‘Stand by your beds! The boss is in!’ Nathan bursts through the office door.

‘Beds?’ Charlene looks bewildered as she jumps up and moves to the side of her desk.

Ingrid grins. ‘Morning Nathan. It’s okay, Charlene, it’s just a saying. It means ‘Watch out’’

‘Oh’ Charlene flushes, bending to pick up the papers she knocked to the floor in her hurry ‘Right…It’s…er…nice you’re back. Hello’

She startles as Nathan squashes her face between his hands and kisses her on the forehead. ‘Hello gorgeous’ he says and flicks her nose with a finger ‘Hear you’re doing great things, brilliant’

‘Oh’ Charlene’s blush deepens to a rosy red as Nathan grins and crosses the office to stand in front of Ingrid’s desk’

‘No tongues, okay?’ Ingrid laughs, exaggeratedly puckering her lips.

‘God! It’s good to be here. Everything ok, no problems?’

‘None that I can think of right this minute’

‘Great! Right, that’s all the good mood you’re getting, where’s the coffee?’ Ingrid nods towards Charlene and smiles. Nathan turns round. ‘You tea girl this morning?’

‘I thought what you had coffee’ Charlene glances at Ingrid nervously ‘Doesn’t he?’

‘Tea…coffee..I’ll have whatever’s going. Just get me what you’re having’

‘I int having nothing, we had ours’

‘Just get ME something, ok?’

‘Nathan’ Ingrid says in a warning tone.

‘What?’

Ingrid points to his office door. ‘I think you’ll find that Charlene has already done that. Your coffee maker is on…should be ready by now’

‘Oh…right…er...thank you’ he acknowledges Charlene with a curt, if shame-faced nod. He turns back to Ingrid. ‘We need to de-brief’ ‘

‘De-brief? What you think this is, MI5?’

‘You know what I mean. Bring me up to speed on what’s been going on’

‘You mean since yesterday?’ Ingrid asks wryly ‘I think you know more or less everything…and the chart’s up to date. Kevin’s wife isn’t well, so he rang in for a couple of days holiday to look after the littl’un but Charlene’s pulled Brian from the Morton job to cover what he was going to do for Jenner and…’

‘And he didn’t MIND?’ Nathan glances at the still blushing Charlene and back at Ingrid.

‘Nope! Not one word’ Ingrid grins.

Nathan shakes his head in disbelief. Behind him, Charlene sits with her head down; laboriously checking invoices against past delivery notices. ‘Ok…give Kev a ring later, see if everything’s all right. See if he needs anything’ Ingrid nods. ‘Right…coffee. Gimme ten minutes and give Dave a nudge, get him to come up here, save me going down’ He stands with his hand on the door to his office.

‘Okay’

Nathan pushes open the door. ‘Fu-laming hell! What in the name of God’s happened in here? Smell’s like a knocking shop!’

Ingrid smirks ‘And you’d know all about that, would you?’

He stands just inside the door. The top of his wooden desk, visible probably for the first time since he took over the company, gleams, careful piles of paperwork and trade magazines laid out on its top like a game of Patience, each flying its own flag of a post-it note. The sound of the coffee maker gurgling takes his eye to the bank of filing cabinets.

‘There’s a PLANT!’ he says with horrified incredulity. Nathan swings round ‘CHAR..’ Both he and Charlene jump; Charlene startling nervously at his perceived annoyance and Nathan at finding her standing directly behind him.

‘You do this?’

‘Yes’ she says defiantly, her chin jutting despite the nervous flush on her cheeks. ‘It were dead scruffy and you couldn’t find anything’

‘I could!’ Nathan protests.

Charlene puts one fist on her hip. ‘Oh no you couldn’t! That’s what I come t’say. You got t’ring Mister Hobson back before eleven o’clock, else he says….you can go whistle for the contract!’ she finishes, trembling slightly at Nathan’s glare.

‘Oh, shit…Hobson. Went straight out of my head’ Nathan groans.

‘That’s what comes of making notes on bits of fag packet!’ Charlene scolds ‘I found it when I was tidying up…an’…an’ I went t’see him’

‘You did what?’ Nathan looks past her to Ingrid. Ingrid raises her shoulders in a shrug of ignorance.

