Page 52 of The Facilitator: Part 2
One hour later, as promised, I sat in Mackenzie’s office and he told me the CCTV company would be visiting the house the following day. Kerry had been prepared and instructions had been given on where new cameras should be. It was the most we could do without adding barbed wire and landmines, Iguessed.
“Mary has all the flight details. She said she emailed you as well as me,” hesaid.
“She did. She’s a gem, isn’t she? I just need to know what you want to take so I can pack ourbags.”
“Kerry will do that if you leave the clothes out,” hesaid.
“I don’t need her to. I like to pack my own bags. I know what I’ve missed outthen.”
“Are you looking forward to ourtrip?”
“Yes, and no. I’m sort of hoping that it won’t be when Jerry is visitingAddy, but if she thinks that’s when Gabriella and Alex are getting married, you can bet your arse she’ll make a point to turn up, won’tshe?”
“She wouldn’t be invited, and by now it will be known they are alreadymarried.”
“I wonder how that wentdown?”
“Not as bad as expected, according to Alex. Punishment is ‘my new mother-in-law has complete control of our party,’ he texted.” He chuckled at the thought. “Anyway, on my list is membership of the Mile HighClub.”
“Yeah, right! Private plane, fair enough, Virgin upper class? No chance.” I’d read plenty of books with the main characters getting dirty in their private aircraft, but I didn’t recall one where they got stuck in the commercial airline toilets at fifty odd thousand feet. “Anyway, I thought your list was going to be asurprise.”
“I’m no good with surprises. Now, I need to get some work done so we can get this vacation on theroad.”
I smiled and left him to it. I had a meeting with Carolyn to run through who was to do what for the week we were away. I met with accounts, marketing, HR, all of which reminded me howhands offthe role of CEO actually was. I missed getting my teeth into a project and wondered if that was why Mackenzie was constantly on the lookout for a new one. I found I was so efficient I was twiddling my thumbs for periods of time during the day. Or, I wasn’t actually that good at my job, not a thought I really wanted to hold in myhead.
I decided I’d make some time to talk to Gabriella as to how to approach the fact I wasn’t really enjoying my job with Mackenzie. I didn’t want to disappoint him in any way, but I wasn’t using the creative side of my brain nearly enough, and that was beginning toshow.
I left a little earlier than normal and way earlier than Mackenzie. I wanted to get packed. It was, however, with a little trepidation that I opened the front door and deactivated the alarm. I was being silly, I knew that, but since the incident with Scott I seemed to get spooked at the slightest thing. I couldn’t help the fact we’d had two things happen from merging in my mind as a larger, imaginaryproblem.
The house was silent when I walked in. Just the echo of my shoes as I crossed the tiled hallway added sound. I placed my coat and bag over the banister as I passed on my way to the kitchen. I decided on a cup of tea and a half hour sit on the sun-drenched terrace before packingsuitcases.
“Alexa, play Michael Bublé,” I said. I wanted some noise in thebackground.
Alexa responded and Michael’s gentle tones wafted around the kitchen. I made my tea and unlocked the French doors. I sat and sipped, while I listened to the sound of a beeping horn, the distant wail of a house—or it could have been a car—alarm and birds cheeping. I chuckled; poor Michael wasn’t able to compete withthat.
I’d lived in London, or on the outskirts, my whole life, but there were plenty of times when I craved the quiet of a country house or just the sounds of waves on a beach. For many years, I’d enjoyed the buzz of London, the fact I would walk to a wine bar or a coffee shop, and restaurants were within walking—or a short taxi ride—distance. There was a buzz, a hum of noise that, although I contradicted myself when I said I didn’t like silence, had started to annoyme.
I left the terrace and finished my teainside.
I was upstairs with clothes strewn over the bed when the sound of a vehicle interrupted me. I looked out the window to see Kerry emerge with an armful of dry-cleaning. She opened the front door and called up to me. I was guessing, since she didn’t need to deactivate the alarm, she knew one of us washome.
“I’m up here,” I called down. I heard her run up thestairs.
“I bloody forgot to pick up Mackenzie’s clothes yesterday,” she saidbreathlessly.
“I doubt he needs any of those so you shouldn’t have put yourself out,” I replied. She had already crossed the room and opened the door to hiscloset.
“I know but you can bet your arse it would be the one time he’d need something that was at the dry-cleaners. Anyway, I know you said not to bother, but I made a pile of things on the cabinet. I don’t like to pick out his underwear, so I left that to you,” she said with alaugh.
Kerry was about the most professional housekeeper I’d come across. Someone who should be many years older, and should have been running a mansion or at least the London home of gentry back in Victorian days. Except the odd time when her bubbly personality shone through, she was an old soul in a young body. I liked to chat to her. I wanted a relationship with the woman who washed and folded my underwear, something I was still uncomfortable with. I made a point to have chats beyond her role in the house. I knew her kids’ names, why her ex-husband was an arsehole, how her mum gave up her job to look after the kids so Kerry would take the position with Mackenzie. I understood she’d been a cleaner, with her mum, at Trymast. Mary loved her, and that was enough validation forMackenzie.
What I loved most about Kerry, was she could fold clothes in seconds and have them looking as if they were about to be placed on the shelf of an exclusive clothes store. We had both suitcases packed in a half hour; all that was left was for me to pack a small hand luggagebag.
“I have the CCTV people here tomorrow but I’ve told Mackenzie, I’ll be coming every day of the week while you’re away, just to be sure,” she said as I walked her down thestairs.
“Do you want a cup of tea before you go?” I asked. I think I wanted her to stay so I had company more than she needed a cup oftea.
She checked her watch. “Go on then, I’ll have a quickone.”
