by S M Mala
Twenty
It had taken only a matter of minutes for him to send over all the accounts and everything he could find to the company auditors, with the instructions they work on finding discrepancies with the books. Finlay knew his mother would do something if money wasn’t being accounted for.
He heard his buzzer and knew it was Toby turning up for dinner at his flat.
‘Hello bro!’ he said, bouncing up the stairs as Finlay held the door open. There was a bag in each hand from the local Thai takeaway. ‘You owe me thirty quid!’
‘Fine.’
Finlay felt tired.
He couldn’t face going into ‘Good Vibration’ on Friday. Every time he thought of Sylvie’s smirk it just made him mad.
Toby chatted cheerfully away as he didn’t listen to a word.
For most of the afternoon Finlay had gone through the figures Stephen emailed to him but he couldn’t be sure if it was true that everything was in order. They were making money. By Monday he would see exactly what Piers’s company had been up to. The fact he hadn’t done it sooner only made him more frustrated as he’d been distracted with his wife’s fling.
‘Is it that bad?’ Toby gently asked as Finlay realised he was eating so fast and absorbed in his own thoughts. ‘Never mind Samina, she’s a wind up merchant. She’d have forgotten all about it tomorrow.’
‘I can’t stand her!’ he said loudly, seeing the alarm in Toby’s big blue eyes.
‘She’s really quite a funny old bird and a good cook. Sometimes she-.’
‘Not Samina. That bloody Sylvie Mather. She’s a scheming bitch!’
Finlay noticed Toby’s angry face, realising he was talking to the wrong person as his brother took a deep breath before sniffing.
‘She’s wonderful and don’t speak ill of her. The only reason you don’t like her is she’s not a push over and, let’s be honest, you think women are.’
‘No I don’t!’
‘Dad loves her and so do I,’ said Toby quietly. ‘Sylvie has really helped him so don’t go spoiling it for us.’
‘I’m only making sure the company is-.’
‘Fin, I know you’re upset about something. I can see it, mumsy can and even daddio. Why don’t you tell us? It’s not like you to be so… so… you’re not coming across well. Why are you so angry? Let’s be honest, the past few weeks you’ve been pretty vile, looking down your nose at people and they say you’re a bit of a fascist.’
Finlay noticed his brother squint for a moment, waiting for some sort of outburst. He ate some more curry and thought for a moment.
‘I don’t want us to waste money on a company we might have to bail out. Yes, it’s doing okay but not brilliantly and I’d prefer to nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand.’
He saw his brother’s unconvinced expression.
‘You didn’t know about it a few months ago so why the rush to show it’s all bad because it isn’t, you know. Today you were supposed to go to the product meeting but you didn’t show. It’s like you’re looking for fault and that’s not fair.’ Toby chewed his food quickly and Finlay noticed he wasn’t making eye contact. ‘I don’t want to lose the first job I’ve ever liked.’
Suddenly he realised how much it meant to his brother, that bloody company and he didn’t want to fight so he reached over and squeezed him arm for a few moments as Toby smiled back and continued to eat.
‘So how is Julie Lefuck?’ Toby asked with a glint in his eye. ‘Is she coming over and how comes you’ve been away for so long? Has she revealed herself to be a man?’
Finlay smiled for a moment before shaking his head. He wanted to laugh but was shocked to find something was coming up to his throat and it was a massive sob. Before he could hold it back it came at full speed out of his mouth and he was crying over the Thai chicken green curry.
‘I-.’ He couldn’t speak. ‘It’s-.’ Still he didn’t want to say. ‘We’re-.’
‘She’s a bloke, isn’t she?’ Toby said sympathetically as Finlay looked at his face and burst out laughing.
‘I love you Toby, you know that don’t you?’
‘Leave her and move back to London. She’s not nice.’
‘I love her.’
