Smoke swirled slowly towards the sky. Beyond the dirty, dust-smeared Perspex of the cigarette booth loomed the entrance to the office. Adrian sat in the booth alone. He often turned up early if invigilating exams in order to organise everything in plenty of time, if the smallest thing went wrong before or during an exam it could spell a very bad day at the office. Adrian had a particular way of doing things to prevent such an outcome, he often chased anybody with monies owing in the days prior to reduce the chance of any surprise attendees on the day and prepared the attendance registers for all potential candidates – paid or unpaid – so that no additional printing was required. Inhaling smoke deep into his lungs he cast a sideways glance towards the building once more. Cars had started to arrive and began to occupy the spaces immediately under the ground floor windows. He blew another cloud of smoke into the air and gave a nod to one of the receptionists making her way through the grand glass double-doors,they glided in opposite directions to effortlessly welcome her.
Resigned to the day ahead Adrian wearily lifted himself from the bench and extinguished his cigarette before trudging along the safety path marked out along the edge of the car park. The glass jaws opened and consumed him as he disappeared within. The ritual had begun. A…D…R… His name suddenly presented itself on the tablet from amongst the scores of people not currently in the building.
“Adrian, how are we this morning?”
There are a number of things that came as a guarantee working in this building: the café would run out of food, the CEO ‘whose door is always open’ would be shut away in his office and you’d be greeted each morning by Linda’s dazzling smile. Linda was part of the furniture and knew the inner workings of the company like nobody else, her professional face a perfect mirror image of the beaming smile on her ID badge.
“I’m good thanks love. Happy Fri-yay!”
“I’ve got my badge on.” Linda held out the ID badge as far as the lanyard would extend. This was part of the daily routine between the two of them ever since Adrian had once, in jest, asked where her badge was.
“I’m not the compliance police, go cause trouble somewhere else.” Adrian said, walking through the double doors with hands covering his eyes while the sound of Linda’s laughing became ever more distant.
Pushing open the door to the test area and dumping his heavy bag on the floor, Adrian surveyed the scene. He never liked working in this room. The test room was a large rectangle with desks and computer screens lining the outside edge of the room. Many of the computer screens were directly underneath the windows which caused a number of problems in the summer months. The windows are so large that sunlight beams in and heats the whole room making it impossible to work or, in the case of the candidates, do an exam. This in turn precedes the opening of windows for that lovely breeze to seep in, except, as the windows are at the rear of the building it means there is no breeze in that area of land because it is surrounded by the high walls of the office. Air conditioning was installed a year ago and this was thought to have resolved this particular issue but after receiving a number of complaints about the noise made by the air-con it was decided not to have it turned on for exams. Among the complaints received during those long, hot summer months were a few stating that candidates could not see the monitors due to the glare of sunlight directly in their eyes. The response to this was more money, more disruption and eventually some black out blinds running the length of the windows. The remainder of the summer passed by grey week after grey week, this was followed by a grey autumn whilst outside the trees shed their leaves to decorate pavements and parks with a golden hue. It was winter now. Despite this, Adrian decided to roll back the dark grey blinds this morning in spite of the same bleak sight that would greet him.
No longer allowed to resent the situation, especially if he wanted a coffee before greeting the candidates, he raced along the edge of the room switching on all of the PC towers and monitors. These would always take a minute or so to load so he then opened the cupboards and took out everything he would need for the examinations laying them all out on one of the desks. It was actually everything they would need, he never ceased to be amazed by how many people arrived for exams unprepared. Once the monitors had loaded their initial screens, Adrian raced around a second time selecting the correct profile for each of the PC’s so that the exam software could be accessed. Again, this would take some time so he plugged in his own laptop and switched it on before distributing plain paper on each of the desks. Quickly returning to his laptop he typed in his password and whilst that was loading walked around each of the PC’s to double-click the icon which would open the exam homepage. Another visit to his own laptop allowed him to open the same exam homepage for himself before distributing the attendance registers to each of the vacant desks which would soon be occupied by nervous people. One last round enabled him to close any pop-ups that appeared on the screens and sweeping the back end of the room allowed for the collection of the pre-exam announcement. It really was a military style operation and one which gave him the luxury of time to deal with any unforeseen problems. Above all else, it gave Adrian just enough time to grab that lifeline of a coffee before being confined to his prison for three hours.
