London Blue

Chapter 4. The Dorcester.

Two weeks later, Emily walked from her dentist towards Bayswater Road and turned left to Marble Arch. She wore her herringbone short jacket with 'teacher' patches at the elbows, a recent buy from John Lewis, and a good match with her black trousers. She had been to her new dental surgeon for a check up, a man recommended by Jessica. The route took Emily to the north side of Bayswater Road, which joined up with Oxford Street. Large houses on the left were mostly converted into posh offices. On the right, across the road, a line of trees gave some seclusion to the green expanse of Hyde Park beyond.

She had taken the afternoon off work for the appointment and enjoyed the leisurely stroll, a good time to think. Her morning at work had been another hassle. It became unbearable and she decided to submit a complaint tomorrow. If only she possessed the nerve to slap his face, a hard slap to have the noise resonate across the open plan office, and everyone would know about it. The scene played itself in her mind. Slime Boss would mentally undress her. He usually did this, she felt sure. Annoyingly he would stand at her side and press his finger into her upper arm, like he did this morning. His way of getting her attention, as if she was meant to respect him for doing this. She pictured her hand hitting him across the cheek.

She mulled over her ambitions. A secure job, or maybe have her own business where she might get some recognition for a job well done; enough money for a modest lifestyle, to better herself compared to the poor housing estate she grew up on; a relationship with a decent man, reliable, nice. Her mind sensed she might have got the last ambition wrong and questioned whether she honestly really wanted a predictable boring man.

As she got to Marble Arch her Swatch confirmed the time as four o'clock, which was too early to go home. Besides, the April sunshine in a sky of porcelain blue warmed the right side of her face, and gave her a feeling she ought to be outside in the park enjoying herself. She fancied a cup of tea. At the traffic lights, she stood and waited for the traffic to stop, while next to her a jogger limbered up, ear buds in his ear leaking rock and roll. She crossed over the street and continued south down Park Lane with Hyde Park on her right. She knew of a cafe in the park at Speakers Corner with outside tables.

A black taxi drew up next to the pavement twenty yards ahead of her, but her mind remained elsewhere, as Emily continued down Park Lane.

The above scene doesn't appeared in the finished book.