After All - Part Five

Chapter Five

Mattie had changed and started on with her work when her phone rang. Looking at the screen she sighed, it was her father. He was heading to Thailand the following day, three winter months spent with her brother in the sun was his usual treat, and whilst him being away meant she had less to worry about, she missed him desperately too.

                “Hi Dad.”

Jimmy Davies was her hero, now in his seventies, he was still a mountain of a man, and he never failed to cheer her up, usually with a huge bear hug. He had been a police detective through her adolescence but had retired whilst she was at University, he and her mother had spent the next few years holidaying, seeing the world and doing all the things they’d promised themselves they would. Until her mother died. So quickly and out of the blue. Since then her father had been a lost soul. Almost six years on and he still wasn’t really over it.

                “Matilda. I’m starting to panic as there’s only three days till I travel. Will you come for tea first?”

Her going to her father’s for tea was another pre trip ritual that they had got into over the years. But now with her new associate breathing down her neck she wasn’t so confident that she could make it.

As if he sensed her hesitation he added, “I can’t travel if you don’t!”

Her father lived in Oxfordshire, a fair trip out of London, and one she would struggle to make before he left the country.

                “I’ve got a few really busy days ahead. Can I meet you in London? That little Italian place you’ve been telling me about?”

He ummed and ahhed, and Mattie knew it wasn’t what he wanted, but she had to be harsh, “Dad, life it hectic at the moment, I’m SO busy. Please meet me in town?”

Reluctantly he agreed.

Hanging up with a sigh, she started work. The day to day running of a complex the size of the Sunset Golf and Country Club was huge, she constantly had databases to upgrade, wages and pay cards to co ordinate, staff rotas, bookings...she was never short of things to do, and one she got into embroiled in things, time seemed to pass quickly. Soon she’d have managed her daily tasks and could make her way home.

Dylan had compiled lists of everything he intended to do, his new office was far better than the one Matilda had offered, and now that he was in place and connected to the work intranet, he could start compiling the lists and information that he wanted. When he was busy he didn’t have to think about the confrontation he’d just run away from. She’d divorced him, he was not at fault here, no matter what she said, SHE’d hurt him. He’d make her see that, but now wasn’t the time, he was too busy.

                “Dylan?”

The phone ringing had disturbed him working and lifting the handset automatically he almost jumped in surprise to hear his personal assistant from his New Your office at the other end. Since he’d set eyes on Matilda he’s almost forgotten that he still had a life elsewhere. Brandy was a fifty two year old gem, she managed every aspect of his life, and most of the time he was able to ignore the way she pronounced his name as ‘Di-larn’.

                “Brandy, hi!”

She tutted, “you promised me you’d send me all the info for the Barker deal as soon as you landed...you haven’t so now I have to work a Sunday!”

He groaned, “sorry Brandy. I’ll email now, and fax the signed papers. You’re in Manhattan?”

                “Oh yes. Whilst my family are all sitting down to a huge lunch without me.”

That made him instantly laugh, “really? A - it’s only eight am your side of the Atlantic so you have AGES to get home, and B - you HATE family lunches. I KNOW you Brandy Collier!”

Her laugh when it came was a peal of giggles and it made him smile, “is this the wrong time to tell you your mother called?”

He groaned, slumping back in his chair and closed his eyes, “really?”

Brandy laughed again, “oh yes. Wants to know if you’ll go see her. She has no idea you’re in London already.”

If he had his way there was no way that she’d ever know about it. He hadn’t seen her for over a year, and her sudden call presumably meant that her newest husband wasn’t pleased with her promiscuous ways. He could feel heat flood his face, how embarrassing when your mother was such a tart.

                “Just play dumb?”

Brandy laughed, “don’t suggest that it’s an easy thing for me. Get me the data and I might well do that for you.”

After hanging up the phone, he strode out into the reception.  A young man who he’d not met before was at reception, but he obviously knew him.

                “Mr Wallace. Can I help you?”

He nodded, “I want to play golf, sample the course. Can you book me a tee time? Tomorrow at three?” the man, whose name badge announced was called Mark, nodded.

                “Of course. Anything else Sir?”

He grinned, “lunch. Are there tables in the dining room?”

Mark nodded, “let me just call the maitre’d, he’ll find you a table.”

Dylan smiled, “can you call Miss Davies and tell her to meet me in the restaurant too?”

With wide eyes, he nodded, “ok course Mr Wallace.”

He was sat studying the menu when he felt eyes on him. Looking up he saw the waiter escorting Matilda across the room to her. She wasn’t happy, Dylan could tell that by her scowl, but then he knew that etiquette dictated that she’d come when the receptionist passed on the message, she wasn’t going to make herself look stupid. But she wasn’t about to be happy about it.

As the waiter pulled out a chair, she lowered herself into it and smiled at the young man, “a bottle of Cristal please, Mr Wallace is treating me!”

Dylan stared at her with amusement, she knew the most expensive drink on the menu, and had ordered that. He didn’t care; money was not an issue, not anymore. So instead he grinned, “thanks Gareth, we’ll have two glasses with that.”