‘Oh Fin, you’ve laughed more in the office over the past few weeks than I’ve ever seen you laugh with her in six years and that’s with you being in a mood,’ sighed the man. Finlay felt him stroke the back of his head. ‘Julie was never good for you but you were so… well taken in by her model looks and sluttish charms.’ Toby went down on his knees and looked up into his face. ‘You helped her with that shoe business letting her put her name on it and invested, I don’t know how much money. Five years it’s taken to get a return and not much from what I can gather.’
‘How do you know?’
He was stunned by Toby’s knowledge.
‘I hear ma and pa talking. And she never acts like she cares about you when you’re together, not even any affection. I don’t like it. I want you to be happy and you’re not. Never ever in your life did you say you wanted to live anywhere but London and you move away six years ago! She practically kidnapped you.’ Toby started to laugh as did Finlay.
‘It’s really complicated and I don’t want to go into it, not now,’ sighed Finlay. ‘I want to focus on sorting out your company.’
‘There’s nothing to sort out because Sly runs a tight ship! Oh shit!’ Toby sat back on his heels and put his hand over his mouth. ‘As well as daddio, goes without saying.’
Finlay wiped his eyes before staring at his brother’s very high coloured cheeks.
‘I suspected she does but what is that woman getting out of it? Surely in twenty hours she can’t do everything that-.’
‘She gets paid twenty hours, she works more but don’t say I said. Dad can’t afford to pay her full time and Sylvie stays at home so no one will see exactly how much work she’s putting in. You can’t tell anyone I told you. We all made a pact not to say anything. Don’t go upsetting Sly as she’s the woman I love and I will protect her.’ Toby sat back on his chair as Finlay hid the utter dismay on hearing his brother’s words. ‘And if you want to do something positive, sack that Stephen. Sniffing around her all the time, he’s a snitch, a real bloody snitch so I reckon he’ll turn on her if she doesn’t play ball and go out with him. I can tell.’
The following evening Finlay found himself in a pub down Strand on the Green with the others. He’d been there for an hour and it wasn’t unpleasant, even Samina was sitting next to him. Della kept giving him the eye and he couldn’t help but look back. There seemed to be a code where he would have to buy all the drinks and Finlay knew when he was being rinsed, but didn’t mind as it was the first time he’d been out in weeks.
‘You marry?’ asked Samina, sipping on a tomato juice and munching through cheese and onion crisps. ‘Where wedding ring?’
‘I don’t like jewellery.’
‘You strange man. You not like Indian food and gold? You not typical,’ she smiled and he realised she would have been quite pretty in her day.
‘Leave him alone. He’s an English middle class man, they don’t like what we do, innit?’ said Pria knocking back her pint of cider.
‘Where wife?’ Samina continued, ignoring Pria as he noticed the others were now listening. ‘She at home?’
‘She’s in the South of France where we live,’ he replied and noticed various sets of raised eyebrows. Finlay looked over and noticed Toby was being cornered by Wanda. ‘I have business over here as I run the company.’
‘What you do?’
‘I’m a director.’
‘You must be minted, I mean that car of yours is worth a fortune, innit!’ said Pria with authority. ‘What’s it like to be rich?’
‘I never really thought about it,’ he honestly replied, before seeing Della flash him a bright smile and raise her eyebrows discreetly as if the others were being a little silly.
‘If you nay had two pennies to rub toget
her to buy a tin of beans, then you’d know what it was like to be poor, aye that’s a fact,’ said Marianne seriously, sipping on her Baileys and Sambuca on ice. ‘I suffered you know. When I came to London I nay could get a job. The benefit pays out nothing but then I started working for this company and things have been great! You should be proud of your stepfather giving us the chance to prove ourselves.’
‘Sylvie gave you job,’ Samina said and he saw them all shoot her a glance. ‘She interview us all and she a good person. I not care if you not like her Finlay but she got good heart. Not proper Indian, though she has skin and hair. She can’t make chapatti. I try and teach but she not good.’
