Free The Girl in the Yellow Vest by Loretta Hill Page B

take this the wrong way.’
    ‘Yes?’ she said again.
    ‘You are a very attractive woman.’ On these words, he slammed the door in her face and went back to the table. Grabbing a stray pen next to the tough bag he put a line through item one.
    With a grim smile he looked up at the ceiling again. ‘Happy, dear?’

Mark arrived at work the next morning a man on a mission. A mission to forget the list his wife had sent him the night before, the list he hadn’t been able to throw out and which was now burning a hole in his pocket. He glared at his secretary as she handed him his thankfully white coffee and gave him a wide berth. He watched the faces of his men hastily turn away as he moved through the open-plan layout to his office at the back of the room. Hands busied themselves shuffling papers that didn’t need to be shuffled. The only person who didn’t look away was William Steward. The boy sat there staring at him as if he were a problem that needed to be fixed. He stopped by the twenty-something’s computer, returning his gaze over the top of the screen.
    ‘Can I assist you with something, William?’ he purred, just daring the little graduate to voice his concern. He could do with a punching bag this morning and a fresh-out-of-uni boy scout who thought he was going to change the world was just the sort of fly he needed to squash.
    The boy finally lowered his eyes. ‘Nothing that can’t wait, sir.’
    ‘Oh be a sport, tell me now.’
    ‘I thought you might like to attend to your morning emails first, sir.’
    Was he such a predictable bastard? Time to change that. ‘Not today. Today I’m sorting you out first.’
    ‘I’m glad, sir.’ William murmured.
    His gaze swung to the bowed head, trying to work out whether the boy was making fun of him or not, but there didn’t seem to be any hostility in his body language. Boy Scout was always so gracious by nature, though of course it was usually the quiet ones you had to watch out for. He gritted his teeth. ‘Tell me your concern.’
    ‘I actually have several.’ William lifted his eyes. ‘It just seems to me like we need more hands on deck if we’re going to have the wharf ready for the shiploader when it gets here.’
    ‘Barking up this tree again, William.’
    ‘I’m not merely barking, sir.’ William folded his arms in a restful fashion that for some reason annoyed Mark no end. ‘I’ve actually compiled a list I’d like you –’
    This touched a nerve. ‘What is it with you people and lists?!’
    William blinked at this outburst and Mark felt himself colouring up at his uncharacteristic show of emotion. He reined himself in. ‘My apologies, go on.’ He waved his hand.
    William pulled a conveniently printed document out of the drawer next to his hip. ‘I’ve written a list of things I need to do before the shiploader gets here and it’s massive. Clearly the job of two people, not one.’ He opened the document to the next page. ‘So I sort of split the task into two areas so that two people can progress independently of each other and it works quite well. Considering the fact that we were going to get Lena Todd over here and couldn’t, we should still try for someone else. If you’d just look over this list –’
    ‘Put it away. I’m not reading it,’ Mark snapped at him. He raised his voice to address the eavesdroppers on his left and right who were not so subtly listening in. ‘Nor will I read any other list of items any of you comes up with. I’m done with lists.’
    ‘But, sir –’ William began.
    ‘Get your hard hat and vest, William, we’re going out.’ He inclined his head. ‘You can
show
me.’
    Surprise and also pleasure lit the boy’s face before Mark marched back past Ann’s desk, dumping his coffee in front of her. ‘I won’t be needing this.’
    He proceeded to the door where he grabbed a hat and vest off the hooks. Shoving his arms through the fluoro high-visibility garment that did up with Velcro in the