A/N So lots of you are excited about the pregnancy. Let's hope the novelty hasn't worn off for Sookie yet!
Disclaimer: Still not mine. Look at what I put them through? Like anyone would trust me with their characters.
EPOV
I was met at the door by a huge pair of worried blue eyes. "What's up, Leesh?" I asked her.
"Mummy's tummy's yucky" she said, putting her arms up so I'd pick her up. I lifted her up and held her on my hip, trying to wrench my tie off with the other hand. It was fucking hot and humid and it seemed unfair that my vacation was over and I was back to having to wear these stupid fucking ties.
I carried Felicia into our bedroom and heard the telltale, and rather unpleasant, sounds of Sookie in the bathroom throwing up. "You OK?" I yelled through the door.
"Uh-huh" she managed to get out between heaves. I set Felicia down on the bed and started unbuttoning my shirt. Felicia's eyes just watched the door of the bathroom. "Mom's OK" I assured her. Well, I hoped she was. It didn't sound good.
"Mummy?" she asked.
"Yeah. Mummy."
I could hear Amelia's voice droning on and on. I guessed she was in the bathroom telling Sookie a story to cheer her up and take her mind off it. She'd decided when all of this started that her role was bathroom entertainments director. I wasn't sure if Sookie really appreciated it but I think she sensed there was no telling Amelia that she didn't need the moral support.
Although even Amelia apparently had her limits. She wandered into the bedroom as I was trying to pull a pair of shorts on. "I can see your underpants" she commented.
"Yep" I agreed, watching that Felicia didn't bounce herself right off the bed.
"Mummy's eaten some yucky food again" Amelia said. "I don't know why she keeps doing it. I don't think its right. Is it, Eric?" Amelia looked worried now too. We all were, in a way.
"It'll pass" I said to her.
"I spat up. On the deck. That was yucky" Amelia said. "Will I get sick again?"
'No. No you won't get what your mum's got."
"Oh. Why?"
"Because…um, you didn't eat what she did."
Amelia thought for a moment, and then she looked worried again. "Yes I did!" she wailed. "I did. We had cheese and marmite sandwiches for lunch and we all had them. I'm going to be sick too. I don't feel well." She looked at me and then turned around and headed back into the bathroom. "Mummy! Mummy I feel sick too! Mummy I think I might spit up!"
I could hear Sookie murmur "You're OK Amelia. You won't get this." The sounds of throwing up seemed to have stopped so I risked sticking my head into the bathroom. Sookie was sitting in front of the toilet, leaning against the wall looking pale and very, very sweaty.
"Yeah, I know. I look pretty gross" she said.
"What?" I asked, realising I'd just been standing there. "Oh, no. You're fine." I gave her a smile, which she returned, weakly. Fuck. I felt so bad about this. Sookie had it bad. Morning sickness was terribly misnamed in her case; she felt sick all day and then ended up throwing up just before dinner every night. And sometimes after dinner as well. She was exhausted and she looked it.
"I don't think I'm fine" Amelia said, from where she was sitting beside the bathroom cabinet. "I think I might spit up."
"No you won't" I said to her.
"Hungry!" Felicia shouted, bursting past me into the bathroom.
"Yep. Hang on. I have to brush my teeth." Sookie stood up from the floor slowly, shooing away my hand. Fuck. There wasn't anything I could do to help her out.
I left the bathroom, shepherding Amelia and Felicia out with me. I followed them into the family room, where Felicia made a dash for the line of groceries Amelia had set out on the floor. Santa had brought her a 'shop' for Christmas, which consisted of a pink cash register and a lot of pretend grocery items. The cash register came complete with a credit card reader and a microphone, so she could announce, in an annoyingly distorted way, that she had 'specials'. God help us if we all didn't immediately front up to buy whatever it was that was on special. And fuck knows whatever it was would be a huge special because she made you use the plastic credit card and then still gave you play money back as change. She hadn't quite worked out the principles of making a profit yet.
I was about to suggest to Amelia that she try to pack the stuff up, when my phone rang.
