of predictions and the like, he recalled how Folucia had burst into tears and rushed upstairs to pack while he calmly munched on toast and the ballast momentarily faltered.
Fissures of sunlight shot through the blue gauze of cigarette smoke. Ashby sat, bare calves slopped on the desk, chatting casually into the telephone. The sales figures hadn’t moved. There were no good mornings. He could see from where he was standing that Helen hadn’t bothered to switch on his coffee machine, so he took a cup from the dispenser and headed towards his office.
Then something odd occurred. Helen looked up at him and offered a sheepish smile.
‘Feeling better?’ he enquired, simulating sympathy. She nodded dolefully. What was it about her? Was there something of an apology in the look? And though he knew that this was unquestionably the wrong thing to do, he said, ‘You OK, Helen? Would you like to … you know … chat?’
She followed him into his office and, to his mild surprise, closed the door.
For a time she said nothing and stared at Sheridan’s desk. He unwound a succession of paperclips and scrawled something on his pad. They cleared their throats simultaneously. Then she spoke.
‘Listen, what happened before. Like, I don’t want to talk about that, right. That was that, OK. But, like, what I want to tell you is that, what happened before and that, was my total involvement in things. You know, I haven’t been in much, so I couldn’t have had anything to do with it. And I wouldn’t anyway, you understand. And, like, I s’pose if I knew about everything else, I might not have done it. I mean, I was right to do it and that. But, you know, I didn’t figure on everything else. So, like I said. I’m not sorry about the first bit but I’m sorry about the rest. I wouldn’t have wished that on you. Anyway, that’s what I really wanted to say.’
‘Right,’ smiled Sheridan. He pulled another paperclip from his pyramid and straightened it. ‘Erm, if I’m going to be entirely truthful about things, Helen, I, er, have to confess that I’m not exactly with you on much of this.’
‘No, I s’pose not. But, like, when you are, remember that I had nothing to do with it.’
‘Sure. I’ll remember that.’ He turned back to his paperclip.
‘OK. That’s that,’ she smiled and stood up. ‘Oh yeah, and you know, when you refused to call the managers coordinators or supervisors, you were right.’
‘I know I was.’
‘Manus, hand. Not man, male. I, like, you know, looked it up.’
‘Quite so.’
‘Well, you know, just thought I’d say it, like. OK, see yer.’
Then he saw the yellow Post-It note stuck to his desk asking him to please call Belinda Oliphant – urgently.
Momentarily, he toyed with dialling the woman’s extension and moaning to her in a highly urgent manner but decided that, actually, he had something far more important to do.
Sheridan watched the slow dilution of the city from an empty first-class carriage. Some flowers and an early edition of the Evening Standard rested in the adjacent seat. And it had to be said, for the first time since he could remember, Sheridan Entwhistle would have conceded that he was a happy man.
That afternoon his thoughts and memories were interacting in a way that he considered somewhat peculiar. Then again, perhaps not. For it wasn’t unhappiness that he experienced when he entered his mother’s bedroom that morning twenty-four years ago and discovered that … well, she’d stopped working.
Mrs Entwhistle was smiling and Sheridan smiled back.
He bade her good morning and lowered her tea onto the bedside cabinet. He gave her shoulder a gentle rousing nudge and she rocked slightly, as if she’d tensed her muscles, and continued her smiling.
Sheridan rubbed a sentimental knuckle across the cold, crushed tissue of her cheek and still smiling said, ‘Bye then, Mum.’ Then he made the phone call.
It hadn’t been spoken about but it was more or less agreed that, when the time came, Sheridan and Jennifer would get married. After all, they had regular intercourse, exchanged I love yous, and quite frankly Sheridan would have been lost without a woman in his house.
But when, in the Tudor Rose restaurant, Edingley, Jennifer took a small sip of her wine, smiled and said, ‘Sherry, I don’t think I’m ready yet,’ Sheridan nearly choked on his lamb cutlet. He snapped the ring box shut, submerged it in his pocket and carried on eating.
‘Perhaps you’re right,’ he said through his scorching face.
‘But, Sherry. I wouldn’t be adverse to us living together.’
‘Living together!’ he couldn’t help but exclaim.
‘Sherry, it’s 1970. Lots of couples are doing it. It’s a really trendy thing to do.’
‘Trendy!’ murmured Sheridan Entwhistle, straightening his tie. ‘Trendy. Well now.’
Then he pictured it. Nonchalantly letting it slip at work. The perfect counter to his bald head had to be inviting a select few for exotic cocktails in one of the big new pine and glass pads in Edingley Hills Close.
‘Somewhere really modern?’ he asked, his eyes widening. She nodded frantically. ‘Really 1970s?’ She continued nodding.
‘Orange carpet?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Purple suite?’
‘No, Sherry, polka-dot beanbags. And one of those globby wax light things.’
‘Ahhh, Jennifer, Jennifer. You can get them. You can get them. I saw one on the goggle-box. A cocktail bar that fits into the wall and you pull it down for parties.’
‘Parties. Sophisticated parties. With quiche Lorraine and pasta.’
‘I can’t see why not. Pasta, eh?’
‘And piña coladas.’
‘Right.’ Piña coladas and quiche Lorraine. That would show his Double Diamond and Mackeson-swilling staff.
Sheridan was grinning as he tucked the flowers and paper under his arm and dug for his key. He entered the hall and cheerfully announced his presence. Yet Jennifer did not greet him with the enthusiasm he’d expected.
‘What’s wrong, Sherry,’ she asked warily, automatically reaching for the kettle.
‘Absolutely nothing, my dear. On the contrary, everything is just splendid.’
‘So what are you doing home?’
He handed her the flowers. She eyed them suspiciously.
‘You gave me flowers on Friday, Sherry. What are these for?’
‘To say … you know … I suppose I might quite like you – or something to that effect.’
She cleared
