Well, that was unexpected.
‘Oh! Right, okay, yes, give me the information, let’s have a look,’ Laurel held her hand out for the folder and slid the tidy colour coded pages out, flicking through them quickly. Her eyes landed on the fee at the bottom of the last page. Wow. That was a lot.
‘I think I’d be good at it.’ Sylvie swallowed and wiped her hands on her thighs. ‘And it would be super beneficial for the farm, I could take a lot of work off of your hands, and I would only be out one day a week.’
Laurel’s mind whirred quickly. It was nearly unbelievable that she’d found the amazingly talented Sylvie in this little place anyway, but a Sylvie with business degree superpowers? Yes please. If Sylvie did this with the help of the farm, she’d be guaranteed to stay at least until the end of the degree which, part time, could be years.
‘I think it’s a fantastic idea, really good,’ she said.
Sylvie’s shoulders sagged in relief. Was she really that scary that Sylvie was nervous asking her? But it was a lot of money. She’d have to see if there were instalment options and whether they could cover Sylvie when she was out that one day a week.
‘I’ll have to look through it and see if it’s feasible money-wise, but I think it’s a really, really good idea.’
Sylvie grinned. ‘Thanks Laurel. I want to move my career on, but I love it here, so I thought this would be the best of both worlds?’
‘Yeah, I agree.’ Laurel smiled back at her.
‘The application deadline is next month, I’ve highlighted the date for you on the front sheet,’ Sylvie said. She would fly through this business course.
‘You’re an asset, Sylvie, you really are.’
Sylvie beamed and stood up.
‘Laurel, thank you so much, I knew you’d be supportive.’ She headed to the door. ‘I won’t let you, or Little Willow, down.’
‘I know you won’t, Sylvie,’ Laurel said.
Sylvie let out a squeal and skipped away. Well, that was a management win in Laurel’s book. It was a no-brainer really. If she could make it work financially, then Sylvie would be on that course. Laurel smiled to herself as she sat down behind her desk and added ‘Sylvie – Course’ to the bottom of her to do list. Everything else was on her computer, but she liked the satisfaction of drawing a nice biro line through items as she completed them.
Her phone buzzed.
Laurel’s grin quickly turned into a scowl.
It was kind of nice that he had wanted to talk to her, although she’d been unable to keep her annoyance tamped down. Really, he had no obligation to tell her where he was going to be, but a bit of courtesy wouldn’t go amiss. Laurel realised that and, like a proper grown up, had moved past it. She hadn’t lied, she did have a lot to do at the moment.
The meeting with the bank today would be her yes or no as to whether she’d receive the extra funding to buy Hibberts fields and consequently, whether she could save that little part of Lower Houghton from being overdeveloped by big building companies.
Because that was another thing playing on her mind. Alex. Surely he couldn’t still be as big of a douche as he was ten years ago?
Oh god, she’d pressed send before her mind had caught up. How unprofessional was that? Considering Alex was still Nate’s best friend as well. Christ. She watched those dots move back and forth across the screen.
Ha. Like he didn’t know. She scowled at the phone. Why had she even said that? It was a written invitation to bring to the surface everything that she had worked so hard to push all the way down.
Whatever. She didn’t have the head space to think about Nate Daley right now.
Laurel checked her makeup and opened the secure meeting website with the bank. She pasted on a smile as her business manager joined the meeting.
Nate
Laurel looked both flustered and resigned when she sat down at his table, plopping a teapot and mismatched cup and saucer down in front of her.
‘So, you do drink tea,’ he said.
Laurel nodded slowly.
‘I do drink tea, and I drink peppermint tea. Just not when it’s boiling hot in my office,’ she said, sitting back in her chair and sighing.
‘How was your meeting?’
