Chapter 10

I arrived slightly early to the bar, ordering a glass of wine and finding at seat at one of the more secluded tables. As I sat there sipping my rather nice chardonnay I found myself wondering, not for the first time that day, why I was there.

I had been surprised when Alex had confronted me so abruptly over her hiring - at the time it had seemed like the only way to keep my sanity together under a suddenly increased workload (yet another side effect of Keith's sudden 'sabbatical'), though looking at it now I could see why she might be upset by it. Not that I thought she had reason to be: hadn't I told her how pleased I was with her work? If her hiring had been impersonal then I had tried to make up for it the best I could since then. Maybe I felt I still owed her an explanation. Maybe I just wanted her pardon. Whatever the case, I had resolved not to leave that evening until I knew I could trust my new assistant, and she me.

Alex herself was pretty much exactly on time - and she wore that look of purpose I'd come to recognise from our meetings or from when I sat in on her seminars. Clearly she was determined to be businesslike, although I saw her take in my wine with a glance as she nodded her hello from across the room, and when she arrived over at the table she was carrying what I presumed from appearance and smell to be a single malt whisky.

"An unusual choice," I commented as she said down, raising an eyebrow at her glass. "If you don't mind my saying so."

She looked mildly surprised that I'd commented, but recovered with a wry smile. "I drink wine too quickly," she confessed.

"Ah. And here I was thinking you were just trying to look hard."

Alex's lips twitched slightly in amusement at this. "I think I could maybe manage urbane at best," she said, those dimples showing again, and I found myself silently agreeing that despite her short haircut and collared shirt, she couldn't look 'hard' if she tried.

I knew it would be all too easy to take refuge in smalltalk, and as tempting as that was I knew I couldn't succumb to it. "So," I said, clearing my throat. "You must have some questions for me."

She hesitated. "Pr- Kathryn, I don't want to pry into your internal affairs. I'm sorry that I reacted in the way I did before."

"It was a bit sudden," I told her, shrugging. "But I can understand your reaction. You're my assistant, therefore it would've been logical to assume I would have been the one to hire you."

"I suppose I just..." Alex frowned, glancing down into her glass and taking a sip before going on. "I had wondered. How I managed to be here. I suppose I feel as though I... I don't know. As though I'm only here because someone was hiring me in a hurry and anyone with the basic qualifications would do. It was just a blow to my ego I suppose and, well, like I say. I overreacted."

"It may not have been a typical hiring process, I agree. But as I've said, you've shown yourself to be more than qualified since you've arrived. I'm very pleased with your work." I hoped this would appease her; I don't know why I felt so bad about hurting her pride but I found myself going out of my way to console her. "I wouldn't have kept you on if you weren't doing well."

She looked more embarrassed than reassured, but she at least smiled again as she looked back up at me. "Thanks," she said. "I really am sorry. I appreciate that it was a... difficult patch."

I waved a hand, as I always did whenever anybody tried to be sympathetic about what had happened. "The biggest difficulty was having to reallocate all of his projects; we've had to farm out some of the work, which I didn't want to do, but there wasn't much choice."

"And he's in... South America, is that right?"

"Mmhmm. With your predecessor." I took a large gulp of wine; maybe I wasn't as ready to talk about this as I wished. "And my son."

Alex raised her eyebrows. "Oh, I didn't know you had children," she said.

"Just the one. Though it feels a bit like I lost him in the settlement, too." Oh God. Maudlin already? This was not gong well.

My assistant shot me a sympathetic look - to my surprised she looked slightly less embarrassed more rather than moreso. "That can't be easy. Do you two still talk plenty?"

"As often as we can. They're not always in satellite range, but we try." I gave her a grateful smile. "He's happy, at least. I'm glad of that."

Alex nodded. "Well, I'm sure it's a little different from staying home playing the X-Box," she said with a slight smile. "It must be a pretty big adventure for him."

"Well, Keith and I used to take him with us as much as possible whenever we traveled," I replied, pursing my lips. "I'm sure this is old hat to him by now."

"Wow, I never got further than Portugal when I was a kid," Alex said with a slight grin.

This made me chuckle. "It seems you turned out all right regardless."

There were those dimples again. "Ah, well, I didn't have an X-Box either."

"More of the sporty type, were you?"

Alex's smile spread slightly. "Now you're just trying to flatter me," she said. "Nah, I was a stay-at-home geeky type, through and through. All I did was read and watch television. I did some sailing, once upon a time, but other than that..."

"Really?" I knew my expression had just lit up like bioluminescent algae but didn't really care. "I love sailing. What sort did you do?"

Alex looked a little surprised, but, like me, pleased to meet someone who shared the hobby. "Toppers and Wayfarers mostly, although I went on a couple of holidays on bigger boats. Haven't been out in years though. You?"

"A little bit of everything, though most recently a 32 foot cruising yacht."

"Wow. A little out of my league, then."

"Oh, they pretty much just sail themselves," I said with a grin. "Besides, I lost that too, so if I do ever sail again it'll probably be in something much smaller and much more affordable."

Alex's face turned sympathetic again as she finished the last of her whisky. "That's a terrible shame. Particularly since it's presumably not moored off the Chilean coast..."

"Sadly, no." Although I was secretly grateful that Keith hadn't taken Keira to South America in our yacht... that would have been pushing things a little bit.

My assistant smirked slightly. "Maybe you should steal it," she suggested. "Or, well, borrow it without asking."

"I do still have keys," I mused, finishing my own drink and setting down my glass. "But there's no way I'd be able to take it out just on my own."

"Well, I'm sure I'm a bit rusty, but if you ever need a crew for some piracy, let me know," Alex said with a smirk. Then, her confidence apparently bolstered a little, she nodded toward my drink. "Do you..?"

"Go ahead," I said surprising myself with how eager I sounded. It wasn't that I hadn't expected Alex to be a perfectly pleasant drinking companion, but I was actually enjoying myself more tonight than on most of the dates I had been on. "Next round's on me."

 

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