Happily Ever After_ - Benison Anne O'Reilly [61]
‘Who’s that?’ asked a suspicious sounding female voice.
‘It’s Ellie. I work with Alex. He’s just gone for coffee but shouldn’t be long. Do you want to wait or shall I get him to call you back?’
‘No, I’ll hold on.’
Seizing this God-given opportunity for busy bodying I asked, ‘And who should I say is calling?’
‘Bec,’ was the reply.
Bec? I’d always thought his girlfriend’s name was Sophie. I must have got my wires crossed somewhere along the line as this girl definitely sounded territorial. Although who could blame her? I’d observed whilst we were out and about how her man’s looks seemed to smooth a path for him wherever he went. Not all women noticed but enough. Even the sour old battleaxe at the Melbourne security gate had a smile for Alex.
On the other hand he’d made it clear he disapproved of two-timing men, so she probably had nothing to worry about.
‘Okay. I’ll let him know.’
I put the phone down gently on the table and, pointing at it, raised my eyebrows meaningfully while mouthing the words ‘the girlfriend’ to Karen. She smiled a conspiratorial smile back.
But when I told our gallant knight, our protector of girls’ virtue, that Bec was on the phone he didn’t respond in any way that I’d expected him to. Rather than looking googoo-eyed and affectionate he looked well…irritated. The tone of his conversation with her was similar, even abrupt. He didn’t even bother to move away so Karen and I got to hear it all.
‘Hi,’ he said, ‘I’m a bit busy at present. [This wasn’t strictly true.] Can I call you back later?’
Bec: ………..
Alex: No, I’ve got to go into the office for a few hours.
Bec: ………..
Alex: No seriously I do…It would be better if I met you all at the restaurant anyway.
Bec: ………..
Alex: Okay, so I’ll see you then…bye.
He frowned briefly after he hung up. We waited for some explanation but he changed the topic back to work matters (although not, I noticed, to pass-making doctors) straight away.
Trouble in paradise? Was that the reason for his sudden moodiness? Maybe even beautiful boys were not immune from relationship woes.
***
Ah, the delicate science of the child’s daytime nap. Allow them to sleep the optimal amount of time and they’ll awaken a little angel, full of sweetness and light. Let them sleep too little or too long and they’re more likely to wake up resembling that cloven-hoofed fellow who resides somewhere warm below. Unfortunately, in my keenness to complete as much of my manuscript as possible I let Isabel sleep way past the desired time and have suffered dearly as a consequence. She woke up in a mighty querulous mood: didn’t want to eat, didn’t want to drink, didn’t want to read a ‘dumb book’, didn’t want to colour in, and didn’t want to sit still in her seat in the ‘stupid plane’ any longer. All these grievances were communicated in her whiny Little Miss voice that never fails to set my teeth on edge. Not what I needed in my delicate state.
Fortunately, I eventually managed to locate a bad Disney movie on the in-flight entertainment system. She is suitably pacified now and thus I can continue writing for a little while longer.
Now where were we?
11
A weekend by the seaside
Few phrases in the English language can strike as much fear into me as these three little words: ‘team building exercise’. I expect you know what I’m talking about - a company ships their employees to some off-site location where they are required to engage in a series of ‘fun’ activities designed to engender them all with a team spirit, so that when they next return to the office they will work together with renewed enthusiasm for the company good. Or so the theory goes. In my view these exercises, sometimes referred to as ‘team bonding’, serve no such purpose and do nothing but allow the individuals delivering this hocus pocus to feel they have some useful vocation in life. However, big business seems to love this sort of stuff.
It’s not so much the company cricket