Jessie Slaymaker's Non-Existent Love Life (The Jessie Slaymaker Series) (17 page)

After their tiff, Charlie hadn’t exactly been a very visible part of Jessie’s trip. He was friendly enough when their paths did cross in the office or at the hotel, and Jessie didn’t think he was going out of his way to avoid her, but he just wasn’t around much. Jessie got the impression he was planning something unrelated to what she was doing in Hong Kong. It was hard to say what it was specifically, but he wasn’t his usual focused self in the office. Jessie noticed he was coming in late, going on long lunches, and leaving the office unusually early. What he was doing with all this extra downtime, Jessie had no idea, but she doubted he was going sightseeing. What’s more, he didn’t seem remotely interested in the Chinese shadow banking assignment, which, as far as Jessie was concerned, was the raison d’être for their visit. He hadn’t asked her for any progress updates as was his usual management style. Jessie had been sending him updates regardless, but his responses had been short, sometimes no more than a simple
thanks
or
cheers
. Normal Charlie would have been making suggestions left, right, and centre and asking numerous additional questions.

Jessie wouldn’t have ordinarily said anything to Charlie regarding his conduct, but the top directors and some of the travelling honchos had noticed Charlie’s lack of presence. Jessie had clocked some raised eyebrows and muttered words of discontent concerning Charlie’s whereabouts on more than one occasion.

She wondered what could be up with him, but all her inventive imagination could come up with was that maybe he had one eye out the door. Maybe he was looking for other job opportunities already. Maybe he wanted to move to Hong Kong. Jessie kept coming back to this last point. What if Charlie moved to Hong Kong? How would she feel about that? Heartbroken? Desolate? Lost? A few months ago she would have thought it the end of her world if Charlie had moved banks, let alone continents. Now, she wasn’t so sure she felt the same strength of emotion.

Chapter 46

It was Saturday—which technically meant she should have had a day off and should have been visiting The Peak, or the markets, or going on the Star Ferry… but no, Jessie was in the office. It was eight-thirty on a Saturday morning and Jessie was the only soul in the office, such was the dedicated-to-her-work kind of gal that she was. She had hoped that by working through the weekend she would be able to complete her report and have a few days to spare to get to see more of Hong Kong than just the Hong Kong office.

She’d managed to get everyone else on her team to have all the necessary graphics and raw data accumulated. Now all she had to do was integrate this with her own research and analysis, possibly adding some further padding to her recommendations here and there. The end was definitely in sight, and Jessie could see three days or maybe even three and a half days of longed-for tourist activities ahead of her before her return flight back to England.

Jessie had just booted up her computer, and was heading to the pantry in search of beverages to keep her going for the next couple of hours. Water and coffee were on the menu this morning for Jessie. As she walked through the vast and empty open office she saw movement in one of the directors’ offices which lined the perimeter of the space. The directors all enjoyed stunning views of the harbour, whilst the worker bees all sat in the interior space with no natural daylight whatsoever. The door to the office was slightly ajar, and Jessie edged forward, training her eyes on the crack in the door, looking for any further movement. It was probably just the occupant catching up with some directorial duties on a Saturday. As much as she wanted to believe that, Jessie knew that there was a more realistic chance of her going out on a date with Johnny Depp. Something was off.

Jessie continued edging silently closer towards the open door, and almost jumped out of her shoes when a phone rang, breaking the silence. She felt rooted to the spot, and very aware that her breathing seemed to be audibly loud. The phone rang twice and was then answered by a male voice.

‘Hello,’ said a very familiar voice—Charlie. Jessie now found herself even more rooted to the spot, if that was even possible. She felt her jaw slacken and her mouth drop open. What the hell was Charlie doing here, and what was he doing in that particular office? He wasn’t supposed to be here, and he definitely wasn’t supposed to be in
there
. Charlie was senior but he wasn’t
that
senior. Jessie found herself unsure of what to do. Should she continue on her merry way to the pantry and forget she ever saw Charlie? Or should she go and say hello and ask him what he was doing?
Or,
should she try to snoop some more and try to figure out what he was up to without him seeing her? Jessie quickly calculated the possible outcomes in her head and opted for option number three—some further covert snooping was the new order for the day. She shuffled closer to the door as silently as she could manage.

