The Creative Competitor

1st Prize: £100 Christine Penny

2nd Prize: £75 Mike Mills

The Truth Will Out

By Christine Penny

The rat! The absolute rat! Laura fumed. How could he? She had never felt so humiliated in her whole life. Fighting back the tears, Laura felt a surge of anger so strong that she knew if Luke Adams was stood in front of her now, she would punch him right on the nose.  Emerging from the offices of Holby and Grantham and struggling to hold back the tears, she walked resolutely out into the busy market square.

Throngs of people were already emerging into the sunlight having escaped from the confines of their offices, Laura silently fumed as she stomped across the square desperate to find haven in her friend’s coffee shop. She hated people seeing her cry but the tears threatened to fall and she needed to release the valve. Almost running down the quaint street in her eagerness to get to her destination, Laura finally made it to the Hot Spot coffee house and sighed with relief. Sasha took one look at Laura as she emerged from the office, stopped in her tracks, and carefully handed a tray filled with steaming mugs of coffee to a nearby waitress, ushering Laura in and closing the door behind them for privacy.

“What on earth is wrong?” She queried, pulling a chair out for Laura as she burst into tears “Did the interview not go well?”

“It went brilliantly and it’s my dream job” she sniffed,””They even wanted me to meet the Head of marketing who would be my direct manager”

“Well, that’s not sounding so bad?” Sasha said slowly, “Or am I missing something?”

“Luke happened” Laura sighed, wiping away her mascara streaked tears, “He is the Head of Marketing. I always knew he would do well in life, but I never expected that he would be running the Marketing department over there. “

“Your ex Luke? Oh no” Sasha wrapped her arms around Laura and hugged her. “I’m so sorry”

“That man is determined to ruin my life” Laura cuddled in to Sasha and wept freely wishing with every part of her body that she had never met Luke.

He had been the love of her life. When they had met he had been her Team Manager in a small Marketing and PR firm and although she had tried to resist him, in the end she had succumbed and her life changed in an instant. Their relationship spiralled and intensified until eventually Luke asked her to marry him. The wedding plans gave Laura something to focus on and she handed in her notice so that she could ensure the big day went smoothly. With hindsight, Laura realised that had been her fatal mistake, Luke had fallen in love with her business minded creative energy and not someone who pandered to his every whim and hung on to his every word. How stupid of her to have put her own life on hold and just focussed on him. Bringing her attention back to the present, Laura sighed and smiled weakly “I’m an idiot”

Later that night, Laura padded around her small apartment listlessly. This had been the first place she could find to rent after moving out from Luke’s but it felt like home now, beautifully furnished, it had become her bolthole for the last couple of months. It cost her more than she could afford though and as a result Laura had used up the biggest part of her savings, so her need to start working again was real enough. She had been fortunate to earn a little by freelancing but her heart hadn’t been in work mode for months and now that emotionally, the wounds had been healing, her perfect job had been pulled out from under her by the very same man.

Sitting on the balcony overlooking the bustling side streets, she felt strangely alone. She had never envisaged her life being this empty. Where had she gone wrong? She had been convinced that Luke was the love of her life. Since the breakup, Laura had shut herself away, hardly leaving her apartment, screening her calls in case he rang, but disappointingly he never had. Losing him had been a bitter blow but knowing that he hadn’t even tried to find her was worse somehow, at least to her pride, but maybe it had been a blessing. Feeling the light warm breeze and the last of the summer sun before autumn commenced, Laura turned her face towards the sky and tried to stop thinking about all she had lost.

The sound at her front door was insistent, ominous and she made her way to the door, her heart racing. Laura couldn’t contain her surprise when she saw Luke in the corridor and her heart skipped a beat. His hair, with fetching silver strands looked ash blonde in this light and his perpetual tired features looked strangely appealing.

“May I come in?” She stood back to allow him access and shut the door sombrely behind him. “Nice place”

Her hear was beginning to race again, just being near him was enough to turn her stomach inside out in knots” What do you want?”

“I want you to take the job. You are the perfect person for it, we both know that” He stepped forward and touched her arm, and she shivered” We can turn the clock back Laura, start afresh, we will make a great team again”

“Turn the clock back? You mean with us?” Her breath caught in her throat, wasn’t this just what she had waited to hear?

“It will be fun” He laughed, displaying perfect white teeth, there was even a glint of mischievousness in his eyes, how she had loved that about him. “We will have to be discreet of course, but hell that will just make it more fun”

“Be discreet? Of course but..why?”

“I’m sort of involved with the MD…….but it’s not serious…I just needed to get my foot in the door, you know how it is, where as you and I…”

Laura stepped back sharply, her breath caught beneath her ribs…she couldn’t believe that she was hearing this. She looked up at him, searching his face in amazement, was he so confident of his looks and his power over her that he thought she would accept that romantic crumb? “Was this why you finished with me?”

“I didn’t expect you to move out and disappear, I just wanted us to cancel the wedding and lie low for a bit. Don’t look like that Laura, you are taking this the wrong way, this is business and she is my stepping stone to success”

As if in a blinding sense of realisation, Luke’s smooth veneer dropped and she could see him finally for the man he really was and job or not, he certainly wasn’t worthy of her.

Throwing him out gave her the most satisfaction ever, the pompous, arrogant man. She was too angry to cry over him again, and suddenly she was so glad that he had come to see her as her emotions had finally turned full circle and she now had closure.

Sitting on her balcony overlooking the street, she watched him slope off, his hands in his pockets, head bowed. His ego for once was massively dented she realised and she wanted to laugh out loud. As the sun gave one final burst of warmth, Laura decided she would seriously start job hunting tomorrow as she was ready to commit 100% to the role and get her career back on track, but she would definitely give Holby and Grantham a miss. A lucky escape if ever there was one.