Read Captured for Free Online Page A

braying with sycophantic laughter and speaking seriously in their jargon-heavy dialect.
    Kirsty’s own group was no exception. Forcing a smile, she promised herself that she could leave after two hours, and approached the bar to start a tab. Company tradition dictated that the departing employee paid for drinks for the night. The bank had indirectly contributed a significant portion in the past via expense accounts, but this input had become minimal in recent years, with the increased scrutiny of expenses.
    Richard was deep in conversation with Stuart MacKinsey at the group’s periphery when Kirsty returned with a glass of wine. As she arrived, several colleagues eyed her expectantly, waiting for the polite moment when they could make a dash for the bar tab without giving the appearance that that was their main reason for showing up.
    She listened attentively as MacKinsey and Jones discussed an upcoming offering for British Foods. She nodded and tried her best to look enthralled as she listened to her colleague Susan’s seemingly endless story about the seventeenth floor receptionist and some old guy from the compliance team. She had several perfunctory conversations with various other colleagues, all roughly following the same script.
    When she had spoken to everyone, Kirsty pushed her way to the bar for the second time.  People had been ordering drinks for her all evening – they were all very generous when she was footing the bill. There she found Daniel, sitting on a stool and sipping what looked like a whisky.
    “Didn’t feel like joining the party?” she asked with a slight slur. She scanned the room before discreetly reaching out and stroking his lower back.
    He smiled. “Long day,” he murmured, slipping his arm around her waist and pulling her towards him.
    “I’m ready to leave when you are,” she whispered in his ear, as she signed her bar tab.
    “You’ve moved on pretty quickly.”
    Kirsty spun around, shocked.
    “Simon! I didn’t think you were coming,” she stammered. She had included him on her farewell email, but hadn’t received a response. She hadn’t seen him since that day in the canteen weeks before, and had not expected to hear from him before she left.
    She smiled at him awkwardly. So much had surfaced since they last saw each other that she didn’t know what to say. “I’m glad you made it,” she said inanely, playing with the receipt in her hand.
    He turned his lips upwards and flashed his teeth; it should have looked like a smile, but his eyes were blank. “I thought it’d look weird if I didn’t see you off.” He swayed on the spot, looking at Daniel with undisguised loathing. “Don’t let me delay you.”
    “Simon, it’s not...”
    Daniel looked awkward. “I’ll wait for you outside Kirsty, shall I?”
    She looked at him and shrugged.
    “Look it’s not what it looks like, it’s nothing...” she continued once Daniel had pushed through the crowd away from them.
    “Shut up Kirsty,” Simon hissed.
    She squeezed her palms against her temples. “God Simon, you broke up with me, remember?”
    “I know,” he slurred. “But you don’t understand.”
    “Well help me understand then?” she looked around the bar, glad that no one was paying them any attention. “Come on, let’s get you a cab.”
    He shook his head, scowling.  “You’re sleeping with him, yeah?”
    “No, I...I’m not. Look, let’s just go.”
    “You’re lying, just go. He wins again. The one time I’m anyways happy and that bastard ruins it, he’s... I’m going to kill him, I’ll...”
    “Simon,” Kirsty interrupted, inching backwards. “I have to go. You should go home.” She turned and walked away.
     
    “Oh darling, I don’t know why you had to leave that good job, and for what? To gallivant around the world? What are you going to do when you come back? The economy’s not in very good shape you know.” Kirsty’s mother didn’t share her friends’ enthusiasm for her