Armed with his company mobile and a pocketful of change, Adrian sauntered into the café exchanging several nods of the head and smiles with each of his colleagues as he did so. Scanning the café he already knew which of the few people in there would be sitting an exam as they were all nose-deep in notes and textbooks, anxiety etched on their brows. Standing at the glass counter waiting to be served he perused the daily specials. He always looked knowing full well they would all be long gone by the time he would be able to set foot back outside of the test room. Someone arrived at the till, another new face.
“Hi, I’m sorry but we don’t start serving until nine o’clock.”
“Oh, hi,” Adrian said. “I don’t suppose Steff is in the kitchen is she? I always grab a coffee before nine as I’m tied up by the time you open.” With that, the young girl disappeared. Another soul to mould in the standards of customer service I see, he thought and started to flick through the magazines next to the counter to ease his boredom and distract his frustration in equal measure. No sooner had he found an article worthy of reading – something about the top ten must-have gadgets everyone wants for Christmas – Steff arrived.
“Adrian! Heeeeeeey!”
To say that Steff had an aura about her was a bit of an understatement, as much as Adrian welcomed her forever beaming smile he was always somewhat disturbed by the unnatural shade of orange emanating from her neck upwards. Although they didn’t grow up together – there were approximately ten years between them actually – they did grow up in the same part of the city and that in itself was enough to accept each other as equals with in-jokes which stretched far beyond the boundaries of a normal co-worker relationship. As harmless as it was, Adrian only really stopped to chat to her when the café was dead.
“So someone didn’t go out last night then?” Adrian replied, returning the magazine to the stand.
“Does it count as going out if you never went home in the first place?”
“Guess not Steff. So what’s with the newbie? You scare another one away?”
“Cheeky shit! Of course not, they just can’t handle being part of my dream team. Nah, you know the score. We train them up and then they drop us for somewhere willing to pay them a decent wage because they’ve got an ounce of experience. It’ll never change, just another day…”
“Speaking of which, I’ve got an exam to sort out in a minute so can I grab a cappuccino to go please? You know what to do with the sugar.” Adrian said with a wink.
With that, Steff leaned across the counter and planted a kiss on his cheek before disappearing to tend to his drink. Although there wasn’t anything in it, Adrian always felt a rush of excitement whenever Steff did that. She was friendly to everyone but never did that to anyone else. Turning around with a boyhood grin on his face he was shocked to find that someone was standing next to him at the counter. He hadn’t even noticed her and turned decidedly red when she cast a wry smile in his direction at what she had witnessed.
“Hi, um, sorry. That was… we’re just friends, um, sorry if that…y’know.” In that moment, the power of speech deserted Adrian entirely.
“It’s ok. I thought it was funny, cute even.” She didn’t look offended but instead was somewhat amused. She was also absolutely stunning. Once Adrian had got over the initial shock he was amazed at just how pretty she was with her dark hair and large brown eyes that sat above a petite nose. He couldn’t help but stand dumbfounded, drinking in her image. She had olive skin, a small stud piercing her upper lip and possessed a natural beauty which, although understated, was equally radiant. In spite of this beauty- for surely she knew her own value – she had this uncanny knack of avoiding eye contact by looking towards the floor as if too shy to hold eye contact for any amount of time. He watched perplexed as the mysterious woman leaned across the top of the counter, her sleeves edging up just enough to reveal a tantalising glimpse of a tattoo creeping down her forearm. Adrian simply stared, hungry to know more. He could make out an orb-like shape, red in colour, which seemed to be ensnared by something like a vine. A minor adjustment to her poise and he was able to determine a snake spiralling around her forearm before reaching out for a shiny red apple.
“Nice ink.” he offered, attempting to sound cool.
“Thank you. Do you work here?” she enquired, nodding towards Adrian’s ID badge hanging around his neck.
“Yup, I guess I do. Ignore the picture, they insist on printing the worst one. Adrian, do you mind me asking your name?” he said, offering her his hand. “Rosie. I’m here for an exam so I’m really nervous, I’ve got just enough time for a last minute caffeine cram.” her laugh sang into the air as Adrian’s heart plummeted to the floor. It was at that moment that he noticed what she had been leaning on, a nursing textbook. She was here in her capacity as an exam candidate, Adrian, the invigilator. Where was that bloody coffee?!
