***
Sophie called in sick for the next three days. “But what’s wrong with you?” Jessica brayed over the phone line. “Do you know how many times Matthew Silver has called you? He’s refusing to talk to anyone else.”
“Tell him I’m anywhere but there. I’m at the hospital, in accident and emergency. Tell him that.” She coughed into the phone. They couldn’t prove anything. For all they knew she’d had a car accident or broken her arm. Accident and emergency was the place to go when something got too serious for a doctor. Besides, no one could prove she wasn’t in the hospital suffering from something dreadful. She supposed she was suffering from something, humiliation.
“The Silver account, the ‘Skinny Dipping’ campaign, is finished. Desmond edited and finalised the commercial and Bradley took the final product over to Matthew Silver. That’s your job. What’s going on, Sophie…?”
“I’ve already told you. I’m sick.”
“Matthew loved it. He even spoke to Bradley about how excellent you were and how he’s giving you, and only you, the ad work for the entire Silver Family Leisure Group! Bradley almost fainted when he told us.”
“Great,” Sophie said with little enthusiasm. Was that the only reason Matthew was calling her?
“Just great? That’s brilliant! Are you okay, Sophie? Clarks is saved.”
“Who cares?” Sophie had been made redundant. Bradley had fired her. He’d also fired Kelly and let them both go after the meal at The Dorchester.
“You clearly must be ill, clearly at accident and emergency. The hospital atmosphere must have tamed you, because you should be jumping out of your bloody chair with happiness,” Jessica said in a very quiet voice. “Well, to continue, the wrap party is all scheduled for tonight. Are you sure you don’t want to review any of the plans?”
“Where is it?”
“The Embankment, on a boat, just like we discussed.” Jessica paused. “You’re okay with boats. It’s just swimming and the trauma, right?”
“I’m good with swimming. I did a deep water jump the other day. I can handle the water.”
“I know you’re sick, but do you think you can still make it? I mean, Bradley would flip if you didn’t come; getting the rest of the Silver’s business, you’re expected to schmooze.”
“I don’t think Bradley cares too much about me. It’s a shame, but I might be too sick to go.”
“I thought hospitals didn’t have mobile phone reception.” There was a long pause. “You know it’s strange. Kelly’s sick, too.”
“Must be going around the office.”
“You’ve both been sick for three days. The same three days. Isn’t that interesting?”
“Very interesting.”
“But I just spoke to Kelly, and she’s turning up to the wrap party.”
“Oh really? Why? Matthew’s not her client.” Sophie suddenly felt a sense of proprietary. Matthew Silver was her client, and so was the new business. And if she had even a sliver of a chance of getting her job back, then she’d have to talk to Bradley about it.
“Bradley called her. Barney’s Chocolate Bars is reconsidering, and they have asked Kelly to come in. There’s this rumour going around that he made Kelly redundant but then asked her back.”
“Hmm…” Sophie said. Bradley hadn’t called her to give her job back. “What’s she supposed to be sick with?”
“She’s lucky to have a job, so she’s sucking it up, like you should.”
“Well she can’t be too sick if she’s going to the party.”
“I don’t know. She just called in sick, like you,” Jessica said.
“So she’s not really sick.”
“Like you, you mean?” Jessica insisted. “Not really sick.”
Sophie hung up the phone and wandered around the flat in her pajamas. She slumped onto the leather lounge next to Carol, who sat sprawled on the sofa, eating ice cream.
“What are you doing?” Sophie asked, looking pointedly at the ice cream. Carol didn’t eat much, and she certainly didn’t eat ice cream.
“Josh…” Carol dipped her spoon back into the container and ate another mouthful. “He’s off to Australia.”
“Oh my God.”
“Want some?”
“Why?”
“Because it’s delicious.”
“No.” Sophie shook her head in frustration. “Why is he going to Australia?”
Carol sighed. “He’s a lifeguard and he doesn’t want to waste his life at a pool. He wants surf, sand, wind in his hair, all that kind of stuff.”
“I see. Are you going with him then?”
“My agent called.” Carol made a face. “I’ve got another job.”
“That’s wonderful news in a recession. Yet I don’t know if I should be saying congratulations, because you don’t look ecstatic.”
“I’m not crying. I’m really happy with the new job.” Yet Carol wiped a tear from her eye. “There’s no possible way I can go to Australia when my career’s just started to take off. Thanks for the help with that, by the way.”
“No problem.”
“Josh says he understands, and I guess we’ll break up when he goes abroad.” Carol sniffed. “What are you wearing to the wrap party tonight?”
“I’m not going.”
Carol shot Sophie a long, hard look. “You’re not going? No way. You can’t drag me out of bed at four o’clock in the morning, convince me to become a national star, and then decide not to show up for the wrap party.”
“I’m sick.”
