It was a photo of Liam leaving the Hippo Bar. With Alice. Clipped and enlarged, no doubt, from a shot the photographer had taken of three girls whose faces were rather out of focus in the foreground. He and Alice looked blissfully happy. Intimate. They were holding hands and her head was dipping towards him as if she was listening intently to something he said.
A white ring circled his head and the caption above the photo read: Who is this man? The text below explained, as Dennis had, that this mystery winner could claim his prize of a dinner for two.
‘Do these mystery prizes happen often?’ he asked.
‘Every week,’ replied Dennis smugly.
So much for keeping that night under wraps.
‘Nice work, boss.’ The edge to Dennis’s voice was sharp enough to cut chain wire. ‘I suppose we can skip the lecture on management probity and staff relations?’
Teeth gritted against a biting retort, Liam screwed the paper into a ball and tossed it across the office to the waste-paper basket. He was grateful that it curved in a perfect arc and fell neatly into the basket, dead centre. ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ he said quietly.
‘That you started getting extra-friendly with the staff the minute you hit town?’
Liam’s response was to move past Dennis, to reach for the door and to close it with deliberate control.
‘Sit down, Dennis.’ With a curt nod he indicated the chair by the desk. ‘You and I are going to have a little chat.’
Dennis sat. And his confident smirk began to wane as Liam took the high-backed leather executive chair and leaned back, watching him, without speaking.
Liam was damned if he was going to let this fellow launch a smear campaign. He knew that if he didn’t act promptly, Alice’s reputation would be dirt by morning-tea time.
With his elbow, he gave a file clearly marked Dennis Ericson a surreptitious nudge towards the front of his desk and then he stabbed at his desk phone for front of house reception.
‘Sally,’ he said, enjoying the way Dennis’s eyes bulged when he read the name on the folder. ‘Hold all my calls, please. And don’t send anyone through to my office. It’s most important that I’m not interrupted for the next twenty minutes.’
‘Morning, Dennis.’ Alice called her greeting as they passed in the hall outside her office.
‘Morning,’ he growled rudely, without making eye contact.
What was eating him?
Gulp. Had it started already? Was this because he’d seen the photo in the paper? The phone calls from her family had begun about five minutes after Liam left her on Saturday. Alice’s mother and each of her aunts had rung, all demanding details about the strange man in the photo.
No one from work had contacted her, but she knew it was silly to hope that, by some miracle, none of them had seen the photo. She’d been dreading coming to the office this morning.
‘What’s the matter? I’m not late, am I?’ She glanced at her watch. She was late, actually, thanks to traffic lights on the blink at a busy intersection, but not enough to upset anyone, especially as it was well-known that she often worked late or through her lunch hour without extra pay.
Dennis pursed his lips. ‘I’m sure you can be as late as you like from now on.’ He continued on, calling over his shoulder, ‘You’re sitting pretty now, Alice.’
Oh, great. That more or less confirmed her fears.
There was only one way to play it this morning. Cool. Carry on as if it was business as usual.
She went through to the office she shared with two other travel consultants, Mary-Ann and Shana.
‘You know what’s eating Dennis?’ she asked. And then she realised that playing it cool was a good idea in theory…but the who’s-she-trying-to-kid? look on her workmates’ faces made her stomach pitch.
Mary-Ann clicked a button to boot up her computer. ‘It’s not so much a matter of what’s eating Dennis, but who,’ she said. ‘Actually, it’s who’s eating him and spitting him out into little pieces.’
‘And the answer is the new boss,’ added Shana. ‘First morning on the job and this Liam Conway’s kicking heads. He lined poor Dennis up for a performance appraisal.’
‘Oh.’ Alice sat down quickly, a split-second before her legs began to shake.
‘Instead of kicking heads he should pull his own head in,’ muttered Shana.
‘Don’t tell me the new boss is an ogre?’
Shana rolled her eyes. ‘As if we need to tell you anything about him. Why don’t you tell us?’
Taking in her workmates’ identical expressions, Alice released her breath with a soft sigh. ‘OK, you’ve seen the photo in the Post.’
‘Of course we’ve seen it.’
‘How could we miss it?’
‘But,’ added Mary-Ann, ‘we didn’t know who the guy was till this morning.’
Shana came around to the front of her desk and crossed her arms over her chest. ‘At least we know now why you weren’t interested in the birthday party we offered to throw for you.’
Mary-Ann added her bit. ‘I thought you were supposed to be at your mother’s on Friday night.’
‘I was,’ said Alice. ‘But it was awful and I left.’
‘Hmm.’ Mary-Ann looked momentarily sympathetic and then doubtful.
‘Honest, guys. I went to the Hippo Bar to look for you, but you weren’t there.’
‘Ever hear of these little devices?’ Shana waved her cell-phone. ‘They’re the latest means of communication. You can speed dial a friend at the touch of a button.’
‘OK, OK.’ Alice raised her hands to ward off their anger. ‘Give me a break. Look, meeting Liam Conway was totally unexpected. He came into the bar. I was on my own and, well, we kinda clicked.’ She took a quick breath. ‘But it was a one-off thing. I won’t be seeing him again.’
The girls were leaning towards her now, faces intent. It was clear they expected more.
‘Clicked as in—totally clicked?’ asked Mary-Ann.
Alice thought it best to ignore that query. ‘I had no idea he was our new boss,’ she said. ‘And he didn’t know me from Eve. It was a really weird coincidence. Bad luck.’
‘Bad luck?’ cried Shana. ‘Honey, I’m not sure that’s what you call it.’
‘When it turns out he’s my new boss, I do.’
‘May I interrupt?’
The voice at the door startled them. There was a collective gasp and a surge of near-panic hit Alice as she turned to see Liam standing there.
Surely he must have heard their conversation?
He came into the room and she dropped her gaze, dusted a crumb from her keyboard. This was going to be worse than she’d feared. One look at Liam and she was remembering the way those grim lips had been soft and hot on her body.
The girls were watching her. She couldn’t be coy or self-conscious. This first encounter at work with Liam was the Big Test.
Taking another quick breath for control, she looked up again and managed a smile. ‘Good morning.’ She was aware of Shana sliding