Never Mind The Botox: Rachel (18 page)

‘Maybe I could come and help you with your filing, check everything is in the right place?’ Harry wasn’t giving in.

‘Harry, I really need to work, okay? It’s just for a couple of days. I need to go through all my notes and paperwork one last time, check I’ve covered everything. I don’t need any distractions.’

‘Oh, okay, I see.’ Harry sounded like he’d finally got it. ‘What time will you be home tomorrow?’

‘Probably late again; after eight, I expect. But I need to work tomorrow too,’ said Rachel.

‘Yeah, yeah, I heard you. I just wanted to know what time to ring you, check you’re okay − not drowning in paperwork or anything.’

Sweet boy, thought Rachel.

‘I’ll ring you once I’m back,’ she said.

‘Alright, don’t work too hard. I’m off to the pub,’ said Harry.

Rachel wasn’t surprised.

The next day in the office, both AJ and Rosa were feeling pretty stressed.

‘We’ve still got a lot do to be ready for the presentation,’ said AJ, nervously tearing bits off his notebook. ‘The report’s not finished and we still need to write the slide pack.’

‘We’ll be fine,’ said Rachel reassuringly. ‘Look, Equinox are just expecting a progress report; we’ll have some more time after the presentation to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. We just need a good draft of the report ready to give them and we’ll probably only need twenty or so slides for the presentation. That won’t take us long to put together. Carl is out tomorrow to do his final review and I’m sure he won’t have too many comments. The report’s in good shape already so we’re pretty much there.’

‘Shall I start the slide pack?’ Rosa asked.

That was one of the things Rachel really liked about Rosa. She was so proactive.

‘Great idea, Rosa. Look, why don’t we all sit down and brainstorm what needs to be in the presentation and then Rosa can get on with putting an outline together.’

The three of them sat together for over an hour chatting through their findings and the main messages that they needed to give Equinox.

‘We definitely need to show them how quickly some of the newer procedures have been growing,’ said AJ. ‘I know that’s a key part of the strategy going forward − focusing on the hot trends.’

‘We also need to show that the core business has been growing too, though,’ said Rachel. ‘It’s not just about the new procedures.’

‘That’s true,’ said Rosa. ‘Why don’t we put the sales numbers for both on the same slide, like this.’

Rosa sketched out a couple of pie charts side by side on a slide, one showing sales for the top five most popular procedures and one for the hot trends.

‘Yup, like it. Let’s go with that,’ said Rachel.

‘Do you think we should include something on the nature of the customer base?’ AJ asked.

‘Yes, definitely,’ said Rachel. ‘Where’s that customer summary file?’

‘You took it home,’ said AJ.

‘Oh shit, yes I did, plus a load of others. I didn’t bring them back today as I was going to work on them again tonight.’

‘That’s going to make things a bit tight,’ said Rosa. ‘We can’t afford to miss a whole day.’

Rachel thought for a bit. ‘I’ll go and get them and then stay late here tonight. I’ll grab some lunch for us on the way back − that will save a bit of time.’

‘You don’t mind?’ Rosa asked.

‘No, my fault for being lazy. I should have brought them back this morning. Right, won’t be long.’

She left Beau Street and flagged down a cab. She couldn’t face getting the tube. As she approached her flat she could see that the front window was open. That was funny; she was sure she’d left it shut. She got out of the cab and made her way to her front door. As she turned the lock, the door opened after half a turn. The double lock wasn’t on. She’d definitely double locked the door when she left.

Her heart started to pound. Was there someone in her flat? She gingerly opened the front door a few inches and listened carefully. She couldn’t hear anything. Surely if there were burglars inside then she would hear them ransacking the place? And besides, there was no damage to the front door. She must be imagining things.

She opened the door wider and walked quietly inside, looking over her shoulder in case someone followed her in. Stop being ridiculous; there’s no one here! she said to herself sternly. But at the same time she took her umbrella out of her handbag and held it out in front of her.

As she opened the sitting room door a loud cough made her scream in fright.

Harry leapt to his feet in alarm. ‘Christ Almighty, Rachel!’

‘Harry! You scared the living daylights out of me. I thought someone had broken in. What are you doing here?’

Harry didn’t say anything. He put his hands in his pockets and looked at the floor. Rachel looked around the sitting room. Her Beau Street files were strewn all over the sofa and the floor. It didn’t make sense.

‘What the fuck have you been doing?’

She walked towards the sofa. On the coffee table was a notebook covered with Harry’s childish handwriting. Several of the files were open on the sofa where he’d been reading them.

‘Harry?’ She looked at him in disbelief. ‘Why have you been going through my stuff?’

Harry sat down on the arm of the sofa and rubbed his forehead. ‘I wanted some information,’ he mumbled.

‘What? I don’t understand. What sort of information?’

Harry took a deep breath, stood up and looked at her. ‘Look, the thing is, Rachel, I spoke to a friend of mine in the business. He works with the tabloids, knows them inside out. I told him about your little scandal − you know, celebs paying over the odds for boob jobs and using false names and all that. Well, he said it would be a massive story, worth a fortune if we could show it was true. So I was looking for those pages you told me about, the ones with both the real and the false names on. They need proof that the story is true; it protects them against libel if they know they have something to back it up.’

Rachel stared at him, aghast. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘They’re not here; they’re with the rest of my papers out at Beau Street. You were going to take my work and sell it to the papers?’

‘It’s a chance of a lifetime for us − can’t you see that? There are so many names, the story would just run and run. I spoke to one of the tabloids − you know, just to get an idea of what they might pay. They said if I could prove it, we’d be talking huge sums − hundreds of thousands maybe,’ said Harry.

‘You’ve spoken to the papers about it?’

Rachel felt sick and her legs started to go wobbly. She needed to sit down.

