Twelve Days The Beginning

Chapter Eighteen

As predicted, Stephen was waiting for her to get back from lunch but he actually didn’t seem particularly angry – great that someone in her life wasn’t for a change.

“Hey,” he said as she approached her desk, “Celeste is looking for you.”

Oh shit. She’d totally forgotten that she’d not spoken to Celeste since disappearing from the club on Saturday night. Some friend she was.

“Thanks Stephen, I’ll catch her later. I’m back from lunch now so you can go if you want to.” she said and watched as he sauntered out of the office with a jaunty wave. He always seemed so carefree and she wondered what that must feel like.

Firing up her computer, she wasn’t surprised to find an e-mail from Vaughn although she was surprised at the content of it.



Mon Dec 17th. 1.20pm

Elise,

Please find attached details for the conference in Swindon on Friday. As this is the last one before we close over the Christmas period, I would appreciate it if you could be on top of your game. I really want to secure one more client before the year is out.

Due to the location of this conference, I am offering all staff attending the chance to arrive on Thursday evening and stay in a hotel overnight – at company expense of course.

You and I however, will be travelling to Swindon together on Thursday morning, returning late Friday evening.

Whilst I may not have any say in your personal life, I think you will find that I do rule your professional life and if I consider it necessary for you to accompany me, then I think you will find this well and truly covered by the terms of your contract.

Yours, as always, Vaughn.


Clicking open the attachment, she noted the details of the conference and saw that it was a large one; probably the largest that she had attended and, although a little scary, it was also tremendously exciting. It seemed that they would have a booth outside the entrance so would be able to chat to executives coming and going making it a prime spot. Vaughn had detailed the advertising information that they would be taking and had also indicated who would be attending. Usually there were four of them for each conference but due to the size of this one there would be six. Vaughn and herself plus Celeste; Tilly and Sam from one of the other teams who she had worked conferences with before and surprisingly, Vaughn had included Roger – the new trainee she had spoken to earlier. It was unusual for a trainee to have such an opportunity and she could only assume that Cole had recommended him. She knew from first-hand experience that Cole was an excellent trainer and if he felt that someone deserved a chance then he would always push them forwards.



Despite the tone of Vaughn’s e-mail, Elise found herself suddenly excited at the prospect of such a big challenge. The only problem she could foresee was persuading Dale to let her go – previously the conferences had been local and had only taken up the usual working day; she wondered if now that Vaughn was on board, the company would be doing more of these larger venues which would make sense if they wanted to continue to grow.

Still considering how to broach the subject with Dale, she dialled Celeste’s internal line and waited for her friend to answer.

“Celeste Brown.”

“’Leste, it’s me,” said Elise, “How are you?”

“Elise!” she squealed, “Where the hell have you been? I was worried sick about you after Saturday. Olivia reckoned that she saw you leaving with Vaughn but I know that was just sour grapes. Are you feeling better now?”

“Yes, much,” Elise replied, hating the fact that she was lying to her friend yet again. Maybe as they would have a couple of days together at the conference, she could perhaps give her a potted version of the situation. She felt that she owed her friend that much at least.

“Great! Listen, have you heard about the conference on Friday? Isn’t it exciting?!”

Elise smiled at the sheer enthusiasm in her friend’s voice.

“Yes, I’ve just picked up the e-mail now. It should be really good. What are your travelling arrangements? I have to go down early on Thursday with Vaughn – I think he wants me to help set up” she ad-libbed. She suspected it was nothing to do with setting up but now was not the time to go into that.

“Really?” her friend sounded disappointed, “That’s a shame, I was hoping we could travel together – you know, a real girly road trip!”

“Sorry,” replied Elise “no can do – my e-mail explicitly says that I have to travel first thing Thursday with Vaughn. Maybe we’ll be able to do the return trip together?” she added hopefully, knowing full well that if Vaughn had anything to do with it she wouldn’t be doing the return trip with anyone other than him.

