Page 81 of ReTreat Yourself
Yes. What do I mean?
‘I like you too.’
There, I’ve said it. I’ve made myself vulnerable and exposed. And I don’t like it one little bit.
Oliver visibly relaxes. He lets out a gusty breath.
I make him nervous, I realise. I make this gorgeous man-mountain flustered. I make him nervous!
OMG.
I’m suddenly desperate to keep him in my office. ‘Okay, I suppose before I’m officially asked to leave, you can help me work out a plan to get this business back on track for Nidi.’
I get out the Wheel of Life diagram and show him.
‘This is very similar to how I unpick complex issues. The eBay hostile take-over attempt, cryptocurrency destabilisation,’ he says, sitting down next to me at my desk. I ignore the fluttering taking place inside me and try to concentrate on what he’s saying. ‘In fact, I could have used this for a cross-governmental contract I worked on recently, to finalise a deal over fishing rights off the coast of Iceland.’
Oh my. He sounds incredibly intellectual and competent. Too intellectual and too competent, if anything.
‘Once we’ve sorted your issues out, I’d like you to walk me through this to sort out mine. It’s time I finally set up my own company.’
I take a second to digest what he is saying. He is asking me to help him using my life coaching skills. He is after me to administer some proper life coaching. He smirks and directs my attention back to the diagram. ‘Look, your finances and bookings are a mess. You have unexpected clients walking in. You’re missing online payments. No wonder you seem swamped. Every day is spent fire-fighting. You are so busy working in the business, you have left yourself no time to work on the business.’
He has hit the nail on the head there.
‘But,’ he says, ‘it was rather dumped on you last minute, so how are you supposed to know how everything runs? Credit to you for managing to get this far.’
I feel enormously uplifted by this but he swiftly moves on to ask how I got on sorting out the accounts, ledgers, tax returns and balance sheets and did his tutorial (the one where my eyes never managed to get above his taut stomach) help?
Oh Christ.
‘Do you know,’ says Oliver, breaking my thoughts. ‘It would be much easier to sort this all out if we could train Maria-José-Inmaculada-Carmen up properly.’
I admire his optimism. I do.
He proceeds to tell me that at least we’d be able to show her how to manage the finances and cash, cheques and online payments, receipts and petty cash, overheads, rental agreements, liability insurance and Spanish tax payments so that I won’t have to.
‘That will free you up to concentrate on the coaching,’ he explains. ‘And if you delegate the marketing and PR to Ava then she could organise the events. I’ll draw up roles and responsibilities so that there’s accountability. It’ll prevent any mix-ups.’
God, he’s bossy. And sexy.
Even though I know this second chance is merely an opportunity for Maria-José-Inmaculada-Carmen to find new and inventive ways not to do any actual work and for me to keep complaining, I’m determined to give it a go.
I ring Ava to let her know everything is okay and that Oliver is on board with helping us.
Surprisingly, she takes the news with gusto. ‘Nell,’ she says patronisingly. ‘Tell Oliver I’m also a guru in spiritualisationology. I can teach clients the basics of magnetism and how to draw the universal energy towards—’
‘Fine. Whatever,’ I say, desperate for Ava to shut up. ‘We can discuss it later at home. I’ve told MJ to meet us early tomorrow morning for a staff meeting about roles and responsibilities.’
‘You seem to be handling your sister rather well,’ Oliver tells me when I click off the call.
‘I found out a few things. Turns out I jumped to a few wrong conclusions.’
That is surely the understatement of the year. I brace for a barrage of questions.
‘Yep. I’ve been there and done that a few times. Glad you seem to have it sorted. Was it the crystals that helped or the sage?’
I’m so relieved he’s going to let it go, I feel slightly light-headed. I have a smile as wide as my face.
