Page 6 of Escape to the Country

I looked at my oldest friend properly for the first time in what seemed like ages. Beth and I had been through so much together over the years. She was always the centre of attention, the belle of the ball, the one who, when we were out clubbing and dancing to ‘Relight My Fire’, yelled over the music, ‘I’m gonna be Lulu!’ and took to the centre of the dance floor. Every single time!

And now, she was still beautiful and kind and she seemed so happy and comfortable in her own skin, and I was so blessed that she was my friend. I vowed at this point to be a much better friend to her than I’d ever been before. It had never really occurred to me before, but if we were all a bit more Beth, and spent our time helping others and making them happy, the world would be a much better place. Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of what is important.

‘Well, there’s no time like the present. I need to go over to Growlers and do some jobs now. Why don’t you come over and I can show you how everything works and give you passwords, and then you can help yourself whenever you like. Unless you have other plans, that is.’

‘I don’t! I don’t have any plans for the foreseeable future, to be honest. You really are kind, you know, Beth. I do appreciate it. I know I’ve not been around much in recent years but now I am; I’m really looking forward to spending time with you.’

She brushed my comment aside with a flimsy wave. ‘Maddy, I know that you’ve had a tough time over the last few years with Jamie’ – she paused – ‘and everything.’ She smiled a sad smile at me. ‘I know you. And I know that you had to get through that on your own. But you have always known that I’m here for you any time of the day or night. And besides, that’s what friends are for.’

* * *

We headed over to the kennels where a huge metal sign reading ‘Growlers at the Grange’ with paw prints either side hung outside a set of iron gates. The name always made me smirk, since Paul Stubbs at school had got told off for asking the girls to pull down their pants and show him their ‘growlers’. But here it obviously wasn’t a euphemism for one’s lady-garden. Beth and I had laughed so much when I reminded her of this after she’d told me what she was calling the business on one of our phone calls, which had been very few and far between around that time.

‘Well, hello, my darling. Come here!’ Uncle Tom opened his arms to me and I walked into them. He wrapped me in a huge bear hug, which he hadn’t done for years. I was trying to remember how long it had been since I’d seen him and the fact that I couldn’t recall when it was told me that it had been way too long.

‘Maddy, darling. So good to see you. I was hoping you’d pop over while you were here.’ A hug from him felt so good, and at six feet five, he was such a giant that you couldn’t help but feel safe and secure when you were cocooned in his arms. My mind wandered for a second and I imagined, like I always used to when Uncle Tom hugged me, what it would have felt like to get a hug from my own father. My own flesh and blood. I’d never know though, so I pushed that thought aside like I always did. It was something I couldn’t think about because it would drive me insane again.

I was one of those people who was very good at pushing things away when they became hard to deal with. I’d done it all my life when I thought about my father and I did the same when my world crashed around me when I found out about Jamie and everything that happened at that time. I supposed it was just my way of not having to deal with stuff and once I’d got my head around it all, enough to get back to work, throwing myself into it whole-heartedly and working all the time meant that I didn’t have to think about anything. Work was a huge distraction to me. But it was silly because all that stuff was still there, deep inside my mind, just with a lid on it. I knew there was a possibility that one day it could all come spilling out, but I had no intention of letting that lid come off for a good while yet.

‘Come on, sweetie, let me show you around.’ Beth tucked her arm into mine and we strolled into the first barn at the back of the offices.

Uncle Tom and Beth had spent a great deal of time and money making Growlers at the Grange the most wonderful five-star doggy daycare and kennels that you could ever wish to leave your dog at. Everything was behind locked doors and gates so there was no danger of escapees, and it was immaculately clean. Each pen was once a stable and therefore a good size, with an outside and an inside section, separated by a large dog flap so that the dogs could choose which bit they wanted to be in. There was a raised dog bed in the corner of each pen with a fluffy blanket on it, and a big squashy armchair in another corner, covered with a throw for those dogs that preferred to be on furniture. There was even a TV in each of the rooms. ‘We find that they don’t react to everything if there’s a bit of background noise. And the sofas are for those more pampered pooches who are used to being on the furniture at home,’ Beth explained. ‘It helps those dogs that are a little more anxious.’ I could have lived there myself, to be honest.

‘We’ll go through to the paddock areas now. It’s all totally secure and off lead from here, which the dogs love.’ The huge paddock had six-foot-high metal fencing all the way around and an assault course with tunnels and jumps and even hay bales, which Beth explained that the dogs loved because they hid treats in them for the dogs to forage and find, keeping them mentally stimulated as well as physically. If I had a dog I’d be so happy to leave them here.

