Haunting Past

Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

“Where is my next meeting being held, Josie?” Jacob Allan was looking over his schedule and realised the meeting that was due to start in 30 minutes didn’t have a venue attached.  He walked into his secretary’s office with his briefcase in hand ready to leave, and noticed that she had the headphones of the Dictaphone in and was typing the letter that he had dictated last night at home.  Jacob reached over and gently tapped her on the shoulder causing her to jump slightly.  She stopped the machine and removed the headphones.

“Sorry, Mr Allan, did you want me?”  Josie had worked for the previous Dean of the Arts College, but he had retired after only a few months of her starting.  She was glad that it was Jacob Allan that had received the promotion, but she knew that they would never have chosen anyone else.  Jacob repeated his question to Josie, “Did I not put that on your schedule?  My apologies, it’s being held at the council offices, in the main meeting room.”  She smiled at him as she answered.  “Do you need me to come along and take notes?” 

Jacob stood and thought for a moment before agreeing that it would probably help, the first meeting in the academic year would more than likely contain a number of deadlines, some of which would need to be met before the official minutes would reach him.  “Can you be ready in the next 5 minutes?”  Josie nodded and got a notebook and pen from her drawer placing them into her handbag, she called into the ladies room before following Jacob down to his car.

After one hour of listening intently to the speakers at the meeting, Jacob found his mind wandering to the hazel eyed woman that had turned his life upside down and made him question his plan.  Jacob was always career driven; he had never thought about settling down and family life, but lately that’s all he could think about.  He received his promotion and thought that would be the greatest feeling he could have, so he threw himself into it at the expense of his friends, and slowly he was coming to realise that there was something or rather someone missing.

Finally after 2 hours Jacob and Josie were back in his office.  He had 30 minutes before the end of the day and all he wanted to do was take a shower and relax in front of the television.  It was Friday and he had decided that work was going to take a backseat for the first time in months.  “Josie, why don’t we call it a day?  I think we’ve both worked hard enough and that meeting went on far longer than it should have,” he was packing his briefcase and locking away his files ready to leave.  “Josie?” Jacob walked out from his office to Josie’s desk and found her sat with her head in her hands a tears coming down her face.  He walked over and crouched in front of her, “What’s happened?”  Josie looked up at him and wiped her tears away.

“It’s nothing; just my friend has had to cancel our plans this weekend.  We had our whole weekend planned, it’s been so long since I’ve looked forward to anything and now I’ve got tickets to a show for tonight and reservations for dinner that I’ll have to go alone or cancel.  He’s always doing this to me,” Josie put her head back down. 

“I’m sorry Josie.  Why don’t we....” Jacob didn’t get to finish his sentence before Josie threw her arms around his neck.

“Really, you would do that for me.  We’ll have so much fun, I’ll go and start getting ready; pick me up at seven thirty.”  Then she left, and Jacob was dumbfounded, he was going to suggest a couple of drinks, not to be her replacement.  He sighed and resigned himself to the fact that his plans would be on hold again, perhaps destiny was trying to tell him something – but he quickly pushed that thought out of his mind.

Jacob looked at his watch, 19:15; he sat outside of Josie’s house in his car wishing that he was somewhere else.  He had dressed in a pair of dark washed jeans and a navy striped shirt, he wasn’t really sure how formal he had to be but he got tired of wearing suits.  He picked his phone up and scrolled through his contacts till he found her number, just as he was about to hit call there was a knock on his window, he looked up to see Josie stood there in a very low cut red dress that stopped just above the knee and left very little to the imagination.  He unlocked the doors and let her in, she kissed him on the cheek before putting on her seatbelt and informing him of their plans for the night, Jacob smiled politely and drove.

The show that Josie had tickets for was an amateur production at the Town Hall.  Jacob thought that it showed the Arts College in a good light and had Josie not found every way to touch his leg or arm throughout, he may have actually enjoyed it.  Jacob had not seen Josie in this light before and he was feeling quite uncomfortable about it.  He was glad when the show was over and he would be able to sit across from her when they reached the restaurant.  Italian had been her choice and they settled into the table at ‘Marco Polo’ and looked through the menus.  Josie reached out across the table and grabbed his hand, at the same time he looked towards a group of four coming into the restaurant.  Jacob didn’t even register what Josie had done; he was blown away by the woman that had walked in at the back of the group.  She was wearing a baby blue shift dress that reached just below the knees, a silver belt was round her waist and the navy stilettos that she wore made her legs look stunning.  She had worn her light brown hair down and it was styled into large curls that fell around her face and her makeup was natural, just to accentuate the beauty that was already there.  Jacob realised that she had seen him and their eyes met for a couple of seconds before she looked down at the table and that was when he realised that Josie had hold of his hand.  He pulled it back slowly so as not to cause upset to Josie, but as he looked back up at the group of friends, he seen that she had turned her back to him.

Grace sat at the table with her friends, but she couldn’t concentrate on the conversation that was taking place, all she could picture in her mind was him sat there holding someone else’s hand.  She had hoped that she was wrong about him having someone else to come home to, she just hadn’t wanted to admit that she could be right.  In between their courses she excused herself from the table and made her way to the bathroom, just as she reached the top of the stairs, someone took hold of her wrist.  Grace knew who it was; she felt the tingles rush up her arm as he moved his hand down to meet hers “Jake”.  It came out as a whisper; it was all she could manage.  Neither of them said anything, they just stood.  Jacob entwined his fingers with hers before finally breaking the silence.

“I’ve missed you,” he sighed, and tightened his hold, fearing that she would pull away from him.  “I’m sorry, I’ve been so caught up with work, and I neglected you and our friendship...”  Grace could hear the sincerity in his voice.  She had hoped for more than friendship, but if that was all that was on offer then she would take it.  She pulled her hand away from his and put her arms around his neck pulling him close.

“I missed you too; phone calls are not the same.”  She felt him nod his head as he wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on top of hers.  “So, you’ve finally got out of the office then.  She’s pretty,” Grace pulled out of the hug wanting to get the awkwardness of seeing him with someone out of the way; she avoided looking into his eyes as she always got lost in them.

“Josie?” Jacob had forgotten why he was in the restaurant, he had got so caught up with Grace, and then kicking himself for using the word friendship, he had wanted to say so much more.  “She’s my secretary, she...” Grace cut him off before he could finish.

“That’s great; well you should introduce us sometime.  Sorry nature calls!” Grace blushed as she went to the bathroom, and he watched her as she went.  Jacob debated on waiting for her and then decided against it as he seen Josie coming up the stairs.

“I’ll just freshen up, I’ll meet you downstairs?”  Josie passed him before he could answer, so he made his way into the lobby and picked up their coats, he left the restaurant with a heavy heart wondering what more could go wrong.