After the Hurt

CHAPTER ONE

Early 2022

The team had pitched up at one of their favourite watering holes, a pub which would have been full of suits once upon a time. Compared to pre-lockdown, fewer people in the nearby offices wore traditional office attire to work. It seems that after months of working from home, few people were in the mood or, let’s be honest, in shape to truss themselves up in a suit for ten hours. So, while the pub’s clientele was still predominantly office workers, it presented a very different face without the pinstripes.

Daniel Cooper, Programme Manager at a logistics company, was wearing dark blue suit trousers, a light blue cotton shirt with a herringbone weave and cufflinks. He couldn’t be arsed to shop around for new work clothes, so, for now, his office attire was pre-lockdown. And it still fitted his five-foot-eleven, solid, muscular frame perfectly.

He absent-mindedly rubbed a hand over his bald head. Feeling stubble, he resolved to give himself a shave when he got home that night.

He, his colleagues and their boss were out for the evening, winding down. They’d grabbed a corner table not far from the pub’s large fireplace, settled in, and were working their way through a second round of drinks. Well, it was their boss’ credit card paying the tab, so no one was fussed. From his position at the bar gathering in the next round, Daniel clocked that the boss, Mandi Patel, was knocking back pints, as usual. That woman could and would drink anyone under the table.

Daniel smiled and shook his head.

Legend.

He noted that Jennifer Bailey, one of his peers on the team, was scanning the room.

He stared at her until she looked over and caught his eye. He gestured that he needed a hand with the drinks. Daniel forced himself not to run his eyes over her trim frame as she made her way over.

We should have gone next door, Jennifer said as she joined him.

Daniel grunted in understanding. The bar next door—Denial—had table service. They could have gotten plastered without having to leave their seats.

You waffing tomorrow? she asked as she helped to load drinks onto the trays provided by the bar staff.

Waffing had, over time, become team shorthand for working from home.

Nah. I’m coming into the office. Simon Davis and I need to catch up. Need to talk to a few other people too. You know how it is. Easier if I’m on site.

Simon was one of his peers at the company, Alexandria and Rosser, and also a close friend of many years.

Daniel glanced at Jennifer’s lovely profile as they made their way back to their table. You?

Waffing, she replied.

Christopher, one of their team members, got the gist of the conversation and took the opportunity to have a dig at Jennifer. Seemed to Daniel that he was always taking digs at Jennifer.

He gave a knowing smile in Mandi’s direction.

You work from home a lot, he sing-songed, laying his sarcasm on with a trowel. I hardly ever work from home, he continued. I get so much more done when I’m in the office.

Daniel didn’t like Christoper. He was a whiney little so-and-so and a suck-up. He also liked to wind people up. Daniel had witnessed a couple of his attempts to get at Jennifer, to rattle her.

He was a real gem.

Like all the others Daniel had witnessed, this dig didn’t make a dent because Jennifer simply ignored him.

Regardless, Daniel felt his temper flare.

Leave it, he shot out at him when Christopher opened his mouth to keep poking. Daniel punctuated his curt demand by all-but-slamming a glass in front of Christopher. Your drink.

Christoper bristled then adopted a defensive posture when Mandi made a snorting sound. She shook her head and then finished her pint.

I’m off, Mandi said. She got up and grabbed her handbag from its place under her seat. Tab’s closed team.

Mandi shrugged into her padded burgundy Burberry, gave a small wave at the table and wobbled towards the bar on her four-inch-high tan leather boots to retrieve her credit card and settle the bill.

Daniel watched her for a few seconds to make sure it wasn’t the drink that was causing her unsteady gait. She righted herself after a few steps and Daniel put her initial unsteadiness down to her killer heels.

His attention returned to the table where, slowly, conversation picked up again. One of the other team members, Sid, a terrible gossip but likeable in spite of that, started filling everyone in on the latest, clearly embellishing some of the less juicy stories for comic effect. It lightened the mood after the moment between Daniel and Christopher and, in the end, everyone carried on as though the incident was forgotten.