‘He lives near me…well, not near…but I have t’pass his house…so I went in’

‘Charlene!’

‘His mum and my gran sort of knew each other. I was all right. It weren’t like I didn’t know him nor nothing…and that note was ages old..’

‘Not that old..’

‘He thought you’d forgot’

‘I had’ Nathan smiles ruefully.

‘That’s not what I told him, ok? I told him a fib and said what I was supposed to sort something out while you was in hospital…and I never….’

‘You lied?’

Charlene looks down ‘Yeah’ she mumbles ‘I int a liar though!’ she says indignantly, lifting her head again ‘Not a proper one. I thought what if he thought it was my fault, you still might get the job’

‘I’ve got to ring him?’

‘Yeah…he was ever so nice. I said what I’d let him know what was going on…when you’d be back’

‘But he’s a right awkward sonnofabitch!’

‘He was ok…when I explained stuff. He knew about you being poorly an’ that. I told him it weren’t fair if he was going somewhere else, cos you hadn’t told him how much yet and it weren’t your fault you hadn’t and…’

‘Whoa! You persuaded him to still let us quote?’

‘Yeah….but you got to ring him up today otherwise…’

‘I can go whistle’

‘Yeah…Did I do summat wrong?’

Nathan shakes his head, too stunned to speak.

Charlene watches as he helps himself to coffee and sits at his desk. ‘Can I go now?’ she asks, chewing anxiously at a knuckle.

Nathan nods ‘Yeah...but that thing can go as well!’ he says gruffly.

Charlene grabs the air freshener from the electric socket and scuttles back to her desk.

Samms Plant Hire, Oatfield

Chapter Seven

Samms Plant Hire, Oatfield

‘Charlene?’ Nathan leans out of his office door, his hands on each side of the doorjamb. ‘Need a word’

He disappears from view and Charlene looks up at Ingrid, standing the other side of her desk.

‘You’ll be ok’ Ingrid whispers. ‘He didn’t shout’ She smiles encouragingly. ‘Go on’

Charlene pushes herself up from her chair and walks slowly across the room. With a final desperate look at Ingrid, she walks through the door and into Nathan’s office’

‘Y-Yes?’

‘Shut the door’ Nathan mumbles absently, still engrossed in reading a file as he turns from a cabinet. He points to a chair. ‘Sit down’

Charlene waits nervously as he stands reading. Eventually he sits.

‘Sorry…just checking a few things out, right…let me see’

‘Am I in trouble?’ she asks.

‘I don’t like liars, Charlene’ He looks up briefly.

Her lip trembles. ‘It was a fib, that’s all…I’m sorry, okay?’

‘But I do like people with initiative’ Nathan adds, sitting back with a smile. ‘You got me out of a scrape and I’ve got to thank you for that’

‘Y-You have?’ she stammers.

‘But..’ He holds up a finger, widening his eyes in question and waiting for an answer.

‘You don’t like liars’ Charlene hangs her head.

‘No. And you know why? Because nobody knows for sure where they stand’ he answers his own question. ‘And for us all to work together, we need to be able to rely on people. We can’t do that if we can’t trust what they say. You got that?’

Charlene nods dumbly, her eyes brimming with tears.

‘Aaw, come on. I didn’t mean to upset you, I was just telling you like it is. For future reference, I don’t want you thinking you can get away with telling lies…fibs…anything that’s not the truth if you’re going to be working here, ok?’

She nods again. ‘Okay…I’ll remember’

‘That all?’ Nathan tilts his head and smiles at her.

‘What else you want me t’say?’

‘Great…that’d be lovely…thank you?’

‘Wha’for, a telling off?’

Nathan leans his arms on the desk, twirling a pen between his fingers and grinning. ‘Charlene…we’d like you to stay…a permanent job. Ingrid’s pleased with the way things have been going…and I’ve been well impressed ….It’ll mean a bit more…’

A single fat tear rolls silently down Charlene’s cheek. ‘Thank you….but no’ she whispers ‘It’s ever so kind of you an’ that…but I can’t’ She lowers her head, shaking it slowly.

