Fireflies (3 page)

‘You must be Paula?’ said
Tina, offering her hand which Paula shook. ‘I’m Tina Webb’.

‘Hello,
Tina’ said Paula with the kind of smiley happy people look on her face that warned Tina that she would probably end up loathing her.

‘And I’m Andrea Kay’ said Andrea, also shaking hands with Paula. Andrea looked her potential new adversary up and down. She had on one of those classic two-piece dark blue and white check suits with a light blue blouse underneath. It made her look slightly on the Miss Ellie side of things when she was probably no older than Sue Ellen. Andrea knew everything about Dallas. She’d got the box set of DVDs at home and had always been madly in love with Bobby Ewing. Paula’s hair was dyed blond judging by the roots and curled under just above her shoulders. She was a lady who was carrying a little more weight than she really should but Andrea thought it might be good if there was another woman in the place with hips bigger than her own.

‘I feel so blessed to have been brought in to manage this prestigious branch of
PriceChopper’ she announced through her smiley, happy mouth. ‘It has a bigger client base than any of our other stores across Greater Manchester. And Andrea, I know you’ve been managing it on a temporary basis these past few weeks but I can assure you that my appointment is absolutely no reflection on your ability to do the job’.

‘So wh
at is it a reflection of then?’ Andrea asked.

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Well if, as you say, you getting this job rather than me i
s
no reflection on my ability to do it then why did they give it to you and not me? Sorry, but you laid it wide open for me to ask you that’.

‘You’re absolutely entitled to your opinion, Andrea, and I for one am not ever going to deny you your feelings because they are a true reflection of your character and personality, but there’s a certain amount of moving on that has to be done here if we’re going to continue the success of this store’.

‘Easy for you to say from where you’re standing’ said Andrea. ‘I suppose that all the moving on has got to come from me? That’s what moving on normally means. It all has to come from the one who’s been wronged’.

‘Well I am the manager and you’re the customer services person,
Andrea’.

‘Actually, I’m
head of fruit and vegetables’.

‘Yes, sorry, I was forgetting how some get so attached to titles’.

‘What happened to all the management language of we’re all in this together? Isn’t that what they taught us on all those tedious residential courses they sent us on? What was it called? Corporate care?’

‘I designed the Corporate C
are programme, Andrea’.

‘So? I’m not going to take back what I’ve just said. It was nothing more than just a brain washing exercise to empty our minds of requesting a pay rise. You tried to tell us that shit doesn’t smell if we put on an overbearing and totally meaningless smile. And let me tell you this, Paula, the success of this store is down to me and
Tina here’

‘Andrea, all of this will be accurately reflected in my approach to you both, I can assure you’.

‘Paula?’ Tina began, wanting to support her friend but not really being able to get a word in edgeways between these two warring cats until now. ‘You must see how hard it is from Andrea’s position?’

‘I’m not responsible for however Andrea reacts to anything’ Paula stated. ‘That is not my problem because I’m on my own journey and Andrea is on hers’.

Tina hated that kind of psychobabble talk. ‘Look, she’s been working here for several years, she’s been working towards this promotion for a long time now and when she finally gets in reach of it you’re parachuted in because you’re a favoured daughter at head office for some reason. I’m sorry, Paula, I’m sure you’re very well meaning and capable and everything but some resentments can’t just be instantly fixed with a painted on smile and talk of moving on and journeys. Life isn’t as simple as that kind of shallow psychology because it takes no account of people’s feelings’.

‘But it does take the blame culture out of the workplace’.

‘And also the culture of responsibility’ Tina countered. ‘If you don’t want people to be blamed when things go wrong then nobody will ever take responsibility for anything’.

‘I see’ said Paula. ‘Well now you’ve both made your positions perfectly clear why don’t we draw a line under it all and start again? You never know what you’ll be able to see when you close your eyes as a child and open them again as an adult’.

Tina and Andrea were both seething.

‘Let me make you both a mug of herbal tea. I find that
cammamile always helps in these kind of situations’.

‘I’m just about to make us all a brew’ said
Tina. ‘Of normal tea’.

‘Oh, well sorry
Tina but I don’t drink any beverage containing caffeine since I started developing a new relationship with food that’s led to me looking at my entire consumption of drink as well. You wouldn’t believe how much better I feel since I started making more informed choices about what I actually put in my mouth. I’ll catch you both later’.

     Meeting a new Chief Superintendent isn’t always fun but the omens on this particular twosome working out weren’t altogether good.  Newly appointed Chief Superintendent Geraldine Chambers greeted Jeff with an affable smile and a surprisingly open face. This was sometimes unusual in a chief superintendent but given the circumstances in which Geraldine Chambers had been appointed Jeff thought it a little remarkable. After all, he’d been the one to push her predecessor into confessing his corruption from years back and no matter how high they go they don’t normally take well to someone who told on a colleague. She shook his hand and asked him to sit down in one of the two soft chairs she had by the window of her office. She sat in the other one and they faced each other with a view across Manchester’s city centre between them. Geraldine Chambers wasn’t the tallest of women and Jeff would place her in her late forties. She had light brown hair that was cut in a spiky style before tapering into her neck at the back and she wore little make-up. Her figure looked good and Jeff noticed her fingernails were cut neat and short but no polish on them. He’d been starting to notice the curves and shapes of other women again lately and wondered if what he needed was some truly adult no holds barred inhibitions free mind blowing sex with no strings attached. He’d never put himself about much before he met Lillie Mae but these were different and unexpected times. Or was it that he missed having sex with the only woman he’d ever loved? Sometimes he thought he was going mad with grief and didn’t know when the agonising pain of losing Lillie Mae was ever going to end.      

     ‘I’ve been looking through your file, Jeff’ she began.

