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see, this was a mistake?” she pleaded

“A mistake! How can you call it a mistake? ” Grant questioned, hurt that she should think so.

“Grant please go. Please.” Tizzy pleaded again.

Grant stared at her, hoping her expression would say otherwise. But she had closed up. He turned and walked out of the door. Even when he shut the gate behind him, he did not look back.

Tizzy shut the door and sank to the floor as her body was raked with sobs. It was hard enough

working in the same office for the past week, how would she cope now? And that Peter! She

would have to make sure she kept her distance with him too. On the one hand he talked of

making things hard for Grant then he lied about asking her to move in. Peter was playing some

sort of sick game and she had no wish to join in. She would not be one man’s plaything and

another man’s game. This game would end now.

Chapter 12

Grant flew out on the 9 am flight to Melbourne. He hadn’t slept at all the night before. Tizzy dominated his thoughts every waking moment. And even now, instead of going over his notes during the flight, he found himself thinking about Tizzy, trying to comprehend the situation that existed. Surely by now Tizzy knew how he felt about her. Hadn’t he given enough hints, didn’t she realize that he was not the kind of man to play around with women’s feelings? He knew people had the perception that he was involved in one affair after another. But that was far from the truth. The reality was that it had been well over four years since he had any kind of serious relationship with anyone. Suddenly things appeared clearer to him. Had Tizzy been the reason? He had told himself that his work had been the most important thing for him. But here he was prepared to throw away a quarter of a million dollars. He was prepared to change the entire set up of his company. Hell, he did not even want to attend this presentation. All he wanted to do was be back to Sydney. Just see her once more. He knew it was time to talk to Becky. She was already close to guessing the truth about his feeling anyway.

At 11.30 am he was standing near the overhead projector. For the first time in his life, he had a hard time concentrating. Every time cobalt blue came up on the screen, he saw Tizzy’s eyes.

Grey, reminded him of her clothes. Yellow took him back to her room. He was glad when the lunch break was called. The first thing he did was to ring Tizzy, on the pretext that he wanted to speak to Becky about her afternoon meeting. Tizzy was as polite as she was with everyone, quickly transferring him to Becky’s line. He was disappointed when she had not even asked him about his presentation.

Becky on the other hand showed she was glad to hear from him. She assured him that everything was under control. When he asked if he could speak to her on his return, Becky invited him for dinner, and asked him to drive straight from the airport to their place.

As Becky spoke to Grant, her eyes were focused on Tizzy. She had been worrying about Tizzy from the moment she had walked into the office. For one thing she was very quiet. For another, she had dark circles under her eyes. She refused to take any kind of break despite having started work at 6.30 am. Not even stopping for lunch.

And now there was sadness in her eyes. Tizzy appeared to be concentrating on her work, but Becky knew she was listening to every word Becky was saying. Her hand had not moved during the entire phone conversation.

After Becky hung up, she invited Tizzy as well. She said it would complete the table and they could discuss the problematic files over dinner. Tizzy excused herself. She said she wanted an early night, as the headache had kept her awake the night before. She did look tired and Becky did not force her to go. What Tizzy did not tell Becky was that she had already asked Branson to meet her after work. She intended to sort things out with him. She had to find out why he had lied to Grant.

The rest of the day was again a busy one. Roger dropped in a couple to times to check on Becky. Even he remarked on how ill Tizzy looked. Then he told them of his conversation with Grant about the Lundy file. “Grant must be going mad. Branson put Lundy on to us. And just when it looked like Lundy was ready to discuss details, Grant has asked me to pull the plug on the

negotiations. This Branson-Mallaby rivalry is going to cost Grant heaps.” Both Becky and Roger kept glancing at Tizzy to see the reaction. While they could see her tense up, she did not contribute in any way to the conversation. All three knew the situation was getting well and truly out of hand.

At five, Roger came to collect Becky. They once again asked Tizzy if she would like to join them. Again she refused their invitation, asking them to enjoy themselves. After they left, Tizzy finally let down her guard. Her hands covered her face as the tears fell freely.

Tizzy was meeting Branson at 6.30 pm at ‘Pancakes abound’. She had always loved the pancakes there, but for the first time, she was not in a mood to eat them. She would have asked Branson to come to her home, but a public place allowed her the freedom to walk away if things got unpleasant.

