Chapter 7

"Can you believe this?" Gareth thundered, putting his beer down firmly on the table in the small and cold beer garden. "Katie has nicked most of me chuffin' porn. So not only am I now celibate, I can't even have a fuckin' wank."

"Most of it?"

Gareth gave a guilty shrug. "Well, all but the odd disc I have hidden, but that's the point. She has taken and hidden it. And I have no fuckin' idea where it is."

Matthew pursed his lips together and then opened the pack of peanuts he had in front of him. "Ah well, it had to happen. You do have an awful lot of it."

Gareth waved his arms in front of him. "But needed. To a guy that doesn't get any shagging, I need it. And she's taking fuckin' liberties, and I'm not having it."

Matthew forced a smile. "It might do you good. But apart from that, how are you doing?"

"Well I didn't get the job at the kennels." Gareth looked thoughtful for a moment, staring at the table. "I don't like they liked the Korean takeaway joke to be honest, no chuffin' sense of humour. Beauty Parlour never phoned me back and the sex shop on the High Street don't have no vacancies."

Matthew chuckled at him and Gareth sighed. "Come on, working with sex toys and corsets and stuff. And women trying on underwear all day. I tried to get in to the lingerie shop in the Shopping Centre, I mean I had a shave and everything but she told me to feck off. Said I wasn't the sort of person they wanted."

"What about a bank?"

Gareth sneered. "Yeah, like when have I been able to add up."

"I think they use calculators or computers or something. Maybe an abacus," Matthew teased and Gareth frowned.

"What's an abacus?"

Matthew opened his mouth and then shut it quickly. "Peanuts?" Matthew felt sorry for Gareth, everything he held dear in life was falling apart and it had been almost nine months since he last had a job, losing it through no fault of his own.

Matthew had worked with him at a Garden Centre when they were both teenagers and their friendship had grown since, and while Matthew went off to University to end up with a well paid job at the mobile phones developer, Gareth had been stuck doing construction work, bar work and then working for a chain of estate agents erecting "for sale signs."

It was difficult, but his wife and him were college sweethearts and they both agreed she was the only one who would put it with him. They spent all evening in their local pub and then spilled out on to the street.

A deluge of out-of-tune signing accompanied the two men as they meandered their way from the kebab shop to the house where Gareth lived and Matthew staggered as he tried to open the front door with Gareth's key.

"Hi babe," Gareth called as the front door was opened from the inside, taking a step, tripping over the ridge of the door and falling flat on his face. He squealed as he hit the floor, rolling over and looking up at his wife. "I love you Katie."

Katie groaned and looked at her husband's companion. "Oh, what d'ya get him drunk for?" Katie asked accusing Matthew who sniffed.

"We just..."

"Cheering me up," Gareth started. "Cos some nasty cow has nicked me porn and slapped a no shagging ban on."

Katie sighed, she did not want the rest of the street to her hear her business and prodded her husband into the lounge closing the door firmly with Matthew on the street side.

"Throw up on the sofa," she warned. "And I am divorcing you. Wet yourself, and I am divorcing you. Wake me up and I am divorcing you. You hear me?" Gareth collapsed on the threadbare sofa and grunted. Katie's eyes narrowed. "Useless twat," she muttered and slammed the door to the lounge.

Katie was getting very annoyed with Gareth, he may be unemployed and trying to get back to work but he was not helping himself, and while she worked extra hours to make up for the gap in their income he would go to the pub and get drunk. It was an insult and she made a mental note to ensure that he suffered for it. It was the third time in as many weeks that he had got drunk at The Crown and she wasn't going to stand for it any longer.

Matthew rubbed his head the moment he woke up the following morning. He had drunk two pints of water on his return to his flat but he still had a banging headache, and as Joseph was not going direct to the office, he had to get up even earlier and go via the bus.

Skipping breakfast, Matthew staggered down the stairs and then out into the cool January air. It had been raining heavily but dodging the puddles Matthew made it to the bus stop for the first of his two buses to work.

Matthew barely managed to concentrate and was oblivious to those around him. "You look worse than death," Joseph said as he stopped by Matthew's workstation after lunch. "Heavy night?"

Matthew rubbed his forehead and groaned. "Something like that," he muttered, staring at the bright screen.

"If you want to go and get drunk," Joseph started. "Then I can't stop you, but I do expect you to be able to work today. You've been staring at that line of code for ten minutes."

Matthew had been thinking, the recent liaison he had had with Katherine was still going through his mind, why couldn't he meet a girl like that for a date? "Yeah, sorry," Matthew replied and rubbed his eyes. "It just won't compile."

Joseph looked at the screen and immediately added a semi-colon at the end of the line. "Wake up Matthew," he warned and left his employee to groan at the simplicity of his error.

Joseph sat down at his desk and nodded towards his PA. "You OK?"

Sarah was scratching herself and just nodded. "Just an itch," she moaned. "And not like that."

"Well you do have itches like that," Joseph teased her and got up to crouch down at her desk, looking at her in the eye. "And I can scratch them for you."

Sarah giggled and grinned at her employer. "Tomorrow. Paul is out, if you fancy a quickie."

Joseph smiled and kissed her on the cheek, withdrawing his face just as Paul walked into the office with a cheery "hello."

Paul passed over a magazine to Joseph. "It's that catalogue you wanted," he told him. "The brewing your own beer stuff. Those people are pretty good."

"Oh cheers," his partner replied, taking the glossy psychedelic object in his hands. "I thought you said you had chucked it."

Paul grinned. "Oh no, I knew I had it somewhere. I emptied out my shed last night to find it."

"Oh great."

"I've gone through and starred the kits I've had which are good, you'll like this one." Paul pulled up a bottle from his bag and passed it across. "It's the Golden Angel, and it's lovely."

"I thought I was the Golden Angel," Sarah teased and Joseph smirked at their secretary.

"You are my Golden Angel," Joseph told her with a grin. "I mean, our, golden angel.

A strong coffee and a walk in the afternoon rain restored Matthew's senses, and feeling a degree of guilt for his lack of productivity in that morning, stayed until Joseph was ready to leave at 7pm.

"Haven't you got a home to go to?" Joseph teased as he got his coat. "Come on I'll give you a lift home."

Matthew sighed and closed down his program. "Yeah, but I wanted to get that graphing module finished."

"Well if you didn't come to work with a hangover," he reminded him and Matthew glanced at the clock.

"I finished it half-an-hour ago," Matthew replied in a cool voice and got up, grabbing his coat. "I've been productive today."

"Good, 'cos employee of the year, you set a standard," Joseph reminded him with a teasing smile causing Matthew to groan. "Everyone looks up to you."

Matthew held the door open to the restaurant and the elegant "Amy" entered. He smiled at her, she looked very much like the photo he had been sent where her head had been cropped from, what was, clearly a topless photograph, although it showed little.

Amy and Matthew had a mutual friend in Katie and she had, quite out of the blue, offered to set them up telling Matthew she was just the girl he was looking for.

Amy was a shapely woman, blonde hair with a genuine, powerful smile who allowed Matthew to guide her to the table. She seemed slightly on edge and eager, and Matthew glanced at her well proportioned breasts barely contained within her dress.

They shared a bottle of wine, Matthew was fond of red wine but never had anyone to drink it with and Amy gleefully drank two glasses of the Merlot he had bought over her fillet steak.