Page 46 of The Island in Bramble Bay
‘Maggie. Long time no see.’ His smile was warmer than Maggie would have expected.
‘What are you doing here?’ She hoped she sounded surprised rather than accusatory.
‘I’m project managing for Rob Tanner on the holiday lodge project. I thought he’d sent an email about my visit?’ He looked genuinely concerned that she had no idea he was coming.
‘Oh.’ Maggie gathered herself. She had to be professional about this. Aside from the fact that she’d thought she was the project manager for the holiday lodge project, she had to behave as if this wasn’t her Ben, he was a colleague. Not that he was her Ben anymore but it was difficult to think of him any other way. ‘Well, no, I don’t think I’ve seen an email from Rob but never mind. Are you here to look at the sites?’
‘The site. The decision was made last week. Sorry, I assumed you’d been told.’
It seemed that there was more than one email that Maggie hadn’t received.
‘Which site is it? The south or the woodland?’ She held her breath, already knowing what he was going to say.
‘The woodland. It’s a superb site, hugely unique in terms of the holiday offer in this area.’
‘Since when did you care about marketing over nature?’ Maggie blurted out, despite her pledge to herself to be professional.
‘Come on Mags, this is my job now. Can’t we keep things civil?’
Maggie blushed, annoyed with herself for not managing to do that for even the minute since he’d arrived.
‘Sorry, of course. You can leave your bag here and pick it up later when you get the ferry.’
‘I’m here for the week. I think some accommodation’s been arranged.’
‘Well, as you’ve probably gathered, I didn’t get the email about any of this,’ Maggie bristled, then thawed quickly as she remembered that it wasn’t Ben’s fault. ‘Look, bring your bag to my office and I’ll try and find out what’s going on.’
They walked through a passageway of blooming rhododendrons towards the office. When they arrived, Megan was there much to Maggie’s relief.
‘Megan, this is Ben. He’s from the Trust’s special projects team. Have you got time to give him a quick tour while I make a couple of phone calls?’
‘Sure!’ said Megan, enthusiastically. ‘Come on Ben, let’s see if we can find a red squirrel.’ As Megan turned to leave, Ben looked at Maggie. She pointed silently at Megan and mouthed, ‘She doesn’t know.’ Ben nodded.
After a phone call to Rob Tanner’s office, Maggie ascertained that Ben was indeed project manager for the holiday lodge project. How he had engineered the change from taking over her job at Croftwood Court to working for head office, she wasn’t sure. It was quite a kick in the teeth, made worse because this was the exact reverse of the situation that had led to her and Ben breaking up and she was sure he was going to revel in being her superior. He was here to make preliminary plans as to where the lodges would be situated now that it had been decided that they would be in the woodland. Apparently, Rob’s secretary had typed Maggie’s email address as .com instead of .co.uk which explained the huge communication breakdown. Ben turning up on her doorstep also meant that she was out of the loop on the project.
The phone call had also confirmed that in the lost emails they had asked Maggie to arrange somewhere for Ben to stay on the island which was completely ridiculous because it was the summer and the only options were for him to stay in one of the holiday cottages which were all booked solidly for the next three months, to bunk in with the volunteers where there was no spare bed or to beg Bramble Castle for a room for him.
The Castle had no rooms to spare and he couldn’t even commute to Sandbanks every day because the hotel there was full as well. The last resort was for Ben to sleep on her sofa; there was literally no other choice.
Maggie clicked on her inbox, waiting for the emails from Rob to come through and one popped up from Charlie. He never sent her emails and she was thrilled to see one, it made him suddenly feel closer. Because they used to see each other every day, they’d never got into the habit of messaging and emailing each other and until now, even though he’d been away, that hadn’t changed.
From: [email protected]
Subject: Flying Visit
Hey Maggie,
After our call at the weekend, I booked a flight to come visit. I feel bad that I’ve been away for so long, expecting you to be there waiting for me with no idea when I’ll be coming back.
I’ll be back on Friday and will come find you. Can’t wait. Charlie x
Maggie’s first thought was that she hoped Ben would be gone by the time Charlie arrived. It would be easier if they didn’t meet although she had every intention of replying and saying that Ben was here.
But actually, why was she worried about what Charlie would think? He had something going on with Jessica that he hadn’t told her about. She hoped he wasn’t coming home because he was feeling guilty about anything. She had thought they had got to a place together where they could trust each other but being apart made that hard. Rationally, Maggie knew that Charlie wasn’t cheating on her with Jessica but the physical distance between them let that little bit of paranoia enter her head. Especially because she’d had experience of what distance could do to a relationship when she had been with Ben.
At least Charlie was coming back and they could hopefully recalibrate themselves so that they could weather the rest of the time apart more easily.
