Free Step Back in Time by Ali McNamara Page B

minutes I’d forgotten all about time travel and working out how to get back home. I simply enjoyed being in the moment – and that was something I never did, now or in the future.
    But I get the feeling it’s not going to be as easy as simply discovering how to enjoy having fun again. Life, whatever life you’re living in, never is.

Seven
    ‘Have you tasted Ellie’s fairy cakes yet?’ Harry asks, bounding into the reception area at EMI. He’s carrying some files and a large cupcake with blue icing and green and pink Smarties on top. ‘They’re delicious!’
    ‘I have, actually,’ I smile as he puts the files down and takes a big bite out of his cake. ‘They’re excellent.’
    ‘They can’t get enough of them upstairs,’ Harry mumbles with a full mouth. ‘I could barely get a look-in. I bet she’s getting plenty of Brownie points.’
    ‘Good. I mean good they’re popular, not good you nearly didn’t get one. So…’ I ask, looking at him as he brushes crumbs off the front of his white shirt. ‘What are
you
going to do?’
    Harry swallows. ‘How do you mean?’
    ‘About the competition, what are you going to try and do to win it?’
    ‘I really don’t know. Everyone is trying everything to get in the bosses’ good books. People are licking up closer to them than they are to Ellie’s icing right now.’
    I laugh. ‘But you want to go, right? To the luncheon? You want to go and meet the Beatles?’
    ‘Too right I do! It’s the chance of a lifetime, isn’t it? But the thing is, I don’t do anything special here, I just shuffle papers around all day, and I sure as hell can’t bake cakes, so what chance do I have of winning?’
    Why do they all seem to think their existence is pointless?
‘There must be something you can do?’ I ask him hopefully. ‘Something special. What do you like doing when you’re not at work, what are you good at?’
    Harry looks down at his shoes and pretends to wipe an imaginary speck of dirt off the toe by rubbing it on his trouser leg. ‘Nothing, I just like my music.’
    ‘That’s all you do, listen to music?’
    Harry’s head snaps up. ‘And what’s wrong with that? God, Jo-Jo, you’re starting to sound just like my dad before I moved out.’
    The irony
. ‘Calm down, I didn’t say there was anything wrong with that, did I? So, do you just listen to music, or do you play anything? Like an instrument?’
    Harry fiddles with the lapel of his grey jacket now. ‘I’ve been known to play a bit of guitar, on occasion.’
    ‘Really? Are you any good?’
    ‘No. Look, I gotta be going, I only popped down to deliver these files and eat my cake quickly. I’ll catch you later, Jo-Jo.’ And before I can say anything else he spins around and disappears through the double doors.
    I sigh; I was only trying to help.
    I gather up the files Harry’s left on the desk and sort them into the piles waiting to be collected by Mr Maxwell and Sir Joseph Lockwood’s secretaries. Sir Joseph is the managing director and I’m not sure why all these files have to be delivered here to me at reception first, but apparently that’s what’s always happened, so I arrange them as neatly as possible into two piles on my desk.
    My telephone buzzes.
    ‘Have you all the files yet, girl?’ Mr Maxwell barks down the line at me.
    ‘Yes, they’re right here, Mr Maxwell, I’m just waiting for Prudence to come down and collect them.’
    ‘Prudence has gone home. Her son, or her daughter, or was it her dog? – I don’t know, something equally inconvenient to me – has been taken ill.’
    ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
    ‘Yes, well, it means I need you to bring the files up to me as soon as reception is free for you to do so.’
    ‘OK… I mean, yes sir, I’ll do that sir, just as soon as I can, sir.’
    ‘Hmm…’ I hear before the line goes dead.
    As soon as reception is empty I scoop the files up from the desk and head up to the top floor.
    When I reach Mr Maxwell’s