20
Claire
He had been an easy target, really. Unhappily married, desperate for a sliver of affection, it hadn’t taken much to turn his head. Not that she’d planned it, she had no interest whatsoever in ruining a marriage and messing up other people’s lives. She’d never had an affair with a married man before and doing so hadn’t exactly made the list of her future goals. But then she met Pete and everything had changed.
She’d been in between jobs when the email came through from the recruitment company offering her a role as receptionist on the front desk of a big media company in the City. It was easy work and good money, so the next day she polished her heels, slipped into her pencil skirt and strode through the doors of the imposing building, clattering over the shiny floors and taking her place behind the glossy black marble desk. She liked the receptionist jobs because it was the perfect opportunity for people watching. And this place was just like all the others – each morning City workers piled in, clutching their takeaway coffees and playing with their phones, barely noticing her as they walked past her desk towards the neat rows of lifts behind her.
Occasionally someone would look up and see her; some of the men might give her a double take, liking what they saw, but most of the time she was invisible and she didn’t mind a bit. It meant that she could watch them all, these rat-runners so absorbed in their own lives that they didn’t even notice what was going on around them. She enjoyed studying them, imagining what kind of lives they led, and giving all the men an attractiveness score out of ten when she was feeling particularly bored. When Pete walked in – a nine, she decided immediately – she expected him to walk on by like all the others, so it came as a surprise when he caught her eye and paused at the desk.
‘First day?’ he asked her. She smiled politely and nodded, introducing herself. He gave off an aura of authority and she sensed immediately that he was quite important in the company but she had never been intimidated by senior management. They were just people who burped, farted and cried like everyone else.
‘Welcome on board.’ He smiled and then he was gone, piling into the lift with all the others and whizzing up to what she imagined was a top floor office. She forgot about him straight away and turned her focus to the next passer-by until the phone rang and she had to get down to work.
Over the next few days he continued to greet her politely each morning and soon she began looking forward to seeing him. He was easy on the eye and projected a confidence that she found attractive. Most men her age were either arrogant or insecure and she was bored of them. But she sensed that Pete was different and began wondering if she’d been too quick to dismiss older men in the past. He always arrived at the same time every day and she found herself checking her watch in anticipation of his arrival. A few minutes beforehand she’d duck down behind the desk and reapply her lip gloss.
But that was all it was at first, just a little something to look forward to in an otherwise pretty dull day at work, something that enticed her out of her bed a bit earlier to straighten her hair and pick a flattering outfit. It had happened at previous jobs, these harmless little crushes on people which made the day pass quicker, and nothing ever came of it, so she had no intention of this being any different. She generally kept herself to herself at work, made enough polite conversation for people not to think she was weird, and that was all. She wasn’t interested in office politics and gossip around the water cooler and she’d never dipped her pen in the office ink so to speak. The thought of other people gossiping about her was unappealing. Perhaps it was because her mum had been a television actress but she’d learned from a young age to keep her private life as private as possible.
But then one day Pete came in early. She had only just arrived at work and was eating breakfast at her desk – against the rules but she rarely saw anyone else at that hour. There was another hour to go before the floodgates opened and everyone started pouring into work so his arrival surprised her and she found herself quickly brushing the crumbs of her croissant from her face and her blue silk shirt and hoping that he wasn’t the type to report her for flouting the rules. But he smiled his usual greeting and walked on by, her transgression unnoticed or ignored.
‘You’re in early,’ she said, conversationally.
He paused and turned back to look at her. ‘Big meeting, lots to prepare,’ he said, hesitating and then walking back over to the front desk. ‘How’s it all going then? Finding the ropes okay?’
‘Oh yes,’ she replied, ‘everyone’s really friendly.’
When his stomach rumbled loudly it broke the tension immediately and they both laughed. She gave him some of her croissant and they chatted for a while. Then, glancing at his watch, he said goodbye and he was gone. After that he always stopped by for a chat. She liked it, and she liked him. So when she got a round-robin email reminding everyone that it was Free Drinks Friday in the bar on the ground floor that evening – a monthly event held every payday – she was interested. Claire didn’t usually mix business with pleasure and very rarely went to work events, especially ones where everyone tended to get blotto on free booze and do things (or people) they would sincerely regret the next day, but she started wondering if Pete would be
