restaurant before dessert was served. Guilt at letting Sarah down added impetus to my stride and I caromed between two suited businessmen, earning a very ungentlemanly comment from one of them.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, not even glancing back to see if my apology had been heard.
I looked again at my watch: I had less than twelve minutes until the train left. I was going to have to make a run for it. As I lowered my arm a sudden flash of brilliance arced back at me, momentarily dazzling in the reflection of an overhead light. Damn! That showed how harassed I was, because I couldn’t remember the last time I’d forgotten to hide my ring before taking the tube. In one swift movement I swiveled the large diamond on my ring finger so that it now nestled against my palm, showing only a plain platinum band. Matt would have been furious if he’d known I’d forgotten. He really didn’t like me wearing it for traveling, but what was the point of having such a fabulous engagement ring if it had to be kept locked up in a safe all the time?
God knows how but I made the train with barely secondsto spare. My heart was still thumping furiously in my chest from my sprint down the platform as I stowed my case in the overhead rack; my legs were trembling from the unaccustomed exertion. As I sat down I promised myself that this year my New Year’s resolution would be to actually
go
to the gym I spent so much money on and hadn’t visited for three months or more. In this area of my life as in so many others, all my good intentions had swiftly been buried in an avalanche of work.
I was lucky that Matt was every bit as busy as I was and perfectly understood the demands of my job, otherwise we’d never have survived together until now. Long hours at the office, plans that had to be canceled at the last minute, late nights and working weekends, these were all things we were equally familiar with. When I thought about it, when I had a free second to think about
anything
that wasn’t work-related, I wondered how anyone ever managed to find the balance between a successful career and a relationship. And if at the back of my mind there was a nagging voice telling me that things shouldn’t be the way they were right now, then I just ignored it, telling myself this was only a temporary glitch and that everything would be sure to settle down sometime next year when Matt and I eventually found somewhere to live together. That’s supposing we ever found enough time to clear our schedules to go flat hunting.
Perhaps if I still didn’t feel very much the “new girl” at the magazine, I’d be able to relax more. But each time I considered doing less, I could hear the echo of doubts that had been voiced at my interview as my prospective employers read my CV, detailing my very provincial two years’ experience on a local newspaper. But I had, against all the odds, been offered the job above people who I knew were far better qualifiedand experienced than I was. That was eight months ago, and I was still trying to prove both to them and, more importantly, to myself that they had made the right decision. And if that meant being the first to arrive each day and the last one to leave at night … well, that’s just what I had to do. For now.
But I’d lately realized that I was seeing more of the office nighttime cleaners than I was my own fiancé, which made me consider that perhaps I needed to relax my work regime a little. And it wasn’t only Matt I had been neglecting. I hadn’t been back to Great Bishopsford to see my father for nearly six months, and it was really not to my credit that I’d continually postponed visiting him, knowing I’d be going back in December anyway for Sarah’s wedding.
The train rattled through a station, the waiting commuters a multicolored blur as we flashed past. It was only when we bulleted back into the darkness that I caught the reflection of the man sitting diagonally opposite me on the other side of the
“Sorry,” I mumbled, not even glancing back to see if my apology had been heard.
I looked again at my watch: I had less than twelve minutes until the train left. I was going to have to make a run for it. As I lowered my arm a sudden flash of brilliance arced back at me, momentarily dazzling in the reflection of an overhead light. Damn! That showed how harassed I was, because I couldn’t remember the last time I’d forgotten to hide my ring before taking the tube. In one swift movement I swiveled the large diamond on my ring finger so that it now nestled against my palm, showing only a plain platinum band. Matt would have been furious if he’d known I’d forgotten. He really didn’t like me wearing it for traveling, but what was the point of having such a fabulous engagement ring if it had to be kept locked up in a safe all the time?
God knows how but I made the train with barely secondsto spare. My heart was still thumping furiously in my chest from my sprint down the platform as I stowed my case in the overhead rack; my legs were trembling from the unaccustomed exertion. As I sat down I promised myself that this year my New Year’s resolution would be to actually
go
to the gym I spent so much money on and hadn’t visited for three months or more. In this area of my life as in so many others, all my good intentions had swiftly been buried in an avalanche of work.
I was lucky that Matt was every bit as busy as I was and perfectly understood the demands of my job, otherwise we’d never have survived together until now. Long hours at the office, plans that had to be canceled at the last minute, late nights and working weekends, these were all things we were equally familiar with. When I thought about it, when I had a free second to think about
anything
that wasn’t work-related, I wondered how anyone ever managed to find the balance between a successful career and a relationship. And if at the back of my mind there was a nagging voice telling me that things shouldn’t be the way they were right now, then I just ignored it, telling myself this was only a temporary glitch and that everything would be sure to settle down sometime next year when Matt and I eventually found somewhere to live together. That’s supposing we ever found enough time to clear our schedules to go flat hunting.
Perhaps if I still didn’t feel very much the “new girl” at the magazine, I’d be able to relax more. But each time I considered doing less, I could hear the echo of doubts that had been voiced at my interview as my prospective employers read my CV, detailing my very provincial two years’ experience on a local newspaper. But I had, against all the odds, been offered the job above people who I knew were far better qualifiedand experienced than I was. That was eight months ago, and I was still trying to prove both to them and, more importantly, to myself that they had made the right decision. And if that meant being the first to arrive each day and the last one to leave at night … well, that’s just what I had to do. For now.
But I’d lately realized that I was seeing more of the office nighttime cleaners than I was my own fiancé, which made me consider that perhaps I needed to relax my work regime a little. And it wasn’t only Matt I had been neglecting. I hadn’t been back to Great Bishopsford to see my father for nearly six months, and it was really not to my credit that I’d continually postponed visiting him, knowing I’d be going back in December anyway for Sarah’s wedding.
The train rattled through a station, the waiting commuters a multicolored blur as we flashed past. It was only when we bulleted back into the darkness that I caught the reflection of the man sitting diagonally opposite me on the other side of the
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