He held out his hand to her and she took it without hesitation as Paul guided her out of the office and into the common area where the coffee machine was. As she let go of his hand, he put his hand on her lower back and gently pushed her towards the sofa to sit down while he got the coffee. As he handed her the steaming cup of liquid, theirs eyes met in mutual understanding and Paul gently rested his hand on her arm.

March 2018

37

As soon as Claire stepped into the office, she sensed something was wrong. Elaine, back from her sick leave, was the first person she saw and instead of her usual good morning, she quickly picked up the phone and spoke into it, not meeting Claire’s eye. As she walked through the open-plan office, she felt eyes upon her but when she met their gaze, heads quickly dropped.

What was going on?

She was about to go into her office, when she saw the blinds of the main meeting room were drawn. Dropping her bags and coat inside her office, she went to investigate. Peering through the crack in the blinds, she saw Julia and the senior leadership team gathered around the table. They were standing up, clearly having finished whatever business they had been discussing but still listening intently to what Julia was saying.

Claire quickly checked the calendar on her phone. Had she missed a management meeting? There was nothing in her calendar. She was just checking she was looking at today’s date when the door opened and Julia appeared.

‘Claire – do you have a minute?’ Not waiting for a response, Julia headed back into the room and Claire waited as everybody else filed out. No one looked her in the eye.

‘What’s going on, Julia?’ asked Claire coming into the room and shutting the door behind her. She looked at her partner, immaculate as always, but her face was troubled.

‘Maybe you should sit down for this, Claire,’ said Julia, walking towards the window, her arms crossed.

‘I’m fine – what’s going on?’ she replied, joining Julia at the window.

Julia turned towards her and for a second, Claire was reminded of a nature programme she had watched, Lions in the Wild, or something like that. Two females had circled each other, one eyeballing the other, as they fought to see who would crack first.

‘Julia!’ cried Claire, her impatience finally rising to the surface.

‘I’m so sorry, Claire – I really don’t know how to tell you this.’

‘What?’

‘We have to take you off the Rose Aiker case.’

Claire sat down, half relieved, half puzzled. ‘That’s it? That’s what you wanted to tell me? Fine. But why all the drama? Did she complain about me because I told her she couldn’t just come into my office anytime she wanted? You know I never wanted that case any—’