Bestseller by Alessandro Gallenzi

Author:Alessandro Gallenzi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Alma Books
Published: 2010-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

8

The following day, Jim woke up at two o’clock in the afternoon, dragged himself to the shower and remained under the pouring water for more than half an hour. As he stumbled out of the glass cubicle, he tried to remember exactly where he had gone and what he had done after the party. He had vague memories of lights, high ceilings, billiards, cigars, vodka. Lapdancing? Lapdancing. He could see himself vomiting twice – once down a toilet and once in the street. The second time, he’d thought he was checking out for good. He also recalled talking at length about the nympho book and giving vivid descriptions of it, with such conviction and enthusiasm as to make everybody want it. He wished he had written down some notes.

He double-shaved, gelled his hair up and slipped into his smart suit again, then went downstairs to see if there was anything to eat in the fridge, all the way massaging his temples to appease a head-splitting hangover.

As he cut through the living room, he found Uncle George sitting in Father’s easy chair, with his face buried in The Daily Mail.

“Sir,” he croaked, lifting his nose from the page, “this is private property. Make yourself known, or I shall call the police.”

“Ha, ha… very funny,” Jim said as he walked past him and entered the kitchen.

Uncle George rose to his feet and followed him there.

“Mmm, nice, especially the hair… Honestly, son, in that suit I’d offer you a job tomorrow.”

Jim grabbed a piece of cheddar and two carrots from the fridge, put them on a plate and went back into the living room, without deigning to reply. Uncle George followed him out.

“And, by the way, thanks for letting me know about the operation yesterday,” he said as his nephew drew up a chair to the table and sat down. “I had to call the clinic myself.”

“I was busy.”

“Yes, you were busy. I know. And didn’t have time to go and see your mum or give me a call.”

“Look, Uncle G,” Jim sighed, “let’s not have another fight, all right? I’ll go and see Mum today. Yesterday I had some important meetings. I had an appointment with a couple of publishers who are very interested in my work, OK?”

“Oh did you? And I suppose that’s why you came back home at five o’clock in the morning, eh? Are they a sort of nightclub publishers?”

“What’s your problem?” Jim’s head was about to explode.

“My problem? My problem is that you don’t seem to wake up and smell the coffee – that’s my problem.” Uncle George rapped his forefinger on the table. “Your mum is dying of cancer and you don’t give a damn: you still go round chasing butterflies—”

“Chasing butterflies…” Jim scoffed, biting off half a carrot.

“—and still taking out money from your mum’s account without authorization…”

“What was I supposed to do,” Jim interjected with a full mouth, squeezing his temples with one hand, “go to those meetings in jeans or pyjamas?”

“Well, you could have asked me, first.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.