Destination India (24 page)

‘What?’

‘I think it’s best if you took some time away from Lonely Hearts Travels. From me. And I’ll sort this out the
best that I can.’ His eyes were cold; his voice was flat. He looked exhausted.

‘Ben, please. I really didn’t mean to mess this up. I thought I was doing what was best.’

He nodded. ‘I know. Listen, I’d better get back and try and figure out a way to put a positive spin on this. I’ll see you on Monday.’

With a sad smile he left me and walked back into our shop. My legs became leaden as I watched him go, convinced I could see Kelli pressed up against the window watching us. Old grandma rolled her glassy eyes and shook her head, dropping her sweet wrappers on the pavement as she shuffled off.

I stumbled down the street, rubbing my face, letting this day sink in. Chris was Chris Kennings, capable of bringing our business to its knees, all because of what I’d done. My heart urged me to race back into the shop, to show Ben that I was capable of sorting my own mess out and to call Chris demanding he retract his article. But my head told me to leave him to cool down, that if I went all guns blazing with a national journalist I could end up doing more damage than good. It was probably a good thing that I hadn’t saved Chris’s number onto my phone so I couldn’t call him, not in the state I was in.

I remembered reading the bread exposé; the papers had gone mad for it, calling it a real bun fight. Back then I’d agreed with many others, that it was a good thing that such a shambolic business had got their comeuppance. Now it was happening to my baby I’d never felt so sympathetic to another person’s cause. If the business went bust because of my mistakes I wouldn’t just be unemployed having lost a load of cash, I’d also lose Ben. That was much, much worse.

Idle chit-chat, kids blaring rap songs from their mobile phones and trams honking their horns all washed over me, numbing how utterly low I felt. I knew who I needed to speak to. Who would give me solid advice about what I was meant to do now. My best friend. I pulled out my phone and tried calling Marie. This stupid fight had gone on long enough; I needed to grow up and apologise to her. But her phone just clicked onto voicemail. I left a garbled message asking her to call me back, saying that we needed to talk. God, I’d missed her voice. I couldn’t bear the thought of telling my parents what was going on and Shelley wasn’t back from wherever she’d gone with Jimmy.

I found myself in Tesco and, in a daze, stumbled my way round the packed store full of workers on their lunch breaks. I picked up a bottle of white wine, Marie’s favourite, and a huge bag of Monster Munch and decided that I was going to go and see her. If we were going to sort this tiff, then we were going to do it properly.

I walked out of the store and tried to give her another ring but as I had my face glued to my phone screen and my arms full of snacks I didn’t see the man walking directly in front of me stop suddenly. I caught his heel with my foot and tripped into him narrowly avoiding dropping the bottle of Sauv Blanc down his camel-coloured, wool coat.

‘Ow,’ he seethed and turned to face me.

‘Watch it!’ I replied before breaking into a strange smile. ‘Rahul?’

‘Louise!’

‘What the …? What are you doing here?’ I asked with my mouth wide open at the shock of seeing his handsome, chiselled face again. What was it with us two always bumping into each other?

‘I’ve got the go-ahead for a new TV show so I had to rush back to sort the planning for it. Going to be headed to the dizzy heights of Rotherham to film it.’ He laughed, revealing those perfect white teeth that lit up his tanned face. ‘Hey, I’m glad I saw you, actually as I could do with a quick trim.’

I gawped at him like a true idiot.

‘You know, a haircut?’

‘Oh. Right. Yep.’ I rolled my eyes at how slow I was, remembering what I supposedly did as a career. Then, all of a sudden, I was hit with a wave of wobbly emotion. I had my dream career, but probably not for much longer.

‘You OK? You don’t have to cut it if you don’t want to,’ he said, as I began bawling my eyes out, gripping my phone, a bottle of rapidly warming wine and a crushed family-sized bag of crisps under my sweaty armpit in the middle of the busy street.

‘It’s not that … it’s just …’ I couldn’t find my breath to get my words out.

‘Here, pass me those, will you?’ He took my shopping off me and gingerly led me to a nearby graffiti-covered bench. I slumped down gratefully next to
Dave Luvs Shaz 4evs
and took some deep breaths.

‘Thank you. I … I’m not Louise. And I’m not a hairdresser.’ He nodded along slowly, not showing an ounce of shock at what I was saying, but probably recoiling at the glistening snot I could feel on the tip of my wet nose.

