Twelve Days The Beginning

Chapter Three

“You bitch!” Dale screamed at her. “I did not give you permission to go to McDonalds. I told you to go the party and come straight home. Who the hell do you think you are to ignore my wishes?”

Dale had been drinking. A lot. This had been immediately apparent when Elise had returned home after their impromptu visit to McDonalds. Expecting her home an hour earlier, Dale had been livid when she had told him that they had stopped for a bite to eat.

“You have no idea what you do to me when you don’t tell me where you are,” he continued, “I knew it was a mistake to let you go. You are mine, no one else’s. YOU don’t get to decide where you go and who you see. I decide that. I guess you were with pretty-boy, weren’t you? I knew it! All he’s ever wanted is in your panties and you hang on to his every word; encouraging him, using your puppy dog eyes. God, how could I have been so stupid as to let you go!”

Dale had worked himself into a rage and Elise knew better than to respond. It hadn’t always been like this. The first few years had been bliss and although they had married young, they were both comfortable with their decision and wanted to show the world that they had been right and that they could make a go of things.

After they had been married a couple of years, they had decided to try for a baby but three years and more tests than a lab rat later, they had had to resign themselves to the fact that it wasn’t going to happen. Whilst Elise had tried to be positive and considered fostering or adoption, Dale had turned to drink to blot it out. The problem, it would seem, lay with him, and he couldn’t handle the fact that he wasn’t a ‘proper’ man. The drinking became heavier and her cosy life as she had known it had started to fall apart.

She had lived in this limbo for five years now; each year resolving that this would be the year she left, as his rages and accusations ratcheted up notch after notch. But she just couldn’t do it. The final straw had come when she had started her job with Andrews & Andrews, hoping for a fresh start. For a while, things had calmed down as they both enjoyed talking about the new challenges she was facing as Dale was in a similar field. Thinking that the bad times had passed, Elise decided to introduce Dale to Cole, inviting him to a BBQ lunch one day. She felt sure that the two men would have plenty in common and hoped that they could go on to be friends.

That had been the day that she had unknowingly lit the blue touch-paper and now Dale’s possessiveness, jealousy and violence knew no bounds. Cole had told her to call the police on more than one occasion. He had seen her at her worst, her face bloated from the beating and the crying and she knew that it broke his heart to see her like this. Elise understood that he was right but she was trapped. She could see no way to leave Dale. He monitored her every move and a small part of her heart still loved him - still loved the man she had married and had just gotten lost along the way somewhere.



Dale was continuing to rage, his fist now connecting with the wall and Elise watched and sighed, mentally making a note to call the plasterer in the morning.....again.

Tentatively she took a step past him, heading towards the stairs and the relative sanctuary of sleep. She fully expected him to grab her arm and push her roughly against the wall as she passed - it wouldn’t be the first time. Unusually he didn’t and that surprised her. She turned back to face him to see him watching her, nursing his hand. His eyes were cold with no hint of emotion and she could see little of the handsome man who had swept her away all those years ago. He was turned on - the bulge in his jeans a dead giveaway - and that always worried Elise. No matter how drunk and how angry Dale got, he was always turned on and that scared her.

Watching her line of sight, Dale sniggered and blatantly grabbed his crotch with his good hand. “See something you like, beautiful?” His demeanour had changed; he had gone from angry to calm and menacing and from past experience Elise knew that that only meant one thing.

Drawing on all the strength she could muster, she continued to head towards the stairs praying that he wouldn’t follow her. She had still not spoken one word in all the time that he had been raging.

Fortunately the gods were on her side tonight and Dale headed off into the lounge as she climbed the stairs. She knew sleep would be hard to come by but she had become an expert at coping on little or no sleep over the years; always needing to be on alert to cope with whatever mood Dale happened to be in.

After what felt like an eternity she fell into a troubled sleep, waking up to the chirpy alarm at 7am and relieved to see that Dale wasn’t in the bed. After having a shower and getting dressed, she headed downstairs to find him passed out on the sofa. With a resigned sigh she picked up the phone and called his work, telling them that he was unwell. It worried her how easily she had learned to lie. With the exception of Cole, everyone considered her to be happily married and when out in public, Dale turned on the charm with the best of them, adeptly hiding any evidence of what went on behind closed doors. She had no idea why she continued to keep up the pretence and protect him - particularly from her family - but protect him she did and at the moment, she could see no time when that would change.




