Lessons in Love

Jane squared her shoulders. Intuitive, perceptive, hands-on—she could do that. Jane had decided on her suit today—it seemed right.

There was a little whirr and then the heavy plate-glass door silently glided open. Jane stepped into the elegant flag-stoned foyer of the converted granary, with its view out over the canal. It was only a few minutes’ walk from Buckbourne town centre and full of original features, soft red brick and oak beams mellow with age. It was hard not to be impressed.

Seconds later, Ray Jacobson, dressed in a white polo shirt, penny loafers and faded blue jeans, jogged down the steps to meet her, looking as if he was fresh out of the shower. ‘Hi, morning. Did you find us OK?’ he said. He looked younger out of his suit, and today was all smiles and warm handshakes. ‘Come on up, great to see you, coffee’s on.’

‘I can smell it. I’ve never noticed this place before.’

‘Beautiful, isn’t it? Tucked out of the way but still really central.’ Ray, guided Jane inside. ‘One of Jayne’s bright ideas. She bought it as a shell a few years ago. The ground floor we rent out to a whole range of alternative practitioners. The first floor is mostly offices for Jayne’s business interests, and then I use the top-floor flat when I’m in town. Takes working from home to a whole new level. Come on through.’ He smiled, opening the inner door into the stairwell and stood to one side to let Jane pass. Through tall thin windows that ran from the floor right up to the pitched roof, the warm morning sunlight reflected and shimmied across the water in the canal, filling the well with glittering golden ripples.

‘I’ll make sure you’ve got the security code for next time you’re in. Did you take a look at the files and the websites?’ Ray asked as they made their way upstairs.

‘I did, every last one of them. I’m still not altogether sure why Jayne wants me here.’

Ray’s smile broadened out a notch or two. ‘Ours is not to reason why. Jayne’s got a nose for talent. I think we should just both relax and just get on with it. This is the office.’

As they reached the landing he pushed open a door into a warm sunlit room. Inside the walls were unfinished brick, the floor gorgeous old, time-mellowed oak floorboards, and on two long wooden trestle tables stood a row of flat screens, a couple of wireless keyboards and matching mice, with an office chair at each. On the opposite wall in a deep alcove with a view out over the canal, were two cream linen sofas with brown suede cushions and a long low table, on which stood a bowl of pebbles and a vase of lilies. Behind it was a wooden cupboard in the same style with a coffee machine on top.

Jane smiled appreciatively. ‘Wow. This is amazing. How on earth do you keep it looking so tidy? Where do you keep everything else? You know—all the chaos. The muck and bullets?’

Ray laughed. ‘Oh, don’t worry, we’ve got plenty of those—they’re all in the back room. If you’d like to help yourself to coffee and pull up a chair, I’ll just be going through a couple of things that I thought you might do over the course of the next couple of weeks and then my plan is leave you to it. You can work here or at Jayne’s home office—either is fine by me, although to be honest I’m not used to having someone about the place. We outsource all our services, and I don’t usually see Jayne from one week to the next. We lunch a couple of times a month if she’s in the area but we usually communicate by phone or email. We talk most days.’ Ray shifted his weight as if he was slightly uncomfortable with what he was telling her.

‘So what you’re saying is that you would prefer me to work from home?’ Nothing like being wanted. Jane managed to hold on to her smile. Just.

He pulled a face. ‘Her home, actually. Jayne’s office is all set up with everything you’ll need. It would be far easier than coming into town every day. Anyway—your call. Maybe if you wanted to come in until you get the hang of things…’ He moved the mouse alongside the nearest computer and the screen flickered into life.

‘Anyway, here we are. We’ve got new web pages and catalogues going live at the end of the month on all the current sites. Most of the donkey work has been done by our design team, graphic artist and the geeks, but I thought you could go through them—see what you think, any suggestions, you know, any little tweaks and see if there are any errors. I’d value your input.’

Jane stared at him, trying to work out if he was telling her what she thought he was saying. ‘You want me to proofread the web pages? I’ve just spent all weekend going through the existing websites.’

‘I know, bit of a pain in the arse but these are the new shop fronts and I really do need someone with a bit of savvy to check them over. Feel free to make any suggestions. Might seem like the bottom rung, but actually I think it will give you a really good feel for what’s current and up and coming.’ He smiled brightly.

Jane nodded. It wasn’t that she minded doing it, but she couldn’t work out why he or Jayne hadn’t told her that the websites she’d spent hours going through were about to be taken down—nor whether he was being serious or taking the mickey—so she smiled back and then turned her attention to the images.

‘And then,’ Ray said, biting his bottom lip as he stared at the screen, then clicking on a button, ‘we’re also currently in the process of updating all of our current customer records and product codes. There’s all kinds of information on the data base that needs sifting through. We’ve outsourced most of the data entry but it’s really important we go through all the customer details as well as the list of products we sell, and check nothing vital has been missed off. It would be really useful to cross-reference the information to see if people are buying from more than one site and, if so, what. There’s a little bit of software here for that. Oh, here we are…’

Ray looked back over his shoulder at her and smiled again, all big blue eyes and bonhomie. Jane still couldn’t quite call it one way or the other.

