Chapter Fourteen
I woke with my alarm feeling surprisingly refreshed this morning. I was expecting the same confusion with waking in a strange place again, but either because I spent plenty of time in this room yesterday, the feeling never arrived. I already felt at home in this house.
I went through my morning routine, having woken early enough for a shower and breakfast. I wasn't feeling too hungry because of my nerves, but not knowing the way the day was going to pan out, I thought it best to start off on a full belly.
I decided on some porridge and set up the stove to cook the oats with some milk. My mind wandered back to the confrontation with Marc yesterday and I forced my mind and body into action to avoid thinking about it all. As the porridge was heating I had a hunt through the kitchen, getting to grips with the utensils and equipment at my disposal. My interest peaked as I located an insulated travel mug stuffed in the back of a cupboard. It was a little dusty, but after a good scrub it was soon filled with hot tea from my stash I'd brought over on the plane with me.
Breakfast consumed, and the saucepan and bowl in the sink to soak, I gathered all my bits and doing a final check that the stove was off, I headed out the house.
Habit wouldn't let me leave without locking the house up, I'd been broken into in the past and it wasn't a pleasant feeling have your space invaded.
I was soon in the car and setting up my phone to connect to the car and loading the address into the Sat nav. Doing another scan of my handbag and laptop case in the footwell on the passenger side, I belted up and started the car. I was soon navigating the driveway, and felt a thrill of excitement. I was here, I was really doing this!
My journey to work was eerily quiet compared to what I was used to back home. I was well out of La Push and almost into Forks before coming across another soul. I wasn't sure if it was the early hour or if this was normal, but it was lovely to go at my own pace, listening to the music I wanted to and not have to deal with weirdos on the trains.
The journey passed quickly and I entered Port Angeles just before 7am. The office was easy to find, even if the parking was a little confusing at first. Once I'd parked and gathered my bags and tea, I made my way into the reception area of the building.
It was shared with another company, so there was a security chap on duty as I walked through the revolving doors.
"Hi, can I help you?" He asked. He stood as I approached. He looked to be in his forties, and had a cheery face.
"Yes, I'm Kate Walker, from Equinox. I'm the new Facilities director." I flashed him my work ID and he pulled up something on his computer.
"Ah, yes. Can I take your ID, I need to activate the chip to access the security gates."
I handed it to him, and leant against the desk as he did what he needed to do. Afterwards he passed it back and handed over a few pieces of papers.
"OK, you have full access to the Equinox floors as well as the building maintenance areas given your position. You just need to wave your ID at the little black boxes against the doors. You'll hear a beep and a see a green light if access is granted. Here's a map of your areas, and contacts for the building management company, that's the people I work for by the way, and other useful contact numbers. There are coffee machines on each floor, they are marked on the maps. I'd recommend a coffee place down the street though, the machines are not the best."
He smiled and I returned it.
"Sorry, I didn't catch your name?" I prodded.
"Leeroy, ma'am." He replied with a tiny little salute. It was very charming and I instantly took a liking to the man.
"Thanks Leeroy, this is very helpful."
"No problem." He smiled widely. "I haven't seen you around before and a gentleman, English like yourself, came round last week and gave me a heads up to expect a pretty lady today, and low and behold, here you are."
I laughed, he was just so jovial I couldn't help but get swept up in his happy little bubble and I ignore the little flash of pain that flared from his mention of Marc.
"Is your number on here Leeroy?" I waved the papers slightly.
"Yup, here see." He pointed with his pen before making a little mark next to it. Perfect, it was always handy to make friends with the people keeping the building running, you'd never know when you would need them.
"Brilliant. I might need your help on some things in the future. Will it be OK if I call or come and find you?"
"Sure thing, ma'am." There was the little salute again. It was cute how helpful he was. It was a nice turnabout from the miserable sods in security back in London.
"Call me Kate, please." I smiled again, before picking up my bags and tea again, and the papers.
"No problem, Kate. Stairs and elevators are just around the corner to your right, behind that large plant." He pointed. I grinned and waved the papers in farewell before turning to the lifts. He remained standing until I was turning the corner, and gave another little salute as I turned back.
