Page 23 of A Merry Little Christmas
A minute later, I was speeding over to the building site in the taxi.
It was almost seven o’clock and the site was deserted except for two cars parked there. Caleb’s... and Amanda’s pale blue mini.
Amanda sometimes worked at weekends, letting people into the show house, but I was surprised to find her still here at this time on a Saturday night. She must have stayed behind to help Caleb with whatever he was working on. Feeling slightly as if I was intruding, I paid the taxi driver and hurried in the direction of the light glowing in the site office window.
I could see them sitting at Amanda’s desk, both of them on her side. Amanda was talking and Caleb was leaning sideways on the desk facing her, his cheek propped on his hand, listening to her.
When I walked into the office, they both turned towards the door, alarmed looks on their faces. Amanda gasped, ‘Oh, my God!’ and touched her chest. But she recovered herself quickly and smiled, lurching her chair back with a scraping sound. ‘Katja! Sorry, you surprised me there.’
Caleb stood up a second later. He’d also looked stunned by my arrival for a second, but his mouth moved swiftly into a smile. ‘I didn’t realise you were coming here.’
‘Obviously.’ I laughed to show I was joking and explained about the taxi.
He was nodding. ‘Yes, of course.’ He ran a hand through his hair and his eye fell on a piece of paper that was lying on the deskbetween them. Picking it up, he folded it in half and pushed it into his trouser pocket. Then he smiled up at me. ‘Let’s go, shall we?’
‘Are you sure? You look as if you’re busy.’ I was gazing around at the files that were stacked in three piles on the floor. Every drawer of the filing cabinet in the corner was open. It was as if someone had been searching through it and had removed all the files in their haste to find what they were looking for.
Getting up, Caleb followed my gaze. ‘Oh... yes. We’re in a bit of a shambles here.’
‘I’ll tidy up the rest on Monday morning,’ said Amanda. ‘Just leave it for now.’
‘Are you sure?’ Caleb asked, looking worried.
‘Absolutely!’ Amanda beamed at us. ‘You need to just go and enjoy your evening. I’ll be out right after you.’
Caleb gave a curt nod and grabbed his coat from the back of the chair.
I followed him to the door.
‘Have a great night!’ called Amanda cheerily, looking up from the in-tray she was searching through.
‘Thank you.’ I smiled at her. Then my eyes landed on a smashed mug on her desk. It was one I’d bought for Caleb in the early days of our romance and it was now broken into half a dozen pieces. For some reason, I felt ridiculously sad looking at it.
‘Oh, dear. Yes, that lovely mug.’ Amanda began picking up the pieces, stacking them in a pile and leaving them on the edge of the desk.
‘I knocked it off as I was passing,’ said Caleb, shrugging into his coat.
‘I’ll have to buy you another one,’ I joked.
‘Right. Shall we go?’ He turned to Amanda. ‘Will you be all right? Getting home, I mean?’
‘Oh, yes. I’ll be fine.’ She gave him a bright smile. ‘Take care, both of you.’
He nodded slowly, and I caught the look of uncertainty that passed between them.
Feeling more and more confused by the strangely tense atmosphere, I turned away from them – and my eye alighted upon the framed photograph that sat on Caleb’s desk. It had toppled over and was now lying face-down.
I’d given him the photo of me as a joke, really.
We’d been arguing about whether having photos of your loved ones on your desk at work was showing off (look what a fabulous family life I have!) or whether it was actually a rather touching thing to do. Caleb had remarked that in his experience, it was usually the guys who were having affairs that were most likely to display such photos, and I’d told him off for being too cynical. I’d then framed a photo of myself and presented it to him as a joke, challenging him to be the man who could display a photo of his girlfriend while remaining true to her at the same time.
I hadn’t been at all serious.
But at the time, Caleb had smiled at the photo rather sheepishly and assured me that hewouldbe the man who broke the mould. Then he’d set it up in a prime position on his desk.
Now, looking at it lying face-down, a chill ran through me at the symbolism. He could no longer see me... was it indicative of the way our relationship was going?
I was about to go over and set the photo upright – but Amanda got there first.