‘Here.’ He passed me a tissue and gently rubbed my upper arm as I honked into it loudly. ‘I was right all along, wasn’t I? Georgia.’

I nodded and scrunched up the tissue into my pocket.

‘I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you who I was; I had to keep it a secret from the other guests. I am, or should I say was, the co-owner of the tour company, you see.’

Rahul frowned, knitting his heavy dark brows together. ‘Was?’

Taking a slow and long deep breath I nodded. ‘Because of being in India, my real identity has been discovered, and now we have the press running a story about how I lied to my customers. A story that is going to ruin us.’

‘Ah.’ He rubbed at his temples; he seemed genuinely concerned. ‘I now understand the bottle of wine. But listen, from the little I know about you, you seem to have this resilient streak.’

‘Is this what Lord Shiva would say?’ I teased wanting some light relief as well as hoping that I could get the Indian gods on board to help my plight.

‘I reckon he would say that you have to trust your instincts. You obviously have this fire in your belly to have created your own business in the first place. Now you just need to make sure that no one is going to put it out.’

I frowned, thinking about what he was saying. ‘It feels like that flame has dimmed to a pathetic tea light right now.’

Rahul threw his head back and laughed. ‘But it is still burning.’ I nodded slowly, actually feeling slightly better and – pardon the pun – fired up. Oh God, if Flic were here now she’d be in her element hearing these hippy-dippy words of wisdom, but somehow coming from him, out of his admittedly kissable mouth, it didn’t seem that cheesy.

‘If there’s anything I can do to help then let me know, but it sounds like you just need to prepare yourself for one hell of a battle and trust that you’re going to succeed.’ He glanced at his expensive-looking silver watch peeking under his sleeve. ‘I’m so sorry but I need to be making a move.’ He winced. ‘It was honestly so great bumping into you again, although we have to stop meeting like that!’

I sniffed and pulled myself together, preparing to head off as well. ‘Thank you, Rahul. It was great to see you too. Good luck with your show and cross your fingers for me.’

He stood up and shook his head. ‘You won’t need any luck. You can do this, Georgia.’

I caught the bus from town and walked up to the small terraced house that Marie and Mike were renting. Clutching the bottle of wine I rang the doorbell. A few seconds later Mike opened the door, his hair tufted, and a harassed expression on his usually chilled-out face.

‘Oh, hi.’ He seemed as surprised to see me as I was to see him.

‘Hi, Mike, you not at work?’

‘No, erm, got the afternoon off so I can pick up Cole.’ He stared down at the bottle of wine, still not inviting me in. This wasn’t like the Mike I knew.

‘Oh right. Is everything OK? I just thought I’d pop in to see Marie as I’ve not heard from her in a while.’ I looked down at the tufts of grass poking their heads through the cracks in the paving slabs. ‘I wanted to offer a white flag, an olive branch after, well, you know.’

He nodded and pressed his arm to the door. ‘Yeah. It’s not like you two to go so long without speaking.’

‘So is she in?’

He glanced behind him into the hall. ‘Erm, the thing is, Marie’s not feeling so great. That’s why I’m back early.’ He nodded to the bottle of wine. I knew I should have got flowers. ‘She won’t be up for drinking that with you – isn’t it a bit early for wine o’clock anyway?’

I flushed. ‘Yeah, I guess. I’ve just had a really shitty morning at work.’

He nodded as if he understood. ‘Right, well …’

‘So can I just come in and say hello? I won’t stay long.’ God, this was really awkward. Marie never got sick and
when she did she hated playing the invalid card. It was unlike her to get Mike running around doing errands. Usually I had to physically plonk her in bed and threaten her not to move as I prepared vats of Lemsip and
Gavin & Stacey
box sets as a distraction.

He scrunched up his nose. ‘I don’t think so, Georgia. Maybe in a few days when she’s feeling up to company. Sorry.’ He stared at me for a few moments and then shrugged sadly before going to close the door.

‘Oh, right, well …’

‘I’ll let her know you stopped by. I’d really better be off; can’t be late for Cole. You know what those nursery Nazis are like with timings.’

I nodded. No, I didn’t bloody know. ‘OK, thanks.’ I smiled weakly and clomped back up the overgrown path as Mike retreated into his house. Weird.