I took it out of my pocket and answered it, just as Amelia yelled "No! Felicia, you can't just take those!"
"Eric?" Sophie-Anne's voice questioned. Fuck. I should have paid more attention to who was actually calling. "Eric, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Yeah" I said, while trying to catch Amelia's attention and signal for her to stop trying to wrench the basket of groceries out of Felicia's hand. She didn't see me. Or she pretended not to see me. She certainly didn't stop.
"So, I just wanted to talk to you before the breakfast in the morning…" Sophie-Anne droned on. I kind of missed the last bit because Felicia let out an almighty squeal and tried shoving Amelia away. "Hey!" I warned the pair of them.
"You'll be there in the morning, won't you Eric?" Sophie-Anne asked. "You're normally there for the monthly breakfasts?"
"Yeah. I'll be there" I replied. Just then Felicia decided to make a break for it with her groceries and tried to run past with Amelia in hot pursuit. Amelia yelled "Stop!", Felicia looked back, rather than watch where she was going and tripped over my foot, which made her yell a beautifully-enunciated "Fuck!" right underneath me. I didn't have much time to marvel at how well her speech was developing though, as I instinctively stepped back…onto something furry. That squealed. Horribly.
"Is this a bad time?" Sophie-Anne demanded, as I helped Felicia up and ignored Amelia's convoluted tirade of accusations which were being poured into the ear that I wasn't currently holding the phone to. "It's not a great time" I said. "It's kind of dinner time."
"Really?" Sophie-Anne asked. "This early?"
Sookie walked past then, and said "Don't worry, I'm on dinner it's nearly done…" she stopped suddenly, and put her hand over her mouth. "Oops, sorry!" she whispered, realising I was on the phone. I shook my head to say it was OK and she carried onto the kitchen muttering "Oh, for God's sake Bob, you do not help when you just walk in front of me like that!"
"Yeah" I said to Sophie-Anne, remembering there'd been a question, but forgetting completely what it was. Amelia had thankfully followed Sookie and Bob into the kitchen, sensing that she might get more sympathy from her mother, but Felicia was still hanging about by my feet going "Phone! Phone!" with her hand out. That was my own fault for using the damn thing as a way to amuse bored kids when we were out. Now every time Felicia saw it she thought it was there purely so she could watch another Sesame Street clip or music video.
"Look, Eric. Shall we just talk tomorrow? After the breakfast? I'll book a meeting room."
"Oh, OK. Fine" I said, thinking it sounded far from fine, but there probably wasn't much I could do about it, short of actually giving the phone to Felicia and letting her babble nonsense into it until Sophie-Anne got bored and found someone else to annoy.
"Bebemonkee!" Felicia yelled at me, still holding her hand out.
"Right. I'll see you in the morning then Eric" Sophie-Anne said, sounding thoroughly pissed with me. It really wasn't my fault she decided to call at the most inconvenient hour of the day. "Goodbye." With that Sophie-Anne disconnected without waiting for my reply.
"BEBEMONKEE!" Felicia wailed. I loaded up the world's most annoying YouTube clip and handed the phone over to her, as the sound of the song started up. Felicia was more than capable of making it play again when it finished, so I left her to it with the intention of going to see if I could help Sookie. As I reached the kitchen Amelia turned around "Baby monkey?" she asked. I nodded. She took off so she could join Felicia in dancing around my phone.
"Again?" Sookie asked me. "That song is driving me bananas…OK, that wasn't meant to be funny. But it is. And it gets stuck in my brain. Bloody Tara."
Yeah, it was Tara who'd emailed the original link to Sookie, who'd then, perhaps a little stupidly, shown it to the kids. I was probably also stupid for having let them watch it on the phone when we were out. Now half the time all that could be heard in the house was the song that accompanied the clip, and, even worse Sookie and I often found ourselves singing it at odd hours of the day or night. Fuck, it was annoying.
"Do you need any help?" I asked her, as she stopped and kind of gripped the kitchen counter.
