Yours Unfaithfully (11 page)

“No, I haven’t liked it, Tim, I put up with it.”

“Are you deliberately trying to spoil this night out Mel, because that’s how it seems?”

“No, sorry I shouldn’t have said that. Listen, tomorrow in my lunch break I’ll go into Superdrug and get you a bottle of something decent, maybe Hugo Boss or even Chanel if you’re lucky.” She smiled in a valiant effort to get their conversation back on track. Why couldn’t their relationship be normal any more?”

She began to quiz herself... what was normal? Sitting here in this beautiful restaurant with Tim wasn’t normal. He should have booked them a table at the Queen’s Arms. The food there was good and the prices were a quarter of what they were here. There he would have looked OK in his brown trousers and they could have gone in his van without looking out of place.

This would be a perfect place to dine with Ratty. He would be completely at ease. She glanced towards the Maitre de, half expecting him to be looking at them and smirking. What Tim had succeeded in doing by insisting on bringing her here was to embarrass her. What if someone from the bank walked in? She thought about asking Tim to swap places with her, that way he would be less noticeable, but he’d go mad if she told him why she wanted to change seats.

“I’m going to the ladies,” she said. She got up and made her way through the busy tables, among people who were clearly out to enjoy themselves. The noise in the restaurant was increasing, all from people having a good time. She washed her hands and dabbed her wet hands on her cheeks. “Sort yourself out Melanie,” she said to herself, “...and go back to that table in a better state of mind. Be nice to him. Christ all he’s done is take you out for a meal, a meal which is costing him half a week’s wages and what have you done? Given him a bloody hard time ever since we got here.”

After suitably admonishing herself, she slowly made her way back to their table.

She gave Tim a huge smile. He looked pleased.

“That’s better, he said, for a few minutes just now I thought you weren’t happy.”

“I’m very happy Tim, and why shouldn’t I be? I’ve got my gorgeous husband taking me to this fabulous restaurant and I’ve got three lovely children over at Mum’s. I’ve got everything a woman could want.” She hoped she sounded convincing.

The waiter arrived and she chose a pasta dish for her main course.

“Well, I’ve got to admit I got that wrong, I was sure you’d chose the Lemon Sole.”

“I would normally Tim, but not twice in one day.” Her heart missed a beat as she realised what she’d said.

“What d’you mean twice in one day? Tim looked nonplussed.”

“I meant... what I meant was,” she fought for time, time for her brain to extricate her from the failings of her mouth, “I didn’t want fish again, you know after the whitebait.”

He seemed satisfied and he ordered a fillet steak, well done.

They sat looking around, engaged at the sight of so many people enjoying the atmosphere, the laughter, the chatter and the sheer pleasure of each other’s company. After several minutes they both spoke at once.

“No Tim, you go first. What I was going to say wasn’t important.”

“I was just going to ask if you’d had a good day.”

“Yes I did. I went to a training course at the Hilton on contract law. The bank thinks I should know a bit more about it with the work I’m doing these days. It was fascinating. What about your day, Tim, tell me about what you did today.”

“Why Mel? You wouldn’t be interested, seriously... you wouldn’t would you? I fixed an exhaust on one truck and did a full service on another. That can’t really compare with your day, even I can see that. After twenty years it’s hard to find anything interesting to say isn’t it? I bet old Rodders from your place would have plenty to say, and if not he could always twirl his bow tie or stick his hands in his braces. I’m a mechanic, Mel, it’s not exciting, in fact it’s not even interesting. I sometimes wish I could do something else, something interesting like you do, but it’s too late for that ... isn’t it?”

“Tim, you’re a good mechanic; skilled, experienced, and really good at what you do. That’s just as good as pushing figures around and doing all the stuff I do for the bank. It’s just different, that’s all.”

“Mel, thanks for trying, but you’re not even convincing yourself are you? My job is boring. I’m boring. You work with much more exciting people in the bank and you’re fed up with me. I’m doing my best to be a better partner, that’s what this was about tonight, but I’m a joke aren’t I? My clothes aren’t right; I don’t have funny stories to tell about my work. Where do we go from here, Mel? I don’t even know if I want you to tell me... because I might not want to hear what you’re thinking.”