“Well Rosie, genuine pleasure meeting you and best of luck with the exam.”
“And you, I hope to bump into you again soon. Excuse me, espresso and a latte please.” Sooner than you think thought Adrian as he snatched his cappuccino and turned to leave.
He was gutted but had to shake it off. Cursing his own damned bad luck he quickly made his way back into the exam room counting the ceiling tiles as he went to distract himself. Turning the corner towards the entrance to the room he nearly crashed into Tim who, buried in books, was no wiser to the human traffic coming and going.
“Morning Adrian, you winning?”
“What? Oh right, yeah, I’m ok thanks. You?”
“I’m good thanks. Hey, I wanted to bump into you to discuss…”
“Sorry Tim, I’m gonna have to walk and talk. What was it you wanted?” Adrian started walking around the computers once more stirring each mouse so that the screens sprang back to life. C’mon Tim, spit it out.
“It’s ok, I can talk to you later if you’ll be upstairs. The class will be on break around…”
“Appreciate it Tim. Sorry, I’ve got to prep this lot for their exam, I’ll nip up and say hello later.” A quick glance over his shoulder told him that Tim had now left the room. Thank God for that.Walking back out through to the café area Adrian threw his usual ‘Let’s get this show on the road’ shout out to Linda as he passed reception but he knew as he took a deep breath and opened the café doors that the wheels had already come off.
Once the customary greetings with the group of candidates were carried out and they were all in the exam room Adrian carried out the routine checks to ensure all of the candidate’s credentials were in order, there was however one that he was particularly keen to see. Jones; that was her surname. Rosie Jones. He had wondered if Rosie was short for something, like Rosemary or Rosalind but, no, it was just Rosie. And Rosie was all it needed to be. A Rosie by any other name would smell as sweet he thought; handing back her passport realising that he had probably stared at her photo for a fraction too long. Ten minutes remained until the exam started so Adrian carried out some small talk with the group to kill some time and help to settle their nerves. Amongst the usual questions he would find out what their ambitions were, what revision they had done and what area of practice they were in. He would also introduce more mundane topics such as whether they had found the building with ease and how far they had travelled. In normal circumstances such things were of complete innocence but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t help ensuring that he received a response from Rosie for every question. He found out that she was a paediatric nurse living just fifteen minutes outside of the city, had no children to drop off before coming to the exam and was already impressed by the venue as an exam centre so would definitely look to return in the future. He smiled as if it were him and not the venue that she would be coming back for. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed someone glance towards the clock at the far end of the room and it dawned on him that there were nine other people in the room. Shake it off. Shake it off. You’re being ridiculous.
“Ok, any final questions before we get started?” Jutting out from the row of nervous faces was one delicate, slender arm with the most unmistakable tattoo.
“Yes, will you be invigilating us for the entire exam…just in case…we need anything?” Her voice trailed off. Adrian did nothing but smile and nod. The smile had returned, lips together making her cheekbones protrude and giving rise to a subtle yet illuminating light in her eyes. What felt like an age passed in no more than a second before the ticking of the clock brought him back to reality. With that, the final notices were issued and the candidates given the instruction to start the exam.
“Very best of luck…to everyone.”
Adrian took the seat behind his desk and decided to take stock of the situation. What on earth is going on?Attempting to settle down to some work of his own to distract himself proved impossible. Staring at the screen gave him no inspiration. After what seemed like an age he looked up towards the far end of the room to see the clock standing in defiance, refusing to move beyond the five minutes that had slowly passed. Adrian’s eyes were almost immediately drawn to where Rosie was sitting, staring at her screen. I wonder if she’s as distracted as I am? He hoped not. He wouldn’t want to be the reason why she failed an important exam. There could be a complaint. An enquiry would follow. A disciplinary would be held, he wouldn’t be able to invigilate any more, it would be reported to the Education Workforce Council, he wouldn’t be able to work within education in any capacity, he would have to re-train for another career, he would have to vacate his property if he couldn’t afford it. No, it wouldn’t come to that, I’m overreacting.The thoughts spiralling out of control in his mind were as sobering as they were dizzying and, though he was already sat down, he felt in dire need of a seat.