"No. I'm fine. I just…wish I could get rid of the nausea. You'd think actually throwing up would help, but it only does for a short time. So I'm a bit behind in making dinner." She sighed and walked over to the pantry. "I need another cracker" she muttered, looking inside.
I scanned the kitchen looking for evidence of what had been going on here today. It was a Monday, so both the kids and Sookie had been home all day. And usually, that meant baking. I spied where Sookie had left the container, and eased it open as quietly as I could while her back was still turned.
"You'll spoil your dinner" she said, without turning around.
Fuck. How did she do that? "No I won't" I said, with my mouth full of blueberry muffin.
"Mmm, you probably won't, I guess", Sookie said, turning around with a couple of crackers in her hand. "But don't let the kids see you…" we heard the annoying Baby Monkey song start again. "You're probably safe there too though."
"So what is for dinner?" I asked, closing up the container that had the muffins in it before I was tempted to eat another. I probably should have had lunch.
"Homemade pizza and salad. I was trying to think of something quick, but even then it's taken longer than it should have. Nearly done though" Sookie bent down and peered in the oven. "Do you want to get them to wash their hands? You might have to take your phone and lead them to the bathroom pied piper-style."
"Yeah, OK."
I did as Sookie suggested and picked up my phone from where the pair of them were dancing around it and kind of led them towards the bathroom. There was a fair amount of whining about both the requirement for clean hands and the need for the Baby Monkey song to stop now if Sookie and I were going to keep our sanity.
When we got back, Sookie was carrying the plates over to the table softly singing "Baby monkey, baby monkey…" to herself. She caught me looking at her. "Oops" she said. "But it's stuck in my brain now and I am never going to get it out."
I helped Felicia into her seat and ignored her small, querulous "Bebemonkee?"
Amelia peered at her plate. "Is this food OK, Mum?" she asked. "I don't want to get sick and you keep eating bad food."
"It's fine Ames" I said taking a bite. And it was fine. Well, it was OK. I took another bite. Actually, it was kind of…different. The sauce tasted a bit strong or something.
Amelia pulled a face. "I don't like it" she said.
"Yes you do" I told her. She took another bite and pulled a face. Felicia picked at a tomato, then put a finger in the cheese on top of the pizza and put some of that in her mouth. Neither of them seemed to be enjoying their dinner.
I looked over at Sookie. She was picking at her salad. I had another bite. Yeah, it still tasted kind of…funky. Or something. I didn't want to say anything though.
Amelia had no such qualms. "This is horrible" she said, pushing her plate away. "There's too much tomato stuff and I DON'T like it." The last bit was addressed to me. She picked up a carrot stick and nibbled it daintily.
I was still just making do with my pizza, but my enthusiasm was waning. Sookie looked over at Amelia and frowned, but didn't say anything. I watched Felicia take a bite of her slice and pull a rather disgusted face, but at least she didn't tell her mother she didn't like it.
Sookie finally took a bite of her own slice. She chewed for a bit, frowning. Then she took another bite and wrinkled her nose. And then it was like a lightbulb went off. Sookie stood up suddenly and walked quickly into the kitchen. When she came back she was holding a bottle of some description. She put in on the table.
"Tomato paste" she said. "I used tomato paste instead of the pizza sauce. It's the same shaped bottle."
"Oh" I said, taking another bite. Well, someone had to eat it.
"You can stop eating it now, Eric" Sookie said to me. "I stuffed it up, so it's OK to stop."
"Will it make me sick?" Amelia asked, plaintively.
"Nope. Not at all" Sookie said. "It's just tastes a bit…strong is all."
"Its fine" I said, finishing off the piece and starting on my salad.
"No, it's not" Amelia grumbled, at almost the exact same time Sookie said "No it's not". That was weird, like a kind of echo effect.
Felicia now had cheese strung between both her hands and was happily munching away at it. I made an executive decision not to look too closely at what she was doing.
Sookie sighed. "Stupid, stupid baby brain!" she said.