I found the lifts and stood scanned the map for the floor number before pressing the call button. The Equinox floors of the building seemed empty apart from myself, so I located what looked like an empty office and dumped my things before taking a walk around the office. I doubled back for my pen and notepad as I came across a number of things I wanted a closer look at, marking them on my handy map as I went. It wasn't long before I hear the lift ding in the distance and then the sound of voices gradually got closer.
"Hello?" I called out as I rounded a corner to the main office area of this floor. I came across a couple of women and a man, all mid-twenties, early-thirties dressed in casual office attire, coffee cups in hand.
"Oh, hi. Sorry, we weren't expecting anyone to be here. Are you lost?" The first woman asked kindly.
I smiled. "I don't think so! I'm Kate Walker, from the UK offices?" I offered a small wave as a hello.
"Oh! Kate! Yes, sorry, I forgot it was today, I wasn't expecting you so early. Welcome to the States! I'm Kelly, this is Jason and Tiana." Jason looked pleasant enough, if a little worse for wear, late night dude? Tiana looked… like a bitch. Her surly face wasn't at all expected and my own smile to the group faltered slightly, as I wondered what had crawled up her arse and died.
"Thanks. Sorry for the early appearance, I just wanted to get to grips with the area and take a look around without looking like I was casing the joint."
Kelly laughed at my little joke, and Jason smiled warmly. Tiana… yeah. No change there.
"Well, you are welcome anytime. I see Leeroy has given you all the maps and stuff. If you need anything else just let us know."
"Cool, thanks. So, do you guys have free time today to start the building handover?"
"Sure, I booked this morning. Sorry, I would spend all day with you but we've still got our own jobs to do while we are here until the move back to Seattle."
"What part of the business are you in?" I asked. Equinox had fingers in many pies, and the Medical supply branch was part of a much larger picture.
"Financial services. Lots of paperwork shuffling." Kelly rolled her eyes good naturedly. "It pays the bills." I smiled at that.
"Ah, know the feeling well." I pointed out to the office I'd claimed. "I hope no one was using it, I've put my stuff in that room over there."
"Oh, yeah that's fine. It's only us three left here anyway, the rest of the guys moved out a couple of weeks ago?" She looked to the other to get their nods of agreement. "So, you have a pick of rooms to use."
"Lovely. Well, it's still early, I'll get myself set up, I'll let you get settled in, just come and grab me when you are ready and we'll start the hand over?"
"Awesome, we'll be over after nine I think?" She again turned and Jason nodded.
"Great, OK, I'll leave you guys to it." I smiled again and made my way to the office and booted up my laptop.
I was able to log into the building wifi and company intranet surprisingly easy and after opening my email, I spent a good hour clearing through various messages and typing up a list of things I wanted to do and questions to ask about the hand over.
In what seemed like minutes later, I had a knock at the open doorway to see Kelly and Jason, laptops in hand and smiling.
"Are you ready?"
"Sure thing. Do you want to do it here or outside?"
"Out here's probably better, more room and I think more power points. I don't know about your IT department, but ours insist on giving us laptops that hold no battery charge." Kelly replied with another eye roll.
"Ah, we must have the same IT team then." I stood and grabbed my stuff before following them out to a nearby bank of desks.
"Is Tiana joining us?" I asked. I caught the glance between Jason and Kelly.
"Ah, no. She's got a deadline this morning. You'll have to make do with just us."
"I'm sure we'll cope just fine." I replied with a gentle smile. I did not know what the hell was Tiana's problem, but as long as she kept out of my way, the better.
The next few hours passed quickly as they went through the leasing and facilities elements of the building. I started off feeling a little out of my depth, but realising that neither Kelly or Jason had any experience of this before and were doing just fine, I decided to just treat it like a problem solving exercise, and to forget official titles or legal jargon. I soon felt I got to grips with the physical elements of the building and began to build a picture in my mind how we could utilise them in the best to fit the office functions we needed. We parted ways after lunch so they could continue with their normal roles whilst I holed myself up in my new office.
I made list after list of things required, from printers, stationary, new chairs, extra desks, a water dispensers, bins, to locations of planters and the allocation of offices to certain roles. I even noted down the company allocated parking quantities in the building's underground lot, and where we could park up the transport buses without them getting parking tickets. I reached out to the bus leasing company and they promised to send me some brochures via email and offered to set up a meeting once I had my requirements nailed down.