‘You can’t?’ Nathan frowns ‘What do you mean you can’t?’ He gives an amused snort.

‘I just can’t! Okay?’ Charlene retorts, jumping up and rushing out of the office. The door bangs against the filing cabinet.

‘Charlene?’ Ingrid pushes back her chair, concerned as she stumbles past her desk with a hand pressed over her mouth as if to stifle a sob. ‘Charlene?’ she calls again as she disappears through the door to the storerooms and lavatory beyond. She turns to Nathan ‘What the hell’ve you done?’

‘Me? I offered her a bloody job!’ Nathan stands with his hand on top of his head and a look of total confusion on his face. ‘I thought she’d be pleased’

‘Oh, for God’s sake, Nathan! I thought you said we’d talk about it first!’ Ingrid groans.

‘What the hell difference would that’ve made? You already said you wanted her here’ He glares at the door slowly closing on its automatic hinges. ‘I haven’t got time for women and their sodding moods. If she doesn’t want to work here, she doesn’t want to work here. I’m not wasting my time trying to persuade her otherwise. Run an ad in the local paper’

‘You know bugger all do you!’ Ingrid snaps ‘That’s you all over, that is. Everything that doesn’t fit neatly into your little world has got to be down to PMT!’

‘PMT?’ Nathan echoes looking more confused than ever. ‘I never even mentioned…’ He swings round as the main office door is flung open, hitting the outer wall of the building with a clang.

‘Get in there!’ Phil Hawkins, his face thunderous, pushes Gemma into the office in front of him. ‘What you got to tell Mr. Samms, eh?’

Ingrid puts a hand to her mouth ‘Oh my God!’ She disguises a snigger as a sneeze.

Nathan looks from Gemma, her sulky pout made hideous by a bruised and swollen top lip, to a clearly amused Ingrid and back to Gemma again.

‘What you got to say?’ Phil insists, pushing Gemma further forward. ‘Go on…or God help me, girl, I’ll be reporting you to the police if she don’t!’

‘She? Will someone please tell me what the hell’s going on?’ Nathan throws his hands in the air.

‘Sorry’ Gemma grunts with grudging reluctance.

‘Sorry for what?’ Nathan growls ‘I’m beginning to think I’ve stepped into some bloody twilight zone! Ingrid?’ He looks to her for an explanation..

‘Where’s the other girl’ Phil asks. ‘The one you got here now? It’s her she should really be apologising to’

Nathan turns back again. ‘This is an effing madhouse!’

‘Na-than!’ Ingrid reprimands.

‘I’m not apologising to her!’ Gemma baulks.

‘Well, somebody better explain what’s going on before I go completely bloody barking and chuck you ALL out!’

‘She..’ Phil starts, gripping his daughter tightly by the arm and shaking her with disgust ‘Set about that lass for taking her job’

‘You did what?’ Nathan gapes. ‘You attacked Charlene?’

‘For taking the job she walked out of!’ Phil shoves Gemma forward. ‘And she’ll apologise to her or she’s got no place in my house, she can clear off, me and the wife’ve had enough’

‘Phil..’ Ingrid appeals in a quiet voice.

‘No. I’ve had it up to here with her and thinking she can treat everyone like shit. I got back from that job this morning and this is what I found…and she was proud of herself! Proud of that! I’m not having it'

‘It looks..’ Ingrid says carefully ‘As though Charlene stood up for herself..’

‘Yeah. She did hit ME, remember!’ Gemma glowers indignantly at her father.

‘So! She supposed to just stand there and take it? Good on her. About time somebody give you a bloody good hiding, I should’ve done it years ago’ Phil looks at Nathan. ‘Sorry. I know I shouldn’t bring personal stuff in here…but I didn’t see why this should be hushed up…not with it being the other lass. If this little bitch won’t apologise, then tell her I will when I see her. I’ll be in tomorrow…same as normal. Hope this won’t effect my job none?’

‘No…no…of course not…’ Nathan assures, still dumbfounded by what is going on. ‘But..’ he says pointing at Gemma ‘You lay one finger on Charlene again or come anywhere near this place or her, I’LL sort you out, you got that?’

