Controlling Vulnerable

Chapter 7

After driving the couple of miles to his own house after dropping Lara off, Joe threw his keys on the kitchen counter and looked at the missed calls on his phone. He decided not to listen to Farrah's voicemails and messaged Lara to say,

"Thanks for tonight. I'll come and collect you around eight in the morning to take you to the office."

As soon as he was sure the message had been delivered he turned the phone off and poured a drink. Sitting in the silence with just the under unit lighting on, Joe sipped the whisky and relived the evening, turning over in his mind the feel of her hand in his, the sight of her lying on his work couch.

The next morning he sat with his coffee and turned his phone on before he left to collect Lara. He listened to Farrah's voicemail and reluctantly dialled her contact. She answered in three rings and he said, "Hi, before you start complaining, I was late in the office. I had a meeting with the UK and they're five hours behind." There was a silence before Farrah said, "I talked to Scotty when I couldn't get hold of you. He said you were with that new British woman, Laura or Lana?" Joe cursed Scott, knowing this was payback for pulling him up over the way he'd spoken to Lara in the SLT. He took a breath and kept his tone even, "Yeah, she and I had some work to run through, and she stayed to help review some stuff while I went to take the UK call." There was a pause and he added, "It was just work Farrah." She sighed on the other end of the call and said, "Yeah, well call me later Joe."

The journey to the office passed with a combination of easy chat and companionable silence. Scott had just parked up when he saw them arrive and he stared in shock seeing Lara get out of the passenger seat. As she and Joe walked off to the get coffee, Scott went directly to his office and made a call. Linda had already started the revisions Lara had worked on the night before. At eleven Lara had just finished a meeting over with Ben in the IT department and she stopped at Linda's desk to see if she wanted a coffee. Joe came out to lean on Linda's cubicle to catch up and Lara saw his face change. She turned to see a tall, incredibly thin, gym-toned woman, immaculately turned out, striding across the floor towards them. On the opposite side of the floor Scott got up and closed his office door, watching his grenade explode from behind the glass. She draped herself around Joe who said with a hint of something Lara couldn't work out was shock or displeasure, "What are you doing here?" The woman kissed him and stroked his cheek with long red acrylic nails staring at Lara. She gave a forced laugh and said, "I thought you should get a reward for working so hard last night, so I came to take you to brunch. Is this Laura? Oh my god Joe, when Scotty called to say he saw her getting out of your car this morning I was upset. He could have told me I had nothing to worry about!" Linda glanced at Joe in concern seeing a dark shadow cross his features. Farrah moved her hand to Joe's neck and faced Lara, "What am I thinking, I'm Farrah, Joe's girlfriend." Lara blushed and said, "It's Lara, nice to meet you." Farrah leaned forward conspiratorially, "You'll never guess what Lara. I got a little jealous because I heard you were working late with my Joe, but now I've seen what you look like I get it, it really was just work!" Lara said quickly, "I'm afraid I need to get on" and walked back towards her office. Linda frowned and Joe looked furious and said, "Farrah I'm busy, I'll walk down to get coffee, but that's it." He took her elbow and steered her past Linda's desk. The floor had fallen silent during the exchange and the one of the IT guys failed to contain a snigger. Farrah threw Linda a look with equal measure of hatred and triumph as she went.

Once they were in the elevator Joe turned in fury, "Why the hell did you come here Farrah. I told you we were working last night, but you turn up and all but tell Lara she's too unattractive for you to lose sleep over." Farrah laughed leaning against the elevator wall, "Well she is! I was worried there was some hot British woman you'd picked up on a flight seducing you when everyone had left the office, and I find pale, plain Jane who seems a stranger to cosmetics." In that minute Joe had no doubt, he loathed Farrah. As they left he strode ahead to the coffee shop and nodded to Colin barking, "Tell Colin what you want." They waited in silence for the drinks, but Farrah looked triumphant. Joe took the two cups to the furthest table in the almost empty café and put them down with enough force to make some of the liquid spill over. He looked at Farrah, and seeing his stone cold stare, for the first time her confidence waivered. He took a good drink and said, "It's over. I can't be with you. And this time I mean it's really over, for good." Farrah looked like she'd just heard Scott had applied to become a monk and she said, "What? Hang on Joe baby, you can't be serious. You can't blame me for checking her out after what Scotty told me. How was I to know she was a flat chested stick up her ass plain Jane." She laughed at her own wit and Joe exhaled in barely contained rage. His voice dripped icy contempt, "It's Lara, her name's Lara and this isn't about how she looks. She's putting in a project that'll add multiple times her salary to our bottom line every year. You can look down on Lara, but she's worth ten of you, she's super smart and brave enough to move four thousand miles on her own with two little kids." Farrah rolled her eyes and Joe spat out, "And who are you Farrah? What do you add to the world? A spoilt, pampered thirty-eight year old living off daddy." He got up, ignoring her sudden, loud sobs and cries of, "Joe, don't do this" and left. Farrah shouted after him, "You'll come crawling back like you always do Joe, you need me." Colin watched in astonishment and walked over to Farrah to silently offer her a Kleenex. She looked up astounded and slapped the box out of his hand snarling, "Get the fuck out of my way you weird little creep." Colin recoiled in shock and watched her storm out.