Just for the Rush. Jane Lark

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      I turned and smiled at her. ‘Sharon.’

      ‘Oh.’

      A couple of glances passed around the office.

      Rumour had it that Sharon had caught him cheating. But that was Jack; he flirted constantly with clients, it was part of his winning sales approach. But Sharon had been as bad – and the two of them put together—

      The door into the office opened. ‘Morning, all you lovely happy people!’

      Talk of the devil.

      ‘Nice to see you all smiling at me, but not surprising, seeing as you’re about to get a few days off. I suppose you’re going to the pub after work.’

      ‘Aren’t you, then?’ Mark asked him.

      ‘No, I need to work on the Mack’s account, seeing as you are all finishing early.’ Jack said it with a smile. ‘But you can knock off at two, and have several on me, so you can get thoroughly drunk.’ He stopped at the desk near the door, pulled out his wallet, and selected two fifty-pound notes, which he let flutter down on to the table. ‘That should do for a few rounds.’

      He shot a smile around the room, gave us a nod, then walked on.

      He was a good boss in many ways. Fun-loving and a little crazy, even if he had tendency to be a control freak. He liked laughter and noise. He said laughter and noise had energy, and energy was inspiring, and as we were an advertising agency we needed to be inspired.

      He was the thing that inspired me. He had magnetism. It was in his smile and his enthusiasm. He pulled me along like the Pied Piper of advertising and his levels of positivity gave me more energy.

      ‘The Mack’s account isn’t urgent! They don’t need the idea until mid-January! You can come for a drink!’ Emma called over as he walked into his office.

      He turned and gripped the doorframe, leaning back out. ‘Thanks, but no thanks, Em. I’ll pass this year anyway.’

      ‘Jack Rendell passing on a drink…’ I said in a low voice.

      He heard and looked at me. ‘Jack Rendell working late, now that is nothing different.’

      ‘No, that is true.’ I smiled at him. He had nice eyes; they were a very pale blue.

      ‘Good morning, Ivy.’ His gaze skimmed over my hair and my face, then settled on my eyes.

      ‘Good afternoon, Jack. You’ve missed an hour or two.’

      He glanced up at the clock, then shrugged. ‘Yes.’

      He was being weird today. He wasn’t himself. He was missing his usual exuberance.

      ‘Sharon called you. She asked me tell you to call her when you came in. She said there was something she wants you to do.’

      ‘Well, she can get lost and find another fool to do her chores, and if she calls again you can tell her I said that.’

      I didn’t know how to answer. But he didn’t expect me to. He turned and went into his office, a glass walled box to one side of the room, then took off his coat.

      When he hung it up on the coat rack in there the movement pulled his jumper up a little and his shirt out of his waistband, revealing a line of pale flesh. He was always well dressed, in designer clothes, mostly. Today he was wearing skinny-cut black trousers and a black pinstripe shirt beneath a burgundy jumper. The jumper was tight and I’d guess the shirt beneath it was fitted. From side on, his stomach was like a board. He was slender and muscular. He must spend hours in a gym at his house – or somewhere.

      His hands slipped into his pockets and he walked over to the window, looking out at the view the office had of London. After a moment he turned around and caught me watching. He smiled. I smiled back and when he sat down I picked up my phone.

      ‘Jack,’ was all he said when he answered.

      ‘You don’t seriously expect me to get in the middle of your messy separation do you? Because I’m not up for that.’

      He laughed. ‘Not if you can’t take a dozen rounds with Sharon; she fights hard and she has a cracking left jab.’ He sighed out a breath. ‘Okay, if she calls again put her through.’

      ‘Okay, but she was calling your phone.’

      ‘Then why did you answer?’

      ‘Because she kept ringing and it was annoying.’

      ‘Well, expect lots of ‘annoying’ in the next few months, Ivy, because she’s not letting our ship sink easily.’ He put the phone down.

      Ten minutes later his phone rang, the tone announcing it was a call from outside. I looked over and watched him. He waited until it went to the answer machine, then lifted the phone off the hook. Two minutes later I heard his personal mobile ring; he didn’t answer that either. Then he got up and stuck his head out of the office. ‘Hey, Em. Are you up for changing our number?’

      I laughed.

      He came over to my desk. ‘My life is not funny, Ivy.’

      ‘I know, sorry.’

      ‘It’s ok. I was only joking. Do you want a coffee? Does anyone else want a coffee? If someone heads out to Nero’s you can line your stomachs before you go out and get pissed up on me at two o’clock!’

      ‘I’ll get you a coffee.’ I stood up.

      His lips lifted only at one side. ‘I offered one to you.’ He was flirting, but he flirted with everyone.

      ‘I’ll get it. You pay.’

      He smiled fully. His mobile rang. ‘Oh, sod it. We’ll both go fetch the coffee. Listen up, guys! The boss is doing the coffee run! This has to be remembered!’

      A few people laughed. We all knew he’d remind us that he’d gone out to do a Nero’s run for at least a year.

      His phone stopped ringing.

      My office phone started ringing with an outside-line tone.

      ‘Don’t you dare answer that,’ Jack said.

      ‘And what if it is a client and not Sharon.’

      ‘It’s Christmas Eve. If it’s a client they’ll call again in the New Year. Come on, let’s go get coffee. Make a list of what people want.’

      I picked up a post-it note and went around everyone. There were ten of us. It wasn’t a huge team.

      Jack had picked up his coat and was putting it back on. His mobile rang again. He knocked it on to silent and left it vibrating on his desk as he walked out of his office, hands in pockets. ‘Come along, then.’

      I stuck the order on the sleeve of his duffle coat before I turned and grabbed my parka off the back of my chair. I pulled it on as we walked out of the office.

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