A Time For New Beginnings

A Time For New Beginnings

A visit from her best friend from University, Hayley Finch, was the best idea she, Veronica had had for months. After a party of Olympic proportions, they finally collapsed into bed at four a.m. Hayley got on the road early in the afternoon for her seven hour journey back to Scotland, while Veronica spent all of the first day of the New Year nursing a monster hangover.

In the early evening, she sat down in front of her untidy desk, clogged up with bank statements, utility bills and Christmas cards. She spent half an hour in a lukewarm attempt at clearing up the last few physical residues of a year, closed now like a battered, completed novel.

From the bottom drawer, she pulled a pad of her best writing paper and started listing possible New Year resolutions. Give up smoking was one she had, finally, achieved in the past six months but she wrote it on the top of the list with a great big tick against it. Now then, onto this year’s resolutions, she thought. Take up salsa dancing. Give up chocolate. Decorate the bedroom. Get a new job. She chewed the end of her pen. None of these possibilities were heartfelt.

Her mind wandered onto more pressing issues in her life, romance, and the image of Jamie, the cute guy from the Finance department, immediately appeared before her. She saw his soft yet strong features, the way he brushed a lock of hair away from his forehead, how he slurped when drinking his coffee.

At the Christmas party they had slow-danced, something which was completely out of character for Veronica, especially in front of colleagues. He’d held her tightly and she had soaked up his smell, basked in his admiration as he whispered, “You look stunning tonight”.

But that was that. No kissing or canoodling, no promises of “I’ll call you”. Simply a “See you in the New Year” and that was that. She sighed. Ah, the woes of unrequited love. Jamie must obviously have been drunk, why else would he have been flirtatious with her?

She forced her thoughts back to her list. Lose weight was added, then immediately crossed off and replaced by Get fit. She had no qualms with her weight, nor her looks come to think of it. Give me a million pounds and I wouldn’t spend a single penny on cosmetic surgery, she thought.

Then why, she wondered, was it that she lacked so completely in self-esteem whenever Jamie was around? She felt nervous, like a schoolgirl, even at the thought of him. He sometimes came to sit at her desk to discuss invoice queries, and she could sense the sparks zipping between them. At times, she wanted to reach out and touch him, wanted to place a hand on his face and kiss his soft lips (at least, she assumed they were soft; they certainly looked it).

Temporarily dismissing her list, she poured herself a large glass of cold milk and looked out over the snow-covered lawn. It looked so pretty, with the fairy lights still adorning the two potted conifers on either side of the patio doors. Returning to her office, she passed by the wall mounted, full-length mirror and paused. The woman staring back at her, in spite of the sweatpants and comfy cardigan, was attractive. Veronica realised that much. Her long blond hair was naturally curly, her eyes blue like large sapphires, endlessly deep. She sighed at her reflection and returned to her swivel chair by her now less-cluttered desk.

Perhaps this year, she thought, it is time for drastic action. Something new. The list so far was filled with inconsequential scribble, nothing she really wanted to put her mind or resolve to. None of it mattered.

Jamie. He mattered. She wasn’t sure why he should matter so much; they were, after all, only work colleagues. However, she was a firm believer in fate and in her very bones felt that she and Jamie were destined to be together. Did Jamie feel so, too? Veronica had wondered the same thing last New Year’s Day and had, back then, decided to adopt a ‘wait and see’ attitude. Nothing happened. Except for the Christmas party.

That was when she decided on her New Year’s resolution. Throw caution to the wind, take a gamble. Invite Jamie out for a drink and tell him how you feel. She looked at the words staring back at her from her notepad. Would she have the guts, could she really do it, or would she chicken out at the last minute? This was so completely different from how she usually behaved around men, being so old-fashioned and romantic as to expect the man to make the first move. With a great deal of positive resolve she smiled and shoved the pad back into the drawer. If she failed on the chosen resolution she could always return to the list later in the year.

Later that evening, while enjoying the last couple of hours before returning to work the following morning, the shrilling ring of the telephone interrupted her comfortable solitude. That’ll be mum, she thought, checking up on me.
‘Hello?’
‘Veronica?’
‘Speaking.’
‘Hello. It’s Jamie. Happy New Year!’
Her heart pounded and her hands turned sweaty in an instant. She grabbed the receive a little tighter, worried it would otherwise slip from her clammy hand.
‘Oh hello, Happy New Year to you too’, she said, trying to sound calm. ‘How are you?’
‘I am fine, thank you. Recovering, you know.’
‘I know what you mean’.
‘Listen, I was wondering if eh.. well..’ he sounded nervous. She held her breath. ‘Wondering if you would like to go out for… a drink with me, at some time. When you are not busy.’
She thought of the pad in the bottom drawer and smiled. Things would be all right. This was meant to be. Never mess with fate.
‘I would love to’ she replied.