“My dear Jay! So sorry to hear about your father.. Please allow me to express my deepest condolences” Habib held Jay firmly by his shoulders as he spoke, exuding a look of honest sincerity.
“Let them come in Habib..” Mimi pushed Habib firmly to one side and held Jay by the hand “..We are so so sorry Jay.. Are you ok?”
“Yes.. thank you Mimi.. And thank you both for the wreath.. That was very kind of you”
“Not at all.. not at all.. Do come in” insisted Mimi.
“We’re actually thinking of going out again.. to get something to eat” answered Zu.
“Why do that when we have food here.. You can’t eat out all the time!.. How can you afford that?”
“Mama.. we’re fine.. and from the smell of it you’ve already eaten.. No.. we’d like to try a new French restaurant.. where you pay what you think the meal is worth..” Zu threw her overnight bag on the floor at the bottom of the stairs “..We won’t be late” Zu kissed her mother on the cheek, grabbed Jay’s arm and sped out of the door.
A short drive later they were parked up outside ‘La Boheme’. The restaurant was situated between Finchley and Golders Green and vaguely resembled a Swiss chalet from the outside.
“Ooh I’m looking forward to this Zu!.. They’ve had very good write-ups”
“Me too.. but mainly coz I’m starving” replied Zu as they walked quickly towards the entrance.
The décor inside matched the exterior. Dark oak panelling covered the walls and ceilings and heavy wooden tables and chairs gave a distinctive Tyrolean atmosphere. A gas-powered log fire shed flickering light around the room.
“Wow.. This looks cosy!” exclaimed Zu as the waiter guided them to their table.
“Yes.. it’s very nice.. but I’m not sure it’s very French though..” Jay inspected the menu “..Crikey!.. They do lobster.. and Chateaubriand.. and Crème Brulee.. and XO cognac!.. I’m going to go crazy here!”
“Take it easy darling.. besides.. we’ve got to pay for all this too”
“Yes.. but there are no prices..” Jay pointed to the menu “..so we’ll just pay what we think it was worth.. thirty quid or something.. Oh this is going to be sooo good!”
“We can’t do that Jay!.. We have to pay a fair price!.. Otherwise they’ll go out of business!.. They have to make a living too you know”
“Ok.. ok.. Sooo.. burger and chips darling?” chirped Jay.
“You are so stupid Jay!..” Zu grabbed Jay’s hand “..but I love you anyway”
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“Mornin’ Jay.. Good to see you back”
“Morning Paul.. Thanks.. It’s good to be back”
“Everything alright?..” Paul scoured Jay’s face for signs of how he felt “What.. with the funeral an’ all”
“Yes thank you.. well.. things are different at least..” Jay looked at Paul over the top of his screen “..And it was all a bit sudden I suppose”
“Yes.. You must’ve been gutted”
“Yes.. but I’m ok now.. really.. Having some time off has helped”
“Well.. as I said.. I’m sorry Jay.. My condolences”
“Thanks” Jay started reading through the headers of several hundred unread emails and system messages trying to work out where to start “Any luck with the hits you got.. you know.. from the expense claims script Paul?”
“No.. unfortunately not.. They turned out to be ok after I’d checked them through.. One was a payment in lieu of overtime and the other was a team-lead who’d paid for a dinner for all of his staff.. But the important thing is that the script works!.. I’m going to let it to run for a few more days and check for alarms now and again”
“Why not just get the script to automatically send alarms to the monitoring system.. and put on a note that nobody should do anything about it without informing one of us first?”
“Good idea Jay.. Why hadn’t I thought of that?”
“I’ll add it to the monitoring system later Paul.. I know how it’s done.. I’ll send you a message afterwards.. I just need to do some CHAPS stuff now before month end”
“That’s a deal matey!”
Jay carried on with his CHAPS project, noticing that there were several areas of weakness that could present possible risks. He typed his findings into an email and sent it to Simon for validation.
Jay thought frequently about his father before pulling himself back to focus on his work. He felt guilty for not allowing himself to think more about him but he also knew that that would probably start to make him feel depressed. His father had, after all, told him to live life and not let life get him down. ‘Nil illegitimi carborundum’ he used to say. Jay found it hard to come to terms with his father’s sudden departure. It was only now that he began to realise how much he actually missed him. And his father hadn’t even met Zu. Jay talked things through in his head, mini make-believe conversations with his father where he told him all about Zu, what he was doing at work, even about the problems he had had with his car. He knew that they were always going to be very one-sided conversations, but they helped him get through the daily reminders of the fact that his dad was no longer there.
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