When Tai Beaulieu impulsively hands in her notice by text message one dreary January morning and takes off in search of adventure, the last place she expects to end up is the Middle East.
But she soon lands in Egypt, home to ancient tombs and spectacular temples. Plus friendly locals, a rather nice English businessman, and an American tourist who doesn't know when to butt out.
Along with roommate Tegan and archaeologist Miles, Tai sets out to explore everything the city of Luxor has to offer. But before she’s even managed to get a suntan, disaster strikes, and she finds herself keeping a terrible secret. And she’s not the only one…
An unedited version of Copper previously was previously serialised in my newsletter as Untitled.
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Excerpt: The Beginning…
“Come on. Come on!”
Up ahead, brake lights glowed as traffic ground to a halt again. Yes, shouting at the queue was pointless, but it made me feel better, even if the businessman in the car next to mine gave me a strange look and inched forward to get away from the crazy lady. Okay, I should have left home earlier, but I’d barely got any sleep last night thanks to the party downstairs. Who held a New Year’s party on the first of January instead of the thirty-first of December? Nobody. Well, nobody except the inconsiderate idiot who lived in the flat below mine.
It was the second of January, a brand new year, a brand new start. Or so all the adverts said. Change your life. Join a gym. Stop drinking. Who wanted to be exhausted and sober anyway? For me, it was back to the same-old, same-old. Same job, same traffic jam on the M25, same lonely evenings with only Netflix for company.
And today, I had the joy of departing for a week-long trip to an exhibition in Holland where I’d be joining two of my favourite people in the world to sell our company’s new product, the jewel in the crown of our offerings for the next year. It didn’t actually work yet, but let’s not allow a little thing like that to stop us, eh?
I’d worked for Garrett-Hart Safety Systems for over a year now. It was never my dream job, but until five months ago when I’d moved departments and met my new boss, I’d spent most of my time in the factory clipping big plastic widgets into smaller plastic widgets, and it hadn’t been so bad. Landing an interesting, well-paid graduate position in engineering wasn’t easy if you hadn’t actually graduated. Missing my last set of exams hadn’t gone down so well with the university, even though I had a really good excuse, and I couldn’t afford to repeat my final year. Hence the reason why I was stuck in the second of six lanes of traffic in my nine-year-old Honda going absolutely nowhere.
My phone rang, and far from stifling my groan, I let out a huff any tantrum-throwing toddler would have been proud of. Matthew Smart, my aforementioned boss, was calling. To give you an idea of my opinion of Matthew, I’d ordered myself a voodoo doll and three dozen hatpins as an early Christmas present, printed out his mugshot from the “Meet Our Staff” page on Garrett-Hart’s website, and glued it on. Every morning, I sprinkled a pinch of the herbs Praktisha in the corner shop swore warded off evil spirits over the top of the doll’s head and poked another pin in. So far, zilch. Matthew hadn’t suffered a single heart attack or debilitating migraine, and now he wanted to talk to me.
“Tai, where are you? We’re supposed to be leaving in fifteen minutes, and Jeffery’s here already.”
“So sorry, Matthew. I’m stuck on the motorway. I think there’s been an accident.”
He tutted, and I imagined him drumming his fingers on the desk as he browsed porn on his iPad. Yes, I knew his little secret. He’d left one of his dirty movies on pause one evening while he nipped over to the printer, and now I’d never get the sight of Naughty Nadine getting impaled by a masked dude who’d overdosed on Viagra out of my head.
“If you don’t get here soon, we’ll miss our crossing on the Eurotunnel.”
No, we wouldn’t, because he’d insisted the departmental secretary book a flexible ticket. What Matthew meant was that he might miss the chance to put his feet up with a croissant and a cup of coffee in the priority lounge before we got on the train.
“I’ll be there as fast as I can. It’s starting to move again now.”
“Just hurry up. Have you got that memory stick with the program on it?”
“Yes, Matthew.”
“And all the cables?”
“Yes, and the spares.”
I wasn’t even sure why I needed to go to Holland. I didn’t speak the language, and Matthew never let me talk to prospective clients. Mostly I was there to make the drinks and carry things, I suspected, plus my darling boss could pull his usual trick of claiming credit for everything I did right and blaming me for everything he did wrong.
Oh, how I hated my job.
My grandma had been ill for most of the last year, and I’d spent all of my spare time taking care of her, hoping she’d pull through somehow, but it wasn’t to be. Her death three months ago left me hollow. Matthew had grudgingly given me an afternoon off to attend her funeral, and that was the day I decided things needed to change.
I’d started hunting for a new job, but in my three interviews, the story had always been the same—they liked my attitude, but I didn’t have the right qualifications or enough experience. Not only that, I didn’t trust Matthew not to screw me over with a reference because he had a vindictive streak too. Just last week, he’d bragged about blocking in a car with twenty shopping trolleys after its driver allegedly stole a space from him at the supermarket. Arsehole.
I had one interview lined up for the new year, an entry-level position at a design firm, but the competition promised to be tough. What were my chances of convincing them I was the girl they wanted?
Must try harder, Tai.
With that thought, I made a New Year’s resolution: change not just my job, but all the things I hated about my life.
Excerpt: Meet Ren…
What the…? I spun around to see a dark-haired man lying on my sunlounger, feet crossed at the ankles, shading his eyes from the sun with my borrowed copy of The Dastardly Duke. Bare feet, plaid shorts, and a white polo shirt with a pair of aviators tucked into the unbuttoned neck. He looked me up and down with the lazy intensity of a well-fed lion, and I couldn’t decide whether to scream, run, or stand my ground because that was my book and my terrace, dammit.
If I screamed, would anyone even hear me? Tegan’s apartment was still in darkness, and I didn’t know if Sayid was home. I opened my mouth, but all that came out was a croak.
“You must be Tai?” the stranger said in response. His accent was American, disturbingly smooth with a hint of a drawl.
“How the heck do you know that?”
“Because only somebody who’s lost her luggage would wear those gold pants. I know desperation when I see it, baby.”
And I knew rudeness when I heard it. Too late, I noticed the little black suitcase parked outside my apartment door. “You’re Ren? But… But you’re not supposed to be here yet.”
“A buddy was coming in this direction, so I hitched a ride for part of the way. I emailed you.”
“Uh, I haven’t checked my email for a few days.”
He didn’t tut, but his expression said he wanted to. “What’s the point in having it if you ignore it?”
“I’m on holiday, okay? I’m allowed to have peace.”
“You’re cute when you get defensive.” Betsy chose that moment to wander around the corner, no doubt curious about the raised voices. “Hey, lunch is here.”
“Betsy is not lunch! She’s my pet.”
Betsy ran at him, squawking, and I had to admit she wasn’t a bad judge of character.
“Who keeps a pet chicken?” He sidestepped, laughing. “Seriously?”
“Are you always this much of an asshole?”
“So they say.”
Well, at least he was honest. “Look, Mr. Fontana, I’m very grateful to you for bringing my case, but I have things to do today. I’ll just fetch yours, and then you can get off my sunlounger and leave.”
“No need to rush. I don’t have anywhere to be. And the sunloungers are communal—Sayid said so.”
“I’m sorry?”
I was beginning to get a really, really bad feeling about this.
“Figured since I travelled all the way here, I’d stick around for a week or two to get some culture, yadda yadda yadda. Sayid gave me a good deal on the empty apartment.” Ren waved his hand behind him. “This is where you’re supposed to welcome me to the neighbourhood.”
