Lost and Found - 23

23

Amelia walked home in a daze. The sun was still shining, the tourists still flocked around Ground Zero, but in her heart, in her head it had all changed. Back at her home, she sat still dazed. Her severance pay had been extensive, almost a year’s salary, but since the age of sixteen she hadn’t been in a position where she had nothing to do, no agenda, no commitment. She’d made more than enough money in her eight months in the City, especially when she added her redundancy money. But Marc had told her that she didn’t need to work any notice. As of tomorrow she was a free agent, to do as she pleased.

SO with the World as your oyster, what do you do? For Amelia, the answer was, go home.

She was packing an hour or so later when her phone rang. Looking at the display she smiled, since her night of indiscretion Cole had become a good friend. He still wanted more than the friendship she offered, but he admitted to being happier seeing her regularly in any capacity. Many an evening they’d sat down and discussed it, Amelia felt it was her resistance of him that was the issue, she was the first woman to resist him, and his ego couldn’t take it. Cole couldn’t offer any other explanation. In the aftermath of the discussion with Marc earlier, Cole had been the first person she’d sent a text to.

                “Hey doll, what’s up?”

Cole knew she hated the term doll, but she refused to rise to it...every day! So ignoring it, she told him about her day. He was as stunned as her.

                “You picked the wrong time to come to this financial district then?”

                “It’s happening everywhere Cole, I’m just glad I left Clay before he was arrested. No one there had anything from him. At least I’ve got some money, a safety net.”

                “So what you going to do now? Are we consoling over champagne?”

As nice as the thought was, Amelia knew she was a rubbish companion at the moment, she didn’t want to bring Cole the party man such depression on a night out, so she declined.

Morosely, she found a pizza menu and was just having an internal debate over anchovies or capers...or both, when there was a knock at the door.

Pulling back the door Amelia smiled, there on the doorstep with a pizza box almost bigger than him and a jeroboam of champagne was Cole.

                “You sounded like you really needed pizza!”

Grinning, she waved the menu she’d been perusing before he’d arrived, “Cole Stirling, you know me too well!”

Laughing, he handed her the bottle then pulled a box of tissues from his jacket pocket, “better than you can imagine!”

Sunday 29^th October 2008

Other than her trip for Li’s launch, this was Amelia’s first trip back to the UK since leaving almost a year ago. So as she disembarked from the Jumbo Jet at Heathrow, she was anxious, excited, but mostly relieved.

She flew through customs, found her bags, then emerged into the bustling arrival hall to see Li bobbing up and down amongst the hoards of families, business men and chauffeurs with printed names on placards. She squealed as Amelia got closer, and launched herself through the crowd to land wrapped around her friend like a child.

                “I have missed you SO much...I can’t believe you’re unemployed...come and see Daichi. He’s brought the car; I’ve made your favourite Cantonese soup...WITH dumplings...” Her ranting was both incessant and refreshing. Amelia had missed her more than anything else. 

Holding her an arm’s length Amelia laughed, “Li...I have missed you SO much!”

Li giggled leading her to the car. It was only as they held hands that Amelia noticed the ring on her friend’s left hand. Stopping dead in her tracks, she turned to look at Li in amazement, before lifting her hand to examine the beautiful diamond solitaire that sat on her third finger.

                “OH MY GOD!” She pulled her into another hug. “Why didn’t you tell me? I’m so excited! This is wonderful news! Oh Li!” Holding her friend at arm’s length she looked down at her beaming face. “I can’t believe it! You must be ecstatic!”

Li nodded, tears welling at her eyes, “he only asked me a few days ago...”

                “That’s why you called?”

Nodding again Li confirmed that, “I called to tell you, but you’d lost your job, and after Clay...and Sol...”

                “NEVER think that I don’t want to hear your good fortune, good things for you are better than good things for me!”

               

                “I know, but I wanted to tell you in person, like this! The phone isn’t the same!”

Taking her hand again, Amelia grinned, “I love you Li Wan Cheung! I hope you know that!”

                “So what are your plans?” Daichi asked as the three of them sat at the small dining table that evening and they’d talked the wedding details to death. They were getting married on Christmas Eve on a boat on the Thames. Something Amelia found SO romantic, and she was to be bridesmaid, of course “Are you back here permanently?”

Amelia shrugged, “I really don’t know. I’ve still got my apartment back in New York, the lease isn’t up until the New Year, so I’ve got that as a base. Cole told me last week he’s looking for staff in the Caribbean, Stirling has a few resorts out there.”

                “A holiday worker? You’re a high flying financier Ams!”

