The Lethal Encounter (19 page)

He clicked on the first
message, one from Andrew, his FD. It was the minutes of the last management
meeting and he double clicked to open the document. It contained nothing new,
merely a reflection of what had been discussed at the time. The company was
doing well, the monthly management accounts had been to budget and the current
year forecast looked solid…..something that was crucially important now that
the company had external shareholders.

Peter had big plans for Shire
Electronics and was intending to put his thoughts for the company’s five year
outlook on the top of the agenda at next month’s board meeting. Expansion, he
knew, could either come from organic growth or by acquiring other businesses
and he wanted to get feedback from the ten board members before concrete plans
could be drawn up. There was also the possibility of Shire being bought out by
a bigger company, something that would enable Peter to liquidate his large
shareholding and become a very rich man. For a moment, he allowed himself to
think what he would do just sitting around with a pile of cash in the bank, but
he could not really see it. He was someone who needed fresh and constant
challenges.

Just over an hour later,
Peter looked at his watch and closed the lid on his computer. He was now tired
and knew that he would sleep well, despite the earlier drink.

He undressed and stepped into
the shower to fully clear his head. He then drank two glasses of water and
climbed under the duvet after setting his alarm for six a.m.

He plumped his pillow and
curled his arm up underneath it. As he drifted off to sleep, a vision of Katie
appeared behind his eyelids. It was her in that restaurant in Cannes and she
was there sitting opposite him. Her eyes twinkled and her hair formed a brown
halo around her face. That was the last image he saw before he fell into a
disturbed sleep.

CHAPTER 14

If Katie had been aware of
Peter Jarvis' confused state of mind over her, she might have felt more
confident about pressing home whatever advantage she had. But, in her
ignorance, she was now convinced that he was merely a serial womaniser who took
what he wanted, when he wanted. In fact, all her negative instincts that had
told her just this from the beginning of their brief entanglement were proving
to be correct.

Despite her feelings and
confusion, she was one hundred percent sure that she was not going to become
some sort of casual mistress, however attracted to the man she was. The thought
of hanging around waiting for the knock on the door was just too awful to
contemplate.

With this thought firmly in
her mind, she crept down into the lobby the next morning, having already filled
out the quick check out card and left it in the required box near the lifts.
She made her way quickly out of the main doors and caught a taxi to the
airport.

The traffic was heavy out of Prague and Katie was only just in time for the flight back to London. She had not even had
time to peruse the small number of duty free shops at the airport and the long
queue at the customs desk at Heathrow did nothing to lift her mood.

Once back in the office, she
dropped an e mail to Sue outlining her visit. She also noticed that Sue had
postponed their arranged meeting until tomorrow and wondered what she should
read into that, if anything. She then turned her attention again to the French
job. As she did so her mobile phone rang and, noting it was a withheld number,
put the phone to her ear.

“Katie, Hi, its Mary here.
How are you?”

“Oh, hi. Fine thanks. Just
got back from Prague, so a bit frazzled.”

“Good, good. Look Katie, I
presume you are in the office, so if you have a moment, just listen to what I
have to say. Is that OK?”

“Sure Mary. Go ahead.”

“I've been speaking to my
client and they were very impressed with you. They want to offer you the
position of Lead Sales Consultant in their London office…..to start as soon as
possible. Salary will be pretty much as we discussed, but we can meet and hash
out the full details over the next day or so.”

Katie's heart leapt. She knew
that she had made a good impression, but had not really forced herself to
actually think about the job, not only because of other distractions, but also
it was one of those things that until you are offered something concrete, it’s
difficult to focus on it.

“Wow, that's great.....I
mean, that's good news. Look Mary, can I ring you later to discuss fully?”

“Sure, I understand. Give me
a ring when you can.”

Katie put the phone down on
her desk and stared at the screen on her desk. Her neighbour looked over the
partition.

“Good news, eh! Go on share
it with us…..I could certainly do with some,” whispered Beth.

“Oh, it’s nothing.....just something
I need to tell my parents,” lied Katie, feeling sure that Beth would see
through it.

“Um…..not sure I believe you
on that, but what ever. How was your trip?”

Katie felt herself lying for
the second time in a minute.

“Fine, just a routine fill in
for David.....who's ill.”

“Yeah, I know. One of my
projects is stalling because of it.”

“I just had to go to a catch
up meeting.”

“And did you bump into our
erstwhile leader whilst you were out there? I hear he was in Prague as well.”

Katie started and looked at
Beth.

“I didn't know that. What a
pity. We could have got together,” joked Katie, hoping that she could get away
with a bit of a double bluff.

“Mmmn. The rumours are wild
at the moment that he's got a new squeeze on the go…..there's some real cat
fighting going on amongst the Peter Jarvis hopefuls. It’s quite funny really.”

