Chapter 1
Vic Ellison had been away from work since the end of the summer, and no one knew where he’d gone or why. The office gossip ranged between him getting run over by a truck, going to jail, or being abducted by aliens. The whole speculation thing just made me laugh, of course. It’d never be anything as outrageous as that, because he just wasn’t the kind of person those things happened to. After a few weeks, I doubt many of the staff gave him any further thought.
I’d thought I was the same. But, to my surprise, I missed him.
It was a shock to us all when he came back to work months later with no prior notice, and as our new manager, too. He walked straight into the staff room in the middle of lunch break—we were putting up the Halloween decorations for the staff party at the end of the month. He had a grin that was obviously pitched at “firm yet friendly management,” and he shook a few hands. He took some teasing from the girls with good humour, though considering they’d been so dismissive about him before, the new respect in their manner was pretty hypocritical. Then he turned to speak to me in that strangely old-fashioned way of his.
“It’s a pleasure to see you again, James. You look good.”
I didn’t know quite how to take him. He’d been gone for months without giving me any warning he was moving on or leaving any message. At that moment, I had an armful of orange and black streamers and a pile of paper bat-shapes I was meant to be sticking to the ceiling, but all I could do was glare at him. I wasn’t usually stuck for a smart-arse reply, but Vic’s reappearance disturbed me in all kind of ways. His gaze was calm, but with that simmering intensity I remembered from before, and I shivered even though the room was well heated. His look felt like an appraisal, and I wasn’t sure I liked him taking the upper hand like that.
“Checking me out?” I asked, rather belligerently. One of the other assistants behind me shushed my rudeness, but I ignored her. “Now you’re in charge, maybe some of us don’t fit the new style.” Like me? It wasn’t as if I’d ever been one to toe the corporate line.
He frowned. “I don’t know what you mean.” There was the slightest flicker of worry in his eyes, but I don’t think anyone saw it except for me.
“Maybe you’ll be making some staff changes,” I said crudely. What was I meant to think about this unexpected return? He’d left without a word. “New management, new broom and all that.”
“That’s an interesting choice of words,” Vic said. He raised his eyebrows and repeated my words, thoughtfully. “Staff changes.” He didn’t look annoyed at me—rather the opposite, actually. Moving past the open-mouthed girls, he came to stand less than a foot away from me. “James?” he said, more hesitantly. I stared back at him. Despite the hand-shaking and the new senior appointment, his expression showed a wide-eyed apprehension. “James, I’m not here to disturb things. You shouldn’t feel threatened. In fact, it’s really very good to see you again. I want things to be the same as before.”
The same as before? I stared at him and saw his nervous half-grin—the desperation so obvious in his concentrated, possessive stare. Yeah, just the same as before.
And yet, things were a damned sight different, too.
