"G'night Rob."

"Night Mr. Pearson."

As the majority of staff left the office, Rob smiled at the remaining few gathered round the table. "I won't keep you very long, but as you know, while Edward is away, he left me to make sure everything runs smoothly. So, if there are any problems, let me know straight away, and I will see what I can do to help. I don't want Edward coming back to find his business going down the pan!"

With this bald statement, he stood up and opened the door of the meeting room. "Right, ladies and gentlemen, I think we can call it a day and I will see you all bright and early in the morning."

As Rob moved back into his own office, he studiously ignored the comments coming from the other staff. Of course he didn't think they would send the business down the pan but he had waited a long time for this opportunity to show Edward Miller how well he could cope running a successful solicitors office, and he did not want anything to jeopardize his chance of becoming a partner.

His thoughts turned towards Anna, Edward's daughter. She was a nice girl, pretty, with a sense of humour, and there had been something between them at one stage, when Rob had first started with the firm, three years ago. Edward had mentioned about Anna's friends from university coming over while the Millers were away, and how he was sure Anna would be having a party. He had even joked about Rob handling any cases that emerged from the aftermath.

With the practiced ease of one who had worked many long evenings before going straight out, Rob stripped his shirt off, and after spraying himself with deodorant, pulled a clean shirt from the hanger on the back of his office door and slipped it on. It was a move he had seen Harrison Ford perform on Working Girl, and in the movie, there had been an office full of women watching and clapping appreciatively. Automatically, he turned round to see which of the office girls had watched him, only to find that the only person left in the office was Mrs. Morton, the office cleaner, and she had her back to his window, hoovering, and singing along to the office radio. Rob grinned ruefully at himself, and left his office.

As he got in the elevator, he thought back to the first time he had met Anna. Edward had brought home his new protégée for dinner, and Anna had come home from university half way through the meal. Rob recalled how Edward had jumped up to hug his daughter, and how glad she was to see both her parents. He remembered thinking at the time how different it had been to his family, his father would not have hugged his son, or even spoken informally to him, and his mother was usually too sedated to even register her son's presence. Rob had smiled at Anna, and as she was introduced to him, he had been so distracted, thinking about the differences in the families, he had merely shaken her hand, without realizing his aloofness. Anna had merely smiled and never gave any indication of how rude she found his manner.

The talk round the table had been about Anna and her friends at university, and Edward and Mary Miller were both keen to hear about their daughter's life, both socially and academically. At the end of the night, Anna had been telling her parents about a film she and Paula had seen at a revival night at the local fleapit, and how long it had been since she had been to the cinema, and as she said goodnight to him, Rob had told her if she ever was stuck for someone to go to the pictures with, he would be very happy to go along. Astonished, she politely thanked him, comparing the friendly man who had chatted to the family through dinner with the rude man who had greeted her.

Rob had phoned her one night, to mention that the new cinema were showing an old Gregory Peck season, and wondered if she would like to accompany him to see To kill a mockingbird as she had mentioned at the dinner table that she had studied the text at college. Anna accepted and went along, as much out of curiosity as anything. To her surprise, the pair of them had a lovely evening, and it became a regular occurrence which inevitably led to the two of them dating for a while. They had spent most of the summer together, and even went away for a weekend to Blackpool. Unfortunately, Anna hadn't been the only girl that Rob was spending the summer with, and when she discovered him with the office temp, she broke the relationship off before she went back to university, and he hadn't heard from her again. Consequently, Rob didn't feel he could ask Edward for her details to contact her. He didn't know whether or not Edward knew the reason behind the break-up, although he thought not - however, he was on too much of a good thing at work to rock the boat; and the cases became more challenging, and more lucrative, and before long, he had forgotten about the dispute with Anna, and concentrated on his career. Of course, he still went out, and found women who wanted him. He would take them back to his new apartment, and in the morning he would throw away the piece of paper with their phone numbers on, and go to the office without a care in the world.

As the doors opened onto the office reception on the ground floor, Rob found himself remembering that weekend away with Anna. They had driven down in Anna's car, as Rob's had had to go into the garage for servicing. He had spent the whole journey with his long legs screwed up in the well of the passenger seat of Anna's mini despite the fact that his chair was pushed back as far as it would go; and when they got there, it had been pouring with rain, yet they had still walked all the way around the funfair, and queued to go on the roller coaster. They managed to get a room in a little bed and breakfast, and although the beds were single, and attached to the walls as cradles, they had shared one bed, and after making love, had slept together in each other's arms.

Rob defended himself as he walked out into the bright sunlight, he had never made any promises to Anna, and really, the office temp had been asking for it all along. Wearing deliberately provocative tops, and leaning over Rob's desks, asking him how he took it – "I mean your coffee, or course!" There had been a bet on in the office amongst some of the younger staff about who would be the first to shag her, a bet which Rob had won, and claimed - both the temp, and the money!

