‘Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t,’ he says with a casual shrug. ‘You could have misheard me? I’m your boss’s assistant.’
‘Oh God,’ I say – for maybe the millionth time. ‘I can’t believe I shagged my boss’s assistant… in his house… in hisbed.’
‘Huh,’ Chris says thoughtfully. He sounds almost amused. ‘There’s so much to unpack there. Let’s start with the fact that, the part you seem to be the most upset with, in all of that, is the thought of sleeping with an assistant.’
‘Don’t you dare flip this around on me,’ I reply angrily. ‘You’re responsible for all of this. I really, really need to leave.’
‘And I keep telling you, you can’t,’ Chris says again.
He grabs the remote and flicks on the TV on the wall in the kitchen. Then he gets back to his pancakes.
I sit down at the island in the middle of the kitchen, as the gravity of what they are talking about on the news hits me. It turns out, while we were sleeping, the snowstorm that had been threatening to hit for days, has hit – and it’s much worse than they expected, especially here in the north.
‘Shit,’ I say softly.
They’re showing clips of people in different locations and it’s bad. It’s really bad. There’s no traffic. No public transport. People are stranded places –Iam strandedhere. In my boss’s house. Without permission to be here.
Richard Adams, whose house this is, is the big boss of the law firm I work for. I say firm, but that makes it sound smaller than it is, he started one of the first chains of law firms. He has offices all over the country so I’m not surprised at all that he has such a big house. Last night was our post-Christmas party – a classy affair at a luxurious 5-star hotel so, when I hit it off with Chris, why couldn’t we just check in there? I remember we went to a club afterwards, and I kind of remember ending up here, but the night gets blurrier as it goes on.
‘How did we end up here?’ I ask, hoping he knows.
‘Richard left me his car keys and asked me to drive his car back here and park his car in the garage. I was under strict instruction to drive back here today and lock it safely away. When I drove him to the party from here yesterday, he locked the door that leads from the garage to the house, and he put the key in the glovebox. I guess I took it out, when we were looking for somewhere to go, and we ended up back here.’
Chris tells this story like it’s no big deal.
‘So, his car is still in the city?’ I ask.
‘Yes,’ Chris replies.
‘And I’m stuck on an island, in his house, with no way of going anywhere, and we’re not supposed to be here?’
Chris thinks for a second.
‘Well, yes,’ he says. ‘But look on the bright side – I didn’t drive while I was drunk!’
‘WhereisRichard?’ I ask, ignoring his so-called silver lining.
‘He’s gone skiing with his family for New Year,’ Chris replies. ‘So at least the place is ours for a few days.’
‘Would you listen to yourself?’ I say, jumping to my feet. ‘We’re trespassing here.’
‘Only technically,’ Chris replies with a smile.
‘Chris, I’m a paralegal at Richard’s law firm – do you think he’s going to buy for a second that I believe this might be OK?’
Chris places a plate of pancakes down on the island in front of me.
‘Just calm down for a minute and eat these pancakes,’ he insists. ‘Look, thankfully Richard doesn’t have CCTV, and he’s away for a few days, and if we can’t leave here then he can’t get back. If there’s been a snowstorm he won’t be expecting me to have driven his car back this morning, so we’re off the hook. We just need to be out of here, with no sign we’ve been here, as soon as we can.’
I realise that we don’t have much choice, and that there’s nowhere else we can go, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. Why, why, why did I do this? This is why I never do anything like this, becausethisis a disaster.
‘We just need to make the best of it,’ Chris says. ‘It’s a big, sick house and it’s all ours. For now.’
I puff air from my cheeks and try to let out a little of my stress. I suppose he’s right but I’m still terrified we’re going to get in trouble.
‘We do need to make sure no one can tell we’ve been here though,’ he says.
‘Of course,’ I reply.
