I'd been looking forward to a quiet day in the office, with no meetings and a chance to catch up with the pile of papers that had been gathering dust on my desk over the previous few weeks. The first few weeks of the year are always busy, and this year was no exception. I had spent the last few weeks rushing from one meeting to another, travelling all over the place, barely having time to catch my breath. But now, at last, I had a chance to catch up.
So, when the phone rang and my receptionist asked if I could talk to a potential new client, a lady, my first thought was to ask for the call to be put through to one of my less pressured colleagues. But when I was told that she'd already tried that, I knew that I had to take the call.
And I'm glad I did. And this is why.
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Her name was Holly -- and the business she had started a year or so ago with her best friend was in trouble. The problem with the business wasn't financial, but was all about the two of them having fallen out in a big way. She had told me this on the phone, speaking in a rush, as if she wanted to get it off her chest, her voice sounding breathless and slightly husky.
As soon as she had told me, I had mentally sighed. So often these cases left no winners behind, only losers. It must be the accountant's equivalent of being a divorce lawyer! I listened to her for a while longer, sympathising with her, and then explained that the best way to help her would be to meet with her, and go through the issues and how they might be sorted out. She sounded so relieved, and happy that I could help her, that I agreed to meet her an hour later.
I didn't think much more about it as I worked through some correspondence, reviewed some accounts, fielded a dozen questions from staff, and generally tried to catch up with my much neglected Inbox. The meeting totally slipped my mind until the phone went again an hour later, and I was told that Holly was waiting in reception for me.
I quickly put the tie that I'd discarded earlier back on, grabbed my jacket off the back of the door, and headed downstairs. I dropped my usual notepad off in the meeting room we'd be using, and then made my way back along the corridor to our reception area. I stepped into reception -- and stood staring.........
She wasn't by any means beautiful, but she had a way, a look, about her that made her more than that, that took your breath away. She stood up confidently as I stepped towards her, fervently hoping that I hadn't stood frozen, staring at her, for as long as it had felt. Her hand was warm and small, her grip firm and just a little sensual. Or was it just my imagination running riot?
She was tall, maybe only three or four inches shorter than my six feet. She was younger than I had imagined -- I found out later that she was twenty three, almost half my age! Her light brown hair was long, hanging around her shoulders, with some stray bits pushed back behind her ears to keep it way from her face.
Her eyes were a startling green, bright and alert, her nose pert and sprinkled with freckles beneath her light covering of makeup. Her mouth was wide, her generous lips painted pale red with lipstick. She looked naïve and vulnerable, but confident all at the same time
"Hi," she said in the same breathlessly husky voice as she looked me openly and frankly up and down, "I'm Holly."
"Steve," I told her, my voice catching much to the amusement of my receptionist, before adding lamely, "It's lovely to meet you."
I led the way back down the corridor towards the meeting room, catching a few envious glances from the colleagues I passed on the way, their eyes on Holly even as they nodded to me. I stopped at the last but one door, pausing to hold it open to let Holly enter first. As she passed me, I caught a faint hint of her perfume. I watched as she crossed the room to the round table and put her bag down.
She was wearing a cream jacket that hugged her slender frame, pinching in at the waist before flaring out at her hips. Her black skirt followed the soft curves of her ass, before finishing a few inches above her knees, the rest of her shapely legs covered in sheer black nylon.
I quickly stepped forward and helped her with her jacket as she started to take it off, catching the smell of her perfume again as I stood close behind her. I hung her jacket on the back of a spare chair as she turned to thank me. I could see now that under her jacket she was wearing a white round neck top that seemed to cling to her, but which was partially hidden by a short black vee neck cardigan that was tied off just below her pert breasts.
She smiled a delicious smile of thanks, flashing her small white teeth as she sat down, watching me as I took my jacket off and hung it on the back of my chair, and then rolled my shirt sleeves up a little as was my habit at meetings.
We chatted for a few minutes as I tried to make sure that Holly was relaxed. I enjoyed her company immediately -- something which isn't always the case the first time I meet a new client. I even ended up confessing that my first serious girlfriend had been called Holly.
"That must have been a few years ago," she teased, a lovely twinkle in her eye as she reached over and touched my hand.
With a laugh, we got down to business - and Holly began to tell me all about her problems.
She spoke quickly, again as if she wanted to get everything off her chest as fast as she could. She had started the business with her best friend Becky a little over a year ago. At first, everything had gone well, the business had grown, they had got some good customers on board, recruitment -- which is what they were doing -- was in a bit of a boom period.
But then differences had started to creep in between them - small things at first, often petty things, until they found out the hard way what I'd seen so often before -- best friends don't always make the best business partners.
As Holly told me the whole story, I sympathised at the right times, took some notes, but generally let her talk as much as she wanted. I smiled at her encouragingly if she faltered, until at least she was finished. The trouble was, I didn't want her to stop - I couldn't take my eyes off her as she spoke. Her face was so animated, her eyes so bright. I found myself distracted by the way her mouth moved, by the open way she looked at me.
As she finished, I shook my head, feeling a bit silly. I gathered my thoughts, looking down at my notes, conscious of her looking at me. When I looked back up, she was looking at me almost appealingly, her naive expression almost asking "was that okay?"
"I don't see how you can go back to where you were," I ventured, "it just seems so bad between the two of you."
"I know," she almost sobbed, her eyes filling up as she looked at me, "I just want a chance to be friends again, but I need the business, I enjoy it too much to lose it know."
I leant forward, and before I knew it I was taking her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. In that moment I froze, wondering what on earth I was doing taking this young girls hand. Trying not to panic, I pulled my hand back, mumbling that she had a number of choices.
For the next half an hour, I ran through the choices she had, all of the time trying not to think about how I had taken her hand in mine, how I had been so indiscrete, so unprofessional. As we talked, more details tumbled out, details she had forgotten -- or hadn't meant to tell me.
