Chapter 19
‘ H ey, Ardas, have you shat yourself?’ asked Joel. ‘Are the residents that scary on site?’
‘Fuck you, Joel,’ replied Ardas, angered further by the roars of laughter in the office.
‘What happened to Ardas’s trousers?’ I asked Adam in a hushed voice as I returned from the meeting room. My desk partner was filling out a mountain of paperwork scattered in front of him. When he finished with a page, he dumped it in a paper tray hanging over onto my side.
‘Someone spread wet ground coffee on his seat,’ Adam said, keeping his eyes down.
‘You mean Dean… And Ardas didn’t notice?’
‘It’s unlucky that all the chairs are black.’
I shook my head in disapproval. ‘How much longer is this going to go on?’
‘Come on, Evelyn – it’s not hurting anyone. And it’s good for team building.’
‘I can’t see how these silly pranks can be good for anything.’
‘You really don’t have any sense of humour.’
‘I don’t see Ardas finding it funny either,’ I noted.
‘He’s Lithuanian, so he doesn’t always get British jokes,’ he said. ‘But in a day or two, he’ll be laughing at it too.’
‘If you say so…’
A minute later, Adam rolled closer to my chair. ‘You should send Jordan home,’ he whispered in my ear.
‘Why?’ I whispered back.
‘Because he isn’t well.’
‘Then why doesn’t he ask me? ’
‘Evelyn, come on – you know why.’
I got up and went to the water cooler then beckoned to Adam, who was still watching me from his seat. He looked around like a spy before joining me in the far corner.
‘What’s wrong with him?’ I asked, filling a cup.
‘Just look at him – he’s pale and sweaty.’
Jordan’s light hair, which was falling over his forehead, did appear greasier than usual, and his face seemed flushed. He was also breathing heavily.
‘I thought it was just his nerves. You said everyone was scared of me.’
‘Nah, you don’t make people pale and sweaty,’ he told me, filling a cup himself. ‘At least not to this degree.’
I stole another glance at the young surveyor. He was tall and skinny, almost like a young David minus the beard, though his eyes lacked any brightness, and today they looked cloudier than ever. He wasn’t my recruit. Elsa had employed him for another project, but when that project hadn’t gone ahead, he’d been transferred to this office.
If it wasn’t me, perhaps the blasting air con had made him sick – Jordan was sitting right under it. Unfortunately, July had brought back the extreme warm weather, and we were either boiling or freezing in the office. I decided to get someone to look at the air con settings straight away – after sorting Jordan.
‘He probably has the same thing as his boyfriend – a bit of flu and stuff,’ Adam told me, as if reading my mind and arguing against my theory.
‘Jordan is gay ?’
‘You didn’t know?’
I shrugged. ‘He kept mentioning a partner; he never used the word “boyfriend”.’
‘It’s obvious he’s gay,’ he said, eyeing Jordan.
‘No, it’s not. You can only tell the difference because you’re a man.’
‘Are you saying because you’re a woman, you can tell if someone’s a lesbian? What about Chrissy then?’ he asked, nodding towards her.
‘Chrissy is not a lesbian.’
‘Oh, yeah, she is.’
All of a sudden, I recalled her grazing my arm at the Christmas party and complimenting me on my glittery jumper. And she was so attentive; she’d even grabbed my coat for me when I’d complained about being cold in the pub. That night, I’d been so preoccupied with chatting up David that I’d completely missed the signs…
I shielded my mouth. ‘Oh my God, you’re right – she is.’
‘Thank you,’ he mocked. ‘Now are you going to let the poor sod go home?’
Everyone went quiet as I approached the young surveyor’s desk.
‘Hey, Jordan, how’s it going?’ I asked.
He didn’t even look up; just carried on typing while mumbling, ‘I’m almost ready with that cost comparison exercise you asked me to do. If I can have just one more hour…’
Adam had been proved right again. For the first time, I noticed his voice did sound scared.
’Don’t worry about that,’ I told him. ’You don’t look well. You should go home and rest up.’
‘Are you sure?’ he asked.
He was shaking – I hoped it was down to his illness and not me.
‘Yes, just if you can quickly email me the things you’ve been working on, I’ll get someone else to finish them,’ I said, trying to give him a warm smile. But my face lacked practice in displaying empathy, and for a second, he looked even more terrified.
‘Really?’ he asked.
‘Yes. Now pack up and go home,’ I told him. ‘Are you fine to drive, or do you need someone to take you?’
‘I travel by train.’
‘Whereabouts do you live?’ I asked, feeling awkward, as if I ought to have known the answer already .
‘Watford.’
‘You don’t look well enough to make your own way back. I’ll get someone to take you.’
Adam jumped up from his seat and came over to us. ‘I’ll do it,’ he volunteered.
‘You sure?’ I asked. ‘I thought you were busy.’
‘It’s okay. No problem really.’
The door to David’s office opened, and he was next to us in mere moments, moving silently like a gazelle. The noise must have drawn him out.
‘What’s going on here?’ he asked.
‘Jordan isn’t well, and Adam offered to take him home,’ I replied.
David looked at Jordan, who was in the middle of forwarding his work, then at me and Adam. ‘I see,’ he said. ‘Adam, before you go, can you please finish that risk assessment I emailed you about? And have you thought about who’s going to do your end-of-day checks?’
‘I sent you the risk assessment a couple of hours ago. And it’s only half two. I should be back in plenty of time to do my end-of-day checks.’
They eyed each other for a long minute before David spoke again. ‘That’s fine then,’ he said, about to return to his office.
‘I thought so,’ Adam murmured.
I didn’t expect David to take note of such a comment, but, to my surprise, he turned back.
‘What was that?’ he asked.
‘Nothing,’ replied Adam. ‘Come on, Jordan – let me carry your bag for you.’
David watched them leave then glanced at me again before shutting his door.