Laughing, she squeezed her friend’s hand, “but I just want to be busy. If I’m earning I’m not eating into my money. I was thinking I could do a couple of months there, just to keep me going. I don’t want to become lethargic, lazy. I’ve worked hard for years, I can do bar work, waitressing. I won’t be any good at massage or sports, but I can do the rest...”

The two women sat back and smiled remembering for a moment the high points of their holiday earlier in the year.

Li finally broke the silence, “you can do whatever you put your mind to. You’ve always been so strong!”

                “Thanks!” Amelia was genuinely flattered by her friend’s words.

Monday 3^rd November 2008

Knowing the boss was a definite advantage when it came to working in a hotel. Amelia realised that immediately. She’d insisted to Cole that she have any job, she wasn’t against cleaning, waitressing, she really didn’t mind. She’d been at Li’s for only a day when he’d called with an offer, a reception job at one of his Caribbean resorts. She’d accepted immediately promising Li that despite the distance she’d be the best bridesmaid ever, and would be home at least ten days before the actual day to organise a hen night and all the other tasks she knew would be left to the last minute.

So here she was being shown around the hotel by the general manager Michel, a French Canadian who’d worked at the resort for two years. The work wasn’t taxing, and by mid morning she found she was really enjoying herself, meeting and helping people was so far from her work in the financial world, and it was refreshing.

Later that evening she called the blushing bride Li, who was well into her wedding plans, and despite only having a small group to the actual day, seemed to find the planning overwhelming. Before Amelia had left for this job, they’d spent several days shopping for the wedding dress, as well as a beautiful bridesmaid dress for Amelia. Li was keen to hang on to her Chinese heritage, and the dress choices reflected that. Chinese wedding dresses tended to be red, from the photos the two girls had found, and Li’s vague memories. So, Li had chosen a glamorous, yet traditional style dress in red and gold. Amelia’s dress was a similar style yet simpler, in a deeper plum colour.

Today’s dilemma involved the differing opinions of her adoptive parents and her future in-laws. As usual Amelia helped her sort through the mess, and when she hung up, Li was much happier.

Tuesday 20^th November 2008

Walking into the reception to start her shift, she almost froze; there stood Cole deep in an argument with Michel.

Amelia had long realised that Michel pulled all the strings here. He liaised with Human resources and wages at the Stirling Company, and he filed all the timesheets, organised everything. The work staff group was generally a split between mainly North American youngsters fresh from college, or European students looking for seasonal work, and locals. She’d noticed that the non locals did seem to hold themselves in a much higher regard than those who were native to the island, yet she’d noticed that the Caribbean residents seemed to have a far higher work ethic than the often overindulged ‘foreigners’. So when she’d seen Michel verbally attacking one of the maintenance workers over some alleged missing equipment she’d taken more interest than was really necessary. It seemed excessive and over the top, and she’d logged the incident along with her unease.

But today Michel looked flummoxed and flustered in the intense glare of Cole.  No one knew she was a friend of his, and for a brief second she almost gave away their friendship.

Cole in authoritative mood was a phenomenal sight, she’d only ever seen him socially, and he was a frontrunner in every party. But here he was commanding and controlling. Something she didn’t imagine she’d ever on him. Pausing at her desk, she tried to eavesdrop on as much of the heated conversation as she could. All she could make out was that there were complaints about the resort.

                “I want to speak to every member of the staff until I’ve got to the bottom of this d’Arbe.” He spoke his name in such a contemptuous way that it chilled Amelia’s blood. “Starting with you! Who are you?” He turned away from the manager to look at Amelia, as soon as his eyes met hers, he winked and she almost choked.

               

                “I’m Amelia Parkin.”

He nodded, “I’m the director of this shithole of a resort.” He glanced back at Michel for a moment, “I’ll use your office,” then beckoned to Amelia to follow him.

She shrugged in an apologetic way to Michel then followed Cole into the office.

As soon as the door closed she eyed him suspiciously, “why do I get the feeling I’m being set up here?”

Cole perched on the edge of the desk and grinned, “Ok, I could’ve told you I had concerns about this place, but I didn’t want to put you on the spot. I figured you might have spotted something going on here as you’re quite...observant!”

She shook her head, “you bastard! Are you telling me I’m a mole?”

He laughed, as despite the slur her eyes shone with humour, “well, you were always a risk as a receptionist!”

She punched his arm with indignation, “I’m a better receptionist than you can afford!”

Cole then explained that there had been a serious of issues related to this resort, and he was no closer to cracking the problem. He was hoping that her being in the heart of the team would throw a light on to the situation.

