Lewis - One Minute Later

Present Day

T he day started out so well.

It was sunny, warma welcome bonus for what had so far been a rainy Aprilwith misty slats of sunlight streaming through the partially open plantation shutters. The delicious aroma of fresh coffee and buttery croissants floated up from Maxis caf next door, enticing her further into the day.

Vivienne Shager stretched luxuriously, her taut, lithe body unraveling its impressive length from the contours of sleep as her mind made a happy reconnect with the world and what it had in store on this glorious work-free day.

It was hard to believe that four full weeks had passed since she and the GaLsGirls at Lawhad run andcompleted an entire marathon to raise funds for the charity Heads Together. So much had happened in that timemostly work related, but shed also had an irritating bug that kept coming and going, trying to lay her low but never quite succeeding. However, she was feeling pretty good today, she soon realized. This was a huge relief, for she and the GaLs were planning some serious celebration of their fund-raising efforts. The day was exclusively theirs; partners, spouses, offspring, parents, bosses, and colleagues had been given notice that theyd have to manage without the key women in their lives from midday until said women were ready to tip in the direction of home.

For Vivi, there was less of a problem on the family front, since she had no children and her partner, Greg, was going to Lords for the day. Her mother fortunately didnt live anywhere close by. On the work front, her immediate boss, Trudy Mack-Silver, was one of the GaLs, so no difficulties there. This wasnt to say that Vivienne didnt have a mountain of work to get through; being a senior member of the in-house legal team at FAberlin Investments meant her desk and inbox were always crammed with issues needing urgent attention. Over time shed learned how to prioritize the ceaseless flow of demands, though many of them saw her laboring late into the evenings and often over entire weekends. She didnt mind; she loved her job and even liked many of the giant corporations upper-management team. They could be tough, bad-tempered, inconsiderate, and in some cases offensively sexist, but in times of crisis she watched closely, spoke confidently, and managed to learn a lot from those whose jobs she had in her sights.

You give great kickback, Trudy often told her following an intense negotiation or fiery confrontation. They respect you for it. It makes them listen, and provided you dont go wrong, you could be heading up the entire legal team by the time youre thirty. Trudy didnt have a problem with this, because she had no such ambitions for herself. She was happy to stay at the level shed already attained, since it allowed her time to be an at-home-most-evenings wife to Bruno and available-for-school-runs mum to Nick and Dean.

The other important thing about today was the fact that it was Vivis twenty-seventh birthday, another reason the GaLsall graduates of the London School of Economics law schoolhad decided that this should be the marathon reunion day. Combining occasions was something they often did; being so busy with their careers it was the only way to make sure nothing got overlooked.

Throwing back the pale blue striped duvet, Vivi stood as tall as her willowy five feet nine inches allowed, arched her long back, and gave a lazy side-to-side twist to stretch out her waist. Since ending her intense pre-marathon training, her body had softened slightly, making it, according to Greg, more feminine and curvier, and way sexier. He had a thing about large women, which made his attraction to her a bit of a mystery, given how slender she was. However, theyd been seeing each other for several months, nonexclusively, so their friends werent living in daily expectation of some significant news. A baby. A wedding. Or perhaps something as simple as moving in together.

Despite their casual relationship, Vivi had to admit that he was a bit of a dreamboat in his way, sporty, witty, fiercely intelligent, and very well connected in the financial world, thanks to his gentrified family and their historic ties to the City. When he spoke, it was immediately evident that he came from privileged pastures; however, Vivienne strongly doubted that he gave a single thought to the relative ordinariness of her own. He wasnt a snob, or if he was, shed never noticed. Nonetheless, shed never taken him to meet her family, who still lived in the hopelessly unsophisticated coastal town that Vivi had called home for the first eighteen years of her life.

Shed moved on since uni, had redefined her focus, and was part of another world that could hardly be more different from the simplicity of her early years. Not that she had changed in character, for she was still the same upbeat and optimistic Vivi that her beloved grandpa used to call Vivi-vacious. This nickname came from her love of life and people, especially him and NanaBella, which was what she used to call her grandma on account of her name being Bella. Vivi also adored her younger brother, nineteen-year-old Mark, and there was no doubt that she loved her mother with all her heart and knew that her mother felt the same about her. However, their relationship was the most complicated and frustrating part of Viviennes world, which was why she didnt often go home. Shed spent too many years trying to unlock the closed doors in her mothers heart and unravel the secrets Gina had never shared, and now all Vivienne wanted was to avoid the confusing and conflicting emotions she always came away with after spending time with her mother.

She wasnt giving any of this a single thought on this glorious spring morning, although she expected her mobile to ring at any minute, bringing a dutiful happy-birthday call from home. The postman would almost certainly deliver a card from her mother later, and a text would no doubt pop up at some point during the day, saying something like, Hope youre having a fabulous day, but please dont have too much to drink . There wouldnt be a present, because her mother had stopped buying them a few years ago, saying, I always get it wrong, so there doesnt seem any point in wasting my money. If you want something, just ask.

That was Gina all over. In spite of being a glamorous and successful forty-six-year-old businesswoman with a good sense of humor and plenty of friends, she could be prosaically practical about things that called for frivolity or indulgence. (Although, Vivi reminded herself, their surprise trip to Venice when Vivi was a teenager had proved her mother could be both imaginative and impulsive when she wanted to be.) However, it was true to say that Gina was usually awkward with celebrations, and as for showy declarations of feeling, well, that wasnt her at all. Actually, she was nothing if not a maddening set of contradictions, because she could be a lot of fun when she wanted to be, and when it came to throwing a party, she didnt do things by half. Things had changed, however, since Gil, Vivis stepfather and Marks father, had left, just over nine years ago. Dear, wonderful Gil, who was still as much a part of their lives as if hed never gone, except he didnt live with her mother anymoreand if anyone could work out the bizarreness of that relationship, theyd certainly have a better insight into Ginas mysterious psyche than Vivi had ever managed.

Dont ask me, NanaBella had lamented at the time of the breakup. Ive never really understood your mother, you know that, and she could baffle the heck out of Grandpa when he was alive.

But you always loved her and stood by her, Vivienne had pointed out, for it was true, her grandparents had always been therefor them all.