advertising-for-love - Rakhibul hasan (best way to read ebooks .txt) 📗

don’t say a word to anybody yet. Please.” Tizzy implored

“Alright, I won’t say anything. I do feel a bit guilty though” Becky continued

“Why should you feel guilty?”

“Well if I had not been unwell, you would not have had to attend the meetings and today you would not have resigned.”

“Becky, my leaving has nothing to do with you. I promise”

“Then who does it have to do with, Tizzy? Grant?” Becky already knew the answer

“Becky let’s talk about something else.” Tizzy implored

“Tizzy how far will you keep running? Maybe it’s time to stop. The past can no longer hurt you. But if you run now your present will.”

Tizzy was silent a moment then smiling said “Aren’t pregnant women supposed to have memory losses or something?”

That was the cue that ‘Tizzy’ was no longer a subject for their conversation. Well! Thought Becky, if you close that topic, let’s open another.

“I heard you dined at the same restaurant as Grant and Trisha. What’s she like? Everyone one says, drop dead gorgeous.” Becky said the words, while closely observing Tizzy’s face

“Very beautiful” was the answer she got.

“Was it just the two of them or were they dining with others?” Becky pursued

“Why the sudden interest in Trisha?” Tizzy asked

“It’s not sudden. It’s just that you are the only one who has really seen her. Did Grant introduce her to you both?”

“Yes, as they were leaving. Becky she really seemed quite nice. But we really did not have a chance to talk much.”

“Come on Tizzy, if Grant was dating a beautiful woman at a table for two, surely there would be

more to tell”

“You are a hopeless romantic, that’s your problem. Why don’t you ask Grant? He is a good friend of yours, not mine” Tizzy averted the question

“Well actually that is the reason I am asking all these questions. I don’t want some money hungry woman catching him. He deserves better.” Becky went on

“Then he has got better. Trisha seems a lovely person and if I were you, I would not question Trisha’s motives or feelings, now that she is his fiancée. It won’t do your friendship any good.”

“His fiancé! Who told you that? Branson?” Becky was sure this was Branson’s doing.

“No. She was wearing an engagement ring, they were holding hands, and they left together.”

Becky needed time to absorb this. If Grant was engaged to Trisha, then why had he not mentioned it to her? If he had promised himself to someone else, why then was he upset about Tizzy’s involvement with Branson? Nothing made sense anymore. Maybe what some people said was true. Pregnancy made you more stupid.

Just then the doorbell rang. Tizzy rushed to the front door. The dogs gave a knowing bark. A minute later Branson walked in.

‘Come in Branson, you might as well add to my confusion’ thought Becky

“Hi Becky, I hope I am not interrupting anything?” Branson asked

“Not at all, I was just checking on Tizzy.” Becky answered

“Yes, that’s why I have come as well. I rang your work and was told that you had gone home sick. I hope it was not last night’s dinner?”

“ The d..dinner was lovely. This is just a headache.” said Tizzy

“Mallaby said you have resigned. Is that true?” once again Branson was direct in his questioning.

“When did you talk to Grant?” it was Becky who asked the question

“This morning, when he accused me of scaring Tizzy off.” again he was direct

“He did what?” once again it was Becky. So that explains Grant’s foul mood when she rang him

about their 11 O’clock meeting.

“That pup has the nerve. He was out with a stunner of a model, and he has the gall to object to my dinner with Tizzy.” Branson was talking to Becky but constantly glancing at Tizzy as if gauging her reaction.

Tizzy was silent.

“I don’t blame you for leaving. He is the most arrogant, selfish man I have ever come across. I don’t know how you both put up with him.” Branson rambled on

Becky could feel the seeds of dislike rising against Branson. How dare he walk in here and put Grant down.

“Peter, I am sorry, but I think it is really all my fault. I timed it badly, with Becky’s situation, the extra workload; all Grant needed was my resignation to push things over the edge. I should have waited. I can see that now. I will explain the situation to Grant tomorrow.” Tizzy tried to defend Grant’s action.

“Peter, it’s unfair to say the horrid things you just did about Grant. He is the most wonderful boss one can hope for. If our situations were not what they were, we would never leave T & G Mallaby.” Becky said sternly

“Your reason is your pregnancy and the baby. I can understand that. But Tizzy has no such reason to give. She has cleared me from being the cause. So that leaves Mallaby”.

“I am right, am I not Tizzy? I am not the cause for your flight Tizzy, he is? You can’t stand working for the man. And if his behavior this morning is anything to go by, I don’t blame you one bit”

“Peter, I am leaving for my own reasons. None of you are responsible for that decision. And you are wrong about Grant. I had never been happier than during the past five years working for T & G Mallaby.” Tizzy felt compelled to clear Grant. Why, she asked herself was she doing that, when the truth in fact was that, Grant was the reason she was running. But she was not running away from him, rather, because of him.

