Chapter 5 Empty Pockets

I’m pretty sure this is a mistake and a massive one at that. There is no world in which this ends well.

I am a terrible liar and every time I try to so much as keep a secret it blows up in my face.

As soon as I woke up this morning, I regretted agreeing to Grandma’s crackpot scheme but at breakfast she had informed me that there would be no take backs. She had sat there opposite me with a gleeful smile on her face and I knew instantly that she had played me.

I’d only fallen right into her trap like a fool.

She’d been far too happy as she told me that I’d need to take the tube to work. I hadn’t realised that she had intended that I should start quite so immediately and when I told her as much she told me, her face completely deadpan, that there was no time like the present.

“Martin will arrange an apartment for you. It won’t be quite like what you’re used to but it will be clean and safe,” she had told me as if those were the only two criteria that mattered.

“Thanks,” I’d replied, a little irked that she wasn’t allowing me the time to find somewhere myself.

She had shrugged off my gratitude, telling me that I had better rush if I didn’t want to be late on my first day. I’d panicked then, looking down at my pyjamas. Stumbling to my feet, I’d darted out of the dinning room and back up the stairs to my room to get ready.

Grandma had been waiting for me when I finally returned downstairs, looking much more human than I had in my old pjs. Her hand outstretched, she smirked at me.

“Hand them over.”

“Hand what over?” I’d asked.

“Credit card and car keys.”

“You want my car keys?”

Glowering at her, I’d rummaged for them in my handbag before reluctantly placing them in her palm.

“Under no circumstances are you allowed to use them,” she told me, holding out a new card for me. “Your wages will be deposited into this account at the end of each month. Use them wisely. I won’t be subbing you.”

I had almost laughed aloud at the idea of asking my granny for a loan.

“You won’t need to,” I told her confidently.

“Better not. I’ve given you an advance on you first wage and I’ll cover the deposit on your apartment to get you set up.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

“I’m still your granny,” she had said with a wide smile. “Think of it as a housewarming present.”

Now, an hour and a half later, I’m waiting nervously to see Sally from Human Resources or at least I think they said her name is Sally. It’s weird because I’m not really used to being kept waiting. Usually people rush to make time for me, but not Sally from Human Resources it would seem.

It’s sort of refreshing. I think I might like Sally.

The tube was dreadful and so I’m grateful to have ten minutes to settle myself. I really don’t think it should be legal for that many people to cram into one train. My first lesson of the day was that the London Underground is a scary place.

A woman who I presume is Sally comes barrelling out of the lift before stopping right in front of me, red faced and breathless.

“Eden?” she asks hopefully. “I’m so sorry to have kept you waiting.”

One look at her is all I need to know that she overslept. Her hair is pulled into a messy bun, her blouse buttoned wrong and there is still sleep in her eyes.

“Come with me,” she says softly, leading me down the corridor and into an office.

I’m surprised just how nervous I feel. It’s not like I’ve never done this before. I’ve never been one to shy away from work. Although I’ve never found a job I actually want to stick at. At school, wen my teachers had asked about our ‘dream careers’ the other kids had answered with conviction, their words resounding around the room.

Me, not so much. I’d never known what I wanted. Most jobs sounded interesting enough but there had been nothing that stuck out as that one thing I absolutely had to do.

Quite the opposite.

The only thing I had known for sure was that I did not want to work at Clancy’s Comforts.