"What baby?" Amelia asked.
"No baby" I said, quickly. Sookie had decided we weren't telling the kids. For one thing Felicia wouldn't care, but she didn't want Amelia blabbing it because we were, apparently, keeping it a secret for 13 weeks. But we were in week 7 and I wasn't sure how long Amelia was going to buy the story that Sookie ate something bad. She was getting really suspicious. And in danger of turning into a hypochondriac.
"Bebemonkee?" Felicia tried, but everyone ignored her.
Sookie stood up and walked back into the kitchen, I followed her this time. "Bloody typical" she said, "I can't focus on anything, I feel sick all the bloody fucking time, I'm exhausted, and dinner turned into a complete disaster. I can't do anything right at the moment and I'm so fed up with it!"
Fuck. There wasn't anything I could really do. "And now" she continued "I need to come up with something else for dinner, because I stuffed up the first lot. Not to mention Amelia thinks I'm trying to poison her. And… oh, Christ! Felicia just dropped her pizza on Bob. Stupid Bob, when will he learn not to sit there?"
Fuck again. I really couldn't fix the nausea, the tiredness, Sookie's distracted baby brain moments or Bob's inability to comprehend that sitting under the table was just going to make Felicia use him as target practice under the guise of feeding him. But I could probably make everyone something else to eat.
"Scrambled eggs?" I asked Sookie, pulling out one of the frying pans.
"Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks" Sookie smiled, but her heart wasn't really in it. She looked a little green again.
"You go and sit down" I said. "I'll do this."
"Yeah, thank you" Sookie said, grabbing a couple of crackers and going back to the table to make sure general mayhem didn't break out in our absence.
SPOV
I was so completely over being pregnant, and I'd only made it as far as seven weeks. It was horrific.
After I miscarried, and when I realised that the first sign that it had gone wrong was actually the fact the morning sickness had stopped, I vowed that I would always be grateful for morning sickness.
I nearly got through the first three months of being pregnant with Felicia before I broke that vow. But this time, well this time I was back to being pissed off about it all. Pissed off that I was sick all the time, tired all the time, and I couldn't do a simple task like make pizza for dinner without it all going horribly, horribly wrong.
At first when I'd told Eric about baby brain, after I put the washing machine on without actually putting any washing in there, he looked at me funny. Like I was an idiot, actually. I'm sure he thought it was a totally made-up thing, like man-flu is. But it's not. Anyone who's lived through it knows it's not. Tara spent a couple of months early on in one of her pregnancies regularly forgetting to put the handbrake on in her car. After a while JB got fed up with seeing it had rolled slowly into the fence every night. Luckily it rolled so slowly no real damage was done, except for the time it went through the carport when some washing was hung up there and it took out some sheets and towels, but even so, it could have been worse. It didn't stop Tara feeling like an idiot though.
And I have to confess back then, before I'd ever been pregnant I'd thought to myself, how bad could it really be?
It was bad. This time especially, it was bad. I don't think I'd had it so bad the first three pregnancies. Nor had the sickness been as bad. But I didn't like to say that to Eric, as though it was his fault.
I knew that it was though.
Still, he seemed to be coping with it all OK. And it was hard to deny the reality of morning sickness when I had my head down the toilet every evening. That was horrible. And it was starting to upset the kids. Amelia was suspicious and, as much as I didn't want her to know anything about the pregnancy until it was a reasonably sure thing, I still didn't want her perpetually worried about me and what she might catch from me. It was so much easier last time when she was just a little bundle of two year old self-centredness, just like Felicia was now.
It was all starting to get to me. I was going to be glad when we got to our first appointment at the obstetrician's next week. At least then I'd get some indication that things were going OK. And if they were, and I managed to keep this pregnancy and actually get the baby at the end of it, well, I had a feeling this might be my last go around.
Pregnancy really sucks.
EPOV
After the second dinner of scrambled eggs, which everyone enjoyed a bit more, I bathed the kids and got them into bed and then made coffee. By the time I arrived in the living room Sookie was fast asleep on the couch. That wasn't unusual at the moment. She was tired all the time, and she hated it.
