Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 43759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 219(@200wpm)___ 175(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 219(@200wpm)___ 175(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
worked there, along with one other full-tim e em ploy ee.
“But it was so busy today. How will y ou m anage?”
“We’ll have to find a way. Me and Paul are going to work longer
hours to m ake up for it.”
“Okay. I hope y ou can m ake it work.”
There wasn’t any thing else for Jez to say. But he was gutted. He’d
liked working there. Helen was nice—on a good day —and Paul was an
all-right bloke too. Jez would probably be able to find another part-tim e
j ob eventually, but it m ight take a while. Ply m outh was full of students
looking for work that fitted around their classes, so the com petition for
suitable j obs was fierce. Not to m ention the fact that half the graduates in
the city couldn’t get decent j obs these day s, so they were working in bars
and superm arkets too.
“Thanks, Jez. And if things im prove and we have m ore hours for
y ou in the future, I’ll get in touch.”
Chapter Eleven
It was raining again as Jez walked hom e, heavy drops that chilled his
skin and dripped off his hair and down the back of his neck.
He stopped at Tesco Express on his way, by passed all the Christm as
shit, and headed straight for the alcohol section. He bought som e beer he
couldn’t really afford—especially now—but he deserved som ething good
after his shitfest of a day. As soon as he left the warm th and brightness of
the superm arket, he opened one and started drinking.
As he walked, he wondered whether Mac had talked to Josh, or vice
versa, and whether Mac was still freaking out about the m orning. Jez was
too low and distracted to care m uch, but he trusted Josh to keep quiet
about it any way. If Mac was in a state about it, that was his problem .
Jez got hom e to early -evening chaos at the house. Too m any people
in the kitchen, all try ing to m ake things to eat before they went out and
arguing over whose turn it was next to use the bathroom . Dani’s boy friend
was visiting, so there was an extra person in the m ix, which didn’t help
m atters.
Jez put his unopened beers in the fridge and beat a hasty retreat to
the living room where he found Mac and Josh watching TV. Josh was
forking up noodles, and Mac was drinking som ething in a m ug—so
presum ably non-alcoholic.
“Hi.” Jez greeted them both and crossed the room to sit on the sofa
next to Josh rather than j oining Mac on the closer one.
“All right, m ate.” Josh nodded, a clum p of noodles slipping from his
fork as he glanced up at Jez.
“Hi.” Mac gave Jez a quick, tight sm ile before turning his attention
back to the TV.
Jez drank his beer in silence, watching Mac rather than the screen. A
m uscle ticked in Mac’s j aw, and he picked at a loose seam on the arm of
the sofa.
“How was y our day ?” Josh asked casually.
Grateful for the attem pt at norm ality, Jez replied without thinking,
“Okay.” Then backtracked. “Well… actually it wasn’t, really. I lost m y
j ob.”
That got Mac’s attention. He snapped his head around to look at Jez.
“Shit. Why ?” Josh said.
“Yeah. They j ust can’t afford to keep m e on any m ore.”
Josh frowned. “I’m sorry. That sucks.”
Mac still didn’t say any thing. He turned back to look at the screen
again.
“Yeah.” Jez took another gulp of beer. “So I need to look for
som ething else after Christm as. There’s not m uch work around, but I’ll
find som ething eventually. I’ll have to.”
Silence fell again. Josh’s phone buzzed with a notification, and he
read as he ate the last few m outhfuls of his noodles. As soon as he was
finished, he stood.
“Okay, I’ve gotta run, or I’m going to be late.”
“Hot date?” Jez raised his ey ebrows.
“Som ething like that. Have a good evening, boy s. Don’t do any thing
I wouldn’t do”—Josh glanced at Mac, who had his gaze fixed on the telly
again, and then gave Jez a wicked grin—“but that leaves y ou with plenty
of scope.”
Jez snorted, am used. “Fuck off.”
Mac’s ears had turned bright pink, and he was studiously ignoring
them both. Jez hoped that Josh’s teasing wasn’t freaking him out too m uch.
He was afraid it m ight scare Mac off.
Once Josh had gone, Mac turned away from the TV and faced Jez
instead.
“Are y ou okay ? About the j ob I m ean?”
Jez shrugged. “I’ll survive. I’ve paid off quite a bit of m y overdraft
already, and m y parents will alway s help m e if I ask. They won’t let m e
starve.” Not that Jez would ask them for help unless he absolutely had to.
Having to adm it the size of his overdraft to his parents back in the