Page 1 of Trust Fall
Chapter 1
Cleo
Cleo stared blankly out of the window of her office towards the river. The fall sky was already turning dark although it was barely after 4 p.m. It wouldn’t be many more weeks until the stars would be coming out to play while she still sat at her desk. The glass blurred with a haze of condensation, trapped between the heat of the office and the wind off the water. Six years of working for herself, three of those from this office, and she stillloved this view. She had purposefully arranged her desk at the far end of the office so that her back wasn’t to the window, not wanting to miss the view in lieu of work.
She sat back in her chair, rested her elbows on the armrests, clasped her hands at her waist, and took in the room around her. She made a conscious effort to take at least 5 minutes each day to just sit and take everything in, no matter how hectic her workload was, or whatever else she had going on in her life. She learned about doing this from a yoga retreat in college. Even back then, the idea had made sense to her, but only with the years that passed since she had noticed the benefits.
She looked at the bookcase that ran along the wall at the far end of the room. She took in the keyring that hung from the key in the lock, which her niece made for her birthday last month. She took in the three shelves of various books, not all for business.
She lingered over the photo frames scattered on every shelf. This was another conscious decision she had made, instead of keeping them in a separate area of the office. Her eyes were drawn to her favorite photo. It was taken during the summer when the whole family had gotten together for a long weekend of no screen time (the photo was taken on a camera and not a phone, so nobody complained— for once). The mass of red hair between them left no doubt of their relation. In the picture, Cleo saw herself perched on the armrest beside her mom, and her sister Jade on the other side beside their dad, both sisters leaning in close to be part of the shot. Their parents sat smiling on the sofa while her twin brother, Evan, held the camera out in front of him from the floor. Across her grandparents’ laps lay Sophie, Evan’s daughter, grinning up at the lens. Cleo smiled at the memories from that weekend, mostly spent in loungewear, mostly with messy red hair instead of tidied in her signature French braid.
A soft knock on the doorframe stirred her from her trance, and she turned to see her assistant, and best friend, Lana, poking her head in.
“Hey Cleo, you wanted me to remind you to submit those plans to the council after 4 p.m. today so it’ll be the first thing they see in the morning.”
For all the years they’d worked together, and how well they’d grown to know each other in those years, Lana always had a sheepish look on her face when she used work to cover a deeper issue. She had a terrible poker face.
“Thanks for that, Lana. So, now you can tell me what else you wanted?” Cleo said with a smirk on her lips.
“Busted,” Lana said with a half-smile, “you see, I was hoping that tomorrow you’d let me leave a little early as I’m heading to Connor’s parents’ house for the weekend?” The smile was mixed with nerves. “It’s my first time to meet his family.” She walked over and sat on the chair at the other side of Cleo’s desk. She was the same age as Cleo but always came across as far younger because of her small frame, gentle manner and soft voice. She sat with her head lowered slightly and channeled her nervous energy into spinning the anxiety ring on her left index finger.
Cleo noticed all the markers of how uncomfortable Lana was at the thought of the weekend ahead. They’d spoken about her anxiety multiple times over the years, all brought on by a previous relationship gone very wrong and which had terrible lasting effects on Lana’s self-confidence.
“If you can hang around until, say, 3:30? That should give you time to get everything done, plus allow a bit of extra time to get ahead on Monday morning’s work. Then you can tell me all about it when you get back.” Cleo smiled warmly at her best friend and saw the huge wave of relief roll over her body as she slumped in the chair.
Cleo had liked Lana from the moment they first met. At the time, Cleo was nervous about hiring her first employee, and Lana was nervous to apply to any job after the long gap in her work history and with no qualifications for the role. It seemed kismet that they needed each other to help with this new step.
“Thanks Cleo, I know I say it a lot, but I’m glad you’re my boss.” Lana gave Cleo a relaxed smile, stood up from the chair and went to leave. Stopping before she reached the door, she turned. “It’s after 4 p.m., submit the plans already.”
“OK, OK, I’m doing it now,” Cleo laughed as Lana left the office.
Cleo turned back to her computer and started to write the email to the council which would accompany her client’s plans. There were certain aspects of being an architect which Cleo didn’t particularly enjoy. Dealing with planning applications would be near the top of that list.
On the other end of the spectrum, the thing that Cleo enjoyed most about being an architect was the second meeting with new clients. The first meeting was always a getting-to-know-you situation, with a goal of trying to understand exactly what the client needed (and sometimes more importantly, wanted). The second meeting was where she presented them with her initial designs; where she saw their faces light-up seeing their dreams realized on paper.
On occasion, the second meeting was a complete failure. If the client wasn’t sure what they wanted, the plans Cleo would have spent weeks working on had to be scrapped. The plans she was submitting today were for one such client: Jackson Copeland. It had taken no less than seventeen meetings and plan adjustments to get them approved and ready to send to the council.
She attached the plans to the email and clicked “send.” The satisfying “whoosh” noise of the email sent a thrill through herknowing that it’d be at least be two weeks before she’d have to communicate with Jackson Copeland again. Even that might be too soon.
Cleo spent the rest of the afternoon reconciling the files on her computer with the hard-copy files in her office for the first time in weeks now that this particular application had been submitted. She always tried to keep on top of them, otherwise she could lose track of updates, which meant possible delays during projects. And this wasnotthe kind of reputation she had worked tirelessly to earn over the past six years since going out on her own.
Chapter 2
Ivy
Thursday afternoons were the worst. As bad as Monday mornings were, when everyone and their next-door neighbor’s cat needed a caffeine fix to kick-start their week (and help them recover from their weekend adventures), Thursday afternoons were even worse. It was the point of the week where it wasn’t yet the weekend, though everyone was running outof steam, and needed all the caffeine pick-me-up they could handle. Ivy hated it.
A Cuppa Comfort had started as a coffee cart near her college dorm. Ivy worked evenings and weekends throughout her first (and only) term. Ten years later, she was now the manager of their flagship shop, with five more located across the city. Next year, the plan was for her to open her own franchise location(thanks to Lucas, her best friend and the owner). She’d now almost saved enough for the initial franchise fee.
“Double-Shot Americano, there you go Mollie,” she said, handing the takeaway coffee cup to one of her regulars.
Mollie took a sip immediately, handing over a fiver to Ivy. “Perfect, as always. See you tomorrow, Ivy.” Mollie waved over her shoulder as she left, and Ivy waved back before moving onto her next customer.
“Hi there, what Cuppa Comfort can I make for you this afternoon?” Ivy helped Lucas come up with their welcome message when they moved from the coffee cart into their first brick and mortar shop. She worked through the next three customers before Oliver came back from his break to help clear the line of customers over the next 20 minutes.
Once the afternoon rush had calmed down, Ivy checked in with Oliver before heading to her office in the back to complete some paperwork. She had two new weekend staff members to train over the next month. They would be sent to other locations once their training was complete, and with that came lots of additional paperwork: personal information loaded into the payroll system, pre-booked annual leave noted in the schedule for the company overall, as well as specifically for the shop they’d be working in, and making sure they each received a copy of the company guidelines.
A new initiative Ivy had proposed to Lucas last year, which was finally due to roll out next month, was to offer staff the optionto be certified baristas, and an option to do a separate latte art class. The feedback from the staff was positive, with more than half of the staff wanting to do the full course, and most of them wanting to do the latte art class.
