Unknown by Unknown

looked washed out. True, she hadn’t had many male admirers lately and she knew she had only herself to blame for that—they were a luxury she just couldn’t afford, Teddy needed her spare time more than anyone else—but if as she guessed the man who was now looking at her as if her smile had just knocked him off balance was in fact trying to pick her up, then she couldn’t be looking as washed out as Crawford Arrowsmith had said.
    The man straightened up and put the wheel he had just removed and the rest of the equipment back into the boot, and with his hand still on the boot lid enquired, ‘You’re sure I can’t give you a lift?’
    ‘No, thanks all the same. I’m sure the old girl won’t let me down.’
    ‘You wouldn’t like to give me your phone number, I suppose?’
    He had an engaging grin that somehow reminded her of Robin, for all he was nothing like Robin to look at, though for a moment she couldn’t remember what Robin had looked like—which was strange, because she had thought herself very much in love with him.
    ‘My time’s fully committed,’ she said. And because he was really very nice and had been very kind to her, she added, ‘I’m sorry.’
    ‘Beaten to the post yet again,’ he said, his grin coming easily. ‘Some fellows have all the luck! ’
    He passed her shortly afterwards—the A35 doing a sedate thirty—and gave her an uproarious burst from his horn. Gerry was still smiling over the encounter when she parked the car prior to haring to the tube station.
    It was twenty-past nine when she hurried through the entrance of Arrowsmith Computers, and knowing she couldn’t do a thing until she had washed some of the grime off her hands, she spent another five minutes in the cloakroom.
    Walking quickly, she turned into the corridor that housed the door to the office she was sharing with Janet, and felt her heart fall to her feet as she saw Crawford Arrowsmith talking to another man a few doors up from Janet’s office. Feeling very self-conscious, she walked on, knowing she would have to pass him to get to Janet’s door. Not faltering in her stride, she composed her features and wondered whether to give him a cool good morning or totally ignore him. She decided on the latter, as he seemed not to have seen her but was listening intently to what the man with him was saying.
    She was level with him when some of Crawford’s reply hit her ears, '... If you think that will work, Harry ...’ then almost past him, she felt her arm caught and held, and felt herself being hauled back against Crawford’s side, then heard him continuing without any break in his conversation, and still looking as though he hadn’t even seen her—as if his hand had come out and stayed her progress without his knowledge. ‘I should do that,’ he was saying to the unknown Harry. Gerry jerked her arm to be free and was ignored as he held on to her, and seethed quietly as she was forced to stand waiting until he was ready to give her his attention.
    ‘Right, Mr Arrowsmith,’ Harry said, I’ll get on with that straight away,’ and with that he stepped smartly down the corridor. He hadn’t so much as looked at her, Gerry thought, and couldn’t help wondering if she had suddenly become invisible.
    Then Crawford was pulling her round until she was standing directly in front of him. She was getting used to the way he looked straight into her face by now, but it did nothing for her rising temper to see he was again thinking she looked washed out. She would dearly love to tell him she could have been picked up that morning if she had chosen, but didn’t know that she felt up to any reply he would have made to that.
    ‘I see your aunt has a faulty alarm system too,’ he stated, her arm still in his grip.
    She had to think fast to catch up with him, then remembered she had told him she was staying with her aunt in Finchley, and he must be referring to her lateness, and cancelling out her excuse before she made it