Chapter Sixteen
‘So Malia says that David’s been working there basically non-stop since his wife died twenty years ago,’ I said to Joe later that evening. ‘Ovarian cancer she thinks, although I’m not sure how she knows that. Maybe she just asked him direct, she’s quite a force of nature.’
‘Sounds like she’ll be interesting to work with,’ said Joe. ‘And Colin sounds great. How about the others?’
‘I didn’t meet Ren in the end but there’s a young lad who works Saturdays. And someone else, although I can’t remember their name. I don’t think their shifts overlap with mine. But either way, everyone’s been so friendly.’ I beamed at my husband.
‘I am honestly so glad you’ve enjoyed it,’ Joe said, popping the cork on the bottle of Cava he’d bought to celebrate my first day at work. ‘I know you were nervous, but it sounds like you just jumped straight in and got on with it. I’m so proud of you.’
‘Well,’ I said, blushing a little, ‘it helps that I’ve got such nice colleagues, but it’s a busier job than I expected. I was on the go all day. Barely checked my phone once.’
‘That’s most unlike you!’
‘I actually felt a bit guilty. You know, for not thinking about Layla. Maybe it’s a slippery slope and I’ll forget about her altogether.’ I held out my glass.
‘I don’t think there’s much danger of that,’ Joe said as he poured me a hefty measure of Cava that rose to the top and just avoided frothing over the edge.
‘Hmm. I know. It was just odd, that’s all. I did call her from the car on the way home though.’
‘Of course.’ He smiled as he poured his own glass and held it up to mine. ‘Cheers!’
‘Cheers,’ I said. ‘Thanks for doing this, Joe. Makes me feel like I’ve landed a major contract or secured a high-powered position rather than a “little library job” as Mum described it – fairly patronisingly.’
‘Well, you say that but look what arrived this afternoon.’ He indicated a big bunch of flowers still wrapped in their cellophane that he’d balanced in a pint glass on the kitchen countertop.
‘Oh! From her?’
‘I assumed so. Unless maybe Farah? The delivery lady didn’t give me any clues.’
I opened the little card that was sellotaped to the wrapping. They were from Mum.
‘Oh, that’s sweet,’ I said, showing Joe the brief ‘good luck’ message.
‘How come you were here when they arrived?’ I’m not generally a very suspicious wife but it was rare indeed for my husband to put in an appearance at home on a weekday any time before seven – and trust him to do it on the first day I’d actually left the house to go to work myself for the past however many years.
He looked a bit sheepish. ‘Yeah, I – uhm – I came back early and went to play a few rounds over at Amberley.’
I raised my eyebrows. How many times had I asked him to take an afternoon off to come and watch Layla in a school performance or playing in a football match and it had been completely impossible?
‘Okay,’ I said, as neutrally as I could.
‘Is that going to become a regular fixture? It’s just that previously I know it’s been really difficult to take time off work mid-week.
’ I didn’t want to sound judgy. I really hoped I didn’t sound judgy.
‘That sounded a bit judgy,’ he said.
‘Well, sor-ry,’ I said, my voice now a bit tight. Gah! Why was I turning this into something tense? Or was he being tense and overly defensive? I took another sip of Cava.
‘It’s just that really, it sort of is work,’ he said. ‘I know it doesn’t sound like it, but loads of guys use golf as an excuse to talk about business in a less formal environment. It’s not just Steve. It’s all about making contacts.’
‘Okay. Yeah, fine. I get it,’ I said, keen to restore the happy vibe of earlier.
‘And, uhm…’ He grimaced slightly before blurting out the rest of the sentence in a rush. ‘I decided to sign up for membership. At Amberley. For the year.’
‘Oh, right.’ This seemed significant from his expression, but I wasn’t sure why he was feeling guilty about it, unless… ‘Was that quite expensive?’
‘It’s two hundred pounds a month,’ he said. ‘Which is your basic entry level seven-day membership. It means I can play whenever I want. Green fees are sometimes extra on the days when it’s premier patrons only but I’m sure I can…’
‘Two hundred a month!’ I said, choking on my Cava. ‘And you’ve signed up for the year? So, two and a half grand in total. Are you serious?’
‘That was the cheapest option.’
‘Oh, I’m sure I can think of a cheaper option, Joe!
How about not spending thousands of pounds on golf club membership?
That might have been the cheapest option!
’ I put my glass down on the table to indicate how un-celebratory I was now feeling.
Two and a half thousand pounds! FFS! What was he thinking?
‘Was this an impulse purchase?’ I said, trying to understand where this preposterous suggestion had come from.
‘Did you wake up this morning and think, Great, we’ve got an extra couple of grand just hanging around that’s come from literally nowhere – what to spend it on?