“Yeah, maybe...” her friend sounded doubtful. “I’m not allowed to leave ‘til after work on Thursday although they are letting us go at 4pm to allow a bit of extra time for travelling. Roger reckons it’ll take about 3 hours to get there so should arrive in time for dinner.”

Roger, eh? Interesting.

“Well that’s great, then” replied Elise, “we’ll be able to have a catch up in the bar after dinner – should be a real laugh. Can’t wait!”

“Me either! – Listen I’ve got to go, the other phone’s ringing and I’m on my own over here – catch you later, hon!”



Celeste hung up and Elise found herself listening to the internal dialling tone. She replaced the receiver and sat pondering for a few moments; how on earth was she going to square this with Dale, particularly this close to Christmas?




Elise made sure she got home well before Dale and began to prepare some tea – she also put the coffee pot on. Dale loved coffee but hated the stuff that came out of the machines in most offices.

Unlike her, Dale was at the top of his profession and it was rumoured that he would soon make partner in his firm. For his sake, Elise really hoped that he would and God knew the extra money would come in handy. Nothing had actually happened yet though so she just continued to cross her fingers and hope that one-day it would.

Secretly, she thought that if he really was completely at the top he might start believing in himself as a man again, and maybe all the rubbish would stop. A leap too far perhaps but, on the basis that this had all started when he had realised he would never father children, she had always put it down to him feeling less masculine than other men. Becoming a partner in a prestigious accountancy practice and being at the top of his game...Well, that was a pretty masculine statement and she really hoped that it would start the healing process.

When they had first received the devastating news about Dale’s condition, they had been offered counselling and Elise had been keen to go. They were both raw from all the tests and the final diagnosis however she had felt that it could only be beneficial to get some perspective and expert advice. Dale - in true Dale fashion - had decreed that he would deal with it in his own way and so the decision was taken out of her hands and they never went to counselling. Considering how things had turned out in the ensuing months and years, she really regretted now that she hadn’t pushed the issue with him more.

Releasing a sigh, Elise put the vegetables in the oven to roast. No good would come of going over old ground - she had to find a way to move forwards, whether that was with Dale or not.

Hearing his key in the door, Elise automatically tensed, wondering what kind of mood he would be in. Whilst she was fairly certain he wouldn’t have had a drink - it was far too early - he could be moody enough without it and sometimes that was enough to send him over the edge. Not that he generally got physical with her without the alcohol though.

He entered the kitchen “Well... if it isn’t my beautiful wife...” he drawled “Tied to the kitchen like she should be.”

Great. He was in a sarky mood.

“Hey, babe.” She turned to kiss him, trying hard not to be repulsed as she immediately smelled the alcohol on his breath. A myriad of thoughts ran through her head - he’d not managed to keep away from it for long. How come he had driven home? When had he had a drink? Was this a good thing or a bad thing in terms of asking him about the conference? She mentioned none of these things however, and instead opted for “Did you have a good day?”



“No, it was crap.” he said and automatically took the cup of coffee that she held out to him without so much as a thanks.

“I got roasted for being off sick again on Friday – apparently, my sick record this year is ‘below average’ and I’ve been warned that if I don’t make up the time, then there’s no way I’ll make partner this side of fifty! They can be such a*sholes sometimes.”

Elise remained silent. Privately, she felt that Dale’s bosses had every right to chew him out – he had been off a lot over the last few months, all self inflicted, and she wasn’t surprised that it was starting to interfere with his work.

“Took myself off for a drink with Keith at lunchtime – man, can that guy drink.” he said referring to his friend. Elise hated Keith with a passion and she knew the feeling was mutual. In the early days he had tried to come onto her and when he finally realised she wasn’t interested, he had spent the rest of his time trying to corrupt Dale and wind her up. Unwittingly it would seem that he was finally succeeding.

“Anyway – gave the whole career thing some thought and decided that I’d talk to the old man and see what I could work out. We’ve agreed for me to put in some extra hours over the next few days and then we’ll review the situation. Means I’ll be working long days for the rest of the week...probably won’t have time for anything other than sleep.” He yawned.

