Staring at the figures on the screen, Alice tried to control her mounting panic as numbers began to slide and disappear before her eyes. What had she done? Had she touched something on the computer keypad by accident? Had she hit delete? This job was going disastrously! She looked over at the desk where Kelly Riordan was inputting numbers as quickly as humanly possible, her attention riveted on her own screen.
‘Kelly!’ she whispered. ‘Kelly!’
She couldn’t hide the urgency in her voice, and the twenty-four-year-old, looking up, sensed her quandary and immediately came over.
‘What have you done, Alice?’ she whispered fiercely, surveying the damage on the Excel account before her and leaning forward and hitting an icon. UNDO.
Alice watched incredulously as the figures magically seemed to reappear and the column of numbers began to look some way right.
‘Thanks.’ Alice was so grateful to the skinny blonde for all her help over the past few weeks. Kelly seemed to be constantly bailing her out of trouble, dealing with her mistakes, and covering up her utter ineptitude at doing accounts. How had she landed herself in this situation, working in Ronan, Ryan & Lewis’s at something she hadn’t a clue about? Hugh had been more than kind offering her this job, but in her heart she knew that she was in way over her head! At her age she couldn’t compete with Kelly and John and Aoife, and all the other young people here who had college degrees, and were studying accountancy, and seemed to be able to just work away at the computers easily. Her simple ECDL computer course, taken last year, had barely prepared her for the kind of work she was expected to do. She was a dinosaur out of step with the modern office world of laptops and digital downloads and iPods. She must have been mad to accept Hugh’s charitable offer of work in the accountancy firm.
‘Everything OK, Alice?’ Hugh looked concerned as he stopped near her desk.
‘Mmmm.’ She smiled. ‘Fine, thanks, Hugh. I’m just trying to sort a few things out here.’
‘Good.’ He looked relieved, and she watched him walk back towards the door to his bright office overlooking Fitzwilliam Square. He really was a good man, and he and Sally had been so supportive since Liam had left her.
It had been hard, so hard to get back up on her feet after Liam’s affair with Elaine and his demand that Alice and himself separate. It had felt like someone had taken a saw and severed her arm and left her raw and bleeding and shocked. She had driven by Elaine’s apartment twice and contemplated murder – or something more mundane like throwing a brick through the second-floor wrap-around glass windows of her modern city-centre apartment overlooking the river. Only the thought of the disgrace she would bring on her family had prevented her from doing such an idiotic thing!
So, while Liam and Elaine lived happily in their glass tower, she struggled to keep her head above water financially, pay her bills, run their home of nearly twenty years and make the best of working in Ronan, Ryan & Lewis.
She glanced at the clock. Only two hours and she would be free to take the DART back home to Monkstown. She’d bring the dog for a walk, heat up the remainder of the lovely shepherd’s pie she had made last night, put her feet up and watch the TV.
‘Alice! Alice, have you got the copy of the Dunderry report?’
Alice jolted out of her reverie to see the large stocky figure of Alex Ronan standing in front of her.
‘It’s somewhere here,’ she said evasively, trying to work out which pile she had put it in and remember if she had done the changes he had requested.
‘Where? I’m in a hurry, their finance guy is phoning me in a few minutes about something, and I want to check the figures.’
‘I’ll find it, Alex, don’t worry.’
Alice frantically scanned the in-tray on her desk and the slide-out drawers, looking for the report Alex had given her to update, trying to ignore his exasperation and impatience as he watched her get more flustered and panicked. Having the senior partner standing over her was making her feel useless, like some school kid on work experience.
Coming closer, Alex impatiently began to go through her work.
‘I can find it myself,’ she said indignantly, as he pulled open the drawer and banged it back before rifling through the polished black leather tray on her desk.
‘There it is,’ he said, grabbing it.
‘That’s the Graham—’ she began.
‘And Dunderry report I want. The companies merged eighteen months ago, and we acted for Dunderry.’
Her face blazed red. She felt stupid.
He peered at the printout figures.
‘You’ve inverted two of the columns,’ he said grimly. ‘Transport and rent … there is a difference, you know.’
She apologized profusely, knowing that Kelly and Aoife and the rest of the office were watching what was going on.
‘I’m sorry, Alex.’
‘So am I,’ he said, marching towards his office door.
Kelly gave her a little reassuring smile, and Alice, trying not to cave in to her overwhelming feelings of inadequacy and embarrassment, buried herself in another deadly dull report.
Since Liam had left she had tried out a few ways of earning money, but this was without doubt the worst. She had worked as a sales assistant in Elegance, the small gift shop in Foxrock, during the busy Christmas period, done bits of babysitting for friends of friends, had even set up a little business selling homemade cupcakes to local cafés and at the weekly farmers’ market in Dun Laoghaire until the cupcake market had got totally oversaturated and she had begun making less and less profit. She had done the catering for two funerals and a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary party, but couldn’t hope to compete with the more established caterers who were struggling for business.
Alice wasn’t proud. She was willing to try most things, but it was becoming more and more obvious that she just wasn’t cut out for office work! She’d have to talk to Hugh. Explain how she felt. Money or no money she didn’t know how much more of working in Ronan, Ryan & Lewis she could stick. She glanced up at the clock. Only one hour and forty minutes to go …