The pile of attendance registers sat within tantalising reach of him. Giving in to temptation he finally decided to sift through the registers to find the one he wanted. Once located he was able to determine her date of birth and that she didn’t possess a middle name. Although he saw her passport earlier he was too distracted to look beyond the photo. Satisfied for now, Adrian returned to his work. Emails, reports, scheduling of exams all passed by in a blur. If he was concentrating on anything at all it was to not concentrate all his thoughts on Rosie. Realising that his folly was now effecting his work he made a resolute decision to forget all about her. The obsession ends now. An hour or so had already passed and he would just have to see out the rest of it with the level of professionalism normally associated with his work.
His eyes returned to his screen. At that precise moment, from across the bank of desks separating them, an arm was raised. Adrian’s legs felt heavy as he wearily lifted himself from his chair, despite this his legs carried him swiftly to Rosie’s aid. He leant in.
“Is everything alright?” he enquired in hushed tones. He’d not previously noticed the string of small pierced rings covering the top of her right ear, it added to her allure.
“It’s buffering or something. I’ve uploaded the last answer but it seems to have frozen.” He turned away from the screen to look at her, she looked panicked.
“Okay okay. Try not to panic, I’ll have a look at it.” His professionalism suddenly returned and she smiled again, in hope, or relief at receiving his help. Having calmed her down he set about saving the work submitted thus far and checked that all the permissions were set correctly. Refreshing the page left them both in an awkward moment of anxiety as they waited to see if the exam would resume. As the circle in the middle of the screen rotated they glanced at each other once more. Rosie bit her lip and her eyes pleaded with him for it to have worked, in that moment he wanted to wrap an arm around her. He wanted to assure her that it would be alright, that she would pass the exam and that he was there for her whatever the outcome. A box flashed on the screen and the moment of truth revealed that the exam had been reinstated from its last entry.
“Thank you so much Adrian. Oh my God I was so worried. Thank you.”
“You really are welcome. If there’s anything else I can do you need only ask.” The use of his name momentarily shocked him but then he realised that inches below his neck hung his ID badge with the standard picture-taken-against-a-white-wall-background. Adrian slowly and silently returned to his desk knowing now that he would never be able to rid himself of this girl’s image. Never again would he be drawn to anyone in the same way. But now, thinking rationally, what had he done wrong? Someone needed help and he provided assistance. This person was an adult, an adult who was not a learner of the exam centre but merely a candidate. He wasn’t her tutor, he wasn’t her assessor, he wasn’t even marking the exam. He couldn’t tamper with her answers as they were immediately uploaded online yet there was an unshakable feeling that something was not right.
Another look at the clock told him that they were now into the final hour. He’d given up on work, had grown frustrated at not being able to run his fingers through the smooth dark hair that flowed down her shoulders and had even exhausted staring at the intricate pattern of flowers that were stitched across the back of her denim jacket having counted each petal in turn. Inspiration suddenly surged through him, Adrian took to Google and typed in ‘Facebook’. Once on the site he entered ‘Rosie Jones’ into the search field but was faced with a long list; his hopes had been dealt a hammer-blow. His mind raced back to the conversations before the exam began and he realised that she had actually stated where she had travelled from; by narrowing the search margins he was presented with a smaller number of matches and instantly recognised her eyes in a picture. No matter how small the image was he would already recognise those eyes anywhere.His first port of call was to confirm whether or not she was in a relationship. Single.Maybe she was flirting with me after all.Her recent statuses revolved around a recent trip to Harry Potter Studios in London, a night out with the girls on the weekend and some nervous entries in relation to today’s exam. The information which he secretly gleaned only increased his affection for her. He knew that for this fleeting meeting to become more he needed to take action and immediately opened a message and began typing. Several messages had been typed and deleted before he settled on:
‘Hi Rosie, it’s Adrian. I hope you’ve done well in the exam today. I’m sure you did but I’d be grateful if you’d let me know. You seem like a really interesting person and, while it may be just me, I felt we hit it off earlier and would love the opportunity to get to know you a little better. Give me a shout if you’re interested but, if not, it was a pleasure to meet you all the same. All the best, Adrian.’
