Poison

It appeared he didn’t have all that many real friends after all – since not a single one of them came forward to pay his bail charges.

It was a few days on from that still when Moose, the introverted work genius, cornered me in the meeting room when Keith and Ralph had made their exit after our weekly debrief.

I was still packing up my laptop when he cleared his throat and stepped up close.

“Saw the Sebastian Maitland shit going down on Gloucestershire Live TV,” he told me. “Got well and truly shafted by an anonymous email, didn’t he? Weird that.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, pretty damn weird, hey? Still, the guy always was a cunt.”

His smirk was eccentric, and his eyes were strangely bright. “Seems there was a system glitch around your login in the last week or two,” he said. “Seems the Sebastian Maitland searches were spiking all over the place from your account. Pretty big coincidence.”

My blood turned to ice, but I kept a calm face on it. “Really? That’s quite strange, Moose. Quite strange indeed.”

“Yeah,” he said. “It is. I was thinking that you were checking it out via enough proxy that hardly anyone would have ever been able to see the action, especially not from our team login. But with me putting the automation protocols in place and tracking user behaviour… I guess it puts me in prime position to pick up any glitches like that.”

“I guess it does. And what are you going to do with that prime position, Moose?” I asked him.

He shrugged, and his eccentric smirk grew bigger. “Well, I fixed the glitch,” he said. “Don’t want our system throwing any other little balls ups like that around, do we? So, I made sure I cleaned it up. Not a single Sebastian Maitland glitch to be seen now.”

I was surprised.

Surprised enough for the shock on my face to be seen, I’m sure.

Moose shuffled on the spot. “Won’t be any more glitches now though, will there, Lucas?”

I shook my head. “Absolutely not, Moose. I’m sure the system is well and truly fixed now. No more glitches to be had.”

“Good,” he said, and then he nodded his head at me. “Sure nice to have you back, boss. Keep up the happy, will you? It’s a whole load better than the sads.”

He was at the meeting room door when I called his name.

He turned to face me and I realised for the first time in a long time that I really did have true friends. I’d lost sight of just what they were over the years.

“Thanks, Moose,” I said. “It means a lot that you cleaned that up for me.”

He shrugged at that. “No biggie,” he said. “Can you just make it to quiz night next week please? Marketing team caned us last month and I want to come out with the trophy.”

I laughed out loud and gave him one hell of a smile.

“I’m damn well sure I can be there.”Anna was looking incredible, head to toe in a cream dress suit when I met her outside her office that evening.

I leaned in to kiss her and she lingered for a few beautifully long seconds.

“Good day?” I asked, and she nodded.

“Very good day,” she said. “Got an invite from Mum and Dad for Sunday dinner over the next few weeks.”

“Nice,” I said, and took her hand as we set off on our walk to the car park. “You haven’t been to dinner at theirs for a few, have you? About time they started back up again.”

She stopped me in my tracks, and shook her head, and she was so alive. So fucking alive that it took my breath.

“No, no, no. I’ve got an invite from Mum and Dad for us to go to Sunday dinner,” she told me. “Both of us.”

Jesus Christ, it took me a second to digest it.

“You’re serious? Your parents have invited me for Sunday dinner?”

She nodded. “Yep, sure have. Took me quite by surprise as well.”

My smile was all genuine. “I’d be very honoured to accept the invitation.”

“I know,” she said. “I’ve already said we’d love to be there, just need to get it pencilled in. Can’t wait to get you suited and booted for the big event.”

My heart was already absolutely pounding at the thought. Jim and Terri must have absolutely despised me for a whole damn decade, and I didn’t blame them. I never would.

The very thought of them welcoming me across their threshold was quite surreal.

Anna pulled me back in my tracks again before we rounded the corner to the car park.

“Can we just take a detour?” she asked me. “I have a wish for the fountain…”

I looked at the sky, such a lovely day in spring. The clouds were pink and the air was warm, and the city was bustling just right with evening life.