Black Sheep

The next few days flew by and before I knew it, it was my last day at the newspaper. I showered quickly and dressed, as per usual. I sat in the kitchen, flicking through the morning’s newspapers and news apps on my IPad while drinking my morning coffee. I smiled slightly to myself remembering my lunch meeting yesterday which sounded like I already had the job, I just needed to wait for him to ring me at some point today. I jumped into the car at about half seven and started to drive towards work. But I stopped. This was the last time I’d ever do this. The last time I’d go to work at the newspaper. This was my dream. My reason for waking up in the morning when I had nothing else. And this was the end.

I drove into my usual car parking space for the last time and walked over to the lift, pressing the button to take me up to the office for the last time. I walked over to my desk as if it were any other day, but on my desk was a bunch of sunflowers, a vase full of tulips and a bottle of wine. Everyone slowly gathered around me to express their sadness that I was leaving, Then Alison came running in, crying. It was all a bit of a fuss for me. I would much rather get on with my day and go home.
“I can’t believe you’re leaving!” Alison cried, scooping me into a hug, crying like the world was about to end.
“It’ll be ok, you’ve all got my phone number so if you ever need anything, I’m only a phone call away.” Everyone mumbled and nodded their thanks.
“Tony wants to speak to you by the way.” Scott said, breaking the moment.
“And I thought I could get through one day without that twat.” Everyone laughed quietly, understanding my annoyance. I picked up my hand back and slipped on my blazer, thinking that I may be a while in his office. I walked down the corridor and knocked twice on his door. I slowly opened it, to see him sat, quite quietly, reading through what looked like today’s print. His once open windows were closed and covered with thick white blinds and his once messy desk was empty. The whole office looked unused and gloomy. The only light was coming from this computer screen and the room was chillingly clod.
“Scott said you wanted to speak to me.” I said white quietly. I don’t know why I was so quiet. Usually I would barge in shouting the odds, but today seemed altogether strange.
“I have quite a lot to say. You might as well sit.” He said, eventually looking up from the paper on his desk. “For a start, I’m sorry you’re leaving. Contrary to what I’ve said and done, you really are a wonderful journalist and I think we’ll be lost without you.” He said solemnly. I smiled slightly and nodded my thanks. “But what I want to say, what I’ve been meaning to say for a while is that,” he stopped, considered what he was about to say, then started again. “That first day when you walked in the office with your pinstripe suit and flat shoes without a clue, I thought ‘she won’t last a second here’ but you did. You’re here now, through everything and I can only admire you for that.”
“I hate to stop this but there are a million and one things I need to do, so can you pleas just say what you-”
“I love you.” He blurted out.
“What?” I asked, confused.
“I love you Bex. I have since you wandered in here and I can’t bear to let you walk out of that door without letting you know.” We both sat in silence, while I constructed my words.
“I’m flattered, I really am but I have a boyfriend. But thank you.” I smiled, picking up my handbag, and heading towards the door.
“It was me.” I stopped, genuinely confused. “It was me who set Steven up.” I slowly turned.
“What?”
“I set Steven up to ruin everything. I saw him on your college alumni page and found out that he needed some money, so I set him up to take you out and make it seem like you were single. I hoped he would leave you so I could have you to myself.” I stood perfectly still, adding everything up in my head. I didn’t know whether I wanted to laugh or cry.
“So you paid him to ruin my relationship?” He just nodded. “Did you pay him to ruin my flat?”
“Yes.” He nodded.
“So that’s how you knew where I would be.” He nodded. “So if you knew he trashed my flat why didn’t you report it?”
“I couldn’t bear to. I saw how much it hurt you. And it broke my heart to see you so broken, especially without Harry. You weren’t you without him and I couldn’t bear it anymore. I wrote something but didn’t ever send it to print.” He held out a piece of paper with the story on. I couldn’t bear to be in the room anymore.
“look. Why don’t we just forget about this conversation?” I said, turning to leave.
“I can’t. I want to know how you feel about me too.”
“How I feel about you?! I feel nothing towards you. Especially not now.” I turned, and stormed outside. I lit up a cigarette and tried to calm down. Scott came running outside.
“What did he say?”
“He said he loves me and wanted to ruin my relationship to he could have me.”
“Why did he have to say that? We knew he would say something.” He said quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“We knew he loved you. You could tell, just by the way he looked at you.”
“Did you know about the set up?” He went quiet before he nodded.
“I’m sorry. If it was up to me I would’ve said something, but he threatened us all.”
“I totally understand. Thank you anyway.”
“Are you ready to go back into the office now?” I nodded. He held his arm out to lead me back upstairs. “I’m gonna miss you being around. There’ll be no glamour in the office now.”
“We know that’s a lie.” We made it back to my desk and I started sorting stuff out. The plan was that everyone in the office would meet up for drinks tonight as a leaving party, so everyone helped me carry large bouquets of flowers and cardboard boxes down to my car during the day until lunch when everyone insisted that we went for a meal, which Richard (the boss) joined in on.

We walked over to the itallian resteraunt across the road and were seated straight away, almost as if someone had booked a table. When we were seated there was already a bottle of champagne on the table.
“Before we all start, I want to make a speech.” Richard said. Everyone groaned, remembering his annual Christmas party speeches. “I would just like to thank Rebecca for everything she has done here. She’s been a mentor, a team member, but most of all a friend to us all. Becca joined us at a strange, uncertain time in her life. But now I see her as a wonderful young woman who can take on the best men in the business. I’m more than sure that whatever she takes on in the future she will be successful and will inject her glamorous and charming nature that we all love. So as a thank you from us all, we would like you to take this, to remind you of us all and your time here.” Alison passed me a stripy box, from her side of the table. I slowly opened it and inside was a wooden photo frame with a photo of everyone from the Christmas party last year. “So just to round this off, Bex thank you for all your hard work with us, we’ll be forever grateful. So I would like you all to raise your glasses to Bex.” And everyone toasted.

When we all arrived back in the office, I decided to call Harry, seeing as I hadn’t heard from him all day, which is something unusual seeing as we uses to text all day. I sat at my desk and picked up the phone, before dialling Harry’s number, which I knew off by heart. It rang for a while, before he picked up, sounding quite breathless and annoyed.
“Hello.” He said.
“Hi darling it’s me.”
“Bex, can you ring me back later, I’m just a bit busy at the moment.”
“Yeah of course. Love you.” And he hung up. I sighed, frustrated. Why wasn’t he speaking to me?

I carried on packing up my belongings until it got to 5 o’clock. I smiled. So this was it. Usually if I were leaving somewhere I would walk away without a backwards glance, but for some reason I couldn’t. This place had seen me through highs and lows and sometimes helped me drag myself out of bed on mornings when I had nothing else to wake up for. As I picked up my final box and handbag and locked up what used to be my office, I smiled; this is the beginning of a new chapter.