I lifted up her feet so I could sit down and then put them on my lap, before I started to flick through some channels.
"Hey" she murmured, partially waking up.
"Hey" I replied. "How are you feeling?"
"So-so. I'm probably going to regret lying down like this when I feel sick when I sit back up."
"Possibly" I agreed. I put the remote down, having finally found something worth watching on the Documentary channel, and then I picked up my coffee. Sookie started snoring.
This pregnancy thing was kind of lonely.
I woke Sookie up about 9 o'clock and told her it was time for bed. I offered to carry her, but she said no, and sat up. And then went quite white, before dashing off to the bathroom.
I carried my cup in the kitchen, rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher and did the nightly checks of windows and doors and children before going into the bedroom. I could hear Sookie throwing up in the bathroom. She was really bad today.
Eventually she emerged. "I think" she said, climbing into bed and turning her light off, "It's the cheese."
"Cheese?"
"Cheese. I can't eat dairy. That's what's doing it. So that's a whole other thing I can't eat. It's not fair!"
Fuck, she sounded close to tears. "Ssh. It's OK" I said, rubbing her back.
"No, it's not! I feel sick all the time, I throw up. I can't drink coffee, eat ham or sushi and now dairy's out. It's all just a big pile of poo!"
I sighed. She was kind of right. "It is" I agreed. "But it's not forever."
Sookie sniffed. "I know. When I'm in Birthcare I want you to bring me some sushi and a big ham and cheese sandwich. Can you remember that?"
"Uh, I think so."
"Well I might write it down. And ask Tara as well, but that's what I want. I'm hanging out for that. I just have to get to October."
"Yeah" I agreed, but I think she'd already fallen asleep again. I picked up my book and opened it.
Sookie wasn't much better the next morning and she was faced with a morning and early afternoon spent running around with a bunch of toddlers. And it wasn't like she could call in sick, although as she pointed out, even if you worked for a big company you couldn't exactly call in sick for morning sickness. No one really thought that was a reasonable excuse.
So Sookie was stuck back in the bathroom again while I was trying to get out the door with Amelia and Felicia in tow, hoping I wouldn't be too late to the monthly Business Banking breakfast that the bank put on. There was usually a guest speaker and the bank's customers got to mingle with staff, and with me, hopefully. If I got there.
Amelia emerged from the bathroom just as I was putting my shoes on. "I don't think you did a good job with those eggs" she said. "Mum's sick again. It's not…" she trailed off, trying to think what it wasn't. It wasn't good, I could agree with that, but I wasn't going to put words in her mouth.
I looked up and took in what she was wearing. "Ames" I said, "You can't wear your mermaid costume to pre-school."
"Yes I can" she replied, defensively.
"No, you can't. You need to go and get changed. Please. And hurry." I really didn't want to be fucking late, it was bad enough I would have to deal with Sophie-Anne, but I just wanted to get it all over with.
"I can. It's Super-Special Dress-Up Day today!"
"No it's not."
"YES IT IS! You just don't know." Amelia crossed her arms and tried to stare me down.
I stood up and walked to the bathroom door. "Sookie, is it dress-up day at pre-school today?" I asked.
"No…" she said tentatively. "No, I'm sure it's not. I'm bad, but I'm not that bad, I would have remembered."
"Ames, it's not…" I said, but before I'd finished she realised the game was up and was stalking out of the room muttering to herself. "And be quick, please!" I called after her.
I just needed to get Felicia ready. I found in her the family room, in just a pull-up. Fuck, that wasn't helpful. I ran to her room and grabbed a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. She'd recently gone up a size and Sookie had added a whole lot of stuff to her drawers from the hand-me-down boxes so I didn't recognise either item, but it was bound to be OK.
Amelia arrived in the family room as I was pulling the t-shirt on Felicia. She was wearing a t-shirt with white and pale pink horizontal stripes, and a skirt that kind of looked like a mushroom and which was black, with white and pink checks and a wide pink waistband. It wasn't a bad outfit, but, like most of what Amelia wore, there was something slightly busy about it. Still, I didn't have time to worry.