It was a busy day, but the most productive one I'd had in a long while and I was surprised to see it was gone half five when I checked the time.
Deciding to call it a day, I send a message to Emily, letting her know I was leaving Port Angeles, or PA as Kelly called it, and would be at theirs before seven. I added a little 'hope that's still OK?' before packing my bits and making for the lifts.
Leeroy was on duty still and I gave him a little wave as I past, heading out to the parking garage entrance under the building. I wondered if there was access inside the main lobby, and doubled back inside.
"Leeroy, quick question. Can you get to the parking lot below from in here?"
"Sure thing Kate, if you stay in the elevator, and hit the P, that's for the Parking level."
"Excellent, thank you so much!" I called as I head back for the lift. I soon was down another level and walking out into the sea of cars. It took a moment to get my bearings, but soon I located my car at the far back end on it's own. I hopped in and dumped my bags in the foot well. I'd just fired the car up when it pinged at me that I had a message from Emily. I let the car read it out to me as I buckled up and pulled out of my space.
Emily confirmed she would have food ready and that she wouldn't have offered if it was a problem. I grimaced slightly at the little rebuke. It was difficult to allow people to do things for me. It not often happened and I didn't like that it made me feel like a burden. Jeez the number of times I'd asked Richard to do the odd little thing for me, and he'd huff and puff like loading the dishwasher was the hardest thing in the world. I just stopped asking for the little favours. It was easier to do shit myself. I frowned at the realisation that it wasn't normal to have to tiptoe around your significant other for fear of setting them off into another temper tantrum. In the past I wouldn't have taken that kind of shit from anyone. When did I just start rolling over and accept that kind of behaviour?
I mentally shook my head to clear that thought. It didn't matter anymore.
The journey home was busier than this morning as it was now rush hour, but even then, it was much quieter than I was used to. It made driving a joy, which I never really felt in London. It was part of the reason I didn't have a car. The stress of fighting traffic at all hours wasn't worth the hassle.
It felt like no time had passed before I was leaving the outer limits of Forks and about to hit the Reservation. I passed the turn off for my house and continued on for a few more minutes. I accidentally missed Sam and Emily's driveway, but was able to stop and reverse back to make the turn.
I'd barely parked the car and got my belt off before my door was pulled open to reveal a grinning Sam. I couldn't help return it and I was pulled into a hug before my feet had even hit the ground.
"Why aren't you wearing a shirt? And where are your shoes?" I asked as he put me down.
"Oh, I've just come from inside. Didn't think to put them on when I heard you drive up." He replied a little sheepishly.
"Hey Kate!" Emily called from behind the screen door. She nudged it open a bit. "Food's just about ready, you want to wash up first?"
"Hey Emily, yes please." Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me to the house, as he reached the door he brushed Emily as he moved inside and I felt that strange electric current again. They'd both clearly felt it too as they paused and looked at each other.
"You might want to check you haven't got any exposed wires somewhere. That's the second time I've felt that."
"Yeah, good point. I'll take a look tomorrow." Sam replied, looking worried. Emily broke the moment and ushered me to the bathroom to clean up. Five minutes later I was following my nose back to the kitchen to find the table full of food.
"It's roasted salmon and vegetables. Sorry, I probably should have asked if you like fish." She looked stricken for a moment until I laid a hand on her arm.
"It's all good, I love it. It smells great, thanks for cooking Emily. I'll have to repay the favour once I located where everything is in my kitchen."
We took our seats, and Sam placed a glass of white wine in front of me, and an orange juice for Emily and a beer for himself.
"Oh, you didn't have to open the wine if I'm the only one drinking it." I hoped it wasn't too expensive, otherwise she might be inviting me around more to finish it off.
"Oh, it's fine, Sam will finish it. But just one for you tonight as you are driving." She smiled as she stared to dish up. I held my plate out to help her.
"Do you not drink Emily?" I enquired politely. She exchanged a glance with Sam, and a beaming smile spread across both their faces.
"Well, not for the next nine months I won't be." She grinned at me. It took me a second to get it then…
"Oh! Wow! That's amazing, congratulations!" I was genuinely happy for them, they were clearly over the moon going by the ear splitting grins they both wore.