“Sorry, precious,” he added with a leer, “seems you won’t be able to take advantage of this for a while.” and in a deliberately lewd gesture, he grabbed at his crotch – his party trick these days, it would seem.

Elise tried not to register any emotion on her face and ignored the innuendo. For a minute there, he had been really lucid and she had been impressed that he had decided to sort things out at work. The problem with Dale was that he didn’t stray far from his natural path for long and with one quick comment and gesture, they were right back at square one.

“Why don’t you go and sit down?” she said, “Dinner won’t be long and there’s something that I need to talk to you about.”

“Oh yeah? My little wifey has something to say? That should be interesting.” Christ, Dale really was a complete bastard when he drank. God knows how he had managed to hold a conversation with his boss, let alone drive home – unless he had topped up later which wouldn’t be unheard of. Who knew what went on in his sad and corrupted world?

She was however concerned about one thing though.

“Dale, did you drive home?” she asked. At this point in time, she was less worried about the damage he could do to himself and more about any hurt he could inflict on innocent parties.

“Eh?” he asked, already heading into the lounge. “Nah, left my car at work – caught a taxi. You can drop me off in the morning.”

Simple. In Dale’s world, everything was very simple.



At least he’d had the sense to take a taxi home which was something for which she was very grateful – she was just really annoyed that she would now have to leave extra early to go out of her way to drop him at work. He wouldn’t have even considered any possible inconvenience to her and unbidden a picture of Vaughn flashed into her head. He may have his dominance issues too, but from what she knew of him, she was pretty certain he would never assume that she would do anything without asking her first.

The timer on the oven beeped and she dished up the dinner, no longer having the appetite she had had when she had prepared the meal. At least it was a fairly light dinner so she hoped she’d be able to eat enough without Dale getting suspicious. It didn’t help that she had filled up with pizza at lunchtime – god, that seemed like an age ago now. Funny how a few minutes with Dale could erase pretty much any other experience.




Dale was sat at the table and, having abandoned his coffee, was nursing a beer. Where had that come from? She’d got rid of all the booze over the weekend – he must have brought it home with him. His length of abstinence was really impressive.

Sitting down opposite him, she watched as he tucked into his dinner – he never seemed to struggle with his appetite.

“So...” he said, in-between mouthfuls, “What was it that you wanted to talk to me about? I hope it’s to tell me that you’ve come to your senses and given pretty-boy the old heave ho.” He laughed – he was the only one that found his humour amusing.

“No...” she said carefully “Actually, it’s to let you know that I have a conference to go to at the end of the week; Friday, to be precise.”

“Oh yeah? Well that’s nothing new. You’re always off somewhere or other. Where is it this time?”

“It’s in Swindon” she paused, waiting for the implication to sink in.

“That’s a fair old drive.” He observed, “You go careful”.

“That’s the thing, Dale; because it is such a distance, most people are travelling up on Thursday and staying overnight – that way we’ll be fresh for the morning and will make the most of the opportunity.”

“I see,” he said. “But you’re not staying overnight are you?” There was a thinly veiled threat to his words.

“Actually I am.” She tried to keep the tremor from her voice. “Vaughn has asked me to go with him early on Thursday to help set up and then we will all be at the hotel overnight. Vaughn will bring me home again on Friday when it’s all finished. I don’t really have a choice on this one Dale; Vaughn has already told me that it is well within the terms of my contract.” She glanced up at him nervously, completely unsure as to how he would react.

“Vaughn’s going is he? Why didn’t you say so in the first place? I like him – good bloke.”



Elise blinked, trying to hide her complete amazement.

“That’s fine. It’s just as well really as I am going to be working hellish hours anyway. What time’s the football on tonight? Did you buy a TV guide?”

And that was it. Change of subject, conversation over, permission given.

Dale’s world. Simple – very very simple.