Bright

There was a ginger cat curled up on Bright’s office seat when he arrived at Pacific Palms the next morning. With Dainty Dwellings closed, he’d got in earlier than usual. The cat must have been locked in overnight. It leapt off the chair and shot out the door.

“Tea?” Janice asked, poking her head through the door, handbag still hanging from her shoulder. “I’m going to make one for myself.”

“Just a cup of hot water, thanks, Janice, I’ve brought my own,” Bright told her, pulling out a bag from his pocket. “Don’t worry about biscuits.”

“Oh, and Janice?” “Yes, boss?”

“We could probably splash out on better-quality tea. May- be get some of those herbal ones too. I’ll increase the budget a bit.”

There was a host of maintenance issues to deal with and then he worked with Janice sorting out the bills that needed to be paid before the end of the year. They’d almost finished when Dallas stuck his head through the office door.

“Mornin’, have you seen Mary anywhere?”

“I saw the van leaving five minutes ago. I believe she’s taken some of the residents to the Botanic Gardens for an outing,” Janice said.

“Oh, bugger.” He reached into his pocket, then placed a sparkly star earring onto Janice’s desk. “Can you give her this when you see her? Must have fallen off when we were eating breakfast.”

Bright felt as if he’d been zapped with a cattle prod. Mary had slept with Dallas? After he’d told her that Dallas had a girlfriend. Only had he? He’d been meaning to, but then all the residents had these things to discuss, and no, he hadn’t, he realised. Even so, it seemed rather quick, and he had thought that maybe ... although perhaps the attraction he had for Mary was one-sided? She was so friendly to every- one. The idea that she had been interested in him seemed

foolish now. Of course she would go for someone like Dallas. He was fun and cheerful, not serious and drab like Bright.

He felt like an idiot imagining anything between him and Mary. They barely knew each other in any case. He would keep things professional from now on. Besides, he had too much else to worry about. Juggling his businesses, his father getting worse ... well, that was all really ... but still. It was enough.

Was Mary serious about Dallas? He should still mention the whole girlfriend thing to her, he decided. Any good friend would. It just went to show that first impressions were the most accurate though. He hadn’t liked Dallas right from the beginning. What a cheating scumbag. Mary deserved better. Right, to work. He would focus on making sure everything was running smoothly for Andrew’s return. He opened up

“There’s a terrible buzzing noise coming from the fridge in the bar,” Dougal said, standing in the doorway with a scowl. “Something needs to be done about it.”

“Are you sure it’s not your hearing aid?” Bright asked. “What’s that?”

“I said it could be your hearing aid?” “What could?”

“The noise you can hear.” Bright held back a sigh.

“No, it’s not my bleeding hearing aid.” Dougal looked up to the heavens and rolled his eyes. “I don’t even have the blasted thing turned on.”

“You’ll what?”

“Take a look at it when ...”

“Good. I’ll come with you,” Dougal said. “There’s a few more things I want to go over.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Bright muttered, getting up.

They made their way into the lounge where an old beer fridge sat behind the bar. The fridge was silent. They stood in front of it for an eternity, with Dougal shushing him every time he tried to speak.

“It’ll start up again, wait ...” “I don’t think ...” “Shhhhh.”

There was a strange grumbling noise and then a pffft.

“That is odd,” Bright said, “and it does smell like the gas might be leaking.”

“Actually, that was me, not the fridge,” Dougal admitted, looking a bit pink. “Cabbage last night. Or the beans this morning. Hard to say which.”

“I’d imagine both,” Bright said, looking around for a win- dow to open. “In any case, the fridge seems fine. So I’d better head back to work ...”

“What about the other things?” Dougal asked. “There’s an issue with the gardener ...”

“You know there’s a monthly meeting for all this?” Bright said. “And the suggestion box?”

“I can’t be arsed faffing around with the meeting. All those people going on about stupid bleedin’ things of no importance.”

“Hmmm.” Bright raised one eyebrow.