A young man was playing with several dogs in the paddock. ‘And that’s Russell. He’s such a lovely lad. He spends lots of time here, even when he’s not working. He just loves dogs and playing and spending time with them. He’s going off to university soon though. Wants to train to be a vet so is trying his hardest to build up a pot of cash. We’ll be so sad to see him go and I really don’t know how we’ll replace him. He’s such a help. His mum is Rebecca, who works at the library. I help her out on the community projects that she organises. You’d like her, Mads. I’ll have to introduce you – although she’ll probably try and rope you in to helping. Lovely family.’ Beth smiled at me and tucked her arm back in mine as we walked back to the office. ‘I’m so happy to see you, matey. I really am.’

Beth was such a good egg. I definitely needed to be more like her.

* * *

Once I’d worked out how to use a PC again – which was very different to a Mac – I found a couple of jobs that I thought I’d apply for, if only to keep things ticking over in the interim period before I got my foot back in the door of PR. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go through a recruitment agency just yet and thought I’d see what I could find on my own. To be honest, at the moment, I couldn’t face bumping into people from the industry that I’d come from and admitting what had happened. It was still something I found highly embarrassing, so I thought a change of environment might do me good while I could get my head around things.

The first was as a sales rep for a hairdressing product company. Surely I could do that with my hands tied behind my back. I had learned so many different skills over the years that I knew I could turn my hand to anything. The other job I quite fancied having a go at was a membership co-ordinator role at a gym. Now, gyms I knew well. I’d pounded the treadmill many times to get rid of unwanted thoughts during the last few years and enjoyed people-watching, so I knew the different types of gym member. Surely it couldn’t be hard to recruit new people.

I spent the next couple of hours putting together a CV and got Beth to proofread it for me.

‘Well, on the strength of that CV, I can’t see you having any problems whatsoever getting either of those two jobs. They’d be bloody lucky to have you.’ My confidence had taken a bit of a battering of late, so I crossed my fingers and fired off my CV to both companies, hoping she was right.

* * *

The hair product company was the first to come back the following day and they invited me to call them and arrange an interview. They asked if I could go in at short notice, so I agreed and planned to go along that afternoon. For the first time in a couple of days, I felt a frisson of excitement as I showered and put a conditioning treatment on my hair. I’d always used the best of hair products so it looked sleek and shiny, so hopefully they’d notice that too and it would go in my favour.

Deciding to go for a natural make-up look, I put on my favourite pinstriped trouser suit with a pretty blouse and spritzed myself with Daisy by Marc Jacobs before sliding my feet into a pair of high heels. I absolutely looked the part and envisaged myself walking through salon doors with a product brochure and wooing the managers into buying lots of gorgeous products.

I arrived fifteen minutes early and was asked to wait in reception until they were ready. Forty-five minutes later, I still hadn’t gone in and I was getting more wound up with the waiting.

Eventually, my name was called and I was taken through to a conference room where a panel of three sat behind a table, with a vacant chair opposite them in which I was invited to take a seat. They introduced themselves as the MD, the sales director and the operations manager. They all seemed perfectly nice and fired questions at me left, right and centre. I answered everything pretty darn well, I thought, and felt confident that I could do the job, even though what I’d been doing for the last twelve years wasn’t directly linked. I knew that the skills and experience I’d picked up over time meant that I could do most jobs standing on my head.

‘Thank you so much for your time, Miss Young, and for coming in so quickly. You’ve certainly got lots of experience on the sales, PR and marketing side of things which is exactly what we’re looking for. We’ll be going to second interviews as the next stage, so you’ll be hearing from us very soon.’

I shook hands with all three of the panel members and left feeling pretty damn confident. I walked out with my head held high. Maybe things were starting to look up after all and I wasn’t as bloody crap as I’d thought I was after Ronington’s decided to part company with me. Within days, I’d very probably got myself a new job. I’d show them that I wasn’t useless after all.

* * *

That particular feeling didn’t last long though as within a couple of hours of being back home, my phone pinged to say that an email had arrived. My heart sank as I read that while they felt that my skills and experience were excellent, I wasn’t quite right for this particular job. There was lots of good luck for the future blah, blah, blah, but I was back to square one. No job, no future to look forward to and I felt lower than low.

I fired off a quick text to Mum and Beth, telling them both that I’d been turned down, and Mum sent back:

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