Chapter 5

Joseph laughed when he saw his employee walking up the short drive. "Is that really the smartest suit you have?"

Matthew shrugged and looked down on the navy "off-the-peg" suit. "It's smart enough," he responded defensively. "Not of all us can afford thousand pound designer gear," he scoffed, although Joseph Wilson did look every inch a successful businessman in his pinstriped garments. "And anyway, I only need a suit once a year for my annual court appearance," he said with a grin.

The Christmas Party always started with a meal, then the Annual awards and the employees were always encouraged to wear our smartest outfit as well as bring their families and partners. This always was the source of much amusement for Matthew, and although for the first time he had no partner to bring, enjoyed meeting the women (and in Trevor's case, a man) who had partnered themselves with the paranoid bunch of misfits he called colleagues.

Matthew wondered about seeing if he could "borrow" Gareth's wife for the night, an arrangement Gareth would happily have agreed to so he could watch his pornography on "the big telly", but Matthew knew Katie might be offended at being prostituted and he would not be the only person on his own; half of the development team were without partners.

Joseph had brought his entire family, Charlotte wearing a long, elegant green ballgown and Katherine wearing the short, electric blue cocktail dress that she looked radiant in. She bounded over to Matthew and took his hand, "come on," she whispered and guided him to the bar.

"I suppose you want a drink?" Matthew asked and Katherine licked her lips.

"Well you are my date for the night!"

"Date?" Matthew said with a grin.

"Well I am accompanying you. I can be your escort if you'd rather but that would get expensive. I charge two hundred pounds an hour."

Matthew laughed at her and bought her a large glass of sweet white wine and a pale ale for himself and he introduced Katherine to a couple of his more presentable colleagues. The single Carl smiled as Katherine sat down between him and her date, and she did her best to steer some conversation towards something she could converse on, but the employees struggled.

Katherine gushed about a recent performance from Rebecca on a television talent show, but finding only Ben's wife able to converse (and she preferred the boy band), Katherine limited herself to drinking her wine and trying to appreciate some of the chatter.

The meal was a standard affair, the melon balls or soup starter followed by dry turkey or a bland vegetable cobbler and then Christmas pudding to finish, although the bar had provided four bottles of cheap wine for each table. The room had four tables, holding eight people, arranged horizontally across the room, and then one top table containing the directors and their families, except Katherine.

She finished her meal and watched as Lewis shamelessly flirted with her father's secretary and grinned when she saw her father wince at his son's drunken lewd comments. As the last coffee was drunk, Paul stood up and gave a speech, thanking the employees for their efforts and successes over the last year and hoping that they would endeavour to reach new heights in the forthcoming twelve months.

He then held up a small trophy. "The Employee of the Year Award. Goes to the employee who has shown the most tenacity, drive, enthusiasm, spirit, the hard-working individual who goes the extra mile. And goes to..." There was a hushed silence. "Matthew."

The room came alive with applause as Matthew tentatively walked to the front of the dining room to the top table and shook Joseph's and then Paul's hand. Paul, the short, beady-eyed director passed over the metallic-looking trophy, a mobile phone on top of a base and congratulated him again. Matthew was embarrassed, his cheeks were burning and he took the envelope, thanked him and hurried back to his seat.

Katherine smiled when she saw the trophy. "Employee of the Year. You swot," she teased and Matthew licked his lips with a smile.

"Yeah, but I have a hundred quid in bar vouchers that I have to spend tonight. You take a drink from the swot?" Katherine looked around, her mother was sat in the corner talking to Paul and his wife, her father was nowhere to be seen and her brother was happy to be chatting to a couple of the developers, both of them with their phones out. The employees had returned to the bar, as the tables were cleared away at the DJ set up his equipment, and Katherine was happy to tease and accept a drink from her "date."

Katherine looked at Matthew, her eyes narrowing. "I want Champagne," she joked and looked at the barman.

