Captured Read Free Page B

don’t think he’s right for you,” Grace interrupted, putting her cup down. “He’s a nice guy; I’m sure you’ll work things out. That or you can finally hook up with this new hottie on your team you keep talking about.”
    Kirsty reddened. “I don’t keep talking about him,” she shot back.
    “Oh come on,” Grace snorted, drawing a disgusted look from the impeccably-dressed older lady at the next table. “ He’s just so big and broad ,” she continued, mimicking her friend.
    “I never said that,” Kirsty protested.
    “Yes you did. Anyway, what’s going on at work? I thought you were getting on okay.”
    “I was. Richard’s been nitpicking a lot recently though, about the team and the importance of being a team player. Now he’s given golden boy one of my accounts. And I’ll be assisting him! Is that even legal?”
    “Employment law was never my strong suit, hon. I can ask around though if you’d like?”
    Kirsty didn’t look up from stirring her drink. “Yeah, maybe.”
    Grace reached over to the next table and scooped up the newspapers left behind by the couple who had just stood up to leave. They lapsed into comfortable silence.
    “Have you thought about leaving?” Grace asked, finally.
    “I hadn’t really thought of it until the meeting yesterday, and I still haven’t sat down and considered what I’d do. The job market’s in pretty bad shape at the moment.”
    “Why don’t you get out and try something different?” Grace put down her cup and picked up her phone. “Sorry, I’m in the middle of a case. But you should get out of there and do something creative. Travel! You’ve always wanted to...”
    It was true; Kirsty’s plan had been to work for two or three years after university until she had saved enough money, then to travel the world until her money ran out. As the months and years had passed, she had immersed herself in work and lost sight of her goal.
    “I can’t afford to quit Grace!” Kirsty looked up from the magazine she was flicking through. “It’s good money. I’d have to start again if I did something else; I wouldn’t be able to afford the rent! Anyway, isn’t the pot calling the kettle black?”
    Grace sighed and ordered another coffee from the flustered waitress who was hurrying past. “The hours are long, but I’m working towards something. You, on the other hand, have been banging your head against a brick wall. That’s all I’ve got from you for the past few months. You’re wasting your life Kirsty! There’s so much you can do; you don’t have to sit in a box for the rest of your life feeling undervalued. Go teach English in South America. Volunteer in Africa. Do something! Because it really doesn’t sound like you’re going to get very far in the bank.”
    “You’re right about that,” Kirsty shrugged, conceding the point.  “Have you heard from Neil?”
    Grace’s expression hardened. “Nothing. He’s still keeping out of my way. I don’t even know where he’s living.”
    Neil Lennox was an enigma: although he looked the part, with his thick-rimmed glasses and short-sleeved white shirts, his thick, muscled arms and chiselled features hinted that he was very different to the typical IT geek. Grace had written him off as just another invisible member of the IT department until an inconsequential (so she thought) conversation in the lift one drizzly Monday morning.
    When Neil asked her how her weekend had been, Grace grumbled about a parking ticket she had received outside the office the day before. Several hours later, she was wolfing a sandwich at her desk when a message popped up on her screen.
    I hear the Department of Transport system security isn’t up to scratch.
    She was puzzled, but had just started helping out on an absorbing case, so quickly forgot about both the message and the ticket. The following day, she bumped into Neil in a cafe near the office. His mischievous smirk triggered her memory.
    “Did you...” she