Authors: Alicia Hope
‘
And if he’s interested
?’
‘We’ll drive a hard bargain of course, but I’m prepared to set the wheels in motion.
I have a few bits of sugar I could use to sweeten the deal. All above board, of course.
’
Cl
aire’s eyes widened
and she breath
ed, ‘But what about the JVs?
Won’t you need th
eir approval to proceed with a
purchase?’
‘Yes, eventually.
But t
here
’s a lot of water to cross
before we get to that point.’
Verity sm
iled shrewdly, adding, ‘W
hich will give me time
to prepare the necessary justification.
I can be very persuasive when I want to be
, you know
.
’
Claire shook her head in awe and grinned.
‘Ballsy move
...
way to go, CEO!’
They chatted some more, but in what seemed like no time at all Claire realised she’d
been there longer than her intended
fifteen minute coffee break.
She
hurried off,
and
Verity
returned to
her desk. She
checked her electronic calendar for
the next item in her schedule. There were n
o other appointments until a one o’clock meeting with the commercial team. She took advantage of the ‘free’ time
to glance through the papers in her in-
tray. A
memo
from HR
,
addressed to her personally
,
caught her eye.
It outlined a standard offer
of company-owned accommodation
during
her term as CEO
.
She
went to flick
it in
to
the ‘File, No Action’ tray, but something stopped her.
She knew it was
simply
company procedure to offer accommodation to the incumbent CEO, who was usually on secondment from the US.
But as she read th
e
memo,
she noted the policy required the offer be made
regardless of the
current CEO’s
circumstances.
She raised a cynical eyebrow.
Of course, John Reardon
wouldn’t want to leave himself
open t
o accusations of discrimination. A
nd just as
well,
I suppose
.
She sat b
ack in her chair for a moment, w
ondering whether to seriously consider the offer.
She stared out
of
the
window in the
corner of her office, the only window on the
whole top floor
.
Like the
rest of the building, it
was blast-proof, able to withstand
the often caustic environment outdoors
,
and even
an explosion.
Verity found this
both
reassuring and
discomforting
at the same time
.
All the other offices in the building looked
over or
into
an impressive intern
al atrium. This had been
the architect’s
idea. He’d felt a need to compensate staff f
or
being shut away from the outside world
like slabs of meat in a cooler.
N
othing can replace
look
ing outside and
se
e
ing
living things just living,
Verity mused,
and knowing when it’s raining or the sun is shining.
But it’s better than looking at a blank wall
,
I guess.
She glanc
ed at the memo
again
.
Until
that moment
she hadn’t felt any real need to move from her own comfortable townhouse.
But thinking about it, she had to admit it was more homely than executive in style.
She knew
that as CEO,
she would be required
to entertain occasionally, and
suitable accommodation would no doubt prove to be an advantage.
She took note
of the apartment’s
address.
‘Villa number seven, twenty-thre
e Eagle View Drive, Lakescombe,’
she mumbled under her breath.
She pictured the up-market beachside area
of Lakescombe and wondered if
the villa
had
ocean views.
She’d always wanted to
live somewhere overlooking water
, and
maybe this was her
opportunity.
She
could hear her mother saying, ‘W
ell, what are you waiting for?’, and t
hat did it.
She
decided
to arrange an
inspection late that afternoon.
After all
, she told herself as she dialled HR’s
extension
,
I don’t have to take it, but it won’t hurt to look
.
It took thirty minutes
to drive from her townho
use to the villa complex early that evening
.
Living here,
I’d
be further from site
,
but it’
d
be w
orth the travelling time to be
this close to the beach
.
She found the
place
and pulled into a parking spot out the front.
After turning off the ignition,
she remained sitting in the car
, taking in the building’s exterior
.
She felt a twinge of guilt remembering all the issues at the office awaiting her attention.
‘
But a girl’s gotta live somewhere,
’
she told the
reflection grinning back at her from
the rear view mirror
. The smile lingered
a
s she surveyed
the elegant
apartment complex. ‘A
nd the CEO of a multi-national
mining
company
is
expected to uphold
certain
standard
s
.
...’
The name ‘Ocean Mews’ in brass letters graced the
complex’s
front entrance.
A path
,
edged
thickly
with
palms and shrubs,
meandered
past
each villa
to a central square
,
and
from there,
to the beach.
In the
square
,
water spilled from a fountain into a dark pool, where
the sun’s
rays flashed gold off
darting
fish
. Around the
fountain’s
base
,
a bed of
double balsams flutter
ed their soft white blooms in the
sea breeze
, and
above their veiled heads,
pal
m fronds swayed and danced
.
Everywhere Verity looked, t
ropical lushness
abounded
.
Wish you were here
,
Mum, you would’
ve enjoyed
seeing this place
with me.
Her
smile faded
and her eyes grew sad
at the memory of
the
awful day
when h
er mother’s
big, generous
heart
,
without warning,
call
ed
it quits
.
Verity’s own heart
had
almost stopped
when she’d arrived home
to find
her
mother s
till and cold, slumped over in
he
r favourite
chair like a discarded rag doll. Although i
t had
b
een years ago now, sometimes the
loss felt acute,
as if it had only
happened
recently; a
s
if she’d only just become
an orphan after
having lost
the one person in the world who loved her unconditionally,
no strings attached, and
was proud of her
no mat
ter who or what she chose to be
.
A rare
love indeed, the kind I won’t ever
have again.
But I should be glad that at least I had it once
. N
ot everyone is so
lucky
.
Suddenly impatient to see the villa, Verity decided not to wait any
longer f
or the agent
.
It won’t hurt to
take a peek at it from the path
.
She
opened the car door and
got out
. S
traight aw
ay she was greeted by
the scent
s
of
sea
,
salt
and
a hint of
seaweed
on the air
. She took a deep breath
to clear the
stale
indoor air
from her
lungs,
and
ambled
over to the path.
S
trolling
along it, she glanced
at
each unit
as
she passed
.
While they were all two-storey, painted in the same washed-out white and with fenced courtyard gardens, each enjoyed a different décor.
The first unit was Mexican in style
,
with bright
ly coloured pottery adorning its walls and
terrace, and
vivid
green agave
plants
reaching
upwards
to embrace
the sun from their
shiny
,
blue-glazed
pots. The next villa was more Grecian in styl
e. F
lowering ivy-leafed geraniums
spilled
from
moss-covered
urns
,
and
a
statue of
a lady in flowing robes graced
the garden, while t
wo impressive
ly
carved columns guided
visitors to the front door.
Verity
passed four
more unit
s, one in
English cottage style, a
nother Moroccan
, and two
with
lichen-covered
Buddhas
in
pebble
gardens
. P
otted bonsai plants, and
bamboo wind chimes
clacking softly overhead
completed the picture
.
‘Delightful,’ she murmured
as she passed each
one, until
she found herself at the gateway to number seven.
Her vil
la
, if she chose
.
She
paused for
a moment to take in the
garden behind the
decorative wrought iron
gate.
All the greenery obscured the villa itself
, but the gate suggested
a Mediterranean influence
.
The sound of bird song caught her attention and she looked into the
branches of a lillypilly tree. She searched for
the feathered soloist, but the glossy green foliage was too dense and the
bird too small for her to see
.
While standing gazing through
the gate, she heard footsteps behind her
. When she
turned,
she saw
a woman in a navy
business suit approaching with a smile
on her face
.