"When are you due exactly?"
"March some time, but it's early days and I've not been to the doctor yet to confirm." She couldn't stop smiling, and Sam was watching her with such a look of love and adoration on his face it was almost painful to watch.
"Well, I've no experience with pregnant women or babies, but if you need me to bring pickles and wasabi flavoured ice cream at 3am, I'm happy to help." I joked.
"I'll take you up on that, but maybe hold off on the pickles." She laughed as she handed back the plate full of yumminess.
"So, wasabi ice cream is OK?" Sam asked her, frowning slightly at the idea.
"It's ice cream." She shrugged as though that was answer enough. I hid my smile behind my glass as Sam's frown turned to outright disgust.
Emily finished serving up and we dug in with relish. I almost gave Sam a run for his money on speed of consumption, lunch seemed like eons ago, but he definitely had me beat on volume. The man must have hollow legs.
During and after dinner, both of them were firing questions about my day. I tried to hold off going into too much detail, after all, finding local stationery suppliers isn't the most riveting of conversations, but they kept prodding as if they were actually interested. I'm sure they would be bored in no time, but it was gone nine before we noticed the time and I decided to call it a night. I'm sure Emily would have kept firing questions at me if Sam hadn't taken charge in getting me out of the house. She called over his shoulder as we left the house about coming over again tomorrow, but Sam shot her down.
"Em, let her have some time to herself, woman." He pulled me into a side hug and I returned it as Emily leant against his other side. I felt that same shock again. It wasn't painful, I couldn't quite understand what it felt like, only that it seemed to happen in this doorway.
"OK, that shock thing, it's something about your doorway. Maybe you should put down some rubber mats." I stepped out from under Sam's arm, and found the feeling vanished. That was odd.
"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind." He replied. He moved to peck me on the head, and after a final squeeze, I turned to walk down the steps to my car. I gave a wave as I climbed into my car, and both of them returned it.
Thirty minutes later I was crawling into bed. I continued today's productive streak and got myself organised for the morning by setting out my breakfast ready to go and making my lunch in advance. I set my alarm for an hour later and starfished out, reveling in the massive bed that was all mine. No fighting for duvet covers anymore!
That thought had me thinking of Richard and then Marc. I blew out a long breath into the dark room. What the hell was I going to do about Marc? I was still incredibly angry and upset at him, I was hoping some time and distance would help me settle on a final decision, but I was just going round in circles, replaying our confrontation. His final confession adding to my confusion. I mean, what on earth was I meant to do with that information?
I'd never considered Marc in that way. He was the confident man about town when we first met. I'm not blind, he is attractive; six foot, unruly light brown hair that seemed to look artfully styled without trying and he was in great shape. I think I never considered him an option as he was just so outside of my league. I was a mouse compared to him, and I would have only dragged him into my boring life, and looking back that would have been unfair to temper that exuberant for life he has.
He took me under his wing when I joined the company and we stuck like glue thereafter. I kind of felt that I lived vicariously through him, and that was fine with me. The tales he would tell me after his many nights out would amuse me to no end, but it wasn't something I was comfortable in doing myself. He soon brought me out of my shell enough that I started to come out with him, and more importantly, enjoy myself on those nights out. I would often find myself acting as his wing-woman as he conquered most of west London's female population. I remember him encouraging me to try and chat someone up in a bar, and I was too mortified to try. Not long after that I met Richard, and the rest is history. Our night outs dwindled with my absorption into Richard's world. I'm surprised Marc kept our friendship buoyant for so long given my tunnel vision with my new relationship. Hmm, saying that now, I wonder if it was an ulterior motive. Maybe there was a grain of truth in what Richard said; Marc was biding his time.
That thought made me more angry and confused. Who the hell could I trust anymore? Was I reading into it too much?
I growled out in frustration and turned on my side trying to shut off my brain. This was not helping in the slightest, only serving to wind me up more leaving me no closer to an answer. I reminded myself that I'd asked for time and distance for the moment, and I was under no obligation to speak to Marc just yet. My time was my own and no one was going to push me into confronting the problem just yet.
With that last thought I drifted off into sleep.