Healing Love

This is the first book in the “Sandy Wrighton & Friends” series from Naomi Davies. It was originally published as a short novella in 2012. Now you can read the complete version which has a new title and cover art. This novel contains no bad language or explicit sex scenes and is a safe read for Christians looking for a great story told in a contemporary setting.

Clair’s whole life has been governed and controlled by a strict religious upbringing. Her parents now have a plan for her life, but this plan does not take account of her prodigious talent for singing. Max is wild and free. He is alive and out of control. Max lives for the moment and lets nothing hold him back. The lives of these two completely different young people collide with unexpected consequences and eventually with tragedy. Can love heal the pain of broken memories?

 

Opening Chapter of Healing Love by Naomi Davies

 

Fired!

 

Sandy’s boss Hugh Langley had demanded to see her yet again. She wondered what was going on. It was a Friday, and at least five of her junior colleagues had been summoned into his office through the early part of the afternoon. Now it was about three thirty and rumours about what was happening were beginning to filter around the office. She wondered if the project they had just finished had been rejected by the client or whether a huge security problem had been found in the software. She was sure that she had checked everything three times before delivering the system. Hugh had approved it after his usual overzealous and somewhat forensic review of it. She was deeply puzzled.

“Sit down Sandy, are you well?” This was a strange question considering that she had just enjoyed a celebratory lunch with him in the local coffee shop. Hugh Langley had taken his favourite prodigy out and congratulated her on the smooth success of the ‘Waydon Project’. Sandy was very confused as she looked at her boss across his desk. Hugh Langley’s bald head was perspiring and he had a box of tissues on his desk that he was using to wipe the sweat away. His sky blue shirt was showing water marks under his arms as his obesity got the better of him and the unexpected pressure of the day revealed itself. His tie was loose and the buttons on his shirt looked like they were going to ping off at any moment.

Hugh Langley was a team player for the company who was never going to work his way to the top and be offered a partnership deal. His family and home life were far too important for him to stay in the office on unpaid overtime. He steadfastly refused to make overseas trips and be away from home for any length of time. So, at the age of forty five, he had reached the pinnacle of his working life. He hoped he would not be disposed of before he reached the age of fifty, when his well-prepared pension plans would swing into action.

He was having his own nightmare day, and he knew that it was about to get far worse. He had been Sandy’s line manager for three years. In fact he had personally appointed her in that year’s intake. She had excelled with her work and within a year was a team leader. She was able to run the most complex software projects they had on the books. He had taken great pride in his small part in her success. This was what job satisfaction was all about. Appointing the right staff with potential and seeing them grow and improve. He loved watching Sandy develop over the years and had admired her a great deal from day one. They were great work colleagues and worked well together in leading their software development team.

He looked up momentarily into Sandy’s eyes and then looked back down to his desk. He moved some sheets of paper around on his desk and was completely flustered. He looked up again and Sandy could see that his left eye was twitching. He blinked it away as best he could and took a deep breath.

“What is it, Hugh?” Sandy felt uncomfortable and uneasy. Hugh had not said a word after his initial greeting. He took another tissue and wiped his head. Finally Hugh Langley took in another huge breath and raised his eyes to meet Sandy’s. There was a light tremor in his voice as he broke the news.

“Your department has been closed down as part of the overseas takeover. We are letting you go. You are to leave this room, collect your things and be out of the building in five minutes. I’m sorry Sandy.” Sandy looked at him agog. She opened her mouth and closed it again. She scratched her head and shuffled a bit in the leather office chair making it squeak and make funny noises. She tried to speak but nothing would come out of her mouth.

“You need to leave now Sandy. Those are my instructions. You will be paid your full salary for your three months’ notice while the HR department sort the details out but you have to leave the premises now.” Hugh shook his head and was unable to look Sandy in the eye. He knew how much this job meant to her and he knew her performance in this company had been exemplary. Sandy was still assimilating the news when Hugh insisted once again that she needed to leave. The shock of the news made her determined not to leave. She thought about her five colleagues who had obviously just been made redundant, and reflected on the injustice of it. There was no way she was going to walk out without some sort of explanation. She stayed sat firmly in the chair. She was not sure that she would be able to stand and walk safely anyway, even if she tried.

