Bennett Records

Episode 10: Pressures

Mari couldn’t believe what she was seeing. There was her boss, armed with a foul face and both arms crossed and her furious Mother. “Martin, what is going on?” asked Mari. Martin looked at her dead in the face and told her straight. “You two need to talk, and I’m going to give you ten minutes” And with that he was gone, the office door slammed shut behind him. Mari turned to her Mother. She was dressed very elegantly, and Mari had an idea of where and who’d she had been with. “Why the nice surprise Mom?” asked Mari. “Don’t you dare give me that tone Marisol.” her Mother replied, with a face full of fury. Mari stopped, looked down at her feet and then back up to her Mother’s face. Her Mother’s fury unleashed. “WHY ARE YOU RUINING ANNA? AGAIN?” she yelled. “YOU TAKE EVERYTHING FROM HER! EVEN HER MAN NOW..” Mari was gobsmacked. She didn’t want to raise her tone and yell, she was tired of having to deal with her Mother and Anna. Instead, she just said in a firm tone “Whatever do you mean? I haven’t done anything to ruin Anna, I only collided with her in the studio where I was interviewing Charlie Bennett for Crush, and I am not taking ‘her’ man. Charlie informed me that he had no partner, or relationships. She yelled at me, and so I left.” Her Mother took all the information in, but still did not believe her. So she decided to threaten Mari. “You stay out of Anna’s life, don’t even attempt to be close to Charlie because Anna likes him. If you don’t then you will be sorry.” And with that she too stormed out of the office, leaving Mari feeling upset and destroyed. She just wanted to run, but decided against it and so went back to work. Later that day, Martin came up to her desk and dumped a new assignment for her to tackle. Mari flicked an eye over it and decided enough was enough. She’d work from home for the rest of the week. She needed to have the space, plus right now she needed to speak to Riley.  

Meanwhile, Riley was just locking up the gallery after a busier than average day. She sighed, all she wanted to do was collapse into her bed. She was feeling exhausted. She let herself into the apartment, and threw her keys onto the sideboard. The apartment was quiet, and she guessed it wouldn’t be long before Mari got home from her job. She changed into her pjs, turned on her computer and started to check on her emails. During the middle of typing an email, she was interrupted by the sound of a facetime call ringing from her bag. Quickly she scrambled to get her phone out of her bag and accepted the call. She was relieved to see the face of her Mum staring back at her, with her Dad in the background drinking a cup of coffee. “Hey!” she exclaimed. It had been a while since she’d spoken to her parents, and was actually feeling a little homesick. She missed the comforts of their conversations and her Dad’s unique sense of humor. “How are things Riley?” asked her Mum, looking worried. Riley smiled, as she knew her Mum always worried about her. “I’m absolutely fine. I’ve just had a long day today, it was pretty busy in the gallery.” her Mum relaxed, “That’s great! And I won’t keep you long. We’ll be off to bed in a bit, as your Dad’s got to be up in the morning” Riley nodded, knowing that her parents were always in bed by ten o’clock at night. Her Dad’s job had him up early in the morning, and Riley could never quite understand how he managed to be up so early. “I’ll speak to you tomorrow, I promise.” Riley said before she ended the call. She put her phone down, and felt quite sad. Upon hearing the door open and close, Riley assumed that Mari was home. She didn’t bother to get up as she didn’t want Mari to see her feeling a bit glum but that was short lived when the next thing she knew was Mari opening the door to her room.

As soon as Mari saw Riley’s face, she knew that she’d just spoken to her parents. Even though Mari and Riley were almost like siblings, Mari knew that she couldn’t replace her parents. So instead of saying anything, she gave Riley a hug. “You look as though you needed one of those.” she whispered afterwards. “Yeah, thanks Mari.” replied Riley in a small voice. “I need your advice.” asked Mari. “oh?” Riley said sitting up on her bed. “What happened in work today?” Mari sighed. “Well apart from having the boss of hell, which you know about. My Mother also decided to turn up and yell at me.” said Mari in a hurried tone. She didn’t speak about her Mother a lot, but Riley guessed that it wasn’t a good relationship and didn’t question the reason why. “Oh dear” was all that Riley could say. Both girls were feeling the pressure of life, both professional and personal. Suddenly, Riley had an idea. She quickly got up from her bed, making Mari wonder what she was up to. Usually when Riley was like this, she had good ideas. Tapping furiously on the computer keyboard Riley wanted to make sure that the idea was plausible. She didn’t want to get her  or Mari’s hopes up and then to be disappointed. Once she’d finalised a few points, she turned in her chair to face Mari. Her friend looked unsure as to what Riley was planning. Then her friend smiled, and said “Do you fancy a small break right now?” Mari rolled her eyes. “Where were you thinking? Please not Disney World again..” Riley shook her head, and laughed. “Nope! It’s even better than that. It’s a place I like to call home” Mari glared at Riley. “You mean the UK?!” Riley stood up, and walked over to her wardrobe, grabbed her suitcase and plonked it on the bed. “Yes Mari. You and I are both heading home to Wales. What do you say?” Mari squealed with excitement and agreed. It was just the remedy that both girls needed.