She left work at six, went home, fed the dogs, and was at the restaurant at 6.30 pm. Branson was already seated at a table. He rose as she walked to it. This time she just nodded to him. After they had given their order and the drinks had been placed in front of them, Branson spoke first

“I am glad you rang, I was thinking of doing the same. I wanted to apologise for my words the other day. I was angry with Mallaby and his accusations. I want you to know that I would not hurt him or his business.”

“I am glad to hear that. I am leaving the company soon. I honestly don’t want your relationship with each other to be affected in any way because of me.” Tizzy was honest

“It won’t be. I was hoping we could be friends too.” Branson asked

“Peter, I can only offer ‘friendship’ and I only want ‘friendship’ in return. Nothing more.” Tizzy was still angry with him for the things he had said about Grant but found that she could not bring herself to dislike the man. She had come with the intent to telling him that she never wanted to see him again. But found that she could not do that either. So she hoped he would understand what she was trying to convey. He had.

“I have, only ever wanted that myself.” he said

“And you won’t ask me to move into your home?” that should clear up the air without having to ask why he lied, she thought

Branson looked down for a moment then said, “He told you”

“Peter, did you really lose a daughter?” she asked immediately. She wondered if he had lied to her about that too, to win her sympathy.

“Tizzy, my child, I would not lie about that. Yes I lost my daughter. And yes, I looked for that daughter in you. I am still doing that Tizzy. I will never stop doing that. I am sorry about telling Grant before I spoke to you. I realize now, that I should have asked you first. I intended to. I am an old man now and the house is much too big for just one person”

“I can’t Peter. I have a home and I have my dogs. Besides ..” she started then changed her mind. There was no point in saying that such a move would only make Grant more upset.

Just then Branson saw Becky enter with Grant and Roger on either side of her. He crossed his fingers and hoped that their plan was going to work. If Becky had her own way, it definitely would. He noticed Becky direct Grant into the chair that directly faced them. That meant Becky had seen them on entering the restaurant. Once their drinks arrived, he noticed the three get deeply involved in their conversation, to the point that Mallaby had not once raised his eyes in their direction. ‘Come on Becky, get him to look in our direction. That was the plan, remember!’ he thought.

At Branson’s table he asked Tizzy about her future plans. Between sentences he gave a quick glance towards Becky’s table. He looked at Grant. Grant looked grave. He wondered what it was that Becky had just told him

If he could have overheard Becky, he would have heard her say, “Grant a couple of days ago, I thought Tizzy’s leaving had something to do with Branson’s interest in her. I now believe differently. I think you are the reason she is leaving.”

“Me! In what way? What has she told you?” Grant was stunned by Becky’s comments. Did Tizzy dislike him that much?

“Grant how do you really feel about Tizzy?”

“Who is asking, her colleague or her friend?” Grant questioned her in return

“I guess both. As her colleague, I want to know why you accepted her resignation. And as her friend I’d like to know why you are letting her go?” Becky began playing with words

“I am only, her employer, I can’t force her to stay against her will. And I am not letting her go Becky. Tizzy was never mine to let go.”

“Were you hoping she would have been.” Becky asked again.

“I thought for a while, that there would be more to our relationship than just work, but I was wrong. Tizzy wants to leave as soon as possible. There is nothing that I can do to hold her back” he said

“Roger told me about some of the changes you had been planning. Maybe if she hears of that, she might change her mind. I know she loves it at work.”

“She knows about them. I saw her last night. She is going to start her own business. Roger, you won’t believe, what! Advertising through the internet.” then he let out a small laugh “Talk about coincidences.”

“What coincidences?” Becky looked from one to the other.

“Actually I had forgotten to tell you about this one. Grant was setting up a separate division that would only deal through the internet, so that Tizzy would not have to interact with people personally.” Roger explained

“Grant, you would have done that for her?” Becky was thrilled.

“I even told her that she would only have to deal with Roger and me, but that seemed to have made her even more adamant about leaving.” Grant related

“Oh Grant, I think that is Tizzy’s problem. She can’t handle working with you anymore.” Becky said

Becky realised too late that the words expressed a totally different meaning to what she had

meant to say. Grant looked devastated on hearing her words.

“She hates me that much?” he inquired

“Hate you Grant! Gosh you men are really blind. Actually all except one, Branson.”

At the sound of his name, Grant exploded

“Not you too! He has Tizzy eating out of his hand.