Toni’s Blog

“Pam, I saw them with my own eyes!” I told my disbelieving friend.  “I went into the stationery room to get some envelopes, and there they were.  You can’t tell me it was a casual little cuddle either.  I mean, he’s married and she’s so innocent she can’t see the pitfalls.”

“Oh, come off it, Diana,” Pam said then.  “It’s probably nothing serious...”

“Isn’t it though?” I interrupted.  “Last week she had Friday off.  I know, because I typed the memo asking for her to have a days holiday.  Remember, I told you.  And on Thursday he came in and asked Mr. Gaskin if he could leave early because he was going away for the weekend.”

Pam and I were standing in the cloakroom at work and she was staring at me in the mirror as we got ready to go to lunch.

“Well, put two and two together,” I challenged.  “Makes sense to me.”

“It could have been a coincidence,” Pam said doubtfully.

“Yes, and finding them in a passionate clinch was another coincidence, I suppose,” I went on, warming to the subject.

“Look, Diana, whatever’s going on, it’s their business,” Pam said in a slightly cutting tone.  “It’s nothing to do with us what they do with their private lives  They’ll have to face the consequences, not us.”

Pam’s expression told me she was getting bored with the conversation, but I didn’t want to let it drop.  There’d been precious little gossip around at work for ages, and this was building up into something really juicy!

“Interesting though, isn’t it?” I said with a meaningful smile.  “I shall be most intrigued by this little affair.”

“One day your gossip’s going to get you into trouble,” Pam sighed.  “Let it rest, Diana, and let’s get some lunch.  I’m starving, and I've got that great long report to type this afternoon.  I need sustenance before starting on that.”

She put her make-up bag away and went towards the door.

“Well...” I said, following her sigh with one of my own.  “You watch in the canteen today.  I bet they’re sitting together looking love sick.”

Pam didn’t reply.  She pulled the door open and waited for me to catch up.  We’d been friends ever since Pam had started at the Greetings Card firm, but whenever I’d related the most recent bits of gossip to her she never seemed to want to know.

I put it all down to her having such a boring boyfriend who was only concerned with his own life.  I’d only met him a couple of times, and on both occasions he’d stayed pretty much out of the conversation.  Staid and dull, I called him, although I’d never said that to Pam.  She was happy with him, but I couldn’t help feeling his placid ways were rubbing off on her and holding her back from really enjoying life.

But then I had Ben, and our life was never dull.  He was full of fun, and we always had something interesting to do or talk about.  We’d been engaged since my last birthday, a few months before, and were saving madly for a house of our own.  We wanted to get married the following year, but didn’t want to start out in some dreary apartment.

Anyway, we were both earning pretty good money, so there was no reason why we shouldn’t have the best.  I was secretary to the Sales Manager, and Ben was a computer operator in the accounts department.

Every time I thought of Ben my heart would skip a beat, and I’d think how lucky I was to love and be loved by someone so wonderful.  I was particularly happy that day because Ben had been away for three weeks on a special course, and he was coming home tomorrow.

That three weeks had seemed the longest in my life.  I could hardly wait to see him again.  So when Pam seemed reluctant to discuss the latest affair I wasn’t too put out.  In fact we hardly talked at all during lunch.

“We’d better get back to the grind,” she said eventually.

I nodded absently.  I was surreptitiously watching the victims of the latest gossip sitting at the corner table.  Her hand was on the table and every so often he’d touch it gently.  It was romantic in a way, but they certainly couldn’t deny there was something going on, especially as they were being so open.

When we got up to leave I opened my mouth to whisper to Pam about it, but one look at her face told me she wasn’t interested, so I left it.

Anyway, that afternoon I had something far more important to think about.  Something that could change things a lot for me and Ben - and might have a tremendous effect on our future..

It was about three o’clock when Mr. Gaskin called me into his office to take a memo.  I knew it must be something urgent, and out of the ordinary, because he always did his dictation first thing in the morning after the post was opened.

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