Valour (n.) Boldness or determination in facing great danger, especially in battle

I was waiting at the bus stop to head home, resigning myself to a solo drinking sesh when my mobile chirruped to life. Marie! I struggled to pull it out of my handbag, accidentally flattening the mega pack of Monster Munch when I saw Kelli’s name on the screen.

I pressed the green button. ‘Hello?’

‘Georgia!’ Kelli said breathlessly, as if she was cupping her mouth right up to the mouthpiece. ‘You have to come back.’

‘What? Kelli? Are you OK?’ I felt a strange prickly feeling crawl up my neck.

‘No, I … Ben …’

‘Kelli, I can’t hear you very well. The signal’s shit.’ I peered at the pathetic bars on my phone going up and down, realising that my battery was running dangerously low too. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Georg … Come back …’

‘Kelli! I can’t hear you. Can you call me off the landline?’ I shouted.

‘No …’ It was like she was under water. ‘Serena … Ben … Lies …’

‘Kelli. Kelli. Are you there?’ The phone cut off. I tried to call her back but instantly got her moody voicemail.
What was she talking about? I hailed down a taxi and jumped in, giving the driver the directions back to our shop.

The journey through town took ages. The school kids had just left for the day and the roads were blocked with harassed parents on their way to pick up their little darlings. My phone had officially died. I’d tried taking my phone battery out, shaking it, blowing it and putting it back in but it was useless. The many variations of what I’d heard Kelli say raced through my mind as I fiddled with the stupid telephone.

‘You want me to take the Mancunian way, love?’ the driver asked, rolling his eyes at the queue of stationary cars in front of us.

‘Erm, yeah, whatever you think’s best,’ I said distractedly. What had Kelli meant and why hadn’t Ben been the one to call me?

‘Well, you see at this time of day you get the kids from Saint Mary’s down by the estate but if we try and cut through Elderware Street then we may miss the school buses from Green Oaks; however, it’s never a guarantee, not since they’ve built that Tesco megastore down there.’ He chattered away as if I was the least bit interested.

‘Mmm. Fine by me.’
Just get me to the shop!
I wanted to scream but didn’t. I didn’t even have a phone to preoccupy myself with, just my messed-up thoughts.

‘Why we need a supermarket that big is beyond me; you know it’s three floors! Three floors filled with crap we don’t need. It’s like going to IKEA; my wife’s always dragging me there. You walk about as if in some bloody TARDIS. You always get stressed, get lost and end up leaving without the thing you came in for in the first place. Madness if you ask me. I don’t understand why people like to over-complicate things. What’s wrong with the
nice simple approach? That way you always know where you stand.’

We eventually pulled into a tight side street and I flung notes at him, leaving the now warm bottle of wine on the back seat and him chattering about the farce of this country’s road networks, before racing to my shop. Flinging the door open I tried to catch my breath. Kelli stared up wide-eyed at me, looking like she was about to cry. Ben was slumped over his laptop, his phone pressed to his ear. Serena was nowhere to be seen.

‘What’s gone on? Are you OK?’ I asked Kelli breathlessly, wiping the sweat off my forehead and dumping my bag at my desk.

‘No,’ she said quietly, pointing her finger to Ben. He held up his hand to tell me he’d be with me in a minute. Kelli scuttled off to the bathroom before I could ask her another question, leaving us alone.

‘Great. OK. Well thanks for your help,’ Ben said, angrily slamming his phone down and turning to face me, looking as if someone had died.

‘What’s happening?’ Oh my God, had something happened to Trisha? I’d meant to go and see her but had been too preoccupied with things here since I’d been back. My heart was hammering against my chest before I remembered that Kelli had definitely mentioned Serena, Ben and lies on the dodgy phone line.

‘Sit down,’ Ben said, firmly. I kept my eyes on him as I sat upright on my chair.

‘It’s Trisha, isn’t it? Is she OK? I thought she looked peaky the last time I saw her. It wasn’t just a fall she had, was it?’ Words rushed out of me as I gulped back the lump building in my throat.

Ben sighed. ‘It’s not about Trisha, although I have forgotten to tell you that she is back in hospital.’

‘Oh God! Why?’

‘She’s fine; she’s just gone back for some more tests on her ankle as it hasn’t healed properly, but they’ve said it’s nothing serious. They just want to keep her in to monitor it because of her age, that’s all.’