“No way you’re sick, you big fraud,” Carol hollered. “Don’t think I’m not onto you. I’m your flat mate.”
“I can’t go. I got made redundant, so I’m taking all the sick days I can. I called in sick today, so I can’t possibly go to the wrap party tonight. It would be too obvious.”
“It’s not like they can fire you.”
“I suppose, but I’m not going.”
“What’s going on with you? What’s happened to that persistent, positive, go-getter attitude? Are you sure there isn’t any way to save your job?”
“There might be.” Sophie shrugged. “But it doesn’t mean much anymore, does it? I mean, if Bradley made me redundant, even if he reinstated me…well, I’m not worth very much to Clarks, am I? They don’t really want me.”
“But you love that job.”
“I love advertising, maybe not that job,” Sophie said in a very soft voice. “Besides, I don’t want to see Matthew ever again. It’s too embarrassing.”
“He didn’t cheat on you. He’s left you about one hundred messages. He really likes you, Soph. It was just a slip of the tongue, a compliment really.”
“I can’t possibly compete with the ghost of a dead girlfriend. He loved her so much. I feel for him, I really do. He’s not ready. It feels like everyone’s going to get hurt, including me.”
Carol sighed. “Love’s a risk. He might never forget her, but that’s the same as you never forgetting Derek. Rebecca is his dead girlfriend. It’s different. He’s associated you with a woman he loved—the only woman he loved from what I can gather. It’s been almost two years, and she will come up in conversation from time to time, but she’s gone, Sophie. She’s never coming back. I hate to say this, but she’s dead, which for you has to be so much better than having an ex to bump into. So other than a banshee haunting you, you’ve got absolutely nothing to be worried about.”
The doorbell rang, interrupting their conversation. “If it’s Matthew, I’m not seeing him.”
Carol nodded and went to the door. “Sophie, it’s for you.”
Sophie glared at her flat mate and trudged to the front door. She ran her hands through her unwashed hair. She was, of course, still dressed in her robe and slippers. She pulled her robe tightly round her waist, wishing she looked much better. Why hadn’t she bought a silk robe?
At the doorway, Sophie’s heart lurched. It wasn’t Matthew. It was her moth
er.
“Hi, Soph,” Gloria said brightly. Then Roger pushed past. Roger looked much stronger than he’d been in hospital.
“Hi, Mum. Hi, Dad. What are you both doing here? I thought you were both going off on your cruise.”
“We are,” they said in unison, and looked at each other, a secret smile shared between the two of them.
“You wouldn’t take my calls at work, but then Jessica said you were sick, so I didn’t take it personally—you not getting my messages and not calling me back. So I thought I would just invite myself over.” Gloria handed Sophie an ice cream container as she wandered into the apartment and started looking around.
“What’s this?” Sophie asked.
“Carrot and coriander soup, because you are supposed to be sick.” Gloria gave Sophie a knowing look and then wandered into the kitchen, making all the right sounds as she opened the cupboards, the pantry, and examined the stove. She placed a plastic bag on the bench and then opened the back door. Gloria looked around the garden. “I love your place,” she enthused.
“Thanks. I love your soup. It’s my favorite.”
“Your father made it. He’s been helping out a lot more, and he’s even got this fine knack for making frothy cappuccinos. I’ve told him he should open up a coffee shop.”
Sophie almost choked. “Right.” She shot her father a look. “Who would have thought he’d be so talented at cappuccino making?”
“Anyway, that won’t be possible, because he’s helping a bit around the house before he…” Gloria shot Roger a sharp look.
“Before I start work,” Roger said, a grin on his face. “I got a job.”
Sophie threw her arms around his neck. “You got a job,” she shrieked, jumping up and down on the spot. “You got a job!”
“I got a job! Starting the week after we come back from the cruise. There’s only one hitch.”
“What’s that?”
“Sign-off. I’m the man for the job if they get the final sign-off.”
“It will come through,” Gloria insisted.
“Yeah, Dad, it will come through.”
“Well I can’t do anything about it if it doesn’t, so I’d better make the most of my redundancy time. Your mother and I are going to have an amazing cruise.” He grabbed the plastic bag Gloria had placed on the table and searched for something inside.
“Thanks for not dumping things all over the place,” Sophie murmured.
Roger held a cheque book in his hand and scribbled. “Now please don’t bank this yet. Wait until next month. But I wanted to pay you back. Thanks, Soph.”
She looked at the cheque. The money she’d loaned him. “It’s okay. You don’t have to pay me back.”
“I insist,” Roger said.
She shrugged and took the cheque. She supposed she did need it now since she was the redundant one.
Her parents left, heading off for their cruise, looking so happy together.
Everyone was so happy. Sophie could choose to be happy, too. She should probably try to be happy or at least do something rather than mope around. She should go to the wrap party. Might as well. And maybe, while she was there, she might just try to get her job back.
Chapter 25