Amelia agreed, she was enjoying work, and had a feeling that Michel was behind the problems, and the thought of implicating him did please her.

Monday 26^th November 2008

Amelia had a day off, and she’d planned a trip into town, she’d heard good things about some of the shops from Helen one of the other receptionists. She was looking for the perfect wedding present for Li and Daichi. She had an idea in her head of the sort of thing she wanted - something relevant yet personal, and something that they’d keep forever, ideal description, but putting pictures to the idea was proving difficult. Every evening she trawled the Internet looking for something, but as yet it had evaded her.

As she was jumping on the shuttle bus for town, her phone bleeped. Looking at the text, she smiled. She was being summoned to a luxury yacht at the harbour for lunch with her boss. The cheek of him she thought, as she typed a reply. She had plenty of time to shop first.

The town was exactly as she imagined, colourful and colonial. Market stalls dressed the pavements and the traders competed to outshout each other.

Browsing, haggling and buying took up most of the morning, and a glance at her watch showed her she was almost late for her rendezvous. So she scuttled back across town to the large harbour.

The Stirling Rose was a formidable sight. She’d seen a lot bigger in the various ports around the Med, and also in Hawaii, but it was still something to behold and seemed to grow rapidly as she walked along the wooden walkway to where it was moored.

Cole appeared on the deck, in a pair of surf shorts and nothing else.

                “Hey employee! How goes it?”

Shaking her head she climbed on to the deck, “watch it Cole, I bite!”

Laughing he led her into the shade of an awning to a table laid for lunch.

                “Wine?” She nodded, and then accepted the ice cold glass. “So...what’s been happening?”

                “You mean what have I seen? You won’t like it.”

Amelia outlined the details of all that she’d found, Michel was a tyrant, and seemed to hound particularly the local workers. It gave almost carte blanche to the other staff to act the same way. She highlighted a two tier staffing system where bullying was rife, and the pièce de résistance was the outcome. When these staff resigned, he kept them on the payroll for at least six weeks to recoup their money.

Cole’s face was aghast, his jaw slack, his mouth open. Finally he managed to speak, “are you sure?”

She nodded, “and I presume you’ll want evidence.” Rooting around in her large shoulder bag, she pulled out a file and handed it to him. “I can prove the bullying, but I can prove that the people on this list terminated work at least three weeks before you stopped paying them.”

He was shaking his head in disbelief, “you are the Queen of Industrial Espionage. I take off my hat.” Cole started to browse through the folder, all the time is disbelief growing. “This isn’t just a breach of trust, this is criminal fraud.”

She nodded, and handed him a business card, “I informally discussed this with a detective at the police department here. He’s awaiting your call!”

Cole disappeared inside and she could see him making a few phone calls, so she sat back and enjoyed the warmth of the day. When he emerged twenty minutes later he was still incredulous.

                “I’ve spoken to your detective; I’m going to meet him later. And I’ve just brought my Dad up to speed. He’s both furious, and ecstatic. He wants to employ you permanently as a trouble shooter.”

She laughed, “You know that I’m leaving in a few weeks. You’ve got enough time to find a new manager?”

                “Of course. But what are you going to do next?”

She held her glass out for a refill, “I’m being a bridesmaid, that’s the most important thing. Then,” she thought for a moment, “I’m going to make good with my father. Once Li’s married I will have lost my only family, I don’t like that thought. I figure sorting things out with my father may make me feel like I belong somewhere.”

Cole lounged opposite her, “well as bad as my father is, having use of this yacht, this job...it’s not the worst thing in the World.” Smiling he added, “You deserve more Amelia, you really do.”

Amelia reached for a piece of ciabatta that was sliced as a centrepiece to the table, “I thought losing my job in New York would be the end of me, but I’ve loved coming here and realising that I can do anything I turn my hand to. Originally I was thinking of some sort of business back home, but for that I really need to clear the air with Dad.”

Cole called in for their dinner to be served, and then turned back to her, “if you ever need investment, I am more than happy to oblige, you’re an asset not a risk in my book.”

Grinning, she waited until her lunch of grilled sea bass was placed in front of her before replying, “that is a really nice thing to say, and I have to say that I will remember that Cole!”

Tuesday 10^th December 2008

Home! Just where was that now?  Amelia wondered as she boarded her flight for London. She didn’t know anymore, but she did know that as she headed to London, to Li, that this was as close as it got. Smiling, she found her iPod and found something that met her mood, then closed her eyes, curbing her excitement for Li’s big day.