict on innocent parties.
“Eh?” he asked, already heading into the lounge. “Nah, left my car at work – caught a taxi. You can drop me off in the morning.”
Simple. In Dale’s world, everything was very simple.
At least he’d had the sense to take a taxi home which was something for which she was very grateful – she was just really annoyed that she would now have to leave extra early to go out of her way to drop him at work. He wouldn’t have even considered any possible inconvenience to her and unbidden a picture of Vaughn flashed into her head. He may have his dominance issues too, but from what she knew of him, she was pretty certain he would never assume that she would do anything without asking her first.
The timer on the oven beeped and she dished up the dinner, no longer having the appetite she had had when she had prepared the meal. At least it was a fairly light dinner so she hoped she’d be able to eat enough without Dale getting suspicious. It didn’t help that she had filled up with pizza at lunchtime – god, that seemed like an age ago now. Funny how a few minutes with Dale could erase pretty much any other experience.
Dale was sat at the table and, having abandoned his coffee, was nursing a beer. Where had that come from? She’d got rid of all the booze over the weekend – he must have brought it home with him. His length of abstinence was really impressive.
Sitting down opposite him, she watched as he tucked into his dinner – he never seemed to struggle with his appetite.
“So...” he said, in-between mouthfuls, “What was it that you wanted to talk to me about? I hope it’s to tell me that you’ve come to your senses and given pretty-boy the old heave ho.” He laughed – he was the only one that found his humour amusing.
“No...” she said carefully “Actually, it’s to let you know that I have a conference to go to at the end of the week; Friday, to be precise.”
“Oh yeah? Well that’s nothing new. You’re always off somewhere or other. Where is it this time?”
“It’s in Swindon” she paused, waiting for the implication to sink in.
“That’s a fair old drive.” He observed, “You go careful”.
“That’s the thing, Dale; because it is such a distance, most people are travelling up on Thursday and staying overnight – that way we’ll be fresh for the morning and will make the most of the opportunity.”
“I see,” he said. “But you’re not staying overnight are you?” There was a thinly veiled threat to his words.
“Actually I am.” She tried to keep the tremor from her voice. “Vaughn has asked me to go with him early on Thursday to help set up and then we will all be at the hotel overnight. Vaughn will bring me home again on Friday when it’s all finished. I don’t really have a choice on this one Dale; Vaughn has already told me that it is well within the terms of my contract.” She glanced up at him nervously, completely unsure as to how he would react.
“Vaughn’s going is he? Why didn’t you say so in the first place? I like him – good bloke.”
Elise blinked, trying to hide her complete amazement.
“That’s fine. It’s just as well really as I am going to be working hellish hours anyway. What time’s the football on tonight? Did you buy a TV guide?”
And that was it. Change of subject, conversation over, permission given.
Dale’s world. Simple – very very simple.
Chapter Nineteen
The following few days passed quickly and before Elise knew it, it was Wednesday evening and she was packing for the conference. Now that Dale had given his ‘permission’, she found that she really was excited about it; not least because she got a whole night away from home. She tried hard not to consider that it had anything at all to do with spending quality time with a certain MD.
He had not communicated with her further since she had slammed