Mel tried to cheer him up, but she recognised that, for once Tim had assessed the situation pretty much as it was. The awful truth was, he was right.

“Well, let me see, from here we go home. Then, tomorrow we get up and we do it all again. You go off to fix a few more lorries and I go and make a few more millions for the bank. Seriously, Tim, we can’t change our jobs ... it’s what we do, but maybe we could change our lives a bit. For a start we could book a holiday for when the kids break up. Let’s be honest ...have you thought about what we’re going to do in that six weeks? No, exactly, and nor have I. What did we do last year? A couple of day trips and running the kids to football events, music events, canoeing events. We did plenty of things with Nina and her kids, but how many of those did you come on? Hardly any, and why? You were always fixing someone’s bloody car or else ‘down-you-know-where’ with ‘you-know-who’. I’m going to book two weeks away somewhere. We are going to get right away from here and spend the time together, as a family, OK?”

“That’ll be great Mel, I just hope I can get the time off, everyone else with kids will have booked the summer holidays so they might tell me I can’t have it.”

“Then tell them they can stick their job. I’m warning you Tim, I’m taking the kids away for two weeks with or without you. You’d better be with us, or else!”

“I’ll fix it Mel, I’ll fix it somehow, I promise.”

They finished their meal and Tim paid the bill.

On the drive home they hardly spoke. Tim tried to evaluate tonight’s success in terms of mending their marriage. All he had achieved was a huge bill and an ultimatum. What had he expected? At least she wanted him on holiday with her, with the kids, that was a plus. How would I feel now, he thought, if she’d said, “We’re going on two weeks’ holiday without you”. No, looked at like that, tonight had been a great success. ... I’ll have to get a few new togs though, just to keep her happy.

Mel was also analysing the night. A good meal in a good restaurant with a good man.... but no spark. He wasn’t dressed right, he hadn’t said anything that interested her, let alone excited her, and he hadn’t exchanged eye contact or made her senses quiver. No, it had been a complete failure, a non-event. In fact her life was a failure, hadn’t she said that to Nina only a few days ago. The only time her life was exciting was when she was with ... that’s unfair she told herself. Life with the kids was still great, take last Sunday, when James got picked for that concert in London, that was exciting. It was just Tim, the time she spent with Tim was either boring, or they were rowing.

Tim let them into the house. “Would you like me to make you a drink, Mel?”

“No, I’m shattered Tim, it’s been a long day. I’m going straight upstairs; I’ll be asleep in five minutes. Her remark embraced a subtle warning to Tim not to get his hopes up.”

He took his shoes off and shouted up the stairs to her, “OK love, I’ll be up myself in two minutes.”

“Don’t bother,” she muttered, under her breath.

Next door the Bowyer family had spent the evening on a war footing, as usual. Nina had accused Ben of being lazy and for good measure she’d added, shifty and worthless.

Ben had developed a hard crust of selective deafness, which filtered everything Nina uttered.

Her appraisal of his qualities went straight over his head as he made for the door on route to the Globe. Once there, he sat with the usual bunch of early evening drinkers, which tonight included Sophie, a blousy, well-padded girl who drove a parts van for a firm that supplied vehicle components. She sometimes took parts to Tim’s haulage firm, so she knew him from work as well as from the pub, whereas Ben was just another regular at the bar. Sophie was a sociable creature by nature and one of the new breed of women, a twenty first century female, she was as happy in the company of a pub full of men as she was with the girls.

Her white T-shirt barely covered half her back and her low waisted jeans allowed her thong to spread its wings to public view. In the vast area between the two garments was a tattoo of a wasp, or was it a bee? Whatever it was she always warned ‘would be’ intruders that it stung, so look out! Her short, dark hair framed a face that was not unattractive. If Sophie had a weakness it was her lousy dress sense, but that appealed to some men.

Ben enjoyed her company, after all she was undemanding and wasn’t likely to criticise him for his many failings. Why should she, she didn’t care if he had no job, no prospects, no income. He always stood her a pint of Stella, which made him a ‘sound bloke’ in her book.

“What’s the latest with you, Ben, you got anything yet, cos if you haven’t we got jobs down our place. I could get you a start tomorrow, one of our girls got the sack today, she pranged the van again. Fancy delivering car bits?”