He hadn’t thought about Sylvie Mather all day as he had managed to avoid seeing her, knowing she was coming in later and he arrived in the office at three o’clock realising she’d have left to pick up her child. Finlay looked at the people he was sitting with in the pub and realised they weren’t the usual type of person he’d mix with. Gillian and Elizbieta were laughing in the corner with Krystof. Matthew was having a heated debate with Dan over football, whereas he was surrounded by the women.
‘You have children?’ asked Samina catching him unaware. ‘I have five daughters.’
‘That’s a lie,’ Pria said, putting down her pint. ‘You have four daughters and a son, innit.’
‘He gay. He girl because he like boy. I have five daughters, yes?’
‘I suppose I’d be your son because I like girls, innit?’ said Pria as Finlay turned to look at the petite looking woman sitting near him. ‘I’m a lesbian. Not a lipstick one that does it when they can’t get cock but a proper one.’
‘To me that not make sense.’ Samina was shaking her head from side to side. ‘Why you take vibrator home when it is a penis? Why you not want the fanny machine to put your penis into?’
‘I’m a lesbian but I like cock, preferably plastic. How many times do I have to tell you?’ Pria sighed and knocked back her pint. ‘My round.’
‘No, let me,’ Finlay said, getting up quickly and walking to the bar, his head whirling from the current conversation.
Stephen was now talking to Matthew and Dan in a heated debate which had turned to cricket.
‘Same again?’ Finlay asked as they nodded then he noticed Stephen turn to him and smile.
‘I’ll help you,’ the man said happily and he let him hand out the drinks, noticing the women eyed the accountant with deep suspicion before he saw Toby quickly run to the table when Wanda went to the toilets.
Within minutes Stephen had cornered him at the edge of the bar. Finlay wanted to sit back at the table seeing they were now laughing at something Toby was saying.
‘Did you get everything I sent over?’ Stephen asked, his large smile glaring brightly.
‘Thank you, I did.’
‘They’re very particular on how I report things.’
‘‘They’?’
‘Piers and Sylvie. They need to know where every last penny goes and I’m very thorough about all the payments. To me it’s important to show effectiveness throughout and I am a consummate professional.’ He smiled, before taking a sip of his lager shandy as Finlay drank his whiskey and soda. ‘You seem to be working closely with Sylvie. How’s it going?’
It wasn’t a question.
It was more of a badly disguised interrogation.
Finlay smiled for a moment realising Stephen liked the woman.
‘I think she fancies me,’ he replied mischievously and watched the horror spread across Stephen’s face. ‘I swear she’s giving me the come on.’
‘Not Sly! She’s not like that.’
‘I’m telling you I know when a woman wants me,’ he persisted seeing Stephen force a smile. ‘The other day she handed me a coffee and put lipstick marks where I was supposed to drink from. Seriously, I’m scared she’ll pounce as she’s forever flashing parts of her naked skin pretending her clothes are riding up. It’s quite worrying.’
‘I need to use the gentleman’s.’
Stephen stomped away and Finlay managed to order another two whiskeys and dropped one of them into Stephen’s pint.
‘Here you go!’ Finlay said cheerfully and handed him the drink as he returned. ‘Hasn’t she ever come on to you? I thought she might have done considering she’s a desperate widow.’
He watched Stephen down his pint before putting it on the counter as Finlay instructed the bar man to give him the same again and discreetly put in another shot.
Two pints later Stephen was pissed and speaking freely.
‘She knows I like her, I know she does. What a bitch for coming on to you. She knows I like her, I told her,’ he said slurring his words as Finlay led him to an empty table and sat him down before pushing another whiskey laden shandy into his face. ‘She won’t go out with me! Why not? I even left my girlfriend to be with Sly and she doesn’t want to know. What a bitch!’
‘Could she be using you to hide a few things in the accounting? Not that I’m saying you’d do it.’
‘It’s all direct debits, the payments that go into the account. They put it under another name but I don’t ask,’ he slurred. ‘What a fucking bitch! She came on to you? Bitch!’
‘I see,’ said Finlay realising he’d stumbled on something. ‘What name? Can you remember?’
