No Place For a Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

night?’ Jess’s blue eyes were wide over the top of the menu. ‘I’ve got to work this afternoon. Some of us have got a deadline.’ He could see her wavering though, and beckoned to the waiter.
    ‘But you’ve just sent the column in. Do they want the week after’s as well?’
    Jess sighed. ‘No, this one’s an extra. It’s pretty tragic. A kid at a school up north jumped off the dormitory roof. It was in the papers, last week. The Independent rang up and asked for fifteen hundred words on parents who send their kids away to board and then lose track of the plot, haven’t a clue who their friends are, what they get up to, all that.’
    ‘I thought it was part of every teenager’s master plan to make their parents lose the plot, boarding or not.’
    She laughed. ‘I’m sure you’re right, the difference is I get paid to explain that to people.’
    The words ‘I get paid’ stood out as if flashed up in neon. Matthew wondered if he was being ludicrously sensitive or if life from now on was going to be peppered with what felt like little digs. He didn’t like it, he felt as if she was trying to puncture his balloon of euphoria.
    ‘I still get paid too,’ he reminded her. There was asmall silence while Ben brought Matthew’s penne and Jess’s fusilli carbonara and faffed about with Parmesan and pepper. He then fussed with the bottle, taking an age to draw the cork and pour the wine.
    ‘I know you do,’ she conceded eventually. ‘But that’s just for now. Six months goes so fast and, Matt,’ she put down her fork and leaned forward, looking deep into his eyes as if to extract some extra truth, ‘aren’t you worried at all ? Not the teeniest bit?’
    ‘No’ would be the strictly honest answer, but it didn’t seem to be one that Jess would be able to deal with, not comfortably. Being free of his job had left Matthew with space for something wondrously selfish – the feeling of absolute non-responsibility. It wouldn’t last, he knew, but for now – well he just wanted to hang onto that for a while, at least till he had to hand the Audi back and a bit of inconvenience kicked in.
    ‘No I’m not really worried. Something will turn up,’ he told her, recognizing even as he spoke that this was a limp and inadequate response.
    Jess’s eyes flashed fury. ‘God, Matt! Be real for a minute! You’re pushing fifty. Well-paid jobs don’t just “turn up” for anyone these days, let alone people of …’
    ‘Of my age. Yes I know. But, well, I’ve got a track record, and of course,’ he added, assuming she’d appreciate a bit of humour, ‘I did go to Cambridge.’
    She didn’t appreciate it. ‘So what? So did thousands of others. Half of those are probably looking for work too. Can’t you be serious? Just for once?’
    Matt reached across and took hold of her hand. ‘Look, we won’t be destitute. Even after six months there’s the lump sum, six scrumptious figures. Withany luck we’ll simply be able to stash that and I’ll have something else to move on to. But in the meantime Jess, I really want to take some time to do a bit of thinking. I don’t want to end my working life as a referee between fame-greedy celebs, power-drunk politicians and the scandal-chasing press. It’s not a job for a grown-up.’ He laughed for a moment. ‘Which is probably why I’m not considered suitable to do it any more. I’m happy, really, leaving it all to eager young careerists called Prudence and Peregrine. And anyway,’ he added with a grin, ‘it’s not as if you’re not working, is it?’
    Jess made her way slowly and thoughtfully through the generously portioned bowl of fusilli. She was working, it was true, though not earning anything like the amount it took to keep five bodies and souls, one cat, her car and a house together. Ever since her book Teen Spirit: Potent Stuff , a lively romp through what every parent would rather not know, had become a best-seller a couple of years before, she’d