‘Let’s just sort out that coffee and then we can get you started. Oh, by the way, I’ve had our guys draw up your contract and there are a few other things for you to sign. There are different levels of access online. Jayne’s got most clearance obviously—presumably she set you up with a username and password?’

Jane nodded.

Ray paused. ‘Good. How are you fixed for supper?’

She stared at him. ‘I’m sorry?’

‘I thought we might pop out after work today for an early supper. I booked us a table at Carters—thought it would be nice to celebrate your launch.’

‘Well…’ Jane began.

‘Nothing too late—say six thirty?’

Jane didn’t know quite how to respond. Which Ray took as a yes.

‘Good. Oh, and while we’re on the subject of food, Jayne is supposed to be going to a dinner later in the week—Thursday, I think. You don’t mind going, do you? I think she’s expected to do a little presentation. I’ve got the script here somewhere. It’s just a trade thing.’

Jane hesitated but was determined not to look rattled or outgunned. ‘Oh—OK…I’ve done presentations before at the library. But I’m not sure that I can…’

‘It’ll be fine. I’ll email the speech over to you with the details. I wouldn’t labour the point about Jayne not being there.’ He paused. ‘I’m sure she’s already told you that she’s a little wary about letting people know she’s taking a sabbatical so unless someone asks directly…’ He smiled. ‘Although I suppose technically you are Jane Mills.’

‘Will you be there?’ asked Jane.

‘If I can, but it looks like I’m probably double-booked. It’ll be fine though. They’ll send a car for you.’ He smiled again. ‘So here we are—your first day with us.’

Jane nodded; her first day as a junior officer, she thought ruefully looking at the screen Ray had opened up on the computer. Data input, checking names and addresses was a bit like stuffing envelopes, and that, along with the proofreading, was the kind of thing you’d give someone on work experience from the local comprehensive. She felt she couldn’t say anything, however. After all, how would it look if she moaned about the first job he gave her?

Something didn’t feel right but she wasn’t sure what. Maybe it was that she was feeling overwhelmed. Or maybe it was just first-day nerves; maybe she was up herself; maybe Ray was being genuinely kind—maybe. He poured her a coffee from the machine.

‘There we go. Milk’s in the fridge. That’s the thing that looks like a cupboard under the coffee machine, and sugar is in the drawer there. Do you mind if I smoke?’ As he passed her the cup his hand seemed to linger for just an instant too long on hers. Had she imagined it? Jane suppressed a shiver.

‘No, you’re fine,’ she said.

Ray’s smile held. ‘Not cold are you, m’dear?’

‘No, just a bit nervous, that’s all. First-day nerves—you know.’

‘Well, don’t be nervous. We run a very happy ship here. Jayne’s always seen to that. I don’t know how well you know her but she is the most amazing woman.’

Jane added a little milk to her coffee, not quite sure what he was expecting her to say.

As if reading her mind he continued, ‘I know what I’ve asked you to do looks like pretty menial stuff but as far as I’m concerned your being hired has come out of the blue—not that I mind; oh, no, with Jayne I’ve had to learn to be flexible—but if I’d known Jayne was bringing someone in we could have devised a more coherent strategy. So, this will out Jayne’s business until we work out exactly what to do with you. To be perfectly honest I don’t really know how she fills her time on a day-to-day basis, so if you start with something that really needs doing, we’re both going to have to make the rest of it up as we go along.’

He lifted his coffee cup in salute. ‘To the new Jane Mills.’

Jane tried out another smile and Ray beamed back.

Maybe she was being oversensitive, worried that the job was too good to be true. Maybe it was going to be all right after all.

‘To the other Jayne Mills,’ she said.

Meanwhile, the other Jayne Mills set her handbag down on one of the unforgiving airport seats and stared up at the departure board to check the flight times. She felt strangely nervous. Although she’d been flying round the world for the best part of twenty-five years, this flight felt special. She smiled. Twenty-five years—it seemed impossible. Then she had never imagined herself ever being this old.

The airport clock rolled over another minute. Another fifteen minutes and they would start boarding. Jane tucked the boarding pass into her jacket pocket and then glanced over her shoulder, half expecting to see Andy loping towards her through the crowd, in his famous baggy blue shorts, a rucksack slung casually across broad shoulders, long blond hair flapping like unruly wings. Catching herself, Jayne smiled and let the ghost fade away. There was no Andy, no long blond hair, just an appraising and appreciative look from a good-looking guy in a suit from behind a copy of the Telegraph.

She smiled back while reminding herself that this wasn’t about the past, it was about the future. Her future. A bright shiny new future. This was about looking at where she had been to try to make sense of where she wanted to go next, and where better place to start than in Kos?

Kos—Jayne let the word linger in her mind and then very slowly roll over her tongue. It was a word heavy with memories of newly baked bread, and honey and olives and creamy feta cheese. Kos, so very ordinary now, but so unfamiliar then. Hardly a great adventure, hardly exotic in the twenty-first century, but all those years ago it had seemed so very far away, and so very foreign. Now it was just another short-haul flight, barely a hop across a globe that she had crossed and recrossed God knew how many times since. But then it had seemed a million miles away for a hick from the sticks.

So, while Greece might not appear the bravest of starts to an outsider, it had been the first step on her journey all those years ago, so what better place to start again now?