I exhaled heavily, so relieved she was OK. ‘So, what is it then?’

He cleared his throat. ‘Serena’s gone.’

‘Gone where?’ I jerked my head back.

‘She’s done a runner.’

‘What? What do you mean?’

‘You know I told you I was off to the bank?’ I nodded. ‘Well I asked Serena to go for me as I needed to concentrate on trying to get in touch with this Chris bloke.’ I nodded, feeling a sharp pain in the pit of my stomach. Ben rubbed his face and let out a deep sigh. ‘Well, she never came back.’

I stared at him trying to piece this together.

‘You were right, Georgia – not to trust her. She’s done a runner with the cash, never made it to the bank.’

‘No!’

‘Yep.’ He nodded dejectedly.

‘But we only keep a couple of hundred quid here.’ I looked over at the opened safe. I was always so paranoid about being broken into that I made sure we did the bank run regularly so we didn’t keep much cash on-site.

Ben shook his head. ‘Before you came back we’d had this huge tour booking, about five thousand pounds. I’d been too busy to get it banked away.’

‘What!’ Most people paid by credit card or cheque. ‘Who pays that sort of money in cash?’

‘Kelli overheard Serena telling the customers that our card machines were broken. She figured that she was telling the truth, as you know how dodgy they are
sometimes. Anyway, when Serena had been out for ages and still hadn’t come back I called her mobile, which went straight to a robotic voicemail. I thought it was strange that she’d taken her coat and bag with her when the bank’s just two minutes away. That’s when Kelli realised that she’d emptied her desk drawers.’ He sighed. ‘That’s not all, as part of this new email system Serena had put in place she’d secretly been contacting loads of our suppliers telling them we hadn’t received payments, that all their cheques had bounced and it was a matter of urgency that they needed to resend their payments via her.’

Fucking bitch! My breathing was still erratic, but not from having raced here. I was fuming. Delirious with anger that this woman had come in here and stolen from us.

‘I called the bank who hadn’t any record of cash being deposited today and I asked Kelli to call you whilst I was onto the police,’ Ben finished, looking like he might cry himself.

So not only did we have Chris Kennings breathing down our necks with his article that could threaten our business but now we also had pissed-off clients, had lost a huge wad of cash and one rogue member of staff. Great, just great.

‘I took my eye off the ball. I fucked up,’ Ben said quietly, biting his bottom lip.

I sighed and walked over to his desk, gingerly placing my hand on his hunched-up shoulders. ‘That makes two of us.’

He looked up at me, visibly crushed. ‘This could ruin us.’

‘I know.’ I blinked back tears.

I didn’t know what else to say. We’d both made mistakes, and our decisions had resulted in very unwise business actions. The phone rang, its shrill tone interrupting my thoughts of hiring a hitman to track this bitch down.

‘I’ll get it!’ Kelli shouted. I’d forgotten that she was here, sitting in the corner shaking her head and wiping her eyes at the realisation that Miss Serena-perfect-knickers was a figment of our imaginations and that she’d taken the Battlestar Death Wing gig tickets with her too.

‘I’ve been onto the police and the bank. As she didn’t have a formal contract here – another thing I’d meant to get around to sorting out – and the address on her CV was made up. We have no idea how to track her down. Even her name was fake. Serena DeVere doesn’t exist.’ No wonder I couldn’t find any record of her online. That skank, she fooled us all! ‘And as we were dealing in cash, I don’t think we’re going to get a penny back.’

Kelli put down the phone and shouted over, her voice sounded distorted. ‘That was the
Daily Times
; the article will be out tomorrow.’

‘Well that’s it then. We’re fucked,’ Ben said, banging his fist on the table.

I winced, feeling Kelli’s large eyes well with tears.

‘Really?’ she asked, wringing her pale hands together. I tried to give Ben a look, hoping to telepathically tell him to calm down and stop frightening our young assistant, no matter how furious he was.

It seemed to work as Ben’s shoulders dropped and his voice softened, ‘I’m sorry, Kel, but it looks that way. I just don’t know how we’re going to come out of this financially positive, let alone after all the negative PR we’ll no doubt receive.’

‘But you two will work out a way, won’t you? You always do!’ Kelli stuttered, flicking her head between us both. ‘There can’t be no more Lonely Hearts Travels, no more Georgia and Ben. You two will fix this, won’t you?’

