‘Meg and Pythagoras should take two of the seats,’ she said. ‘Pythagoras has his interview tomorrow.’
‘That would be amazing.’ Meg looked quite tearful. ‘Except I feel terrible if we take them and two of you can’t go home yet.’
‘No, you two should definitely take them. The rest of us just have normal work days, don’t we, not big interviews.’ Felix looked round Lily, Matt and Alfredo and they all nodded.
‘Thank you so much. You’ll all invited to Edinburgh to stay with us and I’m cooking abigGreek meal to thank you all.’ Pythagoras shook everyone’s hands vigorously in turn.
Lily, Matt, Felix and Alfredo looked at each other.
Lily kind of didn’t mind the idea of another day and night here with Matt. ‘I don’t have in-person work until later in the week,’ she said.
‘Me neither,’ Matt said immediately, which made Lily smile. ‘You two should take the seats.’ He nodded at Alfredo and Felix.
‘Thank you so much for offering. Alfredo and I have both managed to switch today’s meetings to Zoom but we could both really do with being in the office tomorrow so it wouldn’t be great for either of us to stay.’ Felix and Alfredo were both high-flying lawyers in London. ‘But are you sure?’
‘Totally.’ Lily and Matt both nodded.
‘Then yessss.’ Felix hugged them both and Alfredo shook Matt’s hand and kissed Lily’s cheek. ‘Thank you. Drinks on us in London very soon.’
‘We’ll enjoy having your company for longer.’ Carole didn’t seem to have noticed Norm’s bags. ‘Now you four hop in and let’s get going as fast as possible so that no one else can gazump you.’ She climbed into the driver’s seat and started revving.
‘Erm, where were you off to, Norm?’ Matt asked as Carole’s jeep disappeared in a screech of tyres.
‘Going to find a friend to stay with and then I might go to England when I can get a flight. I’ll play it by ear.’
‘What?’ Lily and Matt gasped as one.
‘It’s time to leave.’ Norm folded his arms across his chest. ‘I can’t take it any more.’
‘Norm.’ Matt put his arm round Norm’s shoulders. ‘Are you okay? Can I help? What’s happened, if I can ask?’
‘I’ve just had enough.’
‘Have you told Carole?’
‘Not as such. I packed during the night and left her a note this morning. Don’t know whether she’s read it but, as you saw, she either didn’t notice or didn’t care that I’d brought my bags out this morning.’ Norm looked as though he was on the brink of tears. Lily moved forward and hugged him too.
‘I’m sure she can’t have read your note,’ she said. ‘And she was probably just focused on getting people to the airport. That will be why she didn’t notice your bags. You and Carole have been together for such a long time and you’re great together. I’m sure she wouldn’t want you to leave.’
‘I think she would. Forty years,’ Norm said, ‘and all she does is yell at me and try to stop me doing what I want, and we haven’t had sex since my birthday in twenty-twelve.’
Lily was actually genuinely surprised by that. Carole seemed like one of those mature women you read about in magazines who was in charge of her own sexuality and had alotof sex.
‘You’re surprised, aren’t you?’ Norm said. ‘Menopause, loss of libido,shesays. But I think it’s because she doesn’t respect me. I think if she was married to Simon Cowell she’d be having sex all the time.’
‘Simon Cowell?’
‘Yes. She loves him. Not really his personality, but his looks. And his charisma.’
‘Wow…’ Matt and Lily both said.
‘Yes. It’s all “Simon Cowellwears his white shirts so well”, “Simon Cowellhas such a great tan”, “Simon Cowell’sprobably better at barbecuing than you”.’
‘Wow,’ Lily repeated. ‘Norm, I’m so sorry. I wonder whether Carole might have been joking about the Simon Cowell thing.’
‘I don’t know.’ Norm shook his head. ‘He’s a good-looking man. She’s been very demanding recently. I think she’s frustrated because I’m not Simon.’
‘Perhaps just a short break will do you the world of good,’ Matt said. ‘You’re welcome to come and stay with me as I mentioned before if you’d like a holiday.’