As they were left alone, the smile fell from her face, “I am not your minion to be ordered around. I have work to do.”

He rolled his eyes, “for the next few weeks I am going to be in the office next door to you. Are you saying you’re not mature enough to be civil?”

That barb stung, and she dropped her eyes to the menu to hide her scowl of anger. When the champagne arrived they both took a glass then ordered lunch, he a steak, she roast pork belly.

                “So...” he looked at her, “can I ask how your day is going?”

When she shrugged noncommittally, he grinned again, “my mother has been trying to get hold of me. Beat that!”

Maddie immediately laughed, Clarissa was a formidable woman, she had been on her sixth husband when they’d been linked via Dylan. “Is she still happily married?”

He rolled his eyes, “my mother has never been happy in marriage. I fear that she’s traded in another husband, why else would she be calling?”

Mattie sighed, it was sad that his mother had such little maternal responsibility, he was an only child, obviously an accident for a woman who only ever wanted to be the centre of her own world...no place in it for a child. Mattie had met his father Hank, an American from Florida, but he’d died years earlier, just before they had married.

                “I’d say it was to see how you were, but I’d be lying.”

He nodded, “she hasn’t changed, never will. What about you?”

What about her family? Mattie was in no mood to dissect that with him; after all he’d headed off on one of his whims when her mother was taken ill. Did he know that her gentle caring mother had died? Did he care?

Despite the irony that her father had called earlier too, that both of them had had contact with a parent, she wasn’t ready to discuss it at all, so instead of analysing she gave a little shrug, “nothing changes anywhere...”

Thankfully he knew when to stop questioning. As their meals came, he restarted conversation, “will you contact everyone for a ten am meeting? I know Daniel, he’s bar and restaurant manager?” When she nodded, he added, “I want to meet whoever I can...tell them my plans.”

                “Do you want me to be there?”

He nodded, “of course. There’s nothing cloak and dagger here, I’m not an enemy, I’m here to help...you all.”

She laughed, “I know what someone like you is employed to do, assess and asset strip, all it takes is a negative comment from you and Paul will abandon. So forgive me if I’m not rolling out the red carpets. I’m watching you closely, and I won’t let you damage things here. I’ll fight for what I have Dylan Wallace. Have no doubt about that.”

The meeting when it happened was rather understated. Immediately her team took to Dylan, he told his story like a fairytale, he was there to help, to cure, to problem solve. Mattie sat at the end of the table looking at him with scorn, she didn’t believe it.

                “But you know Mattie?” Martin who managed the reception staff had been looking at Dylan with admiration all through the meeting, and Mattie had hoped that it would come to an end before this question was asked. Hermione had seen their reconciliation, and she had the other receptionists were known for their gossiping...she’d just never been the subject before.

Her eyes silently begged Dylan to keep it quiet, but he wasn’t looking at her, and she’d hardly been on his side since he’d entered the hotel. “You’re right Martin, Mattie and I go back a long way...she’s my ex-wife.” Then with a slight grin, ignoring the gasps from around the table, he gestured at a timetable, “I think I have got each of your team members on this list, I want to interview every single one. Any one missed off please inform me.”

As he walked out of the room the four turned to stare at her, Mattie rolled her eyes, “I was young...foolish...EX is the operative word. Ok?”

She watched them leave and knew that she was in for a rough time until there was something else to gossip about.

Four hours later she walked into Piccolo Flower, the ridiculously named Italian restaurant that her father favoured over all others. He’d started to meet some old work friends once a month in the City and it seemed to be a sign that he was finally starting to get back into a life, back into a routine, and starting to enjoy himself without the guilt of her mother not being there.

Jimmy Davies stood when he saw her approach, hugging her in that all encompassing way, Mattie was glad for that brief moment when the last couple of days hadn’t happened.

                “You’ve lost weight!” he announced squeezing her arms in a way that a shopper would squeeze a pineapple, checking for ripeness.

She shook her head, “I’ve started to run a bit, that’s all. Was hoping to do the London Marathon in April, but didn’t get accepted...maybe next year.”

Her Dad shook his head, “what the hell do you want to run that far for?”

Laughing she ordered a glass of wine then looked at the menu, “so you all set for your trip?”

He nodded, “your brother is picking me up at the airport, he wants to take me up into the mountains, apparently, he’s found some place he wants to build a house, thinks I might want to move out there.”

That stunned Mattie, “and does you?”

Her father sighed, “I relax there, there are no memories. Here there are a million places, a million things that we did together; I thought it would get easier.”

She reached out and covered his hand, “don’t feel guilty, for still being here, OR for feeling like that. It’s normal. You were so perfect for each other. But at least you had the thirty five years, hey?”

He nodded, “some don’t get that long.”

Mattie blushed, her marriage lasted three years. Three long and increasingly torturous years, she only wished that she could move on herself. But if there’s one thing she knew, Dylan Wallace’s reappearance in her world was both dangerous and disruptive, and for the first time in a long time she was scared. Scared of what he could do to her, how he could upend everything and once again make her life the living hell it had been until recently.