The Temp by Emily Benet

Author:Emily Benet
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007594573
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2014-09-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

After I send Matt Costa the photo of the blue bananas sitting on the award-winning penis- shaped tumours I expect my phone to start ringing straight away. When it doesn’t I keep checking whether I’ve put it on silent or if the signal is bad.

Farrell nudges me with his elbow. ‘Adrenalin worn off?’

‘Yeah, I think so…’

We’re in a pub along the river, surrounded by tense football fans who are watching a match on the flat screen above our heads. A few of Farrell’s friends are there. They’ve looked at the pictures on my phone, had a laugh, made a few rude comments, and now they’re glued to the screen again. Dee has popped in, but as usual, she won’t be staying because she’s got a guitar lesson to give.

‘You’ve got so much to tell me,’ she says, tapping my knee excitedly. ‘I’ve been following your status updates. So, are you going to see him again?’

She’s talking about Elliot. Everyone knows about him now. I probably shouldn’t have been so open about it on Facebook. What if it doesn’t work out?

‘Yeah, definitely. He asked me out today but I was busy.’

He rang me, to ask me out. Of course it’s going to work out.

‘You’re not busy now,’ she says, with a wink. ‘Tell him to come so we can meet him!’

‘I thought you had to go soon.’

She looks at her watch and her face falls. ‘Shit. How can that be the time already?’

‘It’s alright. I wasn’t going to ring him. I’ve got too much to do.’

The truth is I’m feeling a little agitated because I want to be at home working on my website. It was the others who wanted to celebrate pulling off the stunt. We’ve ordered the cheapest bottle of fizz on the menu; it costs the equivalent of two cans of spray paint. That would never have occurred to me before.

The football fans whoop when the cork pops and someone runs out of the toilets with his belt undone and shouts, ‘Who scored?’ He gives us a dirty look when he realises his mistake and heads back into the toilet.

‘So does Elliot know you’re a crazy banana lady?’ Dee asks, grinning.

‘Not yet.’

‘Do you think he’d approve?’

I think of Montague’s exhibition and frown. ‘Yes, I think he’d take it quite seriously.’

Farrell leans in at that moment, ‘who would take what seriously?’

‘Oh nothing.’ I don’t want to get into it now.

Dee checks her watch again, ‘I’ve got to go, but let me know the goss…’

‘Is this about Sir Elliot?’ Farrell asks. ‘What’s the goss?’

‘You’re up to speed,’ I say. ‘You were there when he rang.’

‘You turned him down, didn’t you?’

I roll my eyes, ‘you make it sound like he proposed.’

Dee laughs, ‘imagine! What would you have said?’

‘Oh shut up, don’t be ridiculous.’

We hug goodbye, then she hoists her guitar onto her back and squeezes through everyone to get out. I catch Bibiana’s eye and she raises her glass of Prosecco to me with a big smile. Farrell’s friends are

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