Read Online The Unorthodox Arrival of Pumpkin Allan by Suzie Twine - Free Book Online Page B

causing the most pain was his cracked ribs, of which there were apparently three. But she felt it would be somewhat hypocritical to say anything about him hiding the truth. She looked him over and said sympathetically, “Well thank God you were wearing a helmet!”
    They bolted down their Indian takeaway meal-for-two that she’d picked up from the supermarket. Tom was still on antibiotics and Lois had been doing her best to avoid alcohol during her pregnancy, so they stuck to soft drinks.
    Tom was surprised how excited he felt when Lois started to tell him about their new home. She gave him the edited version of the previous two days, which excluded almost anything negative, other than the need for an emergency new front door, as she thought that was too obvious to go unnoticed.
    Tom had been feeling miserable since his accident. He had missed Lois terribly and been starting to feel quite pessimistic about their venture into property ownership. But now, hearing about the friendly, supportive environment, he couldn’t wait to move. He was very enthusiastic about the idea of going to Annie and Dave’s for dinner on Saturday.
    They went to bed, snuggling the best they could, which, following a series of ouches from Tom, ended up being little more than holding hands. But anyway, it was great to be back together.
    The next morning, Lois was up at 6.30 preparing to drag herself off to work. As she walked away having kissed Tom goodbye, completely out of the blue he called after her, “Resign Lo. Resign today!” Lois stopped in her tracks and gazed back at him, not really understanding what he was talking about. “They’ll be lots of supervision needed on the house and then there’s Pumpkin to think about. If you’d like to, resign today!” Lois didn’t have time to further the discussion, she was going to miss her train; but his words repeated in her mind all the way to work. She had never contemplated giving up work. She had been planning to continue, if she could, to within a week of the babies due date and then go back after six months maternity leave. But after her first two days in Harewood Park, actually, Tom’s suggestion sounded very exciting.
     
    Lois had a huge email backlog to wade through on arrival at the office. One of the first, informing her that there was to be a meeting in the boardroom at nine. “Oh God,” she groaned under her breath. Ian was heading it in place of Justin, the Floor Manager, who was on sick leave. Ian was, in Lois’s, and most of her colleagues’, opinion, a boring twit with no social skills. It wasn’t going to be an experience that would enthuse her back into work, that was for sure.
    Lois was pleased to see that Adrienne was attending the meeting. They got on very well and were a great support for each other, in what was still a predominantly male environment. Adrienne, who had lived with her female partner for several years, was dark, petite and very pretty. Several of the men in the office had been extremely disappointed to discover she was gay.
    Ian, however, had a problem with Adrienne. He had apparently said to one of his colleagues, that he had never knowingly had any contact with a gay person before and she made him ‘a little nervous’.
    Throughout the meeting, he glanced around the board table, trying to meet the gaze of as many of those present as possible, in the manner he’d been taught on his management-training course. However, he always skipped past Adrienne’s. She wasn’t bothered by it at all, she was used to his perverse ways.
    Ian droned on and on for an hour and a half. Lois was finding it very difficult to stay awake, let alone concentrate, so she began contemplating whether to resign and if so how to word the letter. She allowed the news of various company disasters, their implications for the stock market and what should be bought and sold, to drift over her head, but when she heard Ian say “so in summing up…” she sat up and looked