It was a fact that, with the boss out of earshot, everyone was more relaxed. The jokes and banter skirted a little close to the edge but without crossing any boundaries that would spoil anyone’s fun.

As the drinks went down, another colleague hijacked the conversation with his passion, football. By the time round three had become puddles of warm liquid in everyone’s glass, the conversation turned to statements about not staying out late on a school night and that some people had to work in the morning.

As if on cue, the pub staff came and cleared the dead glasses from the table. People took their time over the goodbyes and eventually the team spilt out onto the pavement. One by one, they drifted in the direction of whichever mode of transport they were getting home.

Daniel noticed Jennifer standing on the pavement, tucking her scarf into her jacket. He stopped beside her.

Fancy having one more for the road at Denial? he asked, surprising himself.

He’d never had social time with Jennifer except on team outings. What had he been thinking?

He’d had a half-formed plan to ask her out once her stint at A&R was over. She was due to leave in two months. Now he’d gone and made a split-second decision, jumping the gun.

Had he just made a huge mistake?

A&R office policy did not include any rules against colleagues dating, certainly nothing related to dating someone who was an interim. Still, Daniel was old and wise enough at his thirty-nine years to know that dating a colleague, regardless of their employment status, had the potential for messy, which he didn’t need.

There had been a lot of speculation about Jennifer since she’d joined their team, especially as she tended to keep to herself, not often engaging in the usual office banter. The men could not get over someone who looked like her freezing them out if they showed the slightest sign of coming onto her. She was seriously attractive, and it wasn’t surprising that some of the guys made a play.

Daniel had ensured that his thoughts about Jennifer remained in the privacy of his head, successfully hiding from his colleagues the fact that he was among the ranks of the Jen-fanciers.

Mandi had brought Jennifer into the team last summer, with glowing praise about the skills and experience that Jennifer would bring and what she expected them to work on together.

The day-one introduction had been in a break-out area. While Mandi had laid out their priorities, Daniel had smiled and nodded, but he was slightly distracted. Jennifer’s voice was clear and confident whenever she spoke to impart information. He was glad of the excuse to look at her. Her unblemished skin glowed a deep, rich walnut under her understated makeup, and her hair was neatly braided.

Blimey, she’s pretty, he’d thought, trying not to stare.

When the informal chat had come to an end, he’d walked Jennifer over to introduce her to the wider team, and they’d got on with sketching out a plan to get Mandi what she wanted.

From the beginning, working with Jennifer had been great. Her impact on the team had been immediate. Jennifer knew her stuff. She was able to retain insane amounts of detail about the company and regulations. Seeing the results of her brain at work slayed him. She’d even kept his arse out of the fire when he’d had to go silent for several crucial hours for a family emergency. She’d held everything down until he was able to get back online. That there hadn’t been a mess to clear up afterwards had meant a lot to him.

His liking of her had gone up several notches more when he’d come to realise that she’d been informally mentoring a couple of the less experienced team members. The fact that she’d found the capacity to support colleagues who needed bringing along told him she was definitely not the corporate robot she sometimes appeared to be. It had forced him to look beyond her gorgeousness and finally see her.

But he’d remained professional, keeping schtum about how attractive he found her.

All this played through his mind as they walked the few metres to Denial.

When they came through the door and into the bar’s contemporary setting, Daniel suggested sitting at the bar. Jennifer made a face and pointed towards a collection of leather and wood booths along the wall to the right of the bar.

Can we sit there instead? she asked.

Okay.

They got settled, removed their jackets, and began skimming the drinks menu. It wasn’t a busy night, for a server was at their table within moments.

Daniel’s phone rang just as the server left with their drinks order. He looked at the screen and saw that it was Simon Davis.

Crap timing, mate.

Daniel excused himself and went outside to take the call.

* * *

Jennifer watched Daniel stride out the door of the bar to take his call. She held back a smile as she watched him go.

When she had started working with Daniel’s team last August, sharing her time between Mandi’s and another programme, she had warmed to him almost immediately. He had a quick mind and got things done without the usual posturing.