Arriving at work Elise turned on her computer, surprised to find two e-mails waiting for her. One from Stephen and one from Vaughn Granger – the new drunk guy from last night. Frowning at how he had gotten hold of her e-mail address and, wondering what on earth he could possibly want, she opened the one from Stephen first.



Fri Dec.14th 8.40 am

Hey babe, had a fab night. Bet you’re sorry you missed out!




Why Stephen e-mailed her was beyond her. He sat next to her for Christ’s sake and, considering his e-mails only ever consisted of smut, she really wished he wouldn’t bother. Turning her head she pinned him with a glare and watched as he chuckled. Deleting his e-mail, she opened the one from Mr Vaughn Granger.



Fri Dec. 14th 8.42am

Hi Elise, I know we didn’t really get properly introduced last night, but I just wanted to apologise for my behaviour. I was out of line. Would love to get to know you better, how about lunch to make up for it?

Vaughn.


What the..??? OK, think Elise, think. What behaviour? What was he talking about? What happened last night? As far as she could remember they had barely exchanged more than two words and he had spent the night in a drunken stupor wrapped around Olivia. Speaking of which, where was she today? She typed in a response.



Fri Dec. 14th 9.04am

Mr Granger,

Whilst flattered that you have taken the trouble to e-mail me, I have to plead complete ignorance as to what you are referring to. You have not upset me in any way and lunch is completely unnecessary.

I look forward to working with you in a professional capacity in the future and am sure that, once sober, you have many qualities to commend you.

In the meantime, thank you for your needless apology and please refrain from using Company messaging systems for personal conversations in the future.

Elise Grayson.


OK, maybe the last line was a bit strong, but seriously, who did he think he was? Before she had time to close it down, her e-mail pinged again.



Fri Dec. 14th 9.06am

Elise,

I understand that you found my erm...chat-up technique somewhat offensive and I wished to apologise. I was, as you put it, far from sober and believe me, my head is making me pay this morning.

Re: use of company e-mail system, I wasn’t aware that they were monitored?

Yours, Vaughn.




He had her there, the e-mail system wasn’t monitored. Mr Andrews Snr. believed in trusting his staff and felt that installing a big-brother style of monitoring system would have a detrimental impact on staff morale. She knew that other staff used it for ‘flirtatious’ purposes from time to time but that didn’t mean that she was comfortable with things being less than professional herself. She needed to put this to bed.



Fri Dec. 14th 9.10am

Mr Granger,

Firstly, you are not ‘mine’.

Secondly, I have no problem with your chat-up technique as it was not aimed at me. I am pleased that you find the ‘most beautiful girl in the world’ routine still effective. For me however, it lacks imagination.

And finally, you are correct that the company e-mail system is not monitored. That does not mean however that I wish to abuse the system and continue this conversation in any way.

Elise.

PS. Where is Olivia today, by the way?


That should do it. Hopefully he would get the message that she was in no way upset or offended and leave her alone. Perhaps he could crawl along to wherever he had left Olivia and carry on where they left off. Honestly, men! As if she didn’t have enough going on with Dale. Just as that thought popped into her head, she wondered if Vaughn knew that she was married and also how the hell he knew that she found his chat up technique a bit ropey? Against her better judgement she typed out another e-mail.



Fri Dec. 14th 9.13am

PS.FYI I am married, so please don’t waste your lunch money on me.

PPS. How the hell did you know I was talking about your chat up lines anyway?


Deciding that enough was enough now, Elise closed down her e-mails and began tackling her in-tray pile, all the while studiously ignoring the endless pinging coming from her messaging programme. After counting ten pings in a row, she gave up all pretence of working and opened her e-mails again.





Fri Dec. 14th 9.15am

Elise,

FYI I am well aware that you are married.

That does not mean you are not mine.

I have absolutely no idea where Olivia is.

YOURS Vaughn,


Elise read and re-read the e-mail several times whist waiting for the words to sink in.

