Chapter One
“Hey Cher, fancy doing me a favour?”
Cheryl glanced away from her screen and saw Maggie from Accounts standing over her shoulder with her hands on her hips and double D’s thrust forward. The woman liked attention. “Oh, um, sure, Mag, what’s up?”
“D’you hear about the work thing this weekend? You heard, right, the weekend thing?”
“You mean the company getaway I wasn’t invited to? Nope, not sure what you’re referring to.”
Maggie grimaced, then glanced left and right as if checking the coast was clear. She spoke in a low voice, barely audible over the background din of clacking keyboards and the monotonous chorus of: Alscon Tiles, how can I help you? “I agree it was harsh,” she said, “but there were only six places to fill. John had to pick names at random.”
Bullshit, thought Cheryl. John had picked his best buddies to go, like Monty, the company’s top salesman. Funny, how he ended up being one of those ‘random’ names. Did Mag think she was an idiot?
She thinks everyone’s an idiot. That’s her problem.
Cheryl’s chewed fingernails hovered over the keyboard, eager to get back to work. “So, what’s this favour, Mag? I’m kinda busy.”
Maggie licked her lips. Her flushed cheeks dimpled. “Would you take my place at the getaway? Pretty please? Say yes!”
Cheryl raised an eyebrow and swivelled in her chair to face Maggie properly. A waft of sickly perfume hit her in the face but she ignored it. “Huh? Why aren’t you going?”
“Andrew got us tickets to see Wicked for our fifteenth anniversary. Can you believe I’ve been married that long? Makes me feel totally old. Anyway, he meant it as a surprise but it clashes with this company thing. It’s a complete headache, to be honest. I never even wanted to go, but John insisted.”
I bet he did! Cheryl didn’t voice the thought and feigned irritation instead. “Oh great! You don’t want to go on some cheesy work weekend but you expect me to?”
Maggie pouted and placed her manicured fingernails together in mock prayer. “I’m begging you, Cher. If I cancel at the last minute, John’ll have a fit, but if I tell him I arranged for you to take my place he won’t be able to say anything. Please, please, please! You’ll be doing me such a biggie. I’ll do whatever you want in return.”
“Oo-er!” came a voice from the next cubicle. Leo, the purchasing manager, peered over the partition wall with a smirk on his face. He had a habit of doing that lately, and Cher spent her days never knowing when he would pop up like a meerkat. Today he was wearing a bright green tie decorated with little lions and tigers. It was awful. “Sounds like things are about to get interesting,” he said. “Nice!”
“Stay out of it you!” said Maggie, pointing a finger at his crooked nose. Everything about Leo was mildly crooked. He had bony cheeks either side of a ridged nose, and a pair of projecting eyebrows — yet he wasn’t bad looking. Somehow his individually harsh features worked in harmony. He was about the same age as Cheryl too.
Just a pity about his slimy personality.
To prove her thought, Leo leered at her, and she didn’t know if it was in jest or if he was actually trying to imagine her tits underneath her blouse. “Just say you’ll come, Cher. It’ll be a laugh.”
Maggie bounced excitedly like a grinning moron. She obviously thought two against one was a sure-fire win — and it was true because Cheryl could feel the peer pressure closing in on her and trapping her inside her tiny cubicle. She sighed. “Look, what is this thing? I stopped paying attention when I wasn’t invited.”
Leo climbed up on his desk so he could hang all the way over the partition wall. He spoke in a hushed, conspiratorial tone. “It’s an escape room.”
Cheryl frowned. “Like what rich people have in their mansions?”
Leo snorted. “No, Cher, that’s a panic room. You’re so funny.”
“Yeah, okay, whatever. So what is it then? Because it sounds stupid.”
Leo suddenly grew serious, which made his thick eyebrows project even further. “It’s a game. All of us get locked up in a room, right, and we have to solve a bunch of puzzles, right, and if we escape in less than ninety minutes, we win a grand in cash — each! John is well excited, which makes a change. It was all he could talk about down the Goose last night.”
Cheryl groaned. “And that there is the reason I don’t want to go. You’re all buddies, aren’t you? But John and I barely talk. I think he forgot he even hired me. I’m just the mousey girl who sits in the corner of the office all day.”
Leo smirked. “What is it you do exactly, Cher? I honestly forgot.”
“Yeah, I’m not too sure either,” said Maggie with an embarrassed look on her face.
“Are you two serious? I’ve worked here for three months!” When they continued staring at her blankly, she grunted. “Fine! I run the company’s social media and web content, okay? All our advertising too. Does anybody appreciate me around here?”
“I appreciate you,” said Maggie, giving her best attempt at being earnest. Her pink lips and unbuttoned blouse made it somewhat farcical. “And I’ll appreciate you even more if you go on this weekend for me. You’ll have fun, I promise. Happy’s going, so you know everybody will behave themselves.”
Cheryl glanced across the room, past the many cubicles arranged in rows. Happy — or Howard Moss, if you used his real name — was the office manager. He was currently standing near the fire exit, tacking another of his ‘motivational’ posters to the wall. He was the dad of the office, and the thought of him being on the getaway did make her feel better, but it still didn’t make spending an entire weekend with her colleagues any more appealing.
But there was that matter of a thousand pounds.
A deposit on a flat. A nice flat.
Or a car. I could actually go places besides work.
She had known nothing about any prize money until Leo had mentioned it, but it was reason enough to endure one awkward weekend. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll take your place, Mag, but check with John first, okay? Last thing I want is to turn up unexpectedly.”
Maggie clapped her hands together and bounced on the spot. Her breasts wobbled beneath her blouse and attracted Leo’s gaze. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! You won’t regret this, Cher. I owe you one.”
“Yeah, you do!” Cheryl turned back to her screen, hoping it would prompt them to leave her alone. Maggie took the hint and left with a friendly wave, but Leo carried on hanging over the partition wall like a bored child. When she made eye-contact with him, he grinned. “Always knew I’d get you away for a weekend eventually.” He winked at her. “If you play your cards right, we might be trapped together all night.”
“Trust me,” she said, curling her upper lip, “I’ll be doing everything I can to escape as quickly as possible. And not just because of the thousand-pound prize.”
“Ouch,” said Leo. “No need to be like that, Cher-bear. You’ll love me once you get to know me, you’ll see.”
“Or maybe I’ll hate you worse than I do now. And don’t call me Cher-bear, I hate it!” It came out more harshly than she’d intended, and Leo appeared wounded by the jab. He fiddled with his tie and looked away. “Sorry,” she added. “I never was any good at the old office banter.”