Men at Work [Quick Read] Read Online Free Page A

what she was getting at. “You want us to go in together?”
    “Well of course I do! I’m not going to turn up there on my own, am I?”
    “Why not? You always turned up at the bank on your own.”
    Emma narrowed her eyes. “You can’t mean it can you? Even though we’ll both be working in the same office, you want me to make my own way there?”
    “Of course not,” said Ian, even though that was exactly what he had meant. “It’s just that . . .”
    “What?”
    It was clear from her face that if he told Emma he needed a bit of peace and quiet on his way to work, she would go mad. He needed an excuse and he needed one quick. He found one at the end of his wrist.
    “All I’m saying is that if we leave now we’ll be too early,” he said, waving his watch. “Think about it. It’s only ten past eight, Ems! It takes exactly seven minutes to walk from ours to the bus stop. There’s a bus every five minutes that can drop you off at Five Ways. It’s a five-minute walk from the bus stop to Holling House. Then you’ve got a forty-two second wait for the lifts in reception and a thirty-eight second journey to the fourth floor once a lift arrives. If you leave now you’ll be . . .” he did the sums in his head, “. . . a whole thirty-six and a half minutes early.”
    “I don’t care about being early!” said Emma. “I only care about not being late, okay? So whatever it is you’re doing in the bathroom just speed it up. I am not going to be late for my first day at work just because you take half an hour to do what takes normal people two minutes!”
    ********
    As Ian walked along with Emma to the bus stop he found his mind beginning to drift. It wasn’t that he wasn’t interested in what she was telling him about her friend Petra’s relationships (although he wasn’t). But Emma’s new job had made him miss not only his ten minutes of loo-based “me-time” but also his seven minutes of iPod on his way to the bus stop. Worse, unless some kind of miracle was about to occur he would also miss out on a further fifteen minutes of iPod listening and staring blankly out of the bus window time, too. He looked at his watch. It wasn’t even half-past eight and already Emma’s new temp job had ruined his day. Really, he thought, as they waited for the number nine, how could this day get any worse? Fifteen minutes and a bus ride later, Ian found out the answer to his question.
    “Where would you like me to sit?” asked Emma as Douglas finished the tour of the office right in front of Ian’s desk.
    “Now that,” said Douglas, “is a good question. Free desk space is a bit short around here.”
    Ian looked at the free desk space next to his own. It had been empty ever since Colleen Newman had left to go travelling. He felt ill. Surely Douglas wouldn’t do that to him would he? Not when there was a free desk next to Amar.
    Choose Amar!
    Choose Amar!
    Choose Amar!
    “How about there?” said Douglas, pointing to Colleen’s old desk. “I’m sure Ian will make you feel right at home.”

Chapter 8
    “One o’clock!” said Emma breezily, looking at her watch. “I can’t believe I’ve already done half a day’s work. The time seems to have flown by, don’t you think?”
    “Oh yes,” replied Ian, for whom the morning hadn’t so much flown as sunk without a trace.
    “So what are we doing for lunch?”
    Lunch? thought Ian. Isn’t it enough that I had breakfast with you and will have dinner with you later? Now you’ve got to take away the only meal I don’t eat sitting across from you?
    “Er . . . well me and Amar usually just nip over to Gregg’s and bring something to eat at our desks.”
    “Sounds like a good plan,” said Emma. “I’ll walk up with you but I’m going to need some cash so I’ll have to go over to the bank at some point.”
    Amar came over and started chatting to Emma and then the three of them wandered up to the shopping centre at Five Ways. Reaching the sandwich