Unsuitable

She’d done something. Audrey let it go and made a pot of tea to go with the Portuguese tarts. They talked Audrey’s health, her projected return to work date and then Les put the ticking bomb that could blow up Audrey’s career on the table.

“They’re making cutbacks.”

“Oh. But from the executive ranks?”

“Mostly from the executive ranks. That gets rid of the more expensive people.”

“How do you know this?”

“I snooped.” Les slumped. “I’m naughty. I shouldn’t have done it and no one knows except you. But what gets left under the lid of the photocopier nearest the CEO’s office is fair game. They were lucky it was me, not some gossip.”

“When does this happen?”

“Sometime this month, at a guess.”

Audrey’s turn to slump. There was nothing she could do about it. If she’d been earmarked for retrenchment the decision would’ve been made well before now and Dr Barber was insistent she didn’t return to work before she was one hundred percent well. There was a real risk she’d have no job to go back to when that day arrived.

“My name would have to be on that list. I don’t have an active work portfolio. My team all report to someone else. I left behind a problem with suppliers. I made it easy for them to get rid of me.”

Les looked miserable, her work area wasn’t threatened; as a commercial lawyer she was a specialist. “You can’t think like that.”

But they both knew it was smart to. They both ate a second tart. Audrey tried not to think about the mortgage, about the expenses not covered by her health insurance and her extended sick leave. She had savings, but it would take a while to get a new job at her level. It could take twelve months. If it took longer she’d have to sell the house, she’d have to down size before that. It would no longer be a matter of when Reece stopped sleeping over at night, but when she let him go, because if she wasn’t working she could care for Mia herself and save his salary.

“You’ve gone very pale, Aud.”

“I’m thinking about what

’s in the bank and how generous the retrenchment package might be.” She was thinking about how soon she’d need to say goodbye to Reece and how Mia would hate that. And how that was worse even than the fear of losing her job. She shook her head. There was nothing she could do about this threat until it realised.

“Tell me what’s different about you? There’s something.”

Les flushed. “I’m seeing someone.”

“Wow.” There was a jolt of pure happiness for Les. “When did this happen?”

“Around the time you got sick.”

“Where did you meet this someone?”

“The first time with you. The second time at your front door. I’m seeing Marcus Pollidore.”

“Reece’s flatmate, Polly? Faux Mo who fixed my door?”

Les was an unhealthy shade of pink. “It’s a bit of madness and it’s bound to end badly and I’ll be suicidal. But Aud, I really like him and I’m so totally acting like a teenager, not a grown-up with her own property portfolio. He’s so unsuitable. I mean really. He never went to uni. He’s barely read a book in his life. He used to organise street fights, illegal street fights for God’s sake.”

Audrey blinked at Les in amazement.

“But you kissed Reece and when I knew that, I forgot to be shy with Polly.”

Another jolt, this time an unpleasant shock. Was Reece boasting about kissing her? She felt a wave of nausea. “How do you know that? Who else knows?”

Les winced. “It came out at the hospital. They wanted to know how close the contact the two of you had to assess his risk of contagion. He had to say it and we were all standing there. He tried so hard not to.” Les’ eyes flicked to the ceiling as Audrey’s stomach roiled. “It was so awkward.”

“Esther. Oh my God.”

“No, no, before Esther arrived.”

That was a kindness. It was hard to conceive how hateful Esther might’ve been towards Reece had she witnessed him admitting to that kind of intimacy.