For The Love Of Money, Brian Doswell [books for students to read .txt] 📗

the last three days, on her mobi, arranging a sleep-over at Steve’s for Saturday night and Emma hoped that Steve’s new partner would be up to the chaos about to descend on her. The doorbell rang and she pulled her dressing-gown round her to go down stairs, knowing that Suze would get there before her with her Dora Explorer back pack stuffed with things for the weekend.
She heard the front door open and Steve’s voice call out, “It’s me Em.”
“Bye Mum.” Suze’s voice followed Steve’s and then she heard the door close.
Emma sat on the top stair, looking down at the empty hall and the closed door. Part of her wanted to rush after her baby with loving hugs and kisses. Another part lamented the marital split, and yet a third part admired her daughter’s ability to cope with it all. Emma recognised Steve in Suze, more than herself, and wondered if and where she had gone wrong. She pulled the frayed dressing-gown around her knees and hugged them to her as if it were Suze. “See you Sunday, Suze.” She whispered the words to the back of the closed door.
She was about to blow a kiss to her departed daughter when the door bell rang.
Emma scuttled down the remaining stairs and pulled open the door, expecting Suze to be there demanding some forgotten item. Instead it was David.
“Nice dress.” He smiled in the way that still made her knees go weak and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ve brought wine. Shall I pour while you finish getting ready?” It was a rhetorical question.
She rushed back up stairs to finish dressing while David headed for the kitchen. When she came down again, he was sitting on the sofa drinking wine from Suze’s Dora mug.
“I couldn’t think of anything better for an ‘85 Merlot. Yours is in the Kit-Kat coffee mug.”
Emma lifted the bright red mug, “Here’s to a quiet weekend.”
“A quiet weekend, if that’s what you fancy.” David returned the toast with the Dora mug.
Emma perched on the arm of the sofa. “It’s good to have you around,” she stroked her fingers through David’s hair, “I could get very used to you.” She instantly regretted the words, hoping that David had not interpreted them as meaning him to be dull or not exciting enough in some way.
David stretched out his legs and slid down in the sofa. He looked up at Emma, “That’s nice,” he replied, “I could certainly get used to you in that dress.”
Emma stood up and did a twirl, knowing that the dress was a half inch too tight and resolving to lose a few pounds before she wore it again. Her heel caught in the pile of the carpet and she stumbled, grabbing David’s shoulder to steady herself and, amazingly for her, managing not to spill her wine on David’s jacket.
David caught her with his spare hand and guided her onto his lap. “You definitely need someone to look after you. Let me know when you decide to hold auditions.”
Emma kissed him on the forehead and pulled herself free, standing up and smoothing her dress over her stomach. David always seemed so much in control while her world constantly let her down. She fought back a flush of embarrassment.
“So where are we going tonight?”
“I’ve booked Luigi’s. Is that OK? I thought we could leave the car at my place and walk round the corner.”
“And afterwards?
“I’d rather not drive on a Saturday night so, a taxi home suit you?”
“Seems a lot of money to spend on a taxi.”
“Well, I suppose you could stay over, especially as Susie is away for the weekend.”
It was a game that they played. The charade allowed them both to pretend that their relationship was merely a casual thing, totally without commitment on either part, although they both knew that this was changing.
“I’ll put a few things in a bag for the morning - just in case.” Emma ran upstairs and grabbed the bag that she had already packed.