‘Just one,’ said Harry.

‘Oh my God, Harry, how could you!’ Rachel was close to tears. ‘What about me? What about my job? I could be fired on the spot, struck off for professional misconduct, God knows what else. Have you any idea?’

‘Well, that’s the clever thing,’ said Harry. ‘You wouldn’t have anything to do with it. I’d handle everything. That’s why I was going to get the proof without telling you. I didn’t think you’d be back for ages. The papers would never know where the information came from and journalists never reveal their sources. You just need to give me a copy of those pages.’

‘You aren’t seriously expecting me to give them to you?’ Rachel was incredulous.

Harry came over and took both her hands. He looked at her, wide eyed, almost desperate. She could feel he was shaking too.

‘Rachel, I love you. I want to do this for both of us. If we make enough money you wouldn’t need to work so hard, maybe not at all, then we could spend more time together.’

Rachel shook his hands off in anger. He was so full of it. ‘Love me! You love me, do you?’ Tears were flooding down her cheeks. ‘You selfish bastard! This has nothing to do with me. I have a job, a career ahead of me. But what does that matter to you? Nothing, nothing at all. You just do what you want and bugger the consequences for me.’

‘It’s not like that.’ Harry steadied himself and tried again. ‘Look, if we end up getting married and maybe have kids, you’d stop work then anyway. This would just mean you could stop a bit sooner. So you see, it wouldn’t really make that much difference.’

Rachel couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was going from bad to worse. Harry had never mentioned marriage before, let alone children. And now he’d raised them both, but in the worst possible circumstances.

‘Why would I stop work?’ She couldn’t quite believe she was actually going to engage with him in this farcical debate, but she needed to know the answer.

‘Everyone knows that children need their mothers at home and we’d be no different,’ said Harry.

‘Do they now?’ Rachel’s eyes flashed with anger. ‘So let me get this right: you thought you’d sell this story to papers, using evidence from my project, and get a load of cash that would never be traced to me. Then we get married, have kids, I give up work to stay at home to look after them and we live happily ever after?’

‘I wouldn’t put it exactly like that,’ said Harry. ‘I just wanted to explain why it would work for both of us, set us up for the future.’

‘You’re off your fucking rocker!’ Rachel shouted so loudly she made Harry jump.

‘Alright, calm down,’ he said.

‘I will not bloody well calm down!’

‘We wouldn’t be doing anything illegal, you know. Provided the story is true, there’s nothing to stop the papers paying for it.’

‘It would be against the rules for me, you idiot! I don’t seem to remember my ethical rules saying that it was okay to sell confidential client information to the papers.’ Rachel looked terrified. ‘Have you told anyone the company name?’

‘No,’ said Harry.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes, I’m sure. I needed proof before I could start giving them any details. I just gave them a general idea of the story.’

‘To both your mate and the paper you spoke to?’

‘Yes, both.’

‘Well, I guess that’s something.’

Rachel paused.

‘Now get the fuck out of my flat.’

Harry looked at her in shock. ‘What?’

‘You heard, get out of my flat.’ She walked towards him, her face streaked with make-up, struggling to contain her emotions. ‘And I mean now,’ she added in a low croaky whisper.

‘Shall I call you?’ Harry asked.

‘Get out!’

Rachel didn’t stop screaming until Harry had run out of the flat and shut the door behind him. Then she fell to her knees on the floor with her head in her hands, struggling to catch her breath between sobs.

How could he have done that to her?

Chapter
14

Rachel sat on the sofa in her flat feeling totally numb. Her face was red and blotchy
and her head was pounding. She looked at the files around her and shook her head in disbelief for the hundredth time. What had he been thinking? She slowly got to her feet and started packing away the files as if she was on autopilot. AJ and Rosa would be expecting her back at Beau Street by now. She placed the briefcase by the front door and then went into the bathroom to attempt to repair her make-up. God, she looked a mess. She washed her face and gently reapplied her eye make-up, trying to disguise as much of the puffy redness as she could.

I must stay calm, she kept saying to herself as she fought back the tears. She also felt light-headed and shaky, like she might faint. Maybe she should eat something. She opened the fridge and stared blankly into it, not able to face any of its contents. In the end she opted for a slice of bread and butter, the childlike comfort of it making her feel slightly steadier.

She left the flat with the sole purpose of getting through the next few hours until she could get back home again. That was as far forward as she could think. She walked slowly round to the local corner shop and picked up sandwiches and snacks for lunch, just about mustering a half smile for the lady behind the counter, and then headed back to Beau Street.

She could tell that AJ and Rosa knew something wasn’t right as soon she came into the room. She saw them exchange glances and AJ nodded at Rosa as if to indicate that she should be the one to say something, somehow sensing that it might be ‘girl talk’.

‘Coffees all round?’ AJ asked and escaped from the room, giving Rosa time alone with Rachel.

‘Are you okay, Rachel?’ Rosa asked after a few moments. ‘You look a bit peaky.’

‘Oh yes, fine, thanks. Just got a bit of a headache, that’s all. Think maybe it’s the humid weather.’

Rachel stared hard at the papers in front of her as she spoke. The concern in Rosa’s voice had automatically made her close to tears and the tremble in her voice soon gave away that it was more than that.

‘Look, you’ve been rushing about quite enough today. Why don’t you go home on time? AJ and I can stay and burn the midnight oil, break the back of the presentation.’

Rosa’s kind gesture was just about too much for Rachel. A few tears leaked out onto the desk underneath her. Rosa put her hand on Rachel’s arm.

‘That’s okay, I’ll be okay. I just need a minute.’ Rachel fanned her face with her hand and took a deep breath. She looked up and composed herself enough to manage a smile. ‘I’m fine, honestly.’