When meetings got tense, his instincts were spot on when it came to using the correct language or tactic to defuse situations, before people reached the point which would result in a call to HR. He had a warm personality and a knack for boosting morale, regularly bringing in coffees, cakes and boxes of fruit to lift spirits when there was a big push and everyone was working flat out. The last time he’d done this, Jennifer had noted that his selection had, not for the first time, included mini lemon tarts from her favourite chain of sandwich shops and been pleased by the happy coincidence.

Jennifer had a giant crush on Daniel.

No lie.

His warm, smiley brown eyes made her melt. She had to call on everything in her whenever he spoke so as not to stare at his lips. When she was in a room with him, she absolutely refused to look at his toned body or leer at how fit he looked in his well-tailored suits, with him bucking the trend towards office casual.

He usually wore colours which complimented his dark skin tone, which came courtesy of his—she assumed—Caribbean heritage. Her time on the programme and with the company were coming to an end, and she accepted, with regret, that once she left just over two months from now, she wouldn’t see him again. So, when he’d suggested they have one more for the road, she had given in to a moment of weakness. A chance to spend time with him while she could.

Jennifer rarely stayed in touch with ex-colleagues once she moved on from an engagement. She’d been working as an interim for a few years, and it often turned out that friendships developed while working together for twelve to fifteen hours a day didn’t survive regular social interactions. It was nearly always the case that, beyond the successes and stresses of the respective programmes, the people who spent all that time together had very little in common. Perhaps the same would be true with Daniel.

Jennifer blew out a long, noisy breath, which surprised the server who she hadn’t spotted standing beside her with a tray of drinks.

Everything okay? the server asked.

Jennifer waved a hand in dismissal.

I was miles away. She smiled. Don’t mind me.

The drinks were set down on coasters, and the server gave Jennifer one more side-ways look before walking back to the bar. Jennifer poured tonic into the glass containing a measure of gin, took a sip of her G&T, and then settled in to wait for Daniel to return from taking his call.

* * *

What’s up, mate? Daniel asked as he walked out of the bar.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw Jennifer watching him leave. He gave her a quick smile, shrug and grimace of apology as he continued out the door.

Where are you? Sounds like you’re out on the lash.

Nah. Well, not quite. The team went out for drinks.

Hah. Simon laughed. Your credit card getting hammered?

Mandi’s, Daniel replied. So, what’s up?

You’re coming into the office tomorrow, right? I want us to have a chat about Amsterdam.

Daniel sighed. Not this again. Simon had a hot lead on a new programme based in Amsterdam. Simon reckoned it was a sure thing, and his day rate would be lucrative. Simon had been an interim at A&R for several years and had done good work but, according to him, the potential client in the Amsterdam office would be happier if at least one of the seniors on the programme was a permanent A&R employee. It would seem they didn’t want to put all their eggs into the basket of someone who wasn’t on their payroll. Simon would be the frontman, and he hoped that Daniel could supervise the team on the ground.

Daniel didn’t know that he wanted an indefinite engagement in Amsterdam. A couple of months? Maybe. A year or more? Not really.

But Simon was leaning heavily into the fact that he’d opened the door for Daniel at A&R, conveniently disregarding the fact that Daniel had earned his position because he’d been successful at his interview. End of story.

Having said that, he did kinda feel like he owed his friend. He couldn’t discount the fact that, but for Simon, he wouldn’t have known that A&R was recruiting and so would not have got a place on their shortlist.

I heard that sigh. Simon’s abrupt tone punched into his thoughts. Don’t be like that.

Look, Daniel said. Let’s talk tomorrow. My drink’s getting warm.

Where are you? I fancy a drink myself.

Daniel held back a groan of frustration. He loved Simon, but didn’t want his big, pushy personality to get in the way of his golden opportunity with Jennifer.

Don’t bother, he told Simon. There’s just a couple of us left, and I don’t want a late night.

Oh, yeah? Who’s still there? Mandi?

No, it’s just me and Jennifer.

Simon chuckled down the line at him.

Poor you! Jennifer Bailey is not exactly known for lighting up a room.