§§§§§

Luigi’s was busy, as always on a Saturday evening. David had booked three days earlier and, being a regular customer, Luigi had given him a corner table, away from the busy restaurant door and out of the passage of the frantic waiters who dashed to and fro with trays of food balanced shoulder high as they squeezed between the tables. David had brought Emma to Luigi’s on that first Friday evening after getting her re-mortgage sorted out. He had split from a long-term, half-hearted, worn-out relationship a month earlier and he was in desperate need of a smiling face across the table. When he picked up Emma’s case file he had every intention of easing her into one of Anderson’s long term loan agreements and moving on. If she had not been wearing odd shoes on that first meeting, she might have slipped by as just another poor manager who the bank could really do without. Afterwards, he tried to recall when he had ever noticed a client’s shoes before. He couldn’t remember a single instance. There had been something in her face, especially her eyes. Her whole expression was tired and ready to give in. If he had told her to jump off a cliff, she might well have done so. He was accustomed to client’s showering him with excuses for their overdrawn accounts, people wanting to blame him or the bank for their lax spending habits. Emma was different. Something told him that she really needed his help, not just with money but with Susie and the house and everything. Something had driven him to break the habit of a lifetime and ask a client out to dinner.
Luigi spotted Emma as she entered the restaurant ahead of David and he came across to welcome her with a traditional kiss on both cheeks. The room was warm and cosy, already a buzz with conversation. The décor of checked table cloths and raffia wrapped Chianti bottles was definitely past its sell by date but the broad smile on Luigi’s face always made her feel at home. She felt like a part of Luigi’s family here and the feeling gave her a confidence that she lacked elsewhere.
“Prosecco and antipasto.” Luigi shouted to a waiter above the noise in the room. The waiter nodded, enroute to the kitchen, without stopping to look back at Luigi.
Luigi pointed to their table and clapped his hand on David’s shoulder with a conspiratorial wink. He had told David several times that he, Luigi De Sotto de San Remo de Liguria, was in love with Emma and if David ever let her go, he would leave Momma De Sotto and run off with her himself.
They had barely settled at the table when the waiter returned with two ice-cold flutes of Prosecco and a plate of Parma ham speckled with green and black olives and flakes of parmesan cheese. They clinked glasses and sipped the wine not needing to find another toast, merely comfortable in each other’s company.
Emma recalled that first Friday evening, her first meal out for years. She had spent all afternoon getting ready and changed her mind ten times about going out at all. Her neighbour, Annie, had offered to look after Susie so she had no real excuse not to go. Her wardrobe did not offer her many choices, the red dress or the green one. The red one showed too much cleavage, the green one was too short. She tossed a coin. At least she had some accessories to go with the green one. She looked over her shoulder at the table they had shared on that first night. The young couple there now seemed to be arguing. Emma thought that she and David had never argued. He always listened to her regardless of what her opinion might be. Steve never did. She remembered their first conversation, at that other table.
“So tell me all about yourself.”
She had not known where to start.
“What did you do at school?”
She told him about being ‘first pick’ for the netball team. Then she told him about being a clerk in the Council Housing Department. Then she told him about her sister Sally who moved to Australia and whom she would like to visit one day. Then she told him about the day her Dad died. Then she realised she had talked for an hour without stopping.
David had wiped bolognaise sauce from his chin with a pristine white napkin and said,
“Then what happened?”
They had both laughed, then and for an hour afterwards. Everything either of them said became instantly funny. They laughed while David paid the bill. They laughed in his car on the way home and they laughed when he said ‘Good night” on her doorstep and left.
It had been the moment she had dreaded, would he want more than her company at dinner? How would she cope if he came on too strong?
In the event, it was a non-event. Annie was waiting indoors with Susie and she had spent another hour telling Annie all about David.
Plates came and went amid their usual easy conversation until the end of the meal when Luigi brought a plate of Gorgonzola cheese to the table. He beckoned a waiter who followed him to the table to take their order for coffee and amaretti biscuits.
Luigi rested his hand gently on Emma’s shoulder, “Emma, you know I love you very much.” He paused for effect and mopped his receding brow theatrically with an overly large red handkerchief, “I have decided to leave Momma De Sotto and I want you to run away with me.”
Emma laughed, “I’m sorry Luigi I’m spoken for.”
“Ah”, sighed Luigi, “But do you really love him?”
“Of course I love him. He’s the only man for me.”
“In that case, David wants me to offer you this.” Luigi produced a small square box from the pocket in his apron.
The hubbub of noise in the full restaurant slowed until it was all but silent. Emma opened the ring box and the solitaire diamond glinted in the light of the candle on their table.
Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes as she looked up into David’s face.
“Of course I will.”
“Prosecco for everyone.” Luigi’s voice rose above the cheers that rolled from table to table as the team of waiters appeared with trays of ready prepared flutes.
At midnight, when the last of the customers had left the restaurant, Luigi came and sat with them bringing yet another bottle of Prosecco with him. “I have a villa in the hills of Liguria, it’s not very big but it is very pretty. I give it to you for your honeymoon.”

§§§§§

Emma slept late and would have slept later if David had not brought toast and coffee to the bedroom. She had drunk far too much at Luigi’s, in fact they had both drunk far too much and her head hurt.
She pulled herself up in the bed tucking the duvet modestly around her body. David passed her a plate of toast and marmalade which she took using both hands to steady the plate. He put her coffee on the bedside table.
“I hope you’re not cross with me for putting you on the spot.” David sat on the side of the bed.
“I’m not sure, you rat. You don’t leave a girl a lot of options.” She reached across to touch him and the plate of toast slid onto the floor.


LIA’S PASSPORT

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn’t fit for humans now,
There isn’t grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over Death.

Like so many of her contemporaries, Lia Patel remembered the opening words