Charlie was still on the phone, but he’d lowered his tone and Jessie could only make out the occasional word.

‘Equity… Sonia… sell… legal…’ was about the entirety of what Jessie could hear. Jessie ducked down behind the desk just outside the director’s office. The door to the office was open about six inches, and by gingerly raising her head above the parapet, aka the desk, Jessie could see Charlie walking backwards and forwards across the office waving a piece of paper in his hand. After two more minutes of barely audible dialogue with whomever he was on the phone with, Charlie hung up and moved to a filing cabinet. His back was directly facing her, and Jessie hoped he didn’t have eyes in the back of his head at that moment. He was rifling through the cabinet, obviously looking for something. He eventually must have found whatever it was he was after, because he closed the filing cabinet with a triumphant slam and the next thing Jessie heard was a photocopier revving away at full blast.

Jessie took this as her cue to leave, and she scuttled off to the pantry to make her coffee. On her way back to her desk, doing her best to act normal, she noticed the office door was now firmly shut. She wondered if Charlie was still in there, or if perhaps he had seen her retreating, eavesdropping back and had closed it to give him some privacy.

Back at her desk, Jessie tried to concentrate on her work, but her mind was running riot with questions and various hypotheses, each one more outlandish than the last. What it all boiled down to was that Charlie was up to no good. If he was allowed to go rifling through someone else’s filing cabinet and start copying stuff, why would he be doing that first thing on a Saturday morning in a deserted office? Definitely up to something fishy. Jessie hoped he wasn’t in any trouble and crossed her fingers that he wasn’t doing anything illegal.

But Charlie was a big boy, she told herself. He hadn’t asked for her help, so she couldn’t exactly volunteer her services in this situation. Whatever mess he’d gotten himself into, he would have to fix it by himself. Of course, resigning herself to this conclusion didn’t quell Jessie’s curiosity. She wondered whom that office belonged to. The bank didn’t put the names of the directors on their office doors, probably due to the fact that they all moved around so much—Finance First Bank did seem to be somewhat of a revolving door at the senior level. Jessie knew she had to find out which director used that office. It would help to answer a few questions—or at least discount some of her crazier theories—and possibly suggest even more questions. Jessie glanced at her computer clock. It was approaching nine-thirty and she’d achieved the sum total of diddly squat so far that morning. So much for all her good intentions of finishing her work early.

Jessie forced herself to knuckle down, telling herself she really wanted to get her work done so she could have some play time. She deserved it. She’d been working her nuts off (figuratively speaking) all week, and a few days of touristy fun was her reward. She wasn’t going to let seeing Charlie playing silly beggars ruin her much needed opportunity for adventure and excitement.

‘Hello stranger,’ came a cheerful voice over her shoulder.

Jessie felt herself jump a mile in the air and her heart miss several beats. What the hell was he doing here?

‘Hi,’ Jessie squeaked in reply, putting her hand to her heart in an attempt to encourage it back into a more regular rhythm.

‘Why so jumpy, Jessie? You’re not up to any funny business, are you?’ Charlie asked, a playful smile appearing across his face, as he craned his neck to see what was on her computer monitor and pretended to check through a pile of papers on her desk.

‘Certainly not,’ Jessie defended herself, feeling slightly affronted seeing as how it was Charlie asking that particular question.

‘Hold on, hold on. Keep your hair on, Jess. I was only joking,’ he said, holding his hands up in a pose of surrender.

‘I’m working, trying to get loose ends tied up. What are you doing here?’ She fixed him with a stare, looking for any telltale signs that he was lying.

‘I forgot my phone charger,’ he replied without a moment’s hesitation. ‘Think I must have left it here yesterday.’

Now, a cynical person would think he’d had that line rehearsed. Good thing Jessie wasn’t a cynic. Just a bit skeptical today when it came to Charlie Davenport.

‘What are you up to today anyway, whilst some of us are slaving away?’ Jessie asked, feeling a little more relaxed heart-rate-wise.

‘I’m off on a junk boat with Sonia, and then we’re going for dinner this evening.’