"Go and say goodbye to Mum" I told Amelia.
"That's my t-shirt" Amelia said, pointing at Felicia, who pointed back. That didn't help me get her arm through a sleeve.
"It was once" I replied.
"But it's got my name on it" Amelia said.
"Probably." A lot of the stuff Felicia ended up wearing was still labelled Amelia Compton on the inside, but hopefully the teachers could figure it out if it came to it. "But go and say goodbye" I repeated. Amelia stared for a beat longer, and then ran off to yell "Bye!" through the bathroom door.
I carried Felicia, and she and I did the same, and then I hurried out the front door to get them in the car, I just hoped Sookie would be OK in there.
"I still don't think its right she's wearing that t-shirt" Amelia said in the car. "It says Amelia."
"Yeah, it doesn't make any difference Amelia. It's just a t-shirt" I replied, trying to pull into the traffic.
"Amala!" Felicia chanted.
"It does make a difference! It's mine!" Amelia wailed.
"You're too big for it now. And you have a much nicer t-shirt on."
"It doesn't have my name on it though!" Of course Amelia had to pick today to get upset about something so stupid.
"Well, don't lose it then!" I replied. I was getting a bit sick of the argument at this point. Luckily we were almost there and for the rest of the way Amelia decided to sulk anyway.
We arrived at the daycare and I managed to get a carpark just as another guy was leaving. I hustled everyone into the centre and we took them over to the pre-school side first. I signed Amelia in, stowed her bag in the cubby hole and she sat and wrote her own name in the book set up for that purpose. She was getting really good at it now, and even wrote her surname as well on occasion.
"See? Amelia" she said, turning from what she'd written to look at Felicia's t-shirt then at me.
Before I could reply her friend Maisie came over. She pointed at Felicia. "That says Amelia" she said.
"Yes" I said, really tiring of this now. Even children I barely knew were starting up.
"On the front" Maisie commented to Amelia.
Amelia rolled her eyes at Maisie. "I know" she said, exasperatedly. "But he thinks that's OK."
"It's not" Maisie said.
"I know!" Amelia agreed.
I turned Felicia around and actually looked at the front of the t-shirt for the first time. It was a black t-shirt on which was written, in large, hot-pink letters, 'Amelia Since 2007'. Fuck. Maybe baby-brain was catching?
I sighed. "Well, bye Amelia" I said, leaning down to hug her.
"Yeah, bye" she said, eyeing Felicia's t-shirt. Felicia just smiled like the fucking Cheshire cat.
I walked Felicia over to the other side of the centre and signed her in and put her bag away. One of the teachers walked over. "Oh" she said, looking at Felicia. "Oh, you've got your sister's t-shirt on"
"Yeah. Amala!" Felicia said, excitedly.
"Um" I said, looking through her bag for another shirt. "Maybe we should change it Felicia?"
Felicia looked at me in horror. "No!" she said, really loudly. "NO! No change."
"I think she likes that one" the teacher said, pointing out the completely fucking obvious.
"Yeah. Well. OK, bye then" I crouched down to get a hug and a kiss and a "Bye, Daddy!" and then she was off to the sandpit, no doubt to spend all day making sand-angels so I'd have to spend a fucking long time washing her hair that night.
I took off to my car and glanced at my watch. Fuck, I was running late now. I just hoped the day wouldn't get any worse.
Luckily I made up some time on the drive into the city and when I got into the boardroom at the bank, the guest speaker, some expert on entrepreneurial ventures, had only just started. I slipped into the back and stared longingly at the food set out by the caterers. I'd missed the 'official' eat and mingle time, but maybe if I was quick no one would notice. I did like the look of the bagels.
I'd just grabbed a few things and was trying to work out if I could balance a plate and a cup of coffee when Sophie-Anne brushed past me. "Nice of you to show up, Eric" she said in a rather pointed whisper, and then she was gone again.