He had been very fond of Anna, and he knew that she had liked him a lot, yet at the time, he hadn't wanted a serious relationship. He had seen the way his parent's marriage was, and did not want to suddenly wake up and find himself twenty years down the line with a wife who spends most of her day in bed, so vague about her whereabouts that she is not fit to be left alone for so long; or indeed for himself to have turned into an old man, who can only bark orders at people rather than talking to them. When Anna had broken the relationship up, it had been almost a relief. He wouldn't have to think about the future again for a while, and could put the rapid deteriation of his parent's marriage out of his mind. He wouldn't be visiting them in the near future, as work was getting busy and there always seemed to be something to do on a weekend.

Rob had been halfway home, when he realized he had not thought about Anna properly for ages, and it would be nice to see her again, not to mention the fact that if it was a party, there were bound to be lots of women there, perhaps he should phone some of the lads, see if they fancy meeting him there. No, maybe he would test the waters first, he could always text his friends to come round, once he had been in there first, and seen how the land lay. With this in mind, Rob pulled the car around, and headed towards Anna's house, the other side of Bristol.

* * *

There was the expected good-natured banter about how long Tara was taking in the bathroom, as the girls prepared themselves for the party. After they had got back from Weston, and Jack had taken Simon home, both promising to come earlier than everyone else, to give Anna a hand with drinks and things, the four girls had made a start on the party preparations. Anna had bought a load of balloons and streamers while they were out, and Helen and Paula made a start on taking all the breakable and valuable ornaments upstairs into the Miller's bedroom, which would then be off limits to the partygoers. Anna had few house rules for her parties, but one of the few was that everyone stayed out of her parent's room.

"So did you get the book that you wanted then?"

"Yes thanks. I bought a couple of books actually, there was an offer on, so I got two, and Simon got the third one for half price."

Paula smiled to herself. "He looks nice."

"He's all right," Helen replied, "He's just split up with his long term girlfriend, so I know how he feels about things really. We just went around the town, and found a really nice pub, and grabbed a quick sandwich. He seems really upset about the breakup, but I supposed it is to be expected; after all, Toni did break his nose!"

"Who broke whose nose?" asked Tara, coming from the shower wrapped in towels, and leaving a trail of bubbles across the carpet, emanating Christian Dior. Helen declined to answer, merely claiming next in line for the shower.

When all the girls were finally ready, they congregated in the kitchen, finalizing the preparations for the party. Helen, in a pair of black trousers and a long sleeved top was checking the oven, ready to re-heat the mountains of cheese straws, mini pizza's, garlic breads, and other party food that Anna had deemed appropriate. Anna herself, in a pale blue Ghost dress that she confided to Paula had cost her the best part of a month's salary, but was worth every penny as it skimmed her curves and emphasized her bust, without making her look like a buxom wench - the type that Sid James leered after in the Carry On films. She and Paula were cutting lemons, locating corkscrews, and filling ice trays. With some hesitation, Paula had dressed in 'that dress', a beautiful twenties reproduction dress, which she had found languishing in a charity shop. As soon as she had seen it, she knew she would have to have it, even if she never got the opportunity to wear it; it was simply too beautiful to be left hanging on the shelf in that dusty corner. A deep red dress with a black lace layer over the top, it draped itself over her body and skirted her knees. She teamed it with a silver and jet necklace and long earrings. On some people, it would have looked ridiculous, yet the tall frame of Paula made it possible to look elegant, and yet almost decadent at the same time. Anna had come in while Paula was getting ready, and immediately volunteered to do her make up for her, claiming that Paula did not do enough to put herself forward. As a result of Anna's administrations, Paula's eyebrows had been plucked and shaped into a high arch, and her brows were coloured in a smoky grey, giving her a dark eyed exotic look. With the dress and her new look, she felt as though she was taking part in a costume drama, and although she felt a little apprehensive about the look, she knew when she looked in the mirror it had been worth it. It had all been definitely worth it when she caught sight of Tara's face as she came downstairs. Tara herself was dressed in the most beautiful, lilac creation, shimmering like a Grecian Goddess, Anna had remarked somewhat caustically that it was perhaps a tad over the top for a simple house party reunion, but Tara looked fabulous, there was no denying it. Even so, Tara was unable to resist asking who designed Paula's dress; merely raising one eyebrow on discovering it was a thrift shop bargain.

The doorbell rang, and as Anna moved across the room to open it, she looked at the other three and smiled,

"I declare this party open!"

Simon struggled through the door carrying a crate of lager and bags of crisps and dips, and Jack followed, with more lager, and a carrier bag full of clinking bottles.

"I told you we would be early Annie, give you a hand sorting things out." He came through the kitchen door with his back to the girls, as he put the crates and bags down on the worktops, before turning to greet the girls.

"Wow," he claimed to the four girls, "Bristol won't know what hit it, when it clocks a look at you lot, will it Si?" he nudged his mate, who looked at the girls and smiled nervously.

"Let me get you a drink before the masses come in", and Jack deftly opened the bottle of wine from the carrier bag, and poured four glasses out, while Simon popped open two beer bottles, and all six of them took a drink.

"Right," said Anna, "I think everything is ready," and she turned the music up on the stereo, as Prince's 1999 blared out Paula cringed. Anna always had bizarre taste in music, but she knew how to get a party going. The front door was held open, and the first guests had started to arrive.