Becky by now was very upset with Branson. How dare he come in and slander Grant’s good

name. If this had been her home, Peter would have been out of the door by now. She was annoyed with Tizzy for not taking that stand.

“Well my personal opinion is that Mallaby wants to spend more time with that Trisha, and your er.. situation and Tizzy’s resignation, is going to force him to spend more time at work instead of with her, and that is what is really annoying him, not that I really blame him for that either. She was a stunner, wasn’t she Tizzy?” Branson said watching Tizzy closely.

Both Becky and Branson saw the effect the conversation was having on Tizzy. She was hurting so much that Branson wanted to rush and console her, tell her that he was joking, but he had come very close to breaking through the barrier, and he forced himself to continue with the cruel remarks.

At first Becky had been so angry at the callous statements that she almost told Peter to get out. It was when she saw Branson take a step towards Tizzy to wipe away her pain, then saw him stop himself, that Becky realized what was happening.

Like her, Branson suspected, that Tizzy was not as unaffected by Mallaby as she pretended to be. In fact, if Branson pushed just a little more, Tizzy would break. Her pain was almost unbearable now.

“Well, it will do him good to have his little comfortable world turned upside down. You are leaving, Becky will leave shortly and I told him this morning that I was taking my business elsewhere. Oh I know, one account will not break T & G Mallaby, but if I pass the word around that Mallaby’s best, have left him, I am quite sure, a major dent will be felt by his firm.”

“That’s enough Mr. Branson.” Tizzy was now shaking in anger. “How dare you come and pretend to be a friend to us and then do this. If I had known how horrible you really are, I would never have paid attention to your words. I thought you were a nice man, who was lonely and missed his daughter. Instead you prove to be this ..this ruthless person. I don’t want to know you. Please leave at once” she cried distressed

“Well that’s a strange one. You desert the ship and accuse me of sinking it. If everything that I have said is wrong, then tell me why are you leaving?”

“It’s none of your business” Tizzy’s voice was hurting even her own ears

“It is very much my business. I have been accused, by the great Grant Mallaby himself, of deliberately trying to scare his staff away” Branson hated what he was doing, but he had to go on. Act 1 Scene 3 depended on it.

“I said I would clear that up.” Tizzy was short

“How? By running away and justifying his accusations” Branson sounded angry

“Look Tizzy, we both hate the man...”Branson continued

“I don’t hate him. For heavens sake Peter, I have no cause to do that….” Tizzy could not complete the sentence for Branson cut in.

“The blow that hurts the most is the one that is hit when the opponent is at his weakest. You Tizzy dear are giving him that blow, not me. Only hate can make someone do that. Only hate can make you walk away from someone the way you are walking away from Mallaby.”

Tizzy was in tears now.

“Peter, I think you better leave now. Can’t you see what you are doing to Tizzy?”

Becky tried to intervene.

“I thought you were my true friend. That, I was like a daughter to you. You were using me as a pawn in some sort of sick game of yours. Go Peter, I never want to see you again.” Tizzy said between sobs.

“Tizzy, please stop, look up, it’s ok, just ignore the man.” Becky spoke, and then looking at Branson said “Mr. Branson I think it’s time you left.”

“It’s always the same, Becky, men end up behaving like animals.” her tears flowed on

Becky looked up, but Branson had left by the front door. She held Tizzy for some moments longer and then said,

“But he was right about one thing wasn’t he, it’s Grant you are running from. You really don’t like him do you?"

“Oh Becky, if you only knew the truth.”

“Then tell me, help me understand the situation. Tizzy, tell me, am I right, have I guessed correctly. Are you in love with Grant? That’s it, isn’t it Tizzy. You are running from yourself.”

Finally Tizzy broke down. The deluge of tears acted as a balm to her pain. She felt a relief as the burden of her knowledge was now shared. Finally she decided to tell Becky everything. But where was she to start, and more importantly where would she bring in the end.

Becky waited with abated breath, and then listened to every word. She realized it was time to bring Tizzy out of her cocoon, before it was truly too late and Grant was lost to Tizzy. If Grant loved Trisha, then the story would end as it was. She was the only one who could find out what Grant truly felt about both these women. And, for that matter, she also had to know what Branson really felt. Did he mean what he was saying, or was he acting a part? This sudden dislike of Grant, this wish to hurt him, did not make sense. The two men had got along so well. Branson was even giving him new business. The only way she would learn of the truth was if she met Branson and Grant separately.

“Tizzy, does Grant know how you feel about him?”

“No Becky, and you won’t tell him either. Becky promise me, you won’t. Or I will disappear. No one will ever see me again.”

“Tizzy, what if he feels the same way?” Becky pleaded

“Look at me Becky, then look