Page 151 of You, As You Are

And then he’d walked away.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

IAIN

The tickingclock counted the minutes where he sat in Gareth’s office. He was early, which hadn’t occurred even once in the last eighteen months or so that he’d worked here. His boss’ muted and bleak decorative choices hadn’t ever irritated Iain before, yet they did today. Where was the colour? Where was thelife? Not even a potted plant to make the cramped space seem less drab.

Here he sat in the same chair, wearing the same navy-blue suit, eight weeks on from the day he’d been warned he had to make a turnaround. But inside, Iain wasn’t the same man as before. This was theafter-Maisieversion of him, the edition with eyes wide open and new purpose to his life – or at least with a new purpose to find one. Because now he wasn’t afraid of what he’d come to work today to say. He’d had days to think about it, and there was no changing his mind. The old Iain wouldn’t have bothered. He would have let himself be buried under the rubble and weight of his own mind, always staying constantly stuck and downhearted, until a certain Miss Moss reminded him that life was worth living for.

No one was ever going to throw him a rope to pull himself out of his self-induced rut, so he had to do it himself.

His brain wasn’t bored anymore – he wantedmore.For the first time in forever he looked forwards instead of back. He wanted a future instead of a stagnantnow.

And that started here.

Gareth’s brushed-suede brogues clicked through the empty showroom and paused where Iain had left open his door.

“Ah, Iain, you’re?—”

“Early,ia.?*”

The blonde didn’t know what to do with that. Slowly, Gareth pushed shut the door behind him. “Right … Well, let me just get settled and I’ll pull up the paperwork.”

Iain waited patiently for the man ten years his senior to sit across the desk in the chair he was certain had a permanent arse imprint on the cushion, tighten his tie, and dig the laptop out of his briefcase. In silence, Gareth clicked, tapped, and typed for the documents that would’ve been prepared last night.

They both knew why he was here.Eight weeksto improve as an employee and salesman had been a hard deadline, and the time was up.

Scratching his hand over his beard, Gareth looked over the laptop at him like a wounded puppy, as if he’d expected for more than what was written on that screen. With a barely contained sigh, he said, “Your numbers are still the same, Iain.”

It didn’t come as a shock. “I know.”

“Then I’m afraid that I may have to say?—”

“Gareth?”

“Yes?”

“I quit.”

Silence.

Frozen, Gareth blinked twice, and Iain’s mind filled the void with the sound of two chimes clinking in time. He’d never have thought that he would be so relaxed to be handing in his notice, but it was as if he’d merely asked for the date. Rolling his lips, helet his gaze wander whilst he waited for his boss to snap out of his wide-eyed trance.

“Well it was about time.” Gareth slumped back in his chair, exhaling relief. “You made my blood pressure rise thinking I was going to have to fire you.”

It was Iain’s turn to stare. That casual reaction wasn’t the one he’d prepared for, but he supposed it was better than the alternative.

With a finalised shut of his laptop, Gareth continued to surprise him. “You don’t deserve that kind of stain on your CV, Iain,” he said lightly. “I know you’re unhappy here, and I’d hoped that this challenge I set would help you decide to leave, that way I can still give you a good reference for wherever you end up.”

So what his boss was saying was that he’d been played …again.

He needed to get his eyesight checked because he really couldn’t be this blind to all of the schemes happening around him.

“Agoodreference?” Iain laughed, the hollow rumble coming from his chest. “I’ve been shit, Gareth.”

His boss gestured like that fact didn’t mean anything. “You’ve had a hard time adjusting to a new life here on your own – that isn’t your fault. I knew when I hired you that you wouldn’t be here long,” Gareth said, “but you just wouldn’t quit.”

Iain’s perception of his entire experience working here crumbled with the dumb grin that he was met with from across the desk. His mouth hung open and his brows stayed drawn together. This must have been how Ted felt when he’d rescued him from the rehoming centre – grateful but disorientated, wondering why he’d been picked when he was the mutt that no one else had wanted.

---