‘You threatening me?’ Gemma retorts antagonistically, her head thrust forward.

Phil groans and pulls her back. ‘For God’s sake, Gemma!’

‘No, I’m promising you’ Nathan says coolly. ‘You so much as look in her direction and I’ll see to it you never get another job anywhere’

‘Then I’ll stay on the dole!’ she spits back as Phil drags her towards the door, opening it with his other hand.

‘That won’t go far when you haven’t got me to sponge off’

‘You’re really throwing me out?’ She looks back at him over her shoulder as he manhandles her onto the steps, her eyes wide with shock.

‘Too right I damned well am. I said I’d had enough and I have. You can come back for your stuff but that’s it. No more!’ Phil turns and nods. ‘Sorry Nathan… Ingrid. There won’t be any more bother’ He pushes the door closed with his foot.

‘Jesus!’ Nathan lets out an enormous breath. ‘You get any of that?’

‘Yes’ Ingrid says quietly, glancing at the door to her right. ‘If only you’d given me chance to tell you earlier’ She puts a finger to her lips ‘Charlene’s mum rang first thing to tell me. She didn’t start it but she’s devastated. Thinks we’ll sack her if we find out she’s been fighting’

‘That wasn’t fighting, that was defending herself!’

‘Shush!’ Ingrid puts her fingers to her lips again. ‘Don’t let on her mum rang. It doesn’t matter now anyway. We’ve found out without her telling us’

‘Go and get her out of the bog for God’s sake. Let me talk to her again, silly cow’

They both turn as the inner door inches open.

‘Have they gone?’ Charlene’s face appears, blotchy with crying. ‘I’m sorry. You been ever so good to me’ she sniffs and walks slowly to her desk with her head down. ‘I didn’t mean to cause no trouble’ She bends to collect her bag from the floor and reaches her jacket from the back of the chair.

‘Where are you going?’ Ingrid asks, appealing to Nathan with her eyes for him to do something.

‘Home’ Charlene gives her a watery smile. ‘Thanks, Ingrid, you been the best but I’ve let you down…I’m real sorry’

Nathan crosses the room and without a word, takes her bag from her and puts it on the desk, doing the same with her jacket. ‘You..’ he says quietly ‘have let nobody down’.

‘Oh, Nathan!’ Charlene’s face crumples and she buries her face against his sweatshirt. ‘I’ll never forget what you done for me’

Nathan startles and looks at Ingrid helplessly, his arms held away from his body, curved towards Charlene but hovering and unsure as to what to do next.

Amused, Ingrid bites her lip, and flicks her head to mean he should go ahead.

‘Yeah?’ he mouths. She nods and he rolls his eyes. ‘Charlene’ he says as he puts his arms around her. ‘Come on, there’s no need for this’

‘But I been telling fibs and…and…now you know I been fighting! W-will you say you got someone else now, will you? Say you don’t need me no more. Don’t tell nobody I got the sack…else they won’t give me a job….. Please?’

‘My job not good enough for you then?’

Charlene goes quiet. ‘You still want me?’ She slowly lifts her head.

‘Ohh…I dunno. Whaddya think, Ingrid?’ Nathan drops his arms. ‘You think we should keep her?’

‘Stop teasing the girl! Yes, Charlene, we’d like it if you’d stay'

'Really?' She looks from one to the other of them, the fingers of one hand trembling against her mouth.

'We want you to stay...I want you to stay. Ingrid tells me you're really getting this job sussed.......But....' Nathan widens his eyes and holds up a finger.

'No fibs' Charlene supplies gravely, lowering her eyes.

'Come on’ Ingrid beckons ‘Let’s get you cleaned up’

‘I-I got things to do’ Charlene stutters. 'I haven't finished...'

‘That can wait. We can do it together after lunch. Let’s go make you beautiful again while Nathan makes us some tea’

‘You what?’ Nathan huffs with mock indignation.

Charlene snuffles with laughter then burst into tears again.

‘What now?’ Nathan links his hands on the top of his head and groans.

‘I’m happy’ Charlene sobs.

‘I will never….ever…understand women!’ Nathan mutters, shaking his head as he disappears into the kitchen.

Go to Chapter Eight