“I fancy working with you Soph. Do I get to ride around with you all day or will I have to have a van of my own?”

“Bugger off Ben, I couldn’t put up with you all day. Do you want me to get you in or not?”

“Well at least it would shut her up if I went back tonight with a job. Yeah, go on then, are you sure you can fix it?”

“I could ring Mick, my boss, now if you want? I know he’s desperate and it’ll be a tick in my book if I find someone quick for him, as long as you don’t piss him about, Ben. You’d better bloody not, mind, or I’ll mince you and send you back to your wife as cottage pie.”

“You probably could Soph, you’re a big girl. Go on ... show me your muscles! He laughed at his attempt at a joke and was rewarded by a hard punch in the stomach, which winded him so he could hardly speak.”

“Christ Sophie, that hurt”, he said eventually, “I hope you don’t intend to treat me like that every day if I come to work with you.”

“That depends Ben, you muck up and I’ll treat you worse than that, but if you do really well, then I’ll just treat you... “

Ben was beaming from ear to ear. “Soph, I’m going to give this my best shot. Tell Mick I’m ready to start tomorrow morning.”

Five minutes later, Ben was officially employed as a parts delivery driver. He returned home early to break the good news to Nina.

“I don’t understand, Ben, you left here just over an hour ago with no career prospects in sight and now you’re employed to deliver car parts? Has Jim put a Job Centre in the Globe?”

“No, but Sophie, you know, she plays in the darts team, I’ve told you about her before, she got me the job.”

“Is this the same Sophie that swapped shirts with the captain of the other team when they won last season? That tart who took her top off in the bar? She’s got you working with her now, has she? I thought you reached rock bottom Ben when you drove that laundry van, I didn’t realise you could get still lower.”

“I thought you’d be pleased. You’ve been telling me to show some initiative. She said they were a driver short and I said I’d do it.”

“Ben, I don’t care what you showed and I don’t know what you said you’d do, but this had better be a proper job. I’m warning you I’ve have had more than enough. I hope you get my meaning Ben. This is your last chance.”

Ben briefly thought about all the last chances she’d given him before, too many to count, but it didn’t matter, because he intended to make a success of this job. None of the jobs he’d had up until now had the kind of prospects this job had. What was it Sophie had said? ‘Make a good job of this and I’ll treat you’. That was the kind of encouragement he’d been wanting for years.

Next morning he was out of bed early and spruced up for his first meeting with Mick, his new boss. Mick explained that they were a van short, thanks to yesterday’s mishap, so Ben would have to double up with Sophie, but he also made it clear they’d have to cover both rounds until the replacement van arrived.

Sophie took Ben under her wing and showed him where all the regular drops were. They mostly went to the same garages and workshops each day, so knowing the locations meant that they could get the work done well within the day, even with the extra deliveries. Sophie revealed to him that the job was a ‘piece of cake’. I could get all my drops done by eleven in the morning if I wanted, she said, but if Mick found out he’d just give me more, so I take my time and usually get back about half past three, just in time to load up for tomorrow.

One of their calls was to the yard where Tim worked. He was dumbfounded at the sight of Ben walking in with Sophie carrying the bits he’d phoned up for earlier. Explanations followed over a quickly arranged tea break. Ben relayed Nina’s lack of enthusiasm for his new job. “That woman is never satisfied,” he said, “I don’t know what she expects.” He turned to Sophie and between bouts of raucous laughter, “I’ve satisfied you, Sophie, haven’t I?” then jumped back before she could land him another of her left jabs.

The day went well and Ben returned home just after six agreeably tired. For the first time in living memory he’d enjoyed going to work. This was going to be easy. Mick was a nice bloke, the work wasn’t hard and Sophie made getting out of bed in the morning worthwhile.

Nina knocked the contented smile off his face in seconds. “So how was your day with that little tart? Did you get any work done? I see you’re still wearing the same shirt as when you left this morning. Didn’t you get her to swap, or did you swap back again later?”

“Actually, Nina, we’ve been flat out all day because we had to do double the normal number of drops. Mick’s a van short, thanks to the bump that got me the job in the first place.”