Katie looked at her
colleague. Whilst she was very nice and an exceptionally good sales person, she
was not in the Peter Jarvis school of girlfriends. Her oversize frame sat
awkwardly in her chair and her unkempt hair was pulled back casually into a
long, untidy pony tail.

“Really? People think he is
seeing someone who works here?”

“That's what they say. Of
course, I spurned him.....turned him down flat when he came on to me recently.
Can't be doing with that sort of pretty boy, even if he is a multi
millionaire.”

Katie smiled.

“You too? I told him to fuck
off myself. I can't stand those “women-fall-at-my-feet” kind of guys!”

Beth laughed.

“If only we could be so
lucky!” she said giggling. “He can come to see me in my bed any day.”

Katie sat back in her chair
relieved. Another awkward situation had passed without mishap and now she had
an opportunity to reflect on her earlier phone call.

How did she feel about
leaving? She enjoyed her work and most of the people here at the office.
However, the happenings over the last week or so had un-nerved her and
certainly the prospect of a higher salary definitely excited her. She could
even start looking for a bigger flat, or at least make some alterations to her
present one.

And then the thought occurred
to her that a job move could maybe clear the way to extend her relationship
with Peter, but as soon as it materialised she realised it was a pipedream. To
say she was confused was the understatement of the year. On the one hand she
had convinced herself that he was just a womanising bachelor, after nothing
more than some, albeit fantastic, casual sex, but on the other, a part of her
was clinging to the hope that he was serious about her, that he did care.

If she no longer worked for
his company, would that clear the way for them to try and make a go of it? It
would certainly make the relationship succeed or fail on its own merit.

However, as soon as the
thought had popped into her head, she knew that she would have to try to make
the job decision in isolation of any of the other factors. That would be hard
but she needed to at least try and go about it in a rational way.

Whatever, she knew she needed
some good company and a glass of wine to discuss it, so she picked up her
phone, flicked through her favourites list and punched Josie's number. After a
few rings, her friend picked up.

“Hi Katie, where are you? My
god, what's happening? Let’s get together.”

“Hi Josie. That's why I was
ringing…..are you around tonight by any chance?”

“I am as it happens. I'm
meeting Fran in the pub near Holborn tube. You know the one where we spent that
New Year's Eve and I ended up with the barman.”

Katie laughed. Only her
friend could catalogue London drinking haunts by who she had got off with.

“Great, I'll be there about
six…..got a lot to catch up on.”

“Too right we have. Got to
go. See you later.”

Katie put her phone down and
turned back to her work Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Beth staring
at her and she wondered if her colleague had heard any of Josie’s words. She
smiled at her and Beth, rather guiltily, averted her eyes back to her own
computer.

Katie ensured that she
finished promptly that evening and, as she made her way across London to Holborn, she looked forward to seeing her friends. God, she hadn't seen Fran for
weeks and knew that there was a lot to chat about. She walked in through the
doors of The Admiral and scanned the room for familiar faces. A hand shot up
and beckoned and she made her way to the far corner of the bar where Josie,
Fran and Mary sat.

“Fran, its fantastic to see
you and Mary, god, I haven't seen you since Brian and Sarah's wedding. You look
fantastic.”

Hugs were exchanged and,
after Mary had gone to the bar to get Katie a drink, Josie piped up.

“I was just trying to fill
Fran and Mary in on your big news.....but then I realised that I was way out of
date, so we need you to get us up to speed with as many lewd details as
possible.”

Katie laughed. She was very
glad to see her friends and reached for a spare glass and the new bottle of
wine that Mary had just brought back. She unscrewed the cap, filled her glass
and offered it to the others. She then returned it to the ice bucket that was
perched on the edge of their table.

“I tell you. The last few
weeks have been unbelievable. I've told Josie some of the details but you know
the boss of my company.....Peter Jarvis?”

“You mean THE Peter
Jarvis.....bachelor extraordinaire and man about town…..yes we've kind of heard
of him.” said Mary. She glanced at Josie who was nodding knowingly and then
back at Katie with a dawning realisation on her face.

“You don't mean you've....you
don't mean that's who this is all about?” Mary said with an amazed expression.

“My God Katie.....that is the
best bit of gossip I've heard in ages. I saw him on the tele the other day.
He's gorgeous!” continued Fran. “Tell us all now.”

Katie quickly filled them in
on her various trips, from the moment in the restaurant in Cannes to the verbal
spat in Prague yesterday.

When she told them about what
she did, they whooped in excitement.

“And that's not all.” Katie
continued. “I got offered another job today from a rival firm.....better
position, loads more money…..can you believe it?”

“Katie McGovern. You are on
fire!” Josie said, leaning over to give her friend a big hug and, at the same
time, replenishing all their glasses and beckoning the waiter over to order
another bottle. 

“That's fantastic Katie. Not
only have you shagged the most eligible bachelor in London, but you've also
told him to fuck off. Not bad!” added Mary, throwing her head back and
laughing.