Page 21 of Closer than Ever

“You bet. I can’t wait to see it.”

“The first tour starts at ten and the last tour starts at four. Come whenever you’re ready.”

“Great. I’ll see you later.”

“What are you going to do today?”

“I’m going to get more organised for the trip. Maybe take a walk around the town. Have a lazy breakfast.”

“Sounds good.”

“It’s so sweet of you to remember my favourite breakfast cereal by the way.”

Anna looked down at the box of crunchy nut cereal that she’d forgotten Hayley had got her into. Strange to think after all these years Hayley still ate it as well. “It was nothing. It’s my favourite, too.”

Hayley frowned for a split second then smiled again. “Well, have a great day!”

At the distillery, Anna went straight to her office and shut the door. They had a steady stream of tours scheduled for today, including Hayley’s visit, and she had to make sure everything ran smoothly. The rota needed sorting out for the next two weeks and she had to update the tasting kits ahead of the next two days. This was on top of her usual routine of checking that the bar and the tasting rooms had been cleared and set up the night before to her desired standard, nothing out of place, everything gleaming. She was far too busy to be thinking about Hayley this much and whether she should go on this trip or not. But she was, infuriatingly, unable to get Hayley and her road trip out of her mind.

It was the trip of a lifetime, was it not? Could she really pass that up? On the one hand, she could go and be in the space of someone she was annoyingly attracted to and risk getting her heart trampled on again, or she could not go and miss out on a great opportunity to travel with her friend. Should she take the risk and put herself in that position, or play it safe and pass up the invitation?

Anna was never going to tell Hayley how she felt all those years ago. She hadn’t told her at the time and there was no way she was going to tell her now. She was certainly not going to tell Hayley about how seeing her again was making her feel.

After finishing the rota, which took longer than normal, she headed to the tasting rooms. Good. They were ready to go. She would praise Greg the next time she saw him.

By mid-afternoon Anna snuck away for a chat with Kelly in her office. They had coffee and chocolate biscuits sitting in Kelly’s comfortable chairs. Being friends with the boss had some serious perks.

“She asked you to go with her?” Kelly said, evenly, chewing on a biscuit. “Do you want to?”

Anna found that she couldn’t answer. It was complicated. “I’m not sure. It’s a terrible idea in nearly every way. But then again, it would be amazing. How many times do you get offered to go on a big trip like this? I could never afford a campervan. I mean, I probably can’t get the time off work so it’s not even a possibility, right?”

Kelly tilted her head, as if getting the measure of Anna’s emotional crisis right now. “Are you okay? What has it been like seeing her again?”

Anna blew out a breath. “I don’t know. Wonderful. Unsettling. It’s like we picked back up where we left off. It’s been a bit intense.”

Kelly nodded, kindly. “She means a lot to you.”

Anna didn’t want to lie. “She does.”

“Do you want me to see if I can have a word with Georgia? I would have to get the team’s buy-in for you to be off for that long or it might spark a mutiny.”

“Oh my god, that would be amazing. It could be like a short career break, or something?”

“A sabbatical. How long would you want off? When would you want it to start?”

Anna couldn’t believe she was even entertaining the idea and bringing it into her actual life. She thought about it. Maybe Hayley could do some day trips on her own for this region? And they could set off west when Anna was ready. “Maybe two months? Starting in a couple of weeks?” Even saying the words felt outrageous and daring. She wasn’t sure she was up for this.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you.”

“I’d love to meet Hayley.”

“Oh my god that would be so weird.”

“Would it?”

“Two of my eras colliding? Weird but kind of cool, yeah.”

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