Chapter 5: Shopping For Staff

Wendy was not surprised to run into David when she next went to Best’s supermarket, as she knew it was usually at the same time on a Tuesday morning, when she knew it would be quiet in there. She had thought of changing the day or the time but decided that he was relatively harmless despite his cross-questioning her the last time they met, and she would not be pushed into busier times or days just to avoid him.

As usual, he had a trolley full of much more expensive items than her pitiful basket. And as the last two weeks, he contrived to pay for her items as well as his own. However, this time he did not suggest having coffee and toasted teacakes in the supermarket café. Instead he offered to take her straight home and she accepted, thinking he must be getting bored with her problems.

When they arrived at the lay-by she thanked him for the lift, but he said, “Please don’t get out for a minute. I want to talk to you.”

“Why? What do you want with me?”

“You said you wanted a paid job to help you make ends meet. Did you mean it?”

She nodded as she admitted wryly, “But I am not qualified for anything. They even turned me down for shelf stacking in Best’s because I couldn’t reach the top shelves.”

“Well, I may have found something you can do,” he said, “If you are really interested, that is.”

“Oh, I’m interested, but where is it? Is it at your office?”

“No, it’s not at my office. That would take too long to organise in any case,” he admitted, “because we do a lot of work for the government and they insist on security checks which seem to take for ever, certainly months.”

“So what is it?” she was growing impatient.

“Tell you what, sitting in a car in a lay-by on a busy road isn’t my idea of an ideal place for a discussion,” he observed, “Shall we adjourn to somewhere we can talk?” hastily adding, “Somewhere relatively public.”

No harm in listening, she thought, asking, “Where do you suggest?”

“Well, if you don’t mind eating with me, I was planning to have lunch in the Lisboa. Do you know it? It’s close to the supermarket.”

The Lisboa! she thought, Just about the most expensive restaurant in town. “But I’m not dressed for anything like that,” she protested.

“It’s half past eleven now. You go home and get your best dress on and be back here in twenty minutes. Then we will get there before it gets busy.” He used his manager-giving-orders voice and she got out of the car without a word. After she left he mused, Looks pretty submissive to me. That is if she comes back promptly.

Just nineteen minutes later she slipped quietly into the passenger seat and said, “I hope I’m not late? It isn’t the lunch, and we don’t have to go to the Lisboa; we can just go somewhere much cheaper to talk.”

As he pulled out into the traffic she noticed that they were heading away from town and asked, “This isn’t the way to the Lisboa? Where are we going?” with a little nervousness in her voice.

“Doing a U-turn on this road is not easy,” he explained, “and I didn’t want to go into Greenacres with you in the car – nosy neighbours and so forth – so we go a few hundred yards up here then swing right round the roundabout and come back into town. Satisfied?”

“Sorry,” she said in a very quiet and contrite manner.

In the Lisboa she was not surprised when he was greeted by name and they were shown to a table marked ‘Reserved’. She tried to ask about the job, but he simply cut her off with a curt “Food first, talk after.”

The lunch was excellent though there was much more meat on the Pork Espetada than she could eat. David quickly asked for it to be wrapped and commented, “There’s your supper.”

Coffee was ordered and he said, “Now this job.”

“Yes. What is it? Where is it? What makes you think I can do it?”

“It is basically a housekeeper’s job. It is in Stapleford. You said you were married for ten years so I assume you can do things like cleaning and laundry and some cooking.”