‘Bitch!’ Stephen replied, before passing out drunk at the table.
After bundling him into a cab with Matthew, Finlay text the accountants to look for direct debits being made and a list of names so he could further investigate.
‘What did you do to Stephen?’ Della asked and he turned to see the beautiful woman smile.
She had dark brown eyes and hair, her skin was milky white. Finlay looked at her up and down realising he could easily sleep with the woman, as she bit her lip and moved closer.
‘She married with two children and husband left her for another lady man,’ said Samina from behind him as he watched Della furiously cast a glace over his shoulder. ‘She married a girl.’
‘Samina you really do pick your moments,’ sighed Della as she rolled her eyes.
‘You go! The babysitter will worry. I stay with Finlay,’ smiled the naughty elderly lady as Della marched off. ‘She go through men like I go through dildos, I tell you.’
‘Samina,’ he said turning to look at her in the heaving pub while trying not to laugh. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you yesterday. I was having a really bad morning and I’m not a racist. Any other time I would have liked to try your samosa but not then.’
‘I understand,’ she said quietly. ‘You have passion in your heart and loins, I see.’
He immediately looked down to see if he had a stiff one but he didn’t.
‘I old but I know things,’ she smiled. ‘I have eyes and can smell.’
‘That’s great,’ he sighed. ‘So we’re friends?’
‘I keep secret. I not tell soul. Trust me.’
‘What secret?’
‘You want Sylvie, I know, I can tell. I feel sex suspension in air when I walk in,’ she smiled. ‘And she be good because she not have it for a long time. I tell you it will be passionate!’
‘No way!’ he said loudly seeing her raise her eyebrows. ‘She’s not my type!’ Samina looked at him for a moment before frowning. ‘And it’s not to do with the colour of her skin.’
‘Her age?’
‘I don’t even know how old she is and I’m a married man.’
‘You not wear ring.’
‘I took a vow,’ he said before remembering his wife had done the same thing but gone back on her word.
‘You not think she pretty?’
‘I think she’s a pain in the arse,’ he mumbled before knocking back his scotch.
‘You want her, you not know it but you do.’
‘I don’t!’
After taking Daisy to theatre arts on Saturday morning, going to a birthday party and ordering an Indian takeaway, the pair sat on the sofa watching television. She smiled at her
beautiful daughter who was watching Dr Who and didn’t seem scared by the Daleks whereas Sylvie had the cushion near her hand, recalling the fear of seeing them since she was a child.
‘Mummy, can I ask you a question?’ her daughter said turning to look at her. ‘And don’t be angry with me.’
‘I won’t.’
‘Will you ever marry again?’
She didn’t want to see it had jolted her as a she forced a smile for a moment and then sighed. Wanting to be truly honest she rested into the sofa and smiled.
‘I think the chances of me finding someone as wonderful as your daddy are slim,’ she said, gently touching her child’s long hair. ‘But you’re not to worry about me. I promised your daddy I’ll look after you and that’s what I’m here for. To make sure you’re safe and happy, want for nothing.’
‘Sometimes you’re not happy, I can see it. I hear it when you cry and that makes me sad.’
‘I don’t want it to make you sad,’ she said feeling guilty. ‘I cry because I miss him and because he made me happy. When you find something like that, someone who truly loves you, it makes you cry.’
‘I miss my daddy,’ she said snuggling up against her.
Sylvie sniffed her hair and hugged her daughter while they stared at the screen with the Daleks coming towards them. Somehow they weren’t as scary as being left alone to bring up the child of the man you loved.
As her baby slept, Sylvie did her usual two hours of work on the laptop to check orders and emails coming in. It was late in the evening they would receive enquiries and she knew it was because the main customers were at work or waiting for partners to sleep before thinking about how to spice things up.
Then an emailed pinged through.
It was from Piers.
‘Hello lovely, you’ve not called or emailed recently. The company man seems intent on finding out everything about our finances. Everything is secure but make sure Stephen doesn’t blab. Come and visit soon. Feeling much better! P. x’