Fuck, I really didn't want to hang around her afterwards with her.
When the speaker had finished I talked to a few of the bank's customers who had come in for the presentation. Some of them I'd met before and one of them I'd been trying to sign up for a while, but he was proving elusive.
After that I tried to find out a bit more on the Sophie-Anne situation. I talked to Jake Purifoy, one of the business managers who now reported to her. He was really pissed about that, and spent the whole time telling me she'd only ended up in that role because the new CFO who replaced Peter hated her guts.
I could kind of understand that.
Finally people started to leave and Sophie-Anne appeared beside me again. As she did so, Jake sort of melted away. I couldn't blame the guy.
"Shall we, Eric?" Sophie-Anne said.
I nodded, and followed her into one of the meeting rooms on this level. There was quite a view of the harbour from the 29th floor. So at least I was going to have something to look at that wasn't Sophie-Anne's screwed up little face, as she looked down her nose at me. I didn't know why she was so pissed at me. It wasn't like I'd given her t-shirt away or anything.
"So, Eric. I hear you've been doing quite well from all the business we've been sending your way?"
"Yes, but that's not where all my business comes from" I said. Unfortunately the bank did provide the bulk of my clients.
"Mmm" Sophie-Anne said, as she gazed out into the Harbour. "You know" she said, "it's been very beneficial for you, hasn't it Eric? Being sent out to work here?"
"I guess" I said, cautiously. I wasn't sure what she was getting at.
"You've been able to set up independently, and work for yourself. That must be nice." She looked at me, but I didn't say anything, so she continued in. "And of course, you found Sookie. You must be enjoying family life. It sounded...busy. Last night. On the phone." Sophie-Anne smiled at me and the effect was slightly terrifying.
She seemed to be waiting for me to say something. I nodded, hoping that would be enough. I still wasn't completely sure what her angle was and I was wary of buying into anything at this stage.
"So what I was thinking" Sophie-Anne, continued "Was that we should be working a lot more closely together. Because I'd really like to see exactly what it is our clients are getting when they deal with you. I know that you came into this with a…well, with a reputation. But I can't help but feel, Eric, that you're…coasting somewhat on the good name of your former employer. It's all very well and good, but you're on your own now. Operating in New Zealand." She wrinkled her nose, delicately, when she mentioned New Zealand. I tried to keep a straight face. "Which is a market you're wholly unfamiliar with."
"I do alright."
"You do. But that's because we've been spoon-feeding you our clients. I see you've been working quite closely with Jake?" I nodded. "Mmm, see I have my reservations about him. At any rate, Eric, I'm sure that you can appreciate that I'm new to business banking, and I think that now I'm in this role I'd like to make sure…well, I'd just like to make sure that I'm on top of everything. And that includes you. Well, what you're doing, anyway." She smiled again. It still wasn't a great look on her.
"Sure, Sophie-Anne. I think we can do that" I agreed, as pleasantly as possible, while thinking 'fuck, fuck, fuck' to myself. I couldn't really blame her for wanting to be more involved, the previous Area Business Manager, Freya something-or-other had been fairly hands-off, but then she was currently on maternity leave and Sophie-Anne was covering it on secondment. I'd guessed maybe Freya had been distracted while she was pregnant and I'd reaped the benefit. The upshot was I was stuck with Sophie-Anne.
She stood up and I did the same, shaking the hand she held out to me. "Thanks for meeting me, Eric" she said. "I'll look forward to working more closely with you."
I followed Sophie-Anne back to the elevators. "Bye Sophie-Anne" I said to her.
"Goodbye, Eric. I'll see you soon."
I stepped into the elevator. Fuck, I thought. I needed an exit strategy and I needed it now.
A/N OK, so for anyone interested in the world's most annoying YouTube clip, here's the link. It's the song that gets you. I have no idea about the animals and their welfare though!
http:/ www (dot) youtube (dot) com/watch?v=5_sfnQDr1-o
Thanks for reading!