‘Well, I think I’d like to keep busy. I know this is your home and everything but, while you’re away, would it be possible for me to do some work in the studio? I’d like to finalise the photographs for the exhibition and it will help me take my mind off what happened.’
‘Of course you can. I think we have to do whatever works for each of us to get through this. I’ll let you have a key and the security code, and you can come and go as you please.’
‘Thank you.’
She got up to make her way to bed. For a moment they were standing so close to each other and he was looking at her as though he was about to kiss her. It felt as though time was standing still and she leaned towards him, longing to feel his lips on hers.
But Daniel took a step backwards and she flushed at the thought of what she’d wanted to do.
‘I’d better get some sleep.’ She turned away from him so he wouldn’t see her blushing face.
‘Good idea,’ he replied.
* * *
Daniel couldn’t sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, images of the previous evening flashed in front of him. The initial bang, followed by the dark silence and the strange floating sensation, then the buzzing in his ears and feeling like he was choking on black dust, before the sprinkler system turned the dust to mud. Then had come the terrible realisation that Anna, who had been standing by his side before the explosion, wasn’t there anymore.
In a panic he’d shouted her name, but she hadn’t replied, so he’d begun to gently explore the debris around him until he’d found her lying half-submerged under fallen rubble.
The relief when she’d answered him was overwhelming. How they had both survived relatively unharmed was a miracle. But if tonight had proved anything to him, it was how fragile life was. There one minute, gone the next. Over the last few weeks his feelings for Anna had grown dramatically. But he was her boss, so he’d always tried to push thoughts of her to the back of his mind. Like the way she crinkled up her nose when she wasconcentrating, and tucked her gorgeous auburn hair behind her ear when she was editing a photo. Or the way her skinny jeans fitted her long legs and neat little bottom to perfection.
Daniel groaned and tried to ignore his arousal. But tonight, after fearing he’d lost her, after seeing how compassionate she was, how her immediate response had been to try to help those who had been less fortunate than themselves, he’d begun to realise — boss or no boss — he was falling in love with her. And he didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to keep that under wraps. Tonight, in the kitchen, he had been so close to her, breathing in her apple-shampoo-scented hair, that he had almost kissed her. Almost. At one point he’d felt as though she would welcome his kiss, but then his courage had failed him. The moment was lost and he’d moved away.
He groaned again as he thought how much he had wanted to kiss her. And how pointless his feelings were. One night over a glass of wine, Anna had gone into more detail about her previous relationship with her boss at The Whigmore. And while Daniel’s blood boiled at the way she had been treated, what had really stuck in his mind was how emphatic she’d been about never mixing work with a relationship again.
Eventually Daniel slept but woke several hours later with a start, dreaming of the explosion and the horrors of the night before. Realising he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep for a while, he pulled on a bathrobe and padded downstairs.
The light was on in the kitchen and he wondered if he’d forgotten to switch it off before going up to bed. Then he saw Anna’s figure huddled at the breakfast bar, her hands wrapped around a mug. She looked up when he walked in.
‘Couldn’t sleep,’ she said as an explanation.
‘No, me neither.’
‘Kettle’s just boiled.’
He walked over to switch the kettle back on and began to make a cup of tea. There didn’t appear to be any words to express what they were both thinking and feeling, but he desperately wanted to talk to her, to tell her about the sense of loss he’d felt when he couldn’t find her after the initial explosion, but he didn’t know where to begin.
‘I suppose as we’re both up we could make a start on the photos.’ She interrupted his thoughts.
‘Yes, I suppose so.’ He didn’t want to think about the photos, didn’t want to see the glamour of the night before, when in his head all he could see was the horror afterwards. But he knew they had to be done, that they were especially important after what had happened, and that time was of the essence.
They made their way upstairs and started to sort through them. He imagined that the police would want them in the order they had been taken so that they could identify the positions they had all been in, directly before the explosion. Anna gasped as they came across a shot of Eva, tall and glamorous, her soulful eyes looking into the lens as though she was seeing the person beyond.
As they waited for the images to upload Daniel was hyper-aware of his closeness to her, doing everything in his power to resist the urge to reach out and touch her. The sooner they could get these photographs over to the magazine, the better. A few days in Cheshire with Ben would give him the time and space he needed to get his feelings back under control. Maybe this was just a reaction to the night before and, after a few days, his feelings would settle down and they would be able to carry on working together as normal.
* * *
Anna was struggling to concentrate too. Her mind was just a whirlwind of emotions, and she couldn’t stop comparing whatwas in front of her to the destruction of what had happened afterwards. They didn’t even know whether the pictures they were looking at were of people who had survived.
‘I think we should send these photos through to the magazine as they are. As soon as possible. Let them decide what they want to do with them. They might even decide not to run the article under the circumstances.’
‘Yes, of course, you’re right. My head’s all over the place. As soon as they’re uploaded, I’ll ping them over to the magazine. Let’s get something to eat while we wait, and I’ll give the magazine a ring.’
When they reached the kitchen, Daniel flicked on the screen and the room was filled with scenes of devastation from the night before and the sombre voiceover. They watched in stunned silence as the faces of the dead appeared on screen, some of whom were the faces they had been looking at upstairs.
‘I’m going to phone the editor. I imagine he’ll be in the office already, despite the hour.’
Anna listened as he was put straight through. It was difficult to make out what was being said as Daniel merely answered, ‘Yes,’ then, ‘No,’ then, ‘I’ll send them over and let me know which ones you want me to edit later.’