     ‘Oh dear’ said Jeff after clearing his throat. ‘That sounds ominous’.

     Geraldine smiled ‘Not at all. You have an excellent record and I’m pleased to have you as the senior officer on my team’.

     ‘Well thank you, ma’am’.

     ‘Don’t mention it’ said Geraldine. ‘What did you expect me to say?’

     Jeff felt himself blush. ‘Oh, I don’t know, ma’am. You know, after the events of last year’.

     ‘Jeff, you were instrumental in exposing a corrupt officer whose actions, or lack of them, led to some very serious crimes going undetected and several teenage boys suffering horrific abuse. I don’t say that everyone feels like I do but I personally wouldn’t condemn you for that. I applaud you’.

     Jeff smiled. ‘Thank you, ma’am’.

    ‘Now forgive me if I’m getting too personal but I understand you lost your wife not so long ago?’

     ‘Yes, ma’am’ said Jeff.

     ‘It was tragic to lose her so young’.

     ‘That’s one word for it, ma’am’.

     ‘It doesn’t seem to have affected your work though?’

     ‘I haven’t buried myself in the job as a means of escape, ma’am’.

     ‘I wasn’t suggesting you had, Jeff. I was merely remarking on your professionalism. You’ve got a little boy as well I believe?’

     ‘Yes. His name is Toby. He’s ... well he’s amazing’.

     ‘I’m sure’ said Geraldine, smiling. ‘And helping to get you through?’

     ‘Oh yes, ma’am. He’s miles better than a therapist’.

     ‘I have a son too although he’s considerably older than Toby. He’s in his first year at Durham University’.

     ‘You must miss him?’

     ‘Well yes I do but we haven’t lived together for a few years. His father and I divorced when he was ten and my ex-husband got custody. It was then that I lost him really rather than now. Anyway, enough of my self-indulgence, I know you and your team have just picked up what may turn out to be a pretty involved case but I may have to ask you to stretch your resources a little too. The elected police commissioner wants a root and branch audit of all our operations. He wants to know if we can deliver a more effective police service more efficiently’.

     Jeff rolled his eyes up. ‘On the cheap’.

     ‘Yes, that’s how I initially reacted too but you never know
, there might be some things we can find as potential savings that work to our advantage’.

     ‘May I say I admire your optimism, ma’am?’

     ‘Indeed you may’ said Geraldine. ‘Although I’m not sure if I admire it myself if I’m honest’.

FIREFLIES T
HREE

The temperature in the delivery area at the back of the supermarket was kept deliberately low. Andrea Kay walked in and immediately saw her friend Tina.

     ‘What are you doing?’ she asked rather foolishly.

     ‘I’m about to overtake Lewis Hamilton in the Grand Prix, what does it look like I’m doing?’

     Amanda gave a slight smile. ‘Sorry’ she said as she watched Tina deal with a fresh load of yogurts and cheeses that she was preparing to take out onto the supermarket floor.

     ‘No, I’m the one who should be sorry’ said Tina. ‘I’ve got a bit of a headache. Did you enjoy your day off yesterday?’

     ‘Well I didn’t do much except watch This Morning, Loose Women, and the Alan Titchmarsh show’.

     ‘Ooh stop right there because I can’t take the excitement’.

     ‘Bollocks. Can I talk to you for a minute, Teen?’

     ‘Yeah, why, what’s up?’

     ‘I’m just worried, Tina’

    
‘What about?’

     ‘I’m worried that I’m going to end up in a house somewhere surrounded by cats and I won’t have been kissed for a hundred years or felt a man’s arms around me’.

     This was where Tina had to be really honest although it was hard. Andrea was her friend and she didn’t want to hurt her but what she couldn’t stand was when people gave others false hope. She didn’t know if Andrea was ever going to be happy and so she didn’t want to go into the whole ‘it’ll happen for you one day because you’re gorgeous and don’t let anybody make you think otherwise’ type of shit. Andrea scrubbed up well but she often lays open the fact that there wasn’t much base material to work on. She wasn’t ugly but she wasn’t the prettiest either. But Tina could say that about a few of her friends and yet they’d all found men. She didn’t know why Andrea had never found the right man to be with. But she did know that Andrea didn’t give men a chance to be nice to her. Her defences went up as soon as any man showed any interest and she made it clear that she didn’t trust any man. Well if she continued behaving that way then she would end up in a house surrounded by cats because no man is going to want to work that hard.

     ‘You need to get out there more, Andrea’ said Tina. ‘Mr. Right won’t come knocking on your door’.

     ‘You have no shame’.

     ‘You have no regular dick and that’s why you get so bad tempered sometimes’.

     ‘I do not!’

     ‘Oh you do’ said Tina.
‘Usually when you’ve run out of batteries for that vibrator’.

     ‘I don’t have a vibrator’.

     ‘I rest my case’ said Tina. ‘I’ll get you one at the weekend. Do you want white or black, large or painful?’

     Andrea laughed more out of embarrassment than anything else. ‘I wouldn’t ... well I wouldn’t know how to use it’.

     ‘You’re serious?’

     ‘Absolutely’ said Andrea. ‘I’ve led a sheltered life, Tina, you know that’.

     ‘Well I’m not going to give you a demonstration, love! You plug it in, open your legs, stick it up there, switch it on and then imagine it’s Matt Baker on the end of it’.

     ‘I quite like Matt Baker actually’ Andrea admitted. ‘But he’s spoken for and anyway he’d never look at the likes of me’.

     Tina walked over and put her arms round her friend. ‘Andrea, you’re doing what a lot of women do when they’ve been alone for a long time. You’re putting all your energy into some fantasy man who you know you’ll never have. Now I wet myself over Matt Baker too but I prefer to get the most out of real life and I really want you to be happy and fulfilled’.