Page 97 of Just Do It
‘But doesn’t he have a contract? This is an incredibly important addition for the museum. Plans are already in place for the exhibition it’s going to house!’
A swathe of emotions rushed through me and top of the list this moment was fury. Finn knew how hard I’d been working on this exhibition. He knew how many tiny parts of the jigsaw from all over the world had to be brought together to make this work and that all of that relied on the space for it being finished. And now he’d just waltzed off? The fact that he’d done so withouteven giving us the chance to talk things over was something I’d deal with later. Right now I was focused on work.
‘He does but seems like this other company wanted him so much that they were prepared to buy him out of the contract.’
‘I see.’
‘We’ve got a new chap starting today though and it seems like he’s pretty up to speed on everything so I don’t think you need to worry.’
‘Oh. Right.’
There was a momentary lull in the conversation. The foreman glanced over his shoulder then spoke again, his voice lower this time. ‘You alright, love?’
I dredged up a smile and plastered it on. ‘Yes, I’m fine. Thanks. Just a little concerned about this being finished.’
‘Don’t worry. I promise we’ll get it done.’ His gaze shifted to somewhere past my right shoulder. ‘Ah, here’s the new project manager now. Rory!’ He waved him over. ‘This is Elizabeth Rose. She’s the curator of collections here, and is the one keeping an eye on us all.’ He gave a cheeky wink as he finished his introduction.
‘I was told Inis Jones, the head of the museum, was the one in charge?’
I held out my hand. ‘We’re sharing the task at the moment.’
Rory shook my hand but without much enthusiasm. ‘Right. That’s a little confusing. Normally there’s just one person to liaise with.’
I held on to my smile for dear life. ‘We’ve managed to make it work so far.’
Rory remained unimpressed.
‘Right, well, the previous bloke seems to have kept things on track before swanning off so I don’t foresee any problems.’
‘Good to hear it. I’ll leave you to get on then.’
‘Yep.’
‘Have you been shown your desk?’
‘No, not yet. I was familiarising myself with the job first. I’m sure I can find it though.’
I didn’t care for the barely veiled condescension in his tone so I nodded and left him to it. He could now spend his afternoon wandering the corridors for all I cared. I gave the foreman a wave, turned on my heel and headed back to my office.
‘So you haven’t heard from him at all?’ Colette asked as she poured yet more wine. Both of us were perched at her tiny breakfast bar in the kitchen, looking out over the garden. Skeletal shapes danced in the stiff breeze as March gave way to April. Winter was refusing to relinquish its grip, the days cold, the nights ever colder. I longed to feel the spring sunshine warming my skin, for the trees to be swathed in their downy blossoms of pink and white. But it seemed nature had other ideas and whatever the season, my friend still managed to make her garden beautiful in its own way.
I noticed she’d tactically waited until we were on the second bottle of wine before broaching the subject of Finn.
‘Nope.’ I took a swig. ‘Not a sausage.’
Colette and Greg, whose relationship was thankfully still intact and getting stronger with each day that passed, had sadly been caught in the crossfire of ours falling apart but I wasn’t about to lose my friendship with Colette over a man, and neither was she. However, I had no wish to talk about Finn so we made a pact not to, and this also avoided putting Greg slap bang in the middle as he was obviously still in contact with his friend.
I knew from gossip on the project that Finn had taken the Dubai job and that the creation of the ‘hotel complex to beatall hotel complexes’ was being filmed as a documentary series, with Finn being one of the key figures, tasked with keeping the build on time and within budget. Mel apparently was also going to be featured on a regular basis. The same workplace gossip mill tactfully advised me that apparently the producers liked the whole ‘simmering sexual tension’ between the two. They had then remembered who they were talking to, and hurriedly added that ‘TV people always make this stuff up for ratings and clickbait’. I appreciated the attempt at backtracking and, let’s face it, it wasn’t like my mind hadn’t already gone there without being shown the way. But I’d done my best to swerve whenever it wanted to go down that road and took it day by day. I’d never expected to meet Finn and I certainly hadn’t expected to fall for him as hard and as fast as I had. It had taken me a while to admit I’d been in love with him. I’d thought I’d been in love with Friedrich but I knew now that had merely been a pale imitation of emotions. That relationship had been comfortable, easy to slip into and easy to maintain. But real love wasn’t like that. Real love took time and effort and gave all the more reward for it. I hadn’t realised that until the moment I knew Finn had walked out of my life forever. It was also the moment I realised that he hadn’t loved me in the same way. He hadn’t loved me enough.
‘I thought we agreed not to talk about this.’ I topped up my wine, having downed a good proportion in the last swig.
‘I know, but…’
‘What?’
Colette’s porcelain skin flushed a dusky rose.
‘What?’ I asked again, more intent this time.
