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Extended Work
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| Confessions of a site secretary - Part 2 (a) | |
| By teddy | ||||||||
| 26 July 2006 | ||||||||
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Warning: this part contains quite strong language that some may find offensive. I do apologise in advance. I would really appreciate your comments. Many thanks. I have never before considered keeping a diary. Not even when I was a teenager and going through all that ‘no one understands me’ crisis. I remember that I always used to tease my friends that had one. I mean, com’on, what would you write down in it? Stuff that no one ever reads. Apart from yourself. Or perhaps others if, by a miracle, you would became, at some point, famous. Something very unlikely to happen in my case. And, if you need to talk about things that trouble you, you’d always find someone around ready to listen. Well, this is how I felt anyway. Until today when I realised that there are times in your life and things that happen to you that you can not, by any means, share with anyone else. Apart from your own self, of course. And yesterday something so out of ordinary and, I would say, extremely embarrassing happened that I knew straight away there is no way, and I really mean no way, that I could possibly tell anyone about it. Not even Tina, my dear auntie, who is my best mate and loyal problem solving counsellor. I don’t even know where to start. Sometimes one could find difficult to explain things to others. It has never occurred to me though that it could happen even when talking to yourself. Or your own diary. Which is, basically, the same thing. Anyway, I shall try with the beginning, shan’t I? It would make more sense, plus, it would help me remember everything as it happened. Last week on Thursday I woke up in a quite cheerful disposition. I must say that my morning moods swing as the week progresses from an extremely miserable one on a Monday to an all happy Larry on the Friday. By Saturday I am almost ecstatic. On this particular Thursday morning I had one more reason to feel jolly: I was going out with the guys from work that evening. Nothing special, just the pub across the road from the site, the Header or ‘the local’ how we also call it. It is always a good laugh though when we all go out for a drink. So, forty minutes later, there I was, on my way to work, on an over crowded train, sandwiched packed between an over aftershaved guy wearing a black suit marked with woozily white stripes all over, and, luckily for me, a freshly shaved, deodorant pampered armpit of a young oriental girl. The stripy guy was nonchalantly resting his laptop bag on my right foot and my annoyed gazes didn’t seem to bother him much. Just before getting off the train I managed to drag my foot from underneath his bag and, in an act of puerile revenge, made sure I gave it a good kick and leave a foot print on its fine material. And finally, after a twenty minutes journey from hell, I was back in the open air rushing towards the office. Well, if you can call it that. We’ve got a small room on the groundfloor of a grubby portal cabin placed by the site entrance where you could hardly squeeze two desks, few chairs, three shelves and a fridge. The rest of the space, not that it is much left anyway, is filled with dusty boxes and tools and muddy boots. As I was getting out of the tube station I threw a quick look at my wristwatch whilst grabbing a free newspaper from one of the boys giving them away by the station exit. ‘Shit, I’m late again!’ I thought. That was the third time that week. Even though I know that Mark doesn’t really give a monkey what time I get into work I don’t want him to think that I take the mick. Five minutes later I was in the office. I threw a quick ‘’morning’ to Mark who was busy playing Solitaire on his computer. ‘’morning. I’d murder a cuppa, I’ll have anything you’re making, Adi.’ Mark stuck his head up from behind his computer monitor screen ‘Sure.’ This is part of my morning routine: one sugar, splash of milk cup of tea for Mark and a strong cup of black coffee for myself. And a fag. I keep promising that I will give up smoking, not that I smoke a lot, maybe five or six a day. It is always the next Monday. Which never comes actually. It would help if people around me didn’t smoke but it seems that on a building site everyone does. ‘Adi, you know the allocation sheets you did yesterday?’ Mark asked. ‘Yeah?’ ‘d’ you think you could get them signed off? Give them to Gary upstairs, he’ll do it.’ ‘Yeah, no problems. When do you want them by?’ ‘Well, Monday will be fine. Just leave them on Gary’s desk.’ ‘Ok.’ Around ten o’clock I went upstairs to find Gary. And to have a little chat with Louise, the secretary for Beaurex. Me and Louise are quite good mates, there aren’t too many women on site so we’ve become quite close. She’s a good laugh. ‘Hi, Lou. Where’s everyone?’ I asked as I entered the deserted office. It is usually quite busy in there especially at breakfast time. There are about twenty people sitting in that office, everyone with their own desk, tasks and paper work. Compare with ours the space looks huge. And much better organised. Well, they are the main contractor on the job so, what would you expect? Louise’s desk is placed by the entrance so she could see everyone entering the room. ‘Hello, trouble.’ Louise smiled happy to see me. ‘They’re all out on site trying to sort some things out. Today’s the directors’ meeting and Mike’s showing them around to see the progress of the project.’ ‘Oh yeah, I think I recall Mark mentioning something about this earlier.’ I remembered. ‘Can you give these to Gary?’ I asked handing over to her the bunch of paperwork I had in my hand. ‘What you up to?’ I asked. ‘Busy?’ ‘Yeah, trying to find myself a dress for my cousin’ wedding’ Louise laughed. ‘Come and have a look at this.’ she asked turning her computer monitor towards me. ‘Yeah, it looks very nice.’ I admired the beautiful dress pictured on the screen. ‘How much??? You must be jogging.’ my eyes opened widely when I noticed the price tag displayed next to it, ‘that costs a bloody fortune.’ ‘Yeah, I know, but I want something different. I mean, com’on, how many times a year you get to go to a wedding? Plus, she’s having it in a quite posh place so I can’t really wear any dress, it has to be something special.’ ‘What has to be special?’ an intruding voice made us both turning around. It was Glenn, one of the managers for Beaurex. He is quite young, still at university and currently on a gap year work experience. Louise reckons that he fancies me and I actually think she is right. He does pay me lots of attention. ‘Why don’t you go out with him?’ she suggested once. ‘He’s quite cute’ ‘Oh yeah, why don’t you go out with him yourself then?’ I refuted the idea. Not that I have something against poor Glenn but he is not really my cup of tea. Not that he’s fat or anything like that, he is a bit on the chubby side though. And can be a bit childish sometimes. He is quite funny though and we’re kind of mates. ‘He fancies you, not me, you silly cow.’ Lou laughed. ‘Given the chance, I am sure he would fancy you as well.’ I challenged her. ‘Louise’s planning to buy a £400 dress for her cousin’s wedding. What do you think about that, Glenn?’ I said ignoring Louise’s disapproving looks. ‘I personally think that she’s got s screw loose in her head.’ I laughed. ‘Are we paying you too much, Louise?’ Glenn joked. ‘Or you’re planning to rob a bank. Fucking hell, I bet the bride’s dress wouldn’t cost that much.’ ‘Fuck off, you two. I told you I want something different. It is a special occasion!’ Eva, the cleaner, was passing by, carrying a roll of mutton cloth underneath her arm. ‘Hello.’ she greeted us. ‘Hi, Eva. Come here a second, will you?’ I asked as an idea popped into my head instantly. Louise and Glenn looked at me curious. ‘Can I have a bit of your mutton cloth, please?’ I asked whilst grabbing a pair of scissors from Louise’s desk. ‘Yes, of courrse!’ Eva gave me the stockinet roll and I helped myself with a piece out of it, which I dragged on my legs up to underneath my arms. The shoddy cloth stretched itself over my body parts resembling some kind of weird looking shabby dress. ‘Louise, there you go, what more different than this do you want?’ I asked ‘and it’ll only cost you few quid.’ Louise and Glenn started laughing. ‘You’re such an idiot, you know that?’ Louise commented while watching my funny parodied catwalk moves. I decided that the show must be accompanied by a bit of sound so I started whistling the first silly tune that came into my head. ‘You crreizy gerrl!’ Eva managed to articulate between cascades of laughter, clapping her hands together. I like Eva, she’s got such a happy nature. She’s got a very strong Russian accent, you know, the ‘rrrr’ stressed words type of thing, and a heart of gold. And she’s always laughing. Yeah, I do like her a lot. I was just about to do my last pirouette and move back to my initial position, Louise’s desk I mean, when I suddenly realised that everyone had gone quiet. I could hear the door opening instead and steps coming into the room. For a second I froze. Then slowly I turned around to face more than a dozen pairs of eyes examining me in a very peculiar way. ‘Oh, holly shit!’ was the first thing my mind could articulate whilst my eyes were getting widely apologetic. The first gaze I intercepted was Mike’s disapproving one. ‘Shit, shit, shit!’ my brain started panicking. And then among the others, all I could notice were these most amazing dark green eyes that were watching me intensively. Their owner’s face was immobile but the eyes looked extremely inquisitive and very very amused. My face got redder with rising embarrassment. ‘Git! What you looking at?’ my mind became suddenly stroppy whilst my mouth was excusing its owner’s way out of the office. ‘Well done, girl.’ I congratulated myself quickly taking the improvised dress off before rushing down the stairs to my office. ‘You have really managed to create an impression today. And I bet the whole bloody site will find out in less than ten minutes...and wait until Mark gets hold of you!’ For the rest of the day I tried to make myself invisible to the rest of the world. I didn’t even dare phoning up Louise worrying that someone else might answer the phone. Mark came back from the site around midday. He seemed to be in a quite good mood. ‘Adi, stick the kettle on, will you? I’m dying for a cup of tea.’ ‘Of course….let me wash the cups first.’ I grabbed the dirty mugs from the shelf, happy to escape the office for few minutes at least so he won’t have a chance to say anything. However, I worried without reasons. Mark didn’t know anything about the incident upstairs. Well, even if he knew, he didn’t mention anything to me. Around five a clock, Louise rang. ‘What time will you be ready to go?’ she asked. ‘I dunno, I don’t really feel like going anymore after what happened this morning, to be honest, Lou…I bet everyone else knows by now.’ ‘Don’t be stupid. No one said anything, not even Mike. Some laughed, some asked who you were but most of them ignored the whole thing all together. There is nothing to worry about, trust me.’ ‘Ok, I suppose you’re right.’ I surrendered. ‘Is twenty to six ok then?’ she asked. ‘Yeah, ok, twenty to six then.’ ‘Don’t make me wait for you again, like last time!’ Louise moaned. ‘Yeah, yeah, ok. Now bugger off, I still have some stuff to sort out before I leave….if you want me to be ready in time.’ ‘You better be….’ Louise warned me. ‘See ya.’ I cut her off putting the phone down. Around half five I phoned up Mark to find out if he was gonna come to the pub. ‘Mark, I’m going across the road….you coming for a drink?’ ‘Hold on, Adi….. Dopey, are you coming to the pub tonight?’ I heard him shouting in the already noisy background. ‘Dopey’ must’ve been Vlas, our Russian supervisor. This is one of the appellatives Mark uses for him. And, believe me, it is the kindest of all. Mark and Vlas do fight a lot, verbally of course, well, we do have objects flying around the office sometimes as well, especially when Vlas tries to take the mick out of Mark. Apart from that, they are quite good mates. ‘Adi, we might come for a pint a bit later. Don’t get too pissed before we get there.’ Mark teased me. ‘Yeah ok, I’ll try not to.’ I laughed. ‘See you there then.’ ‘Ok, sweetheart.’ Half an hour later, Louise, Glenn, Chris, who’s another trainee manager for Beaurex, and I were just about to cross the road to the local pub. ‘Adi,’ Louise requested my attention, ‘I must tell you something.’ ‘Oh yeah, what is it then?’ ‘You know the people that were upstairs this morning, I mean, the directors?’ ‘Yeah?’ I was listening patiently. ‘Well, Mike’s taken them all for a drink to the Header.’ ‘Oh, great. Thanks for telling me now.’ I grumbled at her stopping right in the middle of the road. Luckily, it wasn’t busy. However, there was one irritated cyclist, whose bike had to change its route to avoid colliding with me. He wished me well: ‘Watch it, you stupid cow.’ he shouted, turning his eyes from the road in front of him for a second towards me. ‘Fuck off, idiot!’ I yelled back at him. The idea of facing that lot that I performed in front of this morning made me feel quite miserable actually. ‘Oh, com’on, you chicken. Don’t make such a fuss out of nothing. They’re probably already pissed anyway, they won’t even remember you, I bet.’ Glenn grabbed my hand and dragged me across the road. Luckily, the pub was busy so we could stroll to the bar unnoticed. ‘What are you drinking, girls? Chris asked.’ ‘I’ll have a JD and coke, make it a large one.’ Louise demanded. ‘I really need a good drink.’ ‘Adi?’ Chris turned at me. ‘I’ll have a glass of wine. Medium white, please.’ Chris got the drinks from the bar and everyone sipped the first mouthful as if we had never had a drink before. It’d been a long day and the aromatic liquor made me relax a bit. I looked around to see who else was in the pub. The Header is a very typical city pub, with a bar placed right in the middle, which is almost always surrounded by office workers. The space is not huge and there aren’t many tables and chairs, people usually stand up holding their drinks in their hands, chatting away. You can notice straight away that it is not a family friendly pub by the amount of smoke floating around the room at all times and the lack of soft furnishing accessories you would usually find in a country side pub for instance. The local has got another room upstairs. This is most times reserved for parties, especially Friday nights. This time the pub was packed with people from the site so I had to keep smiling and greeting everyone. ‘Hey Adi, how you doing? Can I get you a drink?’ ‘I’m fine, thanks. I already have one.’ I had to keep saying for the first ten minutes. This is the advantage, or disadvantage, depends what way you look at it, of being a girl working on a building site: you get noticed quite quick and everyone gets to know you. Well, it’s not only that of course, it is also the job I do, which gets me in contact with quite a lot of people. Plus, I am quite friendly I would say. Andy and Keith from Permas’, the sub-contractor in charge of the electrical installations on site, moved over. ‘Hello, guys.’ ‘Hi there.’ ‘Is Mark coming over?’ Andy asked. ‘He said he might.’ ‘Hope so, the tosser owes me a drink. Girls, I must say, you looking rather pretty tonight.’ ‘Aren’t we always?’ I replied cheekily smiling. ‘Oh yeah, what are you after, Andy?’ Lou asked laughing. ‘What’s wrong with you, silly sod? I’m paying you a compliment and you throw it back into my face.’ I think Andy fancies Louise. Every time we go to the pub he’s always somewhere around her, trying to chat her up. Lou doesn’t really mind him as long as she can get free drinks. He’s not too bad company either. ‘Listen, I know from personal experience that you, men, are nice to us only when you’re after something.’ Louise argued. ‘Am I right, Adi?’ she asked me to back her up. ‘Well, yeah, I suppose.’ I said not very convincing. For some reasons I wasn’t feeling too good. Rather bored I would say, couldn’t really figure out why. I moved my eyes across the bar. On the other side, I could see Mike actively engaged in a conversation with the owner of the unusual green eyes that were laughing at me this morning. ‘Lou’ I asked, ’who’s the guy talking to Mike?’ ‘Oh him, he is Paul Harold, the architect. Well, his father owns Harolds, the architects firm. He is loaded, I’m telling you!’ ‘I don’t remember seeing him before.’ I said. ‘Well, he doesn’t really come on site that often. I am surprised he came for a drink today. He wouldn’t usually.’ ‘He’s got very strange eyes, don’t you think so?’ I carried on whilst continuing to examine the subject of our discussion. ‘Yeah, they are lovely, aren’t they?’ Louise replied smiling nostalgically. ‘I don’t know, it seems that they can see right through you. I’m not sure if I actually like them.’ I expressed the way they made me feel. ‘Oh, get lost. The guy is absolutely gorgeous. You fancy him, don’t you?’ she teased me. ‘Yeah, right, Louise. I don’t bloody fancy him. It is the first time I've seen the guy….just saying that his eyes are a bit unusual, I’ve never seen anything like them before.’ ‘You think I should try to pull him tonight? You never know, he might be up for a bit of fun.’ Louise asked for my opinion. ‘Yeah, you should be so lucky.’ I laughed sarcastically….‘but then again’ I carried on looking at her, ‘I bet you bloody could.’ Louise is a very good looking girl. She is tall, slim, with long blonde hair and big boobs. She is the type of girl …, well, she is basically everyone’s type of girl. And she always looks like she’s just got out of a beauty salon. Plus, she’s quite fun. ‘Oh, com’on, lets go over there and say hello.’ Louise suggested. ‘Sod off, I’m not going anywhere. You go if you want.’ I vehemently protested the idea. That would’ve been the last thing I needed, facing Mike and all that lot, especially after they had a drink. Suddenly I felt like I was being watched. I threw a quick look around and, across the bar, I saw Paul Harold looking at me, smiling. ‘Shit, he does remember me…’ I panicked. ‘You’re such a pain in the arse sometimes, you know that, Adi?’ Louise was getting quite annoyed by my refusal to move across to the other side of the bar. ‘Louise, get this into your thick head, no matter what, I am not going there, end of story.’ We didn’t have to. We saw Mike and Paul moving towards where we were. ‘Hello, boys and girls.’ Mike greeted us. ‘Are you having a good time?’ ‘Paul, let me introduce you to these two beautiful young ladies. You already know Louise actually, our secretary.. And this is Adi, she is working for Dalens, our logistics sub-contractor on site. Adi is originally from Transylvania so make sure you do not upset her, Paul.’ Mike joked. ‘Hiya.’ I managed to mumble whilst shaking Paul’s hand. ‘Adi,’ Mike turned at me grinning, ‘I thought you were gonna give us the pleasure to see you wearing that beautiful dress of yours that you tried on this morning.’ ‘Git,’ I wished I could wipe that smirk off his face, ‘he’s taking the piss now.’ I felt quite embarrassed. However, I managed to keep a brave smile on my face. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, Mike, but I thought I might look a bit overdressed for the occasion. Everyone laughed. Inclusive Paul. ‘Can I offer you lot a drink?’ he asked us. ‘A JD and coke for me, please.’ Louise accepted his offer straight away, her eyes absorbing his every single move. The boys also wanted a pint of larger each. ‘I’m fine, thanks’ I said whilst raising my half full still glass of wine. I am not much of a drinker. Few glasses of wine and you can stick an ‘Out of order’ sign on my forehead. Paul moved to the bar to order the drinks and somehow I found him standing next to me. ‘Are you ok? he smiled. ‘Go away, go away, please.’ my thoughts implored him. ‘I’m fine, thank you.’ I managed to smile back. ‘It is very useful to have the Header just across from the site, isn’t it?’ he carried on, joking, ‘however, it looks unusually busy for a Thursday night.’ ‘Well, some people like to start their weekend early.’ I replied. ‘Have you been working long on this site, Adi?’ he enquired. ‘Well, not that long, about three months.’ ‘So, what exactly do you do for Dalen?’ ‘Mostly administration, a bit of everything basically.‘ I didn’t think that telling him that I was basically doing all Mark’s paperwork, and that’s because he absolutely hates it, would mean much different. ‘Please excuse me for a second.’ he said while passing the freshly poured drinks to the others. I thought that once the mission of getting the drinks had been accomplished he would go back to the others and leave me alone. I mean, lets be serious, how interesting a conversation with me could be for someone like him, eh? I was wrong though. ‘And, do you enjoy what you do?’ he turned back at me. ‘Yeah, great, you’re taking the piss now.’ I thought, ‘..would you?’ ‘Well, it isn’t exactly the most exciting job in the world, definitely not the ideal job you dream of when you are a kid.’ I laughed. ‘It pays the bills though.’ ‘Oh ok,’ he said, a bit confused probably by my pathetic philosophy. ‘And what would your ideal job be then?’ he smiled. ‘Well, I am actually an artist. I studied arts in school. However, I don’t think I am really good enough to make a living out of it. Not yet at least.’ ‘How interesting! And what kind of artwork do you do?’ ‘Painting. A bit of sculpting as well, but mostly painting’ ‘Oh ok, it sounds fascinating. I hope one day I could see your paintings exhibited in one of London’s most famous art galleries. Do you think I would have any chance of getting an autograph then?’ he teased me. ‘’course.’ I laughed. ‘I’m afraid though that there is still a long way to go until people will start asking me for autographs.’ ‘How long have you been in this country, Adi?’ Paul asked. ‘About five years.’ I said. ‘Your English sounds perfect, although I can perceive a very slight accent it is almost unnoticeable. I find quite amazing for someone to be able to speak a foreign language at such a high standard in only five years.’ ‘Well, I came here when I was eighteen. If you start learning the language when you are so young you have a quite good chance to pick up the local accent.’ Somehow the so feared of conversation was flowing rather well and I felt quite relaxed and comfortable with it. Paul had a really deep tone voice, very masculine, and I was quite enjoying myself listening to it. That was until my eyes, by accident, intercepted Louise’s infuriated gazes. ‘Shit,’ I remembered ‘she wanted to chat him up!’ ‘To the toilet…now!’ her angry eyes were demanding. I mumbled an excuse to Paul and made my way to the loo. Louise was already there. ‘What the hell are you playing at?’ she yelled at me. ‘What are you talking about, woman?’ I asked trying to keep calm. I don’t like people having a go at me without a well-founded reason. However, this time, because it was Louise, but mostly because of the girl washing her hands in the sink next to us, I tried to avoid the argument. ‘I told you I fancy him. Why did you start chatting him up?’ ‘I wasn’t bloody chatting him up, you idiot! I was just trying to be polite. He asked me few questions, just making conversation whilst waiting for his drinks, that’s all. Listen, you don’t really think that he would even consider looking at me with you around, do you?’ I tried to calm her down. ‘Don’t play the modest innocent with me, Adi. You know you are quite pretty.’ Well, people do say that. And to be honest I’d never really had any problems with men before. My mum says that I am a natural beauty. Well, she would say that of course, she is my mum. I don’t really think I am a beauty, I would say rather pretty. It is true, I don’t really need lots of make up, I have olive skin and wavy dark hair, plus, no matter how much and what I eat, I always stay slim. My best feature, I was told, is my eyes. Of an undefined colour, a mixture between brown and green, quite big, can somehow impress with their innocent look. This is what Dan, my first boyfriend, used to think anyway. However, next to Louise I always feel like the ugly duck. And that’s because she is so bloody sexy! And if I was a man I would definitely go for her not for myself. ‘Com’on, Louise, don’t be stupid. I don’t even fancy the guy and he definitely doesn’t fancy me so lets go back in there. He is all yours.’ It looked like I managed to convince her. We moved back to the bar and I let Louise taking my place next to Paul and started chatting with Glenn about his university courses, his exams and plans for the future. Whilst listening to Glenn’s big ambitions I noticed Mark and Vlas sitting down at one of the tables outside. ‘Glenn, I’m going to say hello to Mark and Vlas, they’re sitting outside.’ ‘Ok, no problems, Ad.’ ‘Hey, where have you been? Mark asked when saw me, ‘we’ve been looking for you….thought you went home.’ ‘No, I must’ve been to the loo.’ ‘Vlas, go and get Adi a drink, will you?’ Mark said seeing my nearly empty glass of wine. ‘Of course. The usual?’ ‘Yeah, thanks.’ Me and Vlas are quite good friends. We come from the same part of the world so I supposed we have quite a lot in common. That’s what makes us understand each other better. ‘See Adi, when it’s about you, he wouldn’t mind putting his hands in his pocket to get you a drink. ‘Cos he fancies you. If I’d asked he would’ve told me he’s skint.’ Mark started. ‘What d’ you mean? I got you a drink already.’ Vlas refuted the accusation. ‘Yeah, that’s only because you own me ten quid, you tosser.’ ‘What ten quid?’ ‘The bet we had today? About who scored the goal for Arsenal in yesterday’s game, you fucking lemon.’ Mark tried to kindly remind him. ‘Shut up, that wasn’t a bet, we didn’t shake hands.’ ‘Listen, you stupid cunt, this is England, not fucking Uzbekistan. We don’t shake hands for a bet. You’re lucky I’m not stopping the money out of your wages next week.’ ‘You’re a wanker, you are.’ Vlas laughed at Mark. ‘If you call me a wanker again I swear to God I’ll smack you, cunt. Now go and get the drinks. I know you fancy Adi anyway. You know that, Adi, don’t you? He thinks you fancy him an’ all ‘cos he thinks he’s a fucking stud.’ I laughed. This is a normal conversation between those two. And no wonder my own vocabulary got enriched with so many new words since I started working with them. However, they are both down to earth people and I really like them. ‘Where’s your mate?’ Mark asked after Vlas left. ‘What mate?’ ‘The girl from upstairs, what’s her name, Louise….’ ‘Oh, she’s over there.’ I pointed to the crowd behind the dusty window, ‘with the others.’ ‘Oh yeah, she’s out for the big fish tonight then?’ he commented sarcastically seeing Louise flirting with Paul inside by the bar. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Well, she’s after that Paul Harold, the architect, isn’t she? I mean, look at her, she’s all over him.’ ‘Nah, she’s only having a bit of fun.’ I defended Louise. Vlas came back with the drinks. ‘Listen, is that Momo, over there?’ he asked pointing his head, his hands being both busy with putting the drinks on the table, towards the site offices. Mark and I both turned our heads in that direction. We could see Momo, the receptionist, standing outside in front of the portal cabin with a drink in his hand and a cigarette in his mouth, busy watching the passers by. ‘I’m gonna kill that fucking idiot. I told him not to leave the reception again until he finishes his shift.’ Mark snapped. Momo is quite a character. He is about twenty, of Egyptians origins, born and bred in the UK though. He is small, big headed with dark spotty skin, a big mouth as if it’s just been cut out of a cartoons’ magazine and a big pile of dark spiky hair on top of his head. He is a good lad but he does like to take the piss big time if you let him. And it looks like he doesn’t enjoy anything more than annoying Mark. Mark tried to reach for his phone but Vlas was quicker. ‘Com’on, Mark, lets wind him up.’ Vlas dialled the reception number and let the phone ring. We could see Momo throwing his fag and rushing back inside. Vlas waited for few seconds and then put the phone down. After a minute Momo was back outside. Vlas let him light another cigarette and have few puffs before phoning the reception again. The earlier scene repeated itself, this time we could see Momo muttering something that we could only assume being not so very nice words before throwing the cigarette away. ‘Fucking prick.’ Mark started laughing. We thought he’s gonna give up but we were wrong. Not long and he was back with another cigarette. ‘I bet the idiot would waste a whole pack of fags just for the sake of having a few puffs and watching the birds go by.’ ‘Giv’it to me.’ Mark grabbed his phone back from Vlas’ hands. This time Momo took his time before rushing to answer the phone. ‘Listen, you cunt, if you leave that reception one more time before eight o’clock I swear to God tomorrow you’ll have to start looking for another job.‘ Mark yelled in his phone. Vlas and I started laughing, imagining the not so pleasant surprise of hearing Mark’s voice, growing on Momo’s little face. Bless him! I stayed there with the guys for a while before deciding that it was time for me to go home. Through the window’s glass I could see Louise still chatting to Paul. Mark was right, she was indeed all over him with her big breasts nearly resting on his chest. ‘I’m going to get you another drink and then I’ll go home.’ I announced. ‘Why? It’s still early. Stay a bit longer.’ Mark and Vlas protested at unison. ‘Can’t, sorry, I’m feeling tired. Same again?’ ‘Don’t be silly, Adi, we’ll get the drinks.’ ‘No, please, I want to.’ I said and headed for the pub’s entrance. I walked to the bar and ordered the drinks for the lads first. Then I turned to Louise. ‘Lou, I’ll be going home in five minutes.’ ‘Why?’ she asked not looking too bothered though. Paul smiled at me. ‘Sorry for interrupting’ my eyes were apologising. ‘Just feeling a bit tired, that’s all.’ ‘Oh, ok then. I’ll see you tomorrow.’ ‘I think tonight’s my lucky night.’ she managed to quickly whisper in my ear whilst leaning over to give me a quick peak on the cheek. She sounded happy. ‘Have fun. There is a condom machine in the female toilets if you need any.’ I whispered back. ‘See you tomorrow, Lou. Bye, everyone!’ I greeted the other few people around. Including Paul. I took the drinks to the guys outside, wished them good night, picked my bag and left. I didn’t sleep well at all that night. I remembered having these weird dreams that kept waking me up: it started with Paul and Louise, then it was Louise and me, then Mark took Louise’s place at some point and later it was me and Paul and I remember shouting at him to leave me alone. I think that woke me up again. I looked at the clock next to the bed. It was quarter past five and I should’ve had another good hour in bed. However, for some strange reasons, I couldn’t go back to sleep. The first thing I did when I got into work the following morning was to phone up Louise. ‘Hi, Lou. Are you ok?’ ‘Yeah, not too bad, I supposed.’ She didn’t sound too happy. ’You?’ ‘Dunno, I didn’t sleep well last night. I’m feeling quite miserable actually. What’s wrong with you anyway? How did it go last night? Did you get lucky?’ I asked curious. ‘Did I fuck.’ she spat out unhappily. ‘How come?’ ‘Well, the idiot left no long after you did. Everything seemed to be perfect, we were having a great time when out of the blue he told me he had to leave. No explanation, no asking for my phone number, basically nothing. I’ll start thinking that he’s fucking gay!’ ‘Now, com’on, Louise, give the guy some credit. Maybe he really had some other stuff to sort out. Or maybe he’s just not the one night stand type of guy. There’ll be other times, I’m sure. Plus, why would he ask for your phone number when he’s got the office one, eh?’ I tried to console her. Somehow though, for some very peculiar reasons, the news really cheered me up. And that was that….until this week. (to be continued)
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