Tony Hill u Carol Jordan 08 - Cross and Burn

his bereaved colleague.
    Marie broke stride momentarily then caught up. ‘And he’s in here at this time of the morning?’
    Rob shrugged. ‘He says he’d rather be here than staring at the walls at home. Fine by me. I mean, it’s been three or four months now.’ He turned and gave her a dark smile. ‘We’re fucked if he starts claiming his TOIL though.’
    Marie made a noncommittal noise and followed him into a generous cubicle at the end of the room. A desk, two chairs. A couple of whiteboards and a paper recycling bin. Rob gave a cynical little bow. ‘Home sweet home.’
    ‘It’s a decent size, at least.’ Marie put her laptop on the desk, tucked her bag in a drawer and hung her coat on a hook on the back of the door. ‘Now, first things first. Where’s the coffee and what’s the system?’
    Rob smiled. ‘Follow me.’ He led her back into the main office. ‘You buy tokens from Charyn on the front desk. Five for a pound.’ As they grew closer to his workspace, the light from Gareth Taylor’s pod revealed a door tucked away in a nearby alcove. It led to a small room furnished with a pair of coffee machines. Rob gestured at a series of bins that contained little plastic pods. ‘You choose your poison, slot the pod in the machine and pay for it with a token.’ He rummaged in the pocket of his chinos and produced a red disc. ‘Have your first one on me.’ He handed it over as if conferring a great honour. ‘I’ll let you get settled in.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘One or two things I need to deal with before the hordes arrive. I’ve arranged a meeting with key personnel at half eight in the small conference room. Ask anybody, they’ll direct you.’
    And that was it. He was gone, leaving Marie with an array of beverage choices. She opted for a cappuccino and was pleasantly surprised by the result. She stepped back into the main office, where there were now three or four illuminated work stations. She decided to start getting to know her staff and moved towards Gareth Taylor, consciously applying a warm smile.
    He glanced up as she approached, his expression startled. His fingers flew over the keyboard and as she rounded the corner of his partition, she had the impression of a computer screen quickly refreshing. It looked like Tellit resembled everywhere Marie had worked, with employees who liked to feel they were scoring points by doing their own thing in company time with company resources. Human nature, the same all over. It was a tendency that didn’t bother Marie, so long as productivity was acceptable and nobody took the piss.
    ‘Hi. I’m Marie Mather. The new marketing director.’ She held out a hand.
    Gareth accepted the handshake with no enthusiasm. His hand was cool and dry, the pressure firm but not aggressive. ‘I figured that’s who you must be. I’m Gareth Taylor, one of the screen and phone grunts.’
    ‘I prefer to think of you as frontline staff.’
    Gareth raised his eyebrows. ‘Doesn’t change the reality.’
    ‘You’re in early.’
    He shook his head, sighing. ‘Look, I know Rob will have given you the bullet points. Coming to work is the only consistent thing in my life right now. I don’t want sympathy. I’m not like him with his “pity me, my wife left me” shtick. I just want to be left alone to get on with things, all right?’ His voice was tight with frustration. She could only imagine how hard it was to deal with other people’s well-meaning interference on top of such a devastating loss.
    Marie leaned forward and peered at his screen. ‘Message received and understood. So what are you working on?’
    She’d hoped he might at least smile. Instead, he scowled. ‘It won’t mean anything to you till you’ve got your feet under the table. I’m implementing a strategy to switch silver surfer customers to long-term contracts. And I think we’re doing it wrong, so maybe you might want to come back and talk to me about it when you’re up to speed.’
    There were two ways of taking Gareth’s brusque response. For now, Marie elected to avoid confrontation. ‘I’ll look forward to that.’ She sipped her cappuccino. ‘I’m always happy to hear from my team.’
    Tonight, when she relaxed with a glass of white wine while Marco cooked dinner, she’d enjoy telling him about this encounter. As they often did, they’d set up some light-hearted wagers about how it would go with her new colleagues. Would she win Gareth over or would he be