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There’s a gentle knock at my office door. ‘Go away!’ I yell, watching as the door handle turns slowly.
Oliver pops his head around the door. ‘Just give me two minutes to explain,’ he says softly.
We stare at each other for a few seconds before he closes the door gently behind him and walks towards me. ‘I swear, I only put two and two together when you kept going on about the code of conduct that night in Benidorm. Not before.’
I look over to the door, wondering if Ava and Maria-José-Inmaculada-Carmen will be running to my rescue.
‘The others have gone,’ he tells me. ‘They’re not speaking to me, apparently. I’m so sorry you got caught up in the redundancies. I really am. It’s an unfortunate part of any transformation and not personal. It’s purely business. Redundancy is awful. It’s the one part of the job that I hate but without it, most companies would go under, and everyone would lose.’
‘Where have you been all this time?’
‘Madrid. Sorting out my severance package. Signing disclosures and agreements, and not signing legal documents that stop me from setting up my own company. That’s why I couldn’t reply to you. They took my phone to wipe the contacts. I’ve been locked in negotiations non-stop.’
Sounds very heavy but I totally believe him. He’s always had kind, honest eyes. And they’re looking at me right now.
‘Are you okay?’ I ask him. ‘Do you want to talk about it?’
After all, I’m qualified now and almost know what I’m doing.
He smiles for the first time.
‘We can discuss what went on in the bedroom… I mean boardroom.’
I’ve ruined it.
‘I’d value your input,’ he says, his face breaking into a grin. ‘Now that we’ve cleared up the misunderstanding.’
Something doesn’t quite add up for me though.
‘All this time, you thought I was talking about your ICF? Didn’t moral codes of conduct seem a little out of context? A little bizarre?’ I say. ‘Didn’t I sound completely ridiculous?’
He refrains from answering.
Ah. ‘I guess everything you’ve seen me do and say so far has been a bit odd.’ Understatement.
‘Has it?’ Oliver says. ‘I hadn’t noticed.’
He has a dry sense of humour with almost perfect comic timing. It’s a very lovable quality.
‘I’d still like to help you,’ says Oliver.
I sigh heavily. ‘I appreciate you might feel guilty but unfortunately you can’t help. The ICF… the other ICF will revoke my licence after this, so there’s literally no point.’ I won’t tell him I’ve only had it for less than a week. Or that it is still in the envelope it came in. Or the irony that I’ve been put out of work by two separate ICFs. ‘I no longer need a fake client to fake an observation. You no longer need a fake testimony for the board.’
He gives me big apologetic eyes. ‘Nell,’ he says, taking hold of my hand gently. ‘I’m not here out of guilt.’ One look into his soft kind eyes compels me to relax and take a deep breath. Oliver smiles at me. He really does have a set of superior lips. ‘I’m here because I like you.’
Oh. What do I say? What do I do?
I gulp and carry on, as though he has just admitted to needing a haircut or a new pair of slippers. ‘Uh-huh. I see. I see.’
He is still holding my hand. He is standing an inch away from me. My entire body is lit up from within like a sky full of stars. I’m drawn to him. I experience a sudden flashback to him lying stretched out on the bed, legs akimbo.
‘Magnificent,’ I say.
‘Sorry?’
‘I mean…’
