"What, this? Nah, I'm just clumsy as hell. Ran against an open cupboard door, that is all," he heard her say.
It could as well be true. John had hit his head on open cupboard doors many times, it seemed logic. But he had never looked like his young colleague.
He was new at the company, thus he didn't dare to say anything to her. He had not made friends yet, though Anna sometimes smiled at him during lunch break. The very Anna who was sitting with her friends at the table, opposite of his avoiding his look. The very Anna whose cheek was stained blue.
He did not believe what she had told her friends. It looked more like Anna had been part of a brawl, which of course didn't suit her kind character.
And there was something else John asked himself - if Anna had ran against a cupboard door, how low did this cupboard hang on the wall? Or was it standing on the ground? If so, how tall was it? Anna was a small woman and if she had run against a cupboard, it must have been a very tiny one. Or one hanging very lowly. It did not make sense to him.
Why did no one of the others question her story?
And why did she avoid his look? She usually smiled at him from across the table. This time she was sitting there, looking down. She didn't look at anyone and ot talked if someone asked her something.
Anna's friends didn't seem to notice her awkward behaviour. They continued laughing and taking about their weekend, while Anna just sat there, not moving a muscle. She wasn't touching her food, though she was staring at it.
And John knew something was not right.
She was looking at her in pity. Anna hated it. She didn't say a word but it seemed she knew what had really happened to her.
William and Gwen had joked as usual, called her a clumsy girl and asked her, if she was addicted to pain. After all she hurt herself at least once a week, ran against a desk at work or tripped over things.
Thomas had even asked if Anna liked to keep things wild in bed with her husband, and if they had overdone their little sado maso games.
But Mary just looked at Anna with sad eyes. Mary was the only one at the company who knew about her secret, even though she had only told her about Oliver's occasional tantrums. It was enough for Mary. The boss' daughter knew.
And then there was this new man, John. From Mary she knew that John was a good friend of Robert, the boss. John had recently lost his job, then his wife and had started drinking. Robert Crawley had saved him by given him a job and pushing him to visit AA meetings. Of course it was all a secret but Mary, as Robert's daughter, knew it all. And Anna, as Mary's best friend, knew as well.
John was gentle and Anna had liked him from the very beginning. She didn't care about his drinking past, not as much as Mary did, and gave him encouraging smiles as often as she could. He seemed lost all the time, with no friends at the company besides Robert, who did not join their lunch breaks as he was the boss, and Anna knew all too well how it was to be new. As she had started working here, only Mary had been nice to her. And she was still thankful for that.
Thomas had even tried to bully her out of the company but much to his disappointment it hadn't worked. And after the main bully, Sarah, had left, Thomas had been much nicer and now they were even friends. Kind of.
Thomas still liked to tease Anna because of everything, her height especially, her clumsiness, the fact she had a kid. Mostly Anna decided to ignore it, while Mary shot back at Thomas, but he really knew how to hurt her.
Especially when it came to her daughter, her everything. Yes, she had been an accident and yes, Anna had been on the verge of having an abortion, but now she was glad she had decided against it in the last minute.
And lately Thomas liked to tease her because the new guy, John Bates, was looking at her all the time. And he did, Anna had noticed. Only that Anna liked it. He didn't seem like a dirty older man, he seemed decent. He had been married before his wife had died. And he seemed nice. Shy, even.
This was why she kept flashing smiles at him.
Except for when Oliver threw a tantrum again.
She usually stayed at home if she looked too bad to be able to work but sometimes it wasn't possible. And on those days she avoided John's eyes.
Because she had the feeling that he could see right through her.
She pretended to be happy with her life. John knew she was married but that was it. He had not really talked to her before, thinking that she didn't want to. Yes, she was smiling at him every now and then, but it didn't mean she wanted to talk to him. She already had friends, the most popular clique at the company, and if they saw her talking to him, they'd make fun of her.
It seemed childish but all in all it was like he was back at school.
After some weeks at the company, he had decided following:
Anna, Mary, Thomas, Gwen and William were the popular people, the cool athletes, the it-people.
Joseph and Phyllis were the kind nerds, who came along with everyone but also didn't belong to a group.
Tom and Matthew were the car obsessed gamers, who spent their spare time with talking about Fantasy Football and their engines. They were sitting with John mostly, but weren't exactly talking to him either. Except when John asked them something.