It felt like he’d just told her Father Christmas didn’t exist by the way she was willing us to be making all of this up.

‘I don’t think we can, Kel,’ I said quietly. My head was banging, my legs felt like jelly and I just wanted to lie down and sleep for a thousand years. ‘Maybe it’s best if we close up early today – all go and get some rest. By the looks of things, tomorrow is going to be a busy day,’ I suggested sadly.

Ben coughed and nodded. ‘Good idea.’

We all turned off our laptops, the fight inside us gone, and flicked off the lights.

‘Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then?’ Kelli said, rubbing her nose with a tissue before fixing a steely look on me. ‘Please, Georgia; I know you and Ben can save this. You are the best partners I’ve ever seen.’

I smiled sadly. ‘We’ll try our best,’ I said, not knowing what to add, and closed the door behind her before facing Ben who was tapping his pen on his desk absentmindedly. He looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

‘Poor girl, she seems terrified. This was her first proper job you know,’ I said, watching Kelli wander down the street feeling a pang of emotion for our emo geek. ‘She seems adamant that we will fix this. I only wish I was that confident.’ I shook my head. ‘You ready to go too?’

He let out a deep sigh. ‘Kelli’s right.’

‘What?’

Ben turned to face me, the anger had left his face and in its place a sad sort of realisation. ‘She’s right, about us.’ He paused. ‘About us being good partners.’

He arched his fingers before pressing them up to the corners of his closed eyes. ‘When you suggested the idea of the Lonely Hearts Travel Club I was so excited to see what we could achieve, together. But as time’s gone on, the business has just moved too fast compared to what I was expecting, and I guess I wasn’t prepared enough for
that. I’ve never stayed in a place as long as this, never had a nine-to-five job before, and to be honest, at times I find it tough. Why would I want to swap travelling the world to watch other people do it instead? Office jobs have never suited me, let alone having to schmooze clients and play along with the corporate crap.’

I stared at the floor in shock; he’d never been this honest with me about the business before. ‘But you know every new business has to fight for the first few years?’ I said, my voice sounding high-pitched and wobbly.

‘Yes, and don’t get me wrong, I do think the business and the brand, what you’re trying to achieve, is incredible.’

I wasn’t sure I liked where this was going. ‘What
we’re
trying to achieve.’

Ben sighed and nodded sadly. ‘Yes, what we’re trying to achieve, all three of us.’ He paused, fixing his deep eyes on me. ‘But even though I sometimes feel like my wings have been clipped I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Even today.’ He laughed. ‘The reason this whole Lonely Hearts Club works is because of you.’ He cleared his throat before continuing. ‘It’s you. It’s always been you.’

I felt the room tilt. I couldn’t breathe. Those memories of us, the ones that had softened around the edges over time, suddenly came back in super sharp focus. I felt like no one else existed in this city, in this world, apart from the two of us right here, right now.

‘But we were just friendly colleagues. I thought you liked Serena,’ I said.

I saw his jaw clench at the sound of her name. He took a deep breath. ‘Georgia, you don’t realise how special you are. When we were in Thailand, Shelley told me about your past, about being engaged to a guy who just tossed out this beautiful girl, an idiot who didn’t realise just how lucky he was to have you.’

I stared at him, willing him to continue, shocked that he had never mentioned my past to me before. I’d never wanted him to see me as damaged goods.

‘I tried to pluck up the courage to ask you for more than just coffee so many times, but I was scared. I was scared that you would think of me as just another guy desperate to get into your knickers, or that I would be the rebound. You deserve more than that.’

A big fat tear rolled down my cheek. Ohmyfreakinggod Ben actually liked me. It was too much to take.

‘But … but you hardly know me.’

‘I know what I can see. This strong, fearless woman who has had a heap of shit piled on her, but has handled it with grace, dignity and the courage to make changes. You don’t know how inspirational and amazing you are.’ He boldly moved his hand to take a loose strand of my hair and tucked it behind my ears whilst looking directly into my eyes. ‘I know more about you than you think. Like how you make this adorable sound when you’re eating something you really enjoy.’ I blushed. ‘Like how you practise your speeches in the bathroom when you think no one can hear. Like how your nostrils flare when you’re reading important emails. It’s you, Georgia.’ Ben smiled at me. ‘Wherever you are, that’s where I want to be.’