He sat for a moment re-reading his message. He read it again. And again. And again, poring over every minute detail, every word, every conceivable interpretation. Finally, he decided he was satisfied with it. Nothing incriminating, nothing inappropriate, not creepy but at the same time declaring an interest. His finger hovered over the ‘send’ button as he once more weighed up the consequences of any potential negative reception of the message. As his finger motioned towards the left button on the mouse he looked up at her one more time.
***
The morning sun stole in through the shutters. Adrian didn’t recognise the ceiling fan hanging above him and the bedside table was not populated with his usual clutter; just a passport, a white plastic card and some coins lay there. Turning his head he saw a long matte of long black hair and instantly realised he was home. Not home in the traditional sense, but nothing felt more natural. He leaned across and softly kissed her left cheek.
“Morning breath.” she said. Adrian pulled back. “I love it.” she added, this time reaching across to plant a slow, deep kiss firmly on his lips. “So, we’re in Barcelona for the weekend, what do you want to do first? The SagradaFamilia? The Picasso museum? A walk in the Montjuichills? I know you probably want to squeeze in the Nou Camp. What is it that your heart desires?”
He looked at her in awe. “Just you Rosie. Just you.”
“Well you’ve always got me so how about we enjoy this place before we head back to reality and little Angeline hmm?” Angeline was now three years old and was the pride of both mother and father. Having a child only served to bring them closer together as Rosie juggled parenthood and a career as a part time paediatric nurse with aplomb while Adrian, with a still unblemished record in education, doted on both. Every time he looked in Angeline’s eyes he saw her mother, each time he lost himself in Rosie’s eyes he saw life and love. He wanted to give her the world.
Adrian got up and walked to the small kitchen area. Preparing some croissants and orange juice – her favourites – he placed them on the breakfast table out on the balcony and waited for her to join him. It was a beautiful day with the temperature heading into the thirties despite it still being early. Rosie eventually emerged in a vest top and shorts set, her natural beauty unequalled by anything this cosmopolitan paradise could offer. Rosie walked across the balcony and leaned over the edge, taking in the view.
“Perfection” she said.
Adrian walked up behind her, wrapping his arms around her until their hands met on the rail. He kissed her on the cheek.
“Perfection.” he whispered.
***
The vibration of Adrian’s mobile phone on the table brought him back to the present, the exam was over. It took a moment to gather his thoughts, he felt drowsy as if he had been in a dream.
“Ok everyone, your system should have told you by now that time has expired so would you please gather your belongings but leave any and all rough notes on the desk in front of you. They must not leave the room. I’ll be around now to collect everything and then you can be dismissed. Exam conditions are ongoing until I state otherwise.”
Adrian went along each desk collecting the paperwork but was still feeling out of sync so decided against looking at Rosie. Once he returned to his desk with all the paperwork he announced that the candidates could all leave and wished them all the best for their results. Making himself look busy by shuffling pieces of paper and appearing to type an email he hoped that no-one would disturb him and he could make it through to an empty room when he could press the reset button and pretend none of this had happened.
People picked up bags and coats. Collected textbooks. The fire doors to the room opened and shut many times. In the process of downloading a report Adrian felt a shadow over his desk, it was Rosie.
“I just wanted to say thank you for your help earlier.”
“It’s no more or less than anyone in my position would do but you’re very welcome all the same. How did you do?”
“It went really well. I felt….inspired.” and he noticed a shade of crimson fill her cheeks. With that she picked up her bag and textbooks and headed towards the door. She placed a hand on the handle and was almost out of his life.
“Rosie!”
“Yes?” standing in the doorway she appeared as vulnerable as she was unattainable. He ached to touch her, to tell her how he had already developed feelings for her which surpassed his ability to think rationally. To beg her to see him again. To offer her everything her heart desired from now until the end of time.
“Have a safe journey home.” was all he could muster. She smiled and then disappeared.
An hour passed. Adrian sat alone in the grey room staring at his laptop, broken, his hand on the mouse. His index finger resting gently on the left button. He looked outside, the sound of rain now falling against the window seemingly compounding his misery. He thought of the lost image of Angeline and how happy he felt standing on that balcony, a whole other world within his grasp. One simple click and he could have everything, one simple click and he could lose it all. Closing the laptop, for now, he got up to grab another coffee. There would be another test this afternoon.
By Steve Marshall
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