“You are not getting away with it that easy, Matey!” Sandy’s first growling utterance gave her confidence and she finally stood up and confronted Hugh Langley eye to eye. “Who said so? Who made this decision? Have we not made your section enough money? What is behind all this?” With each question her rage deepened and her voice grew louder. Hugh made the near fatal mistake of coming around his desk and putting his left hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t you dare touch me!” Hugh realised his mistake, recoiled and stood well back. He had seen one of Sandy’s bad overreactions before and it wasn’t a pleasant sight. Hugh then made a second mistake and looked over Sandy’s shoulder through the frosted glass towards the Directors’ Boardroom which was next door. Sandy looked round at the glass and understood his glance.

“They are in there now aren’t they? Those stupid stuffed suits who are rolling in money and don’t know one end of a piece of code from another. They haven’t even got the gumption to come and tell me themselves, have they? Well I’d like to hear it from them directly and see the whites of their eyes when they tell me.” Sandy stormed out of Hugh’s office slamming the door behind her. She noticed that all activity had stopped in the open plan office section outside. No one was working. She was the ‘main event’ at the moment and all eyes were on her. All the programmers and support staff watched in awe and wonder as they saw Sandy march along the corridor to the boardroom door.

As she progressed along the walkway to confront the directors in the boardroom she began to comprehend the full injustice of what was happening. She suddenly became aware that most of the people watching her were, just like her, going to be fired. She paused and looked towards the faces eagerly watching her.

“Watch your backs everyone, they are getting rid of us!” She announced to the ensemble. There was a noise of people chattering and moving around as they heard Sandy’s announcement. The boardroom door opened and a short round headed bald man from HR administration bumped into her as he was coming out.

“Get out of my way!” There were five men and two women in the boardroom. They had heard the disturbance and were braced for what might happen in the next few seconds. Sandy sat down firmly in the nearest chair to the door and looked at the directors one by one.

“Now which one of you fools has got the guts to open their mouths and explain this to me?” Inside her mind it was dawning on Sandy that she had just been fired. She had actually only been employed there three years but she would still be due some redundancy money because of the contract she was on. That didn’t matter. What mattered was that she had just lost her job. A job she loved and was very good at. It was too much for her to bear. There was no reply from anyone in the room.

“I’m waiting!” She announced. One of the directors coughed and said.

“We have called security. They will be here presently, Miss Wrighton.”

“Well bully for you! You have called security. Now let me think! Who is on duty today? Terry and Ian I think. Well now I am really scared! Terry and Ian are on their way to lead me out of the office. How are they going to do that? If they touch me I will get you for it!”

“Miss Wrighton, will you please calm down!”

“I will not calm down until you tell me why you are closing down my section.” Sandy didn’t want to hear the answer and the directors didn’t reply. Then the door of the boardroom opened and the security guard called Terry arrived. In a moment he assessed what was happening and nodded towards Sandy.

“Can I help?” Terry asked the chief executive.

“Will you escort Miss Wrighton out of the building please? Immediately!”

“I’m begging your pardon sir, but Miss Wrighton will leave when she is good and ready, sir, and not a moment before.” His thick Somerset accent tinged every syllable of his sentence. Sandy smiled inwardly and defiantly nodded towards the room.

“Mr Smeeth, are you refusing to do your job?” Things were getting out of hand and the overseas boardroom contingent was due to catch a plane back to Frankfurt within the next two hours. Ian, the other security guard had now arrived and he nodded to Terry and Sandy.

“No sir, I am happy to do my job. But I don’t know how you expect me to lead her out when she won’t be led. You would do better to explain things to her good and proper so that we can all get on with our day.” Sandy looked at the magnificent Terry Smeeth in a new light. He was sixty one years old and extremely overweight. He could barely see through his heavily framed glasses and here he was standing up for her. She regarded him with pride and admiration.

“Go back to reception. We will talk to Miss Wrighton.”

“Should have done that in the first place.” Terry said quite loudly as he closed the door behind him. One of the English directors looked around at his colleagues and sighed with a deep breath before speaking. He didn’t get the chance.

“Look. Don’t bother explaining it to me. You are a bunch of big wig losers who have made a stupid decision and got rid of your best team. I’m out of here!” Sandy regally stood up and slowly walked to the door. Ian was still standing there and opened the door for her.

“Thank you Ian. It’s nice to see some respect shown around here!”

“You’re welcome Miss Wrighton.” Ian followed her out of the door and Sandy walked across to her desk. She hurriedly called her team together and while she packed her briefcase she told them what was happening to her. She also told them all to expect to lose their own jobs by the end of the day. She hugged a few of them that she was friendly with and then walked solemnly towards the lift. She waited for it to come and then turned and called out to the room.

“See you later!”  As the lift door closed Sandy was grateful that no one could see the inevitable and unstoppable tears forming in her eyes. Man that had been quite an exit!