Matthew nodded and gestured to the barman. "Sure, bottle of Champagne please."

Katherine squealed. "I didn't mean it, I was only joking," she muttered, her eyes lighting up when five of the tokens was swapped for the bottle of fizzy wine and Matthew guided the tipsy girl to the corner of the room.

Katherine swayed slightly as she walked, her electric blue dress riding up to show the contours of her rear as she stumbled to a discreet corner and Matthew poured her a glass of the drink.

They clinked our glasses together and took a gulp. Katherine inhaled some of the bubbles and squeezed, she looked cute when she did, her wavy brown hair shuddering with the sudden movement.

"You like?" Matthew asked and Katherine nodded.

"Yeah, I like Champagne. It's nice," she muttered and he felt a little envious, for only the third time in his life he had the luxury drink but Katherine's family were considerably wealthier than his own.

The two of them drunk the bottle of champagne and then ordered a bottle of wine that he shared with her. A number of his colleagues were dancing on the dance floor and apart from a couple of slow dances, Katherine was happy to talk.

Matthew learned a lot about Katherine, he found out that how she had split up from her boyfriend, where she wanted to go to University, what she liked, and the drink made her extremely candid.

"Fuck," Katherine muttered. "He's nice."

Matthew scanned the dance floor and she pointed to a bar man getting his coat from behind the bar. Matthew looked at the clock on the wall, it was 10pm, and the party was beginning to wind down.

Matthew nodded towards her. "Go on then. Ask him to dance."

"Well he is cute," she muttered, justifying herself. "Don't you mind?"

Matthew shook his head and watched as the drunken girl staggered onto the dance floor and then over to the barman in the corner, pulling him into the centre of the room, his coat being thrown onto the bar. He felt a pang of jealousy as he watched the blonde bar staff being pulled and then wrapping his arms reluctantly around the drunken girl.

"She's a bit pissed," Carl remarked as he sauntered past, en route to the toilets and Matthew snorted.

"You could say that." Matthew watched as Katherine danced with the guy, he barely looked older than she did, and she waved her hair in tune with the music.

Matthew looked away when the DJ put on a slow dance. He was talking to Carl and saw Katherine gently grope her dance partner and felt guilty as well as jealous. She disappeared for a few moments, before slouching down on the seat and looking at Matthew. "He was cute, but is not interested in me." Carl made a sympathetic sound of "ahhhh" and she snorted. "Yeah well, he can piss off. You got any of those tokens left?"

Matthew smiled and pulled out two dog-eared vouchers than he exchanged for three whiskeys and three vodka-lemonades. Katherine downed her vodka while Carl and Matthew talked and then they savoured the cheap blended spirit.

By the time the party was close to winding down, Katherine was completely drunk. Matthew scanned the room for Joseph or Charlotte but they had both gone and they quietly slipped away outside. He held onto Katherine's arm as she stumbled out of the small restaurant and into the cold December air.

"Where's your coat?" he asked and Katherine pointed towards a car parking space.

"Dad's chargggh," she blurted out and he groaned, swinging his suit jacket over her shoulders. They had to pass Matthew's apartment on the way back to her home, and as they set off down the road, he decided to pop in to grab a jumper.

Katherine was all over the pavement, her drunkenness bordering on inappropriate affection as her hands wandered over his sides and she giggled as she dragged him across the road.

"It's colllllll-d," she squealed as they turned into the top of his road, and the wind rattled against them. He put my arm around her, he had forgotten to bring a coat and had already leant Katherine the jacket, shivering, but quite liked having drunken eighteen-year-old on his arm, she reminded him of some of his University girlfriends.

"Hey Matt," he heard and turned to see a familiar face. Victoria, dressed in a Santa outfit, scowled when she looked at Katherine, and he wanted to tell her that it wasn't what it looked like, but she just nodded.

"Christmas Party," Matthew offered as a way of explanation. "I've still got those orchids of yours," he offered to her red hair and she just shrugged at him.