Harriet's Arrangement

Newcastle

"Right. Good morning, you two," Kieran said cheerily, breezing into the meeting room and popping coffees down for the three of them, "Shall we go over the final things for tomorrow?" They were travelling North the following day for the long-awaited and much planned-for Newcastle conference: Harriet was excited, the problems were almost entirely solved (for now) and Johnny and Kieran were both in excellent moods about the whole thing as well. Malcolm had been mysteriously absent from the office since the incident with Kieran, and she hadn't heard a word from him... and thanks to pleasant distraction in the form of Tom, she had managed to not worry about him too much.

"Hattie, you have all the accommodation sorted?" Kieran asked, flicking through his checklist.

"Yes," she said, turning to her own list, "All requests accounted for, including Mr Browning and his extra pillows..."

Johnny laughed and Kieran smiled. "Excellent," he said, "Johnny – travel all good?"

"Yep, everyone is arriving today or tomorrow and taxis and transfers are all in place," Johnny confirmed.

"Great! Ok, let's go through the schedule then and just confirm there aren't any gaps..."

The rest of the meeting and the journey the following day all went smoothly. Hattie left early, with a lunchbox full to bursting that Tom had insisted on packing for her before he'd left the night before, and arrived in Newcastle a good hour ahead of schedule. Staying near the river, she took a brief waterside stroll to stretch her legs before meeting the others for dinner – and spent almost none of it looking at scenery, instead texting Tom as he teased her with threats about what might happen if he found out she'd been flirting with any of the eligible bachelors that were attending the conference.

Dinner was enjoyable: with everything so well planned, there was hardly any work talk, and the three colleagues spent the evening catching up with one another's news. Johnny spent some time grilling Harriet for details about both Tom, who she now freely talked about as a boyfriend (with no real details, of course), and about Lily's wedding, the plans for which were coming along well – although Johnny's questions made her feel a little guilty for not spending more time with the girls recently.

The first part of the following day went entirely to plan: Harriet looked after the clients she was responsible for, enjoying meeting them at the welcome morning and accompanying them to the events they had booked to attend, answering questions and fetching tea and coffee as needed. Being on site was good fun, and was definitely the most stress-free part of the job: assuming all of the planning had gone as it should, the problems were all on-the-ground and fairly easily solved. So she was able to relax and smile and focus all of her attention on her clients.

Until, that is, she heard a laugh that made her heart stop and her insides curl up in fear. She reacted before she even clocked what it was, and froze mid-sentence as she explained to Mr Browning where the restaurant she had booked for their dinner was. He gave her a curious look, and she tried to give herself a shake. "Sorry, Mr Browning," she said, trying to rake her thoughts back together, "It's just two streets away – a lovely Turkish place, I think you'll enjoy it."

"Very good Harriet," he said, cheerily, "Well, I'll see you there a bit later then!"

And he wandered back over to his colleagues as she raised a hand and forced a smile. And then she turned around, trying to convince herself that she had imagined it.

But no.

There he was, the other side of the room: Malcolm, laughing and talking to a couple of delegates she didn't recognise. Her mind raced and she couldn't work out what to do. She was frozen in her indecision. Did she immediately remove herself from the room and just not come back? Or maybe she should march up to Malcolm and challenge him in front of whoever he was trying to impress – why was he here, when specifically told not to be? Or should she find Kieran and let him deal with it?