Upgrading the car? Layla’s living expenses?
Nice little holiday for us all? Oh, no, of course, I know just the thing! ’
‘Actually,’ he said, refusing to rise to my baiting. ‘I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks but didn’t sign up because we weren’t sure about your job and everything. But now you’re on a regular wage and…’
‘So basically, it’s me that’s paying for this? I’m going out to work purely to facilitate you playing golf?’
‘Not directly, no,’ he said reasonably. ‘No more than my going to work facilitates you going shopping or out with your friends or supporting your extensive reading habit.’
I scoffed. I never went shopping and I rarely went out with friends. Although he did have a point about my towering To Be Read pile and the fact that I kept adding to it like a dragon hoarding bookish treasure.
‘It’s all part of the collective family income,’ he continued.
‘That’s how we’ve always done things. It’s not like I ask for more stuff because I’m the main breadwinner.
Anyway, in the long run it’ll be the best thing possible for our household finances – me playing golf is probably the single most important thing I could do in terms of networking.
There are a couple of really big potential clients who are members at Amberley, and they’re very well connected. And they get on well with me.’
‘Well, of course they do,’ I said. ‘You’re lovely. Of course they’re going to get on well with you. I just don’t see why you have to spend thousands of pounds for the privilege of knocking a little white ball across a green with them to maintain that business relationship.’
‘I enjoy it,’ he admitted. ‘I enjoy playing now much more than I used to when I was in my twenties. It always seemed terribly dull then. But I like it now. Keeps me fit. And I’m actually quite good. I was thinking of having a few lessons. Maybe as a Christmas present?’
‘You don’t think you might be on pretty shaky ground to be talking about Christmas presents at this precise moment?’
He sighed. ‘Look, I guess I knew you wouldn’t be ecstatic, but I just thought you might understand why…’
‘Could you not have simply asked me?’ I said, interrupting him. ‘Even if it was just to create the illusion that this is a joint decision.’
‘I thought you might say no.’
‘Well, that’s the kind of argument Layla would have come up with. When she was at primary school. Being worried someone might say no is not a good basis for a unilateral decision about finances, Joe! We should have talked about it.’
‘Look,’ he said, his face now miserable. ‘I’m sorry, okay? You’re right. I should have discussed it with you. I’ll call them and cancel it. I’ll probably have to pay the deposit, but I can cancel the direct debit at least.’
I sighed and sank onto one of the kitchen chairs. ‘No, just hang on,’ I said. ‘Let’s talk about it. Better late than never.’
He pulled out the chair opposite me and sat down. He looked wretched, to be fair.
‘Can we afford it?’ I said.
‘I think we can. We’ve got Layla’s costs covered – pretty much.’
‘As far as we know,’ I said. ‘Have you asked her how her budgeting is going?’
‘Yes. I’ve messaged her a few times to check and see if she’s running out of cash and she’s keeping an eye on her balance, she seems to be keeping on top of things.’
Well, this was another surprise. For some reason I felt like I was the one with majority control over comms with Layla but clearly there had been some daddy-daughter chat going on too. ‘And she’s managing okay on what we’re giving her in addition to the student loan?’ I asked.
He nodded. ‘So, assuming we don’t have any other significant expenses coming out any time soon we have enough regular income with your salary to allow for a couple of extras, particularly when you think of it as an investment of sorts.’
‘Well, I guess it’s a good thing I had a nice first day,’ I said. ‘Out of interest, if I’d come back and said, It’s awful, I hate it and I’m handing in my notice, what would you have done?’
He lifted his palms up. ‘I don’t know. Cancelled it, I guess. I just, I had a feeling that you’d love it, working with books, being with people again. And I thought, it could be a win-win.’
We contemplated each other for a moment.
‘Okay,’ I said eventually. ‘Let’s see how it goes.’ I didn’t have the heart for a fight. ‘And hopefully, it’s only a matter of time before you’re closing multi-billion-pound deals with your golfing chums.’
‘That’s the spirit,’ he said. ‘One day, when we’re in our private jet flying out to our villa on the Amalfi Coast having paid off all of Layla’s student debt and bought her a penthouse flat in London, we’ll look back on this and laugh.’
‘Oh, how we’ll laugh,’ I said.
We spent the rest of the evening describing increasingly outlandish things we would do with our colossal fortune as we finished the bottle of Cava, and in the end it was okay – I didn’t go to bed hating my husband for wasting our money and I hope that he didn’t go to bed resentful of my initial reaction.
But, make no mistake, I was annoyed with him for putting a dampener on what had been a lovely first day at my new job. Really bloody annoyed.