The married Elsie and Charles Carson were the seniors and kind of the parents of the whole company. Elsie had been working at the company longer than Robert, as a housekeeper and girl for everything. John had once seen her comfort Daisy in a break.
Daisy was a sweet but lost girl and she always stuck together with Ivy, her best friend.
Then there was Alfred, who was very much in love with Ivy, who liked Alfred's best friend Jimmy. And Daisy liked Alfred. It was a very confusing group of four but somehow they made it work to stay friends. But they were young, the youngest at the company, and John wondered how long their group would make it.
Robert was the head of everyone and clearly using his daughter Mary as a spy to keep everyone under control. All in all it wasn't necessary, as they all got along very well.
Even Mrs. Patmore, the cafeteria lady, was part of them. She was the gossip number one and especially good natured Daisy enjoyed speaking to her, as she believed everything that Mrs. Patmore told her.
John liked his colleagues, even though he had not exactly made friends yet.
Tom had once told him about a woman called Sarah, who had caused quite some trouble at the company. According to the young man, she had used Thomas to try to bully Anna out of the company, but Mary had reported everything to her father, who had dismissed Sarah quite immediately.
"She's very beautiful," John suddenly heard Matthew say and was torn out of his thoughts. He looked down at the picture on Tom's phone. As Tom noticed that John had seen it, he quickly locked his screen.
"How much did you see?" he asked.
"Enough to recognise Mary's youngest sister," John replied. "You know her?"
"We are kind of dating," Tom said proudly.
"Congratulations," John said. "How did you meet her?"
"At the last Christmas party," Tom replied. Robert brought his other daughters along and Sybil immediately enchanted me. We talked and got along and now we are seeing each other secretly."
"I'm happy for you," John said with an honest smile, before looking at Matthew. "And when are you going to ask out Mary?"
Matthew groaned. "You're not missing out on anything, right?"
Sometimes John wished he did. Sometimes he wished he could miss out on the bruises on Anna Smith's face and arms she tried to hide. Was he the only one noticing those finger-shaped stains on her wrist? Her bruised lip? Her red eyes?
"You're right, I'm not missing out on anything," he said, his eyes hanging on the blonde woman.
Did her friends really not realise she was obviously a victim of domestic violence?
"Dear God, what happened this time?" Nancy asked as Anna picked up her daughter from kindergarten. Of course she told the woman the same story as everyone, that she had ran against a cupboard door. Then she turned to her little one.
"What would you say if you and I visited granny today?"
Lauren Smith crossed her arms. "Is daddy coming too?" she asked.
"Of course," Anna lied. Nancy was still listening and she didn't want anyone to think that there were troubles between them. "He's already waiting there."
"Yay! Daddy!" Lauren called.
Anna dearly hoped that she hadn't told anyone about the hotel room they had been staying during the weekend. To Lauren she had said it was a holiday, so she hoped that, if Lauren had said something, she had said that she and her mother had been taking a holiday. She hoped that Lauren had not mentioned her father. That her father had not been with them during this holiday.
She went to her car with the girl on her hand, who kept blabbing about her friend Carla and that she wanted to invite her for her birthday party. Anna could only smile sadly, not knowing if there would even be a birthday party for her baby girl. She was turning five in a week and she had been planning her party for a while, but with things looking as they did now ...
"Will daddy be there at the party?" Lauren asked, interrupting her mother's thoughts. "My friends like him, they say he's funny."
Anna frowned. "Funny," she muttered, before smiling at her daughter. "I don't know yet, sweetheart. He may be busy."
"Aww," Lauren replied and looked out the window, sulking.
And Anna stared at street. No, she would make sure that he would not be in their life anymore. It would break Lauren's heart but Anna could not go on like this. He only hurt her and she feared that one day, if he ever got bored, he'd hurt their daughter.
So she had made up a plan during their stay at the hotel. She had called her mother as Lauren was asleep, asking her in tears if they could stay with her again. And of course her mother had said yes.
Then, this morning, between dropping off Lauren at kindergarten and driving to work, Anna had gone home and packed a suitcase for them. It was waiting in the trunk of her car.
This time it was serious. This time she would finally leave Oliver for good.