Summer With My Sister Read Online Free PDF Page A

go anywhere. She wanted to stay in her safe, warm cage – office, rather. Her PC, her phone, her filing cabinet . . . these were all the cornerstones of her world. These things were her world. What did she have, without this place? She spent more time here than in her actual apartment; she often ate dinner here, she’d even slept here occasionally on the stylish grey sofa when she was up against a deadline. And to have it all taken away from her, pulled out from under her feet . . .
    She clutched at the table, dizzy and light-headed. Shit. She hadn’t seen that one coming. She’d had absolutely no idea. Usually you got a premonition of bad news at the firm: call it the inner radar, call it the twitching feelers, but generally you heard the whispers being passed along the grapevine. This time – nothing. Not even a knowing look. Twelve years of her life she’d given this place and they were just opening the door and pushing her out again, without a second thought. Bastards . Was she even going to get her bonus now? Christ! She needed that money; had already accounted for most of it. They’d better bloody cough up, or . . .
    She grimaced. Or what? She wasn’t sure she had many options all of a sudden.
    She buzzed through to Jake. ‘Get me a coffee,’ she said crisply. ‘And make it a strong one.’
    Damn. What was she going to do? Warrington had told her she had an hour to gather her things and leave the office. One measly hour. She’d wasted ten minutes already just staring around wide-eyed in horror, frozen to the spot as if rigor mortis had set in.
    Her door opened and a burly guy from security appeared with an empty box. ‘This for you, darling?’ he asked. ‘Need a hand clearing your stuff?’
    Polly drew herself up to her full height, which, on these particular heels, was an impressive five foot ten. ‘No,’ she said frostily.
    He shrugged and dumped the box on the desk. ‘Your call. Personal stuff only, all right? Everything else belongs to the company. We’ll check it on the way out.’
    He’d check it on the way out. Polly flushed. Like she was a common criminal, sneaking off with company secrets and juicy dossiers. The nerve of the man. She felt like throwing his wretched box in his porky-pink face. That would show him.
    The door closed and Polly eyed the box. That was it? She was meant to fit twelve years’ worth of belongings into that ? He had to be joking. Did he not realize just how long she’d worked here? She could fill it five times over without breaking a sweat. She shut her eyes for a few seconds, fists clenched at her sides. Then she took a deep breath. She’d better get on with it.
    When Jake came in with her coffee, he stopped and stared. ‘What . . . what’s going on?’
    Polly paused from unhooking a framed certificate on the wall. She’d already taken down the outfits that hung on the back of her door in case of an emergency meeting or a last-minute-invitation to a do. The wine-coloured dress, sparkly black shrug and slate-grey bouclé jacket were now slumped over her desk like dead bodies. ‘I’ve got the boot,’ she replied with a hollow laugh. ‘Been made redundant.’
    Jake looked from Polly to the box and then back at Polly. ‘Really?’
    She nodded, feeling small. Worse than small, actually – insignificant. Just one little cog that was being removed from the machine after spinning diligently as part of its mechanism for what felt like forever. ‘Yep. Got to leave by eleven, Warrington said.’
    ‘Bloody hell. So . . . so what happens now?’
    ‘Well . . .’ She paused and shook back her hair. She mustn’t let him see how rattled she was. ‘Well, I’ll get something else, of course. With all my contacts, there’s bound to be—’
    ‘I didn’t mean you ,’ he said, talking over her. Was that scorn she could detect in his voice? ‘I meant, what’s going to happen in the department? What does this mean for me, for the rest of us?’
    ‘For you?’ She