Protecting Miss Dawes - a job like any other

Chapter 6: Charles

I was not sure what to make of that tea session with the Home Secretary... Dawes... Molly. I would have liked to call her Molly, but it felt too personal. She was my client and I had to keep some distance, although having a night time tea together was hardly achieving that, or the fact that she seemed so normal, so nice – that also made distance more difficult. The more I saw of her, the more I liked her. She kept surprising me in positive ways, often in situations when I first thought she had shown a less flattering side but she then turned it around.

A few days after the tea chat, Ms. Dawes was in her office and I had had a short lunch break which was considered safe when she was in her office. I had just returned and came walking on the ground floor of the office building when they shouted to me from the reception desk;

"Security! Security, they need you upstairs, quick!"

Adrenaline immediately shot through my body and my pulse was beating fast during the seconds it took me to ascend in the elevator. It went painfully slowly, but when the doors finally opened, and I rushed out, I heard Chantal shouting upset. Her target was Rob McDonald.

"How can you treat me like that?! You hated me from day one!"

"PS James, there you are", McDonald for once seemed relieved to see me. "Would you kindly escort Ms. Dyson from the building?"

"Good luck recruiting! You don't even know what I do on a daily basis, because you are that fucking arrogant! You never cared to find out what I do!"

She kept screaming obscenities at McDonald, a very feisty lady for her petite size, until I took her by the elbow and asked her to please come with me.

"No", she said but suddenly seemed completely deflated and sad.

"Come on, let's talk about it downstairs, all right?"

She then nodded and came with me without further struggle. In the elevator down, she seemed close to crying.

"What happened, Chantal?"

"They started interviewing candidates for my job. Didn't even tell me they were giving me the push."

"They didn't say why?"

"She's a sociopath, he's a narcissist, that's reasons enough. Good help anyone who sees through them."

I had Rob down for a prick, but I had started to think better of her, so I felt a bit disappointed. Chantal had done a shitty job as a PA, that had been apparent on several occasions. Still, this was not a fair way to treat someone who had worked for you. Would Ms. Dawes really do something like that?

"I'm sorry Chantal. Good luck."

I waved to a cab to stop for her.

"Good luck to you who has to keep working for them", she bitterly said and jumped into the cab.

My gaze followed it as it drove off and wondered if I would find out what the true story was. I did later that evening. We sat in the car on the way the flat when Ms. Dawes spoke, seemingly disturbed over the development with Chantal.

"I'm sorry you got pulled into the mess with Chantal. Rob thought that you would be able to handle her, he apparently didn't on his own... you know, with your negotiation skills... You managed to talk a suicide bomber out of setting off a bomb, so you clearly have some skills in the area."

"I guess I know how to calm down people, even if I haven't practised on furious PAs before", I smirked. "Did you really start interviewing people for her job?"

"It was so awful", she sighed. "I had planned to talk to Chantal today, tell her I have to replace her because she does not live up to the standard I need, as you might have seen on an occasion or two. I have given her so many chances because I want to help a young woman who wants to make a career, but she's just so sloppy and careless. It affects my job, how I come across, and I can't have that. But I didn't want it to end this way."