Oi! Stop that.

He couldn’t fathom why Simon had a problem with Jennifer and said as much.

He heard an indistinct sound from Simon’s end.

I don’t dislike her. She’s just a bit—I don’t know. Can’t put my finger on it.

"More likely, you’re one of those who tried to put your finger on it," Daniel said with a friendly mock, and she told you where to go.

He knew that some of the guys at A&R saw Jennifer as a challenge. At least once during the last few months, Daniel had overheard her deflecting someone angling for a date.

Though his comment to Simon had been in jest, when Simon didn’t respond immediately, he knew that he’d hit the nail squarely on the head.

You did not! Daniel barked out a laugh.

It wasn’t like that, Simon defended. I only asked her out for a drink.

And?

She said no.

Tsk, you should count yourself lucky, considering Sarah would rip you a new one if she caught you cheating.

Stop it. Anyway, it was before Sarah.

Mmm hmm. So, what’s the problem?

There’s no problem. It was just the way she said no, that’s all. She’s such a cold fish.

It’s just the way she said no!

Daniel chuckled. God, Simon was such a bloody kid sometimes.

I’m gonna go. See you tomorrow.

Yeah, yeah. You can stop laughing now.

Daniel ended the call, chuckling to himself as he walked back to where Jennifer was sitting. He was still smiling as he slid into the other side of the booth from where she was sitting and grabbed his drink. Thank God she’d turned Simon down. If she’d dated Simon recently, to his way of thinking, that would have put her off limits.

CHAPTER TWO

He felt Jennifer’s eyes on him as he settled back into his seat, still chuckling about Simon. When their eyes met, she glanced away and reached for her drink.

I take it the call wasn’t an emergency.

Daniel sobered.

Sorry. Didn’t mean to be rude. That was Simon. I was laughing at something he… you know what? Never mind. Sorry, I took so long.

You weren’t long.

His smile returned.

Okay then.

Can I get you something to eat?

They both looked up at a server with vibrant green hair. Then they looked back at each other.

Wanna get something to eat? Daniel asked.

Let’s.

Can you give us five minutes? Jennifer asked the server.

Sure. Back shortly.

How hungry are you? Jennifer asked as he skimmed the menu, which listed bite-sized bar snacks.

Daniel glanced up and then did a small double-take.

What was that? He’d caught a look on her face which surprised him. Had she been checking him out?

Jennifer was now looking at the menu. She absently tucked one of her braids behind her ear.

Daniel’s eyes followed the motion and stared for a few seconds at the curve of her cheek. Her skin looked so soft. And he felt a tingle at the base of his spine.

Jennifer looked up and caught him staring.

Well?

He realised he hadn’t answered her question.

I could eat, was all he could manage.

Yeah. Right there. She had tried to sneak a glance at him and her eyes had quickly flicked away when she saw that he was watching her. Jennifer was always direct. She didn’t do side glances and never showed any hint of shyness or uncertainty.

He looked back at the menu even as he wondered about what he’d seen on Jennifer’s face. He picked a couple of snacks at random and waited for Jennifer to make her choices just as the young woman with green hair came back, ready to take their order.

You’ve eaten here before, right? Daniel asked, while trying to get his head around the feelings and sensations rushing through him.

Had he imagined that glint of interest in Jen’s eyes? His blood pounded. Jennifer nodded at his question and asked whether Simon would join them.

Nah. He suggested it, but I told him we weren’t planning to be here much longer.

When Jennifer raised an eyebrow at him, he shrugged.

I didn’t think we’d be ordering food.

Daniel took another sip of his drink and told himself to get a grip.

Do small talk. Be calm.

Then he asked her what her plans were once her contract ended. They talked for a while about the kind of opportunities she might be looking for in her next interim position.

You wouldn’t stay on? he asked. Not even if you were offered a better deal?

He needed to be sure.

I’m ready to move on to something else, she said. New company. New people.

Daniel told her about the programme in Amsterdam.

It could be a huge career opportunity for you, Jennifer said, once he’d finished his summary.

It would,