“Morning Peter.”
Dennis closed his eyes and shook his head in quick succession and then looked up at her. Other men in the office were watching her.
“Is there something I can do for you Miss Smith?”
Becky placed a large boxfile on his desk and pushed it to him.
“This is from Tom. He said it had everything you’d need in it. Well not quite everything you‘ll ever need,” she said, shifting slightly revealing her stocking tops to wolf whistles from across the office.
“Thank you,” Dennis said, deliberately avoiding her eyes.
He opened the file and began shuffling through what was in it.
“So did you have a nice weekend,” she asked in her husky voice.
“Um. Yes. Yes thank you,” he replied, looking up at her at last.
“How was the exhibition? I wish I’d had someone to go with.”
Dennis looked up again from the file.
“It was invite only,” he said with his best smile.
There was the sound of someone clearing their throat. Dennis peered past her to look across the office.
“Miss Smith,” Rogerson called from his office door. He had just arrived and his hand was on his door handle.
Becky turned and smiled.
“Just coming Mr Rogerson.”
She turned back to Dennis as she slid herself off his desk.
“See you later Peter.”
He watched her go. She was deliberately wiggling her bottom. Halfway to Rogerson she looked over her shoulder back at Dennis and winked at him. He closed his eyes and shook his head again to clear his thoughts. The fact that she fancied him she had made obvious in the two weeks that she had worked there. She followed Rogerson into his office and turned again to close the door. She grinned at Dennis and he found himself grinning and nodding back. Then she turned to her boss and sat and Dennis couldn’t see her anymore. He concentrated on the boxfile she’d given him. It contained a lot of correspondence on the current revolt in Libya and Dennis suddenly found his heart begin racing at the prospect of his new assignment. He tried to put Becky out of his mind then a thought struck him.
‘Shit! Natalie’s coming here for lunch. What if she behaves like that in front of her. Nat will kill her. Me too.’
He picked his phone up to ring her to arrange to meet out when Rogerson’s door opened again and Becky called him.
“What?”
“Mr Rogerson wants to see you.”
Reluctantly Dennis left his desk and headed over.
‘What now?’ he was thinking.
Dennis entered his boss’s office. Rogerson was frowning at a newspaper front page.
“Yes sir.”
“Sit down Pete.”
Smith held the chair for him and leaned over it further than she needed to giving Dennis a view of her backside. He did his best not to notice.
“Thank you Miss Smith. I’d like coffee please, Peter?”
“Yes thank you.”
She poured the cups while Rogerson continued to read the front page. Then after deliberately making sure her fingers stroked Dennis’ hand as she gave him his cup she poured and placed a cup in front of the editor.
“Will there be anything else Mr Rogerson?”
“No thank you. You can leave us.”
Dennis watched her go. She closed the door silently and blew Dennis a kiss through the window. He glanced nervously back at Rogerson still reading. His boss hadn’t noticed.
Rogerson finished reading the front page of the newspaper he was holding, then turned it around and dropped it in front of Dennis.
“Hell of a party huh?”
It had been three days since the spear exhibition and the story was still dominating the front pages.
“I assume you’ve been keeping up with events.”
“Yes. I’ve read every newspaper going.”
“Good. Then you can squash some of the conspiracy theories. Dixon has been covering the story since it happened. I want you to work with him on this. Is he in the office?”
“I haven’t seen him Tom.”
“Well as soon as he gets in, nab him, tell him everything you know. Everything Pete.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if I did the story?”
“No. Dixon has covered it since it happened. I’ve got Alex and Suzy in Tripoli covering the Gaddafi thing. Like I said before I want you to do an article on the impact his death will have on the country. I‘d get you a plane ticket but the whole bloody country is in uproar. Apart from foreign military there is nothing in or out. You‘ll just have to do what you can from here. Set up a satellite link on your laptop with Alex and Suzy. They‘re in a hotel in Tripoli and should be able to get wi-fi. You should find everything you need in that box file Becky has given you. If you need anything else come to me Pete. Ok? ”
“Understood.”
“Now tell me what happened with the police.”
Dennis told his boss everything that happened as far as he could remember.
“Have you told anyone else?”
“Apart from Natalie. No.”
“Good. You can tell Dixon everything you’ve just told me.”
“Ok.”
Rogerson studied his journalist for a moment.
“How are you Pete?”
“How am I?”
“Yes how are you? It’s a simple enough question. You’ve been through a lot lately. The affair with Von Werner and the sarcophagus, that maniac Russian….”
“Ukranian.”
“What?”
“Danilov was from Chernobyl. Chernobyl is in the Ukraine.”
“Well it was Russia once. Look the thing is you barely got over that and then this happens. I just want to make sure my number one journalist is holding his own.”
“I’m fine.”
“Good. And how is Natalie?”
“She’s great. No she’s terrific. Apart from….” Dennis stopped.
“Apart from what?”
Dennis wished he hadn’t mentioned it.
“She met me from the police station and slapped me for ’playing the hero’ as she called it.”
Rogerson laughed.
“Slapped you!”
“Yeah. She had a bit of a go at me.”
“But you’re ok now. Both of you.”
“Yeah. We’re fine. I don’t know why I did it.”
“Well she’s right. You could have got yourself killed. I guess that’s why you’re the best storyteller I have. You know, always being part of the action. Getting that first hand experience.”
“Something like that,” Dennis replied.
“Well that’s it for now. Let me know if there is anything else you can think of that may be relevant to a story, any story in the last 72 hours.”
Dennis got up to leave. At the door he stopped.
“Thanks Tom.”
“For what?”
“For caring.”
“I might be your boss Pete but I’m also your friend. Grab Dixon as soon as he gets in!” Rogerson shouted as Dennis closed the door.
He made his way slowly back to his desk. There was another yellow post it note stuck to his computer screen. Before he even read it he saw that it was Becky’s handwriting and the message ended in a kiss. An ’x’ with a horizontal line either side.
“For fuck’s sake,” Dennis said quietly, “This is a form of sexual harrassment.”
He looked across at her. She was talking to another girl, Ruby, a journalist, but every time she agreed with something Ruby said she nodded then glanced his way. It wasn’t that he was shy or afraid of beautiful women, he’d had his fair share of them, it was just that this one looked like she could get him into trouble. Trouble with Natalie and that was something he wanted to avoid at all costs. He couldn’t imagine life without the beautiful archaeologist now. Their relationship over the months had blossomed into something he’d never had before. He’d been in love before of course, many times. Been hurt many times. Did the hurting. He thought about his girlfriend now and his pulse raced like it always did about her. He glanced at his clock. 10am. She’ll be here in a few hours. He noticed Becky finish her conversation with Ruby and start heading his way.