‘Very nice,’ Jessie replied, forcing a smile. She wasn’t jealous. Much.

‘Think I’m going to girlfriend that one up,’ Charlie added with a twinkle in his eye. Well, must dash, I need to pop back to the hotel to change. Keep up the good work, and let’s maybe do brunch tomorrow, if you don’t have anything else planned?’

‘Sure,’ Jessie replied to Charlie’s departing figure. What an offer, eh? To
maybe
have brunch tomorrow. ‘Oh Charlie,’ she called after him. He stopped and turned about ten metres away from her now. Jessie looked down at his empty hands and asked, ‘Did you find it okay?’

‘Find what?’ Charlie answered, looking blank.

‘Your phone charger…’ Jessie prompted. Charlie’s blank face remained a second too long before he twigged what she was getting at.

‘No, it must be back at the hotel after all,’ he said carefully, giving Jessie a look with his piercing blue eyes. ‘Have a good one,’ he added, before turning and striding off in the direction of the lifts.

Jessie felt seriously deflated. She tried to perk herself up with a Mars bar from the pantry, but that didn’t work at all. She was lost, and didn’t know what to do or which way to turn. Charlie had told her a barefaced lie about the phone charger being his reason for being in the office. That hurt. She didn’t exactly know what she’d expected him to say, but she’d expected him to say something that didn’t insult her intelligence. Some semblance of the actual truth. Something like,
I’ve done something silly and I need your help Jessie,
not
I forgot my phone charger
.

And then there was the whole spending the day semi-naked with Sonia on a junk and
girlfriending her up
stuff. That hurt, too. Especially when she was in the office on a Saturday doing the best job she could possibly do in a bid to impress Charlie and make him look good to his superiors. That was it, she realised, experiencing a sudden epiphany. He’d brought her along to make him look like some research whiz. Yes, he was a good economist and he definitely knew his stuff. But it had been Jessie’s tireless dedication that had allowed him to shine. Jessie thought back over the past few years and tried to remember when she had received recognition for the quality of her work. She couldn’t recall. All she could remember was Charlie receiving bucketloads of ego-boosting words, expensive lunches, and various accolades at the annual conferences. Back then she hadn’t cared for herself. She was happy to bask in Charlie’s glory, happy to be in the team of such a talented and successful individual. Charlie hadn’t been the least bit impressed with her today though. He simply hadn’t cared one jot whether she was there or not, working to make him look good.

Jessie finished the paragraph she’d been editing and turned off her computer before taking a taxi back to the hotel. Feeling sorry for herself, she ordered room service. A massively calorific burger and fries—with chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

Chapter 47

Jack was in a quandary. He was bored. He was missing Jessie. His brother was essentially right: he was back in England and he didn’t really know what to do with himself. He was lost. He’d come to the UK because he was fed up with his monotonous life in Shanghai, and now he had itchy feet again. Over the past couple of years he’d wound down his involvement in his publishing business and could rely on his team to handle things with only his occasional and minimal input. Fortunately for him, he wasn’t in a position where he had to work for money, but he still was utterly clueless as to what he wanted to do or where he wanted to be. Poor little rich boy, but we all know money doesn’t buy you happiness. It certainly helps though, and gives us choices. In Jack’s case,
too many
choices.

It was five in the morning and Jack hadn’t been able to sleep for toffee. It was lunchtime in Hong Kong and he felt a sudden urge to speak to Jessie. Without overthinking things, he snatched up his phone and called her.

‘Hello,’ she answered, sounding faraway and a little strange.

‘Hi, are you okay?’ he asked, not sure what was up with her voice. Maybe it was a bad line.

‘Sorry, I’m just eating my lunch. One second…’ she said, chewing and swallowing whatever she had left in her mouth. ‘Sorry Jack, finished now. So, to what do I owe this pleasure?’ she asked, a sarcastic note clearly obvious.

‘I wanted to hear your voice,’ Jack answered genuinely.

‘That’s nice,’ Jessie replied, a slight waver in her voice, all the sarcasm now gone.

‘Are you really okay, Jessie?’ Jack asked, immediately zeroing in on her vulnerability.