Just who did this arrogant prick think he was? HIS?? She didn’t even know him, had spoken only a handful of words to him and had certainly not given out any vibes to suggest she was in any way interested. What an egotistical maniac! There were still nine unopened messages sitting in her in box and, before she could change her mind, she checked the ‘select all’ box and deleted them. She had no interest whatsoever in anything that man had to say. She could barely remember what he looked like, for Christ’s sake. What the hell was wrong with everyone today?

Glancing up, she noticed that Olivia had finally made it to the office; albeit late and looking a little rough around the edges. The devious side of her nature had a small grin at seeing the usually perfect Olivia looking a bit under the weather and decided that it served her right. Hang on! Where did that thought come from? So she left with Vaughn, what the hell does that matter? God!

Frustrated at the direction of her thoughts and telling herself that it was definitely a result of lack of caffeine, she headed to the kitchen to get herself a coffee. Celeste bounded in after her and Elise pasted a neutral smile on her face as she concocted a story about watching midnight TV with Dale for a while before settling down to bed. Celeste was great and definitely her best female friend but there were just some things that she couldn’t share and until she knew where her head was at with her marriage, she needed to keep everyone else out of it.

Returning to her desk clutching the much-needed nectar, she wasn’t surprised to see another e-mail sitting in her inbox. Deciding that she would have to open this one, if only to respond and get rid of him, she settled down and pressed the read button.

Fri Dec. 14th 10.01am

Where have you gone? I thought we were talking?

Just saw you walking to the kitchen. You really are beautiful and no, that’s not a line.

Please let me take you to lunch.

Yours, Vaughn.

PS. Can I have your phone no.?



OMG! This was ridiculous! He clearly wasn’t going to go away; either that or he was totally thick headed and just didn’t get that she wasn’t interested. Her phone no.? Yeah right, like that was ever going to happen!? She turned to Stephen.

“Erm, Stephen?” He twisted to face her, “Any idea where the new guy’s desk is? You know, Vaughn isn’t it? The one you were with last night?” She knew it was around here somewhere if he had seen her walk to the kitchen.

“Babe,” Stephen spoke patiently as if addressing a child, “Vaughn doesn’t have a desk, he has an office. It’s just around the corner on the left, opposite the kitchen.”

Opposite the kitchen? Well, that would explain how he had seen her but why did he have an office? Wasn’t he just a – what was it? – ‘off site rep’, whatever that meant. It didn’t sound terribly senior and certainly not a position requiring an office in her opinion. They were reserved for management usually; she knew this because Cole had his own office on the other side of the building. Whatever. If he had an office, so be it. In fact in some ways, that would be preferable. Less likely to cause a scene when she stormed round there and bawled him out.

Pushing her chair back, she got up intent on heading to find Vaughn and his ‘office’.

“Babe! Where are you going? Are you going to do any work today or what?”

She resisted – just - flipping the finger at Stephen as she headed off in the direction of the kitchen again. Work? She’d give him work. She worked harder than most of the staff on her floor, generally staying later than most, although that was largely to put off the inevitable waiting for her at home. If his stupid new ‘best mate’ had not been e-mailing her, then she would be sat at her desk right now. Men, men, men, men, men!

Rounding the corner, she frowned as she noticed the new office construction for the first time and wondered how she had missed it on her previous visit to the kitchen. Their office block was modern, fully-glazed and open plan. The accounting firm had grown to such a level that they now occupied both the ground and first floors; the upper floor largely housing the Directors and Secretaries although Cole maintained his office on the ground floor because he said that he wanted to be ‘with the troops’. The ground floor was divided into blocks of desks with each block dealing with a section of the alphabet based on surnames and Company names. Herself, Stephen and Olivia had somehow ended up with P through to Z, which made for some interesting phone calls and correspondence.

Despite having worked for Andrews & Andrews for five years, she had not arrived with any Accounting experience so had started with general admin duties. After a while, Cole had recommended her for the company training programme which she had taken and loved, surprising herself that she had the knack for figures and book balancing. When she had first got married, Dale had dealt with all the financial things; she had just spent the money and if they didn’t have any, she didn’t spend any – simple. So to find out some years later that she could actually do figure work was a revelation. This revelation coincided with Dale’s emotional ‘meltdown’, meaning that she now took care of the finances at home too.



Stephen had come on-board three years ago and the fact that she was just slightly senior to him irked him, she knew. Olivia had been the new addition a couple of weeks ago straight from University and, despite Elise’s misgivings about the girl; she was shaping up to be good at her job.

In the last few months, Elise had been trusted to attend conferences, along with some of the other senior staff; to sell their wares, so to speak. They were targeted with talking to large companies to persuade them to relinquish their in-house accounting methods and hand responsibility over to Andrews & Andrews. Whilst this was more of a sales role, Elise found that it came to her relatively easily and she was really starting to enjoy the conferences. On the last one which she had only returned from only a couple of days ago, she had managed to snag a large, up-and-coming multi-national who had an excellent on-site team but were looking for a company to manage their private pensions and investment accounts. This had earned her high praise from Mr Andrews Snr. and she and Cole had been absolutely thrilled. Elise had yet to tell Dale; he had not been sober long enough since she had been back. The conferences were where she had really got to know Celeste who worked on the A – F team on the other side of the office. They had clicked straight away and had fast become good friends.

The new office construction she had failed to notice before was actually a large stud wall area, opposite the kitchen and adjacent to the G – K team. Thinking about it now, she vaguely remembered the builders doing some work in that area but had taken no notice of it.

Approaching the uniform light brown door, she was momentarily taken aback by the nameplate adorning it:

MR VAUGHN GRANGER

MANAGING DIRECTOR – OFF SITE ACCOUNTS



Managing Director? Wait a minute. Stephen had called him a ‘rep’, mentioning nothing about his MD status and why the hell had Cole not said anything last night? And what on earth was ‘off site accounts’ when it was at home? None of this made any sense. Surely if Mr Vaughn Granger was a Managing Director, someone somewhere would have mentioned it. And more to the point, what was a Managing Director doing getting raging drunk at the Christmas party and leaving to destination God-knows-where with the newest member of staff? And even more to the point, what the hell was he doing e-mailing her?!

Realising that she would get none of these answers standing outside of his door and staring inanely at his nameplate, she knocked brusquely and waited. It didn’t matter who he was; MD or no MD, he had no right to e-mail her the way he had, no right to call her beautiful and absolutely NO right, to ask for her phone number.

“Come.” the tone was short and to the point. The small office unit had been constructed in such a way that the window faced the kitchen and the outer office, not the door, so unless he stood behind the peephole, he would have no way of knowing who was outside.



Elise opened the door tentatively, unsure what to expect. As she entered and locked eyes with Mr Vaughn Granger for only the second time ever, she was aware of two things; one, coming to his office had been a huge mistake and two; she was totally and utterly screwed.

He was stunning; no, he was beyond stunning. How had she not noticed this last night? The dark hair and dark dark eyes she remembered, but everything else was a complete revelation. He sat expectantly at his desk waiting for her to speak as she remained mute and her eyes drank him in. Definitely mid-thirties, he had a rugged face and clean-shaven jaw which emphasised his infinitely kissable mouth. Currently, it was curled up at the corners in a half smile, making her want to rub her thumb along the line and change its shape. His hair was slightly longer than she remembered last night, curling suggestively at the nape of his neck and he was dressed in a dark navy suit which complemented the depth of his eyes. Although he was sitting, she could see that he had broad shoulders and when he leaned back, his light blue shirt stretched across a chest and abs that made her mouth water. Dale used to have a little definition to his torso but nothing like this and he’d let himself go a while since anyway. She suddenly realised how much she missed seeing a man with a perfect – no, mouth-watering - body.

This man could not be described merely as perfect though. He was totally and utterly out of this world; his legs were long, indicating his height and they were at present crossed lazily under his desk. Her eyes automatically followed the movement as he crossed and un-crossed them lingering for a brief second on the forbidden area just above his thighs. Oh God, this was bad. Mentally, she gave herself a shake and forced her eyes back up to more ‘acceptable’ areas. Elise hadn’t crushed on a boy for years and she had never crushed on a man – not even Dale when they first met. The feelings enveloping her body as she stood, still unspeaking in this complete strangers office, were totally alien to her and she wasn’t entirely sure whether or not she liked them.