“Besides,” Dougal added, “Days of Our Lives is on then.”

“Did your dad find you?” Janice asked when he got back to the office. “He came in looking for you and I sent him to the lounge.”

“I didn’t see him. I’ll pop over shortly.”

“Also, someone called Gary rang, asked if you wanted to ‘play around’. I never knew you swung that way,” Janice said with a wink.

“He wanted to meet at ten on Saturday at the golf club if you’re keen.” She flicked through some Post-it notes. “And your brother rang. Said it wasn’t urgent and he’d call later.”

He found Klaus at his kitchen table, a bowl of chips and an- other smaller one of nuts beside him. The table was covered in old maps of the world and Klaus had a ruler and a red pen that he was using to draw lines between various places. He

was wearing a large green jumper that Bright imagined was far too hot for December. It was covered in glittery baubles and stars. It was hideous.

“It’s a bloody long way to London,” Klaus said when he saw Bright. “Almost fifteen centimetres.”

Bright looked at his phone. It was almost one o’clock. Was it too early to have a drink?

Mary was swimming when Bright found her early the next morning. She had a strange, clumsy stroke, like a child, but she swam up and down continuously for at least fifteen min- utes before she stopped, and seemed surprised to find him standing there when she was done. He hoped he didn’t seem odd, wearing his suit pants and shirt in the steamy humidity of the indoor pool area, watching her swim.

“Good morning.” She leant her elbows on the side of the pool and smiled up at him widely. “Are you coming in? It’s lovely and warm again.”

“Maybe later,” he said, although he didn’t really like swimming in pools. All that chlorine and the thought of oth- er people’s sweat in the water. He much preferred the ocean or, even better, a lake. “I wondered if I might have a quick word?” he added. “Non work-related.”

“Well, darn, I was sort of hoping I’d get to see you shirt- less,” Mary joked, winking rather leerily. It was an odd thing to say to a friend, he thought.

“I’d have thought you might have seen more than enough of Dallas to be worrying about me in my smalls,” he said. God, why had he said ‘smalls’? Bloody old people and their lingo. His face flamed. Hers looked confused. “He has a girl- friend,” he blurted out. He’d meant to say it a bit more gently than that but he was flustered.

“Who? Dallas?” Mary looked not the least bit worried by this information. “Yes, I know. I went to school with her. Al- though I wouldn’t say we were close friends or anything. She was in the year below me.”

“Well, even so, I don’t think that’s really very ... good. Of you.” For crying out loud, he sounded like a prude. It was really none of his business who Mary was sleeping with, was it? And if she was sleeping with someone who had a girl- friend, that was on her. He should mind his own business.

“Sorry, Bright, but you’ve lost me,” Mary said. “Was this what you wanted to talk to me about? Or was there some- thing else?” She was getting out of the pool in those damn togs and Bright felt like an idiot for thinking someone so ... her ... would be interested in him.

“Never mind. It’s not my business who you sleep with, or your moral compass. Forget I said anything.”

“My moral ...? Who I ...?” Mary wrapped her towel around her waist. Her face had gone sort of stony looking. “Are you implying that I ... with Dallas? Knowing full well he had a girlfriend?” She was only tiny, but she looked rather fero- cious. Bright felt an uncomfortable and untimely surge of

lust go through him. “Albright Nicols, if you weren’t my boss, I’d bloody well slap you, you idiot.”

“Now hang on, I was only trying to help,” he said. “As a friend.” This seemed to make her madder.

“A friend? You think I’m your friend? A ‘friend’,” she made air quotes, “does not assume that their ‘friend’ — who, by

sleeping with people when they already have a ‘friend’ they would much rather be ‘friends’ with!” She was yelling now, and all the air quotes were distracting him. It was hard to keep up with what she was saying. Was she mad he knew she was sleeping with Dallas? Or that Dallas had a girlfriend? All he could really establish was that she did not think of them as friends. Which made him feel rather crap actually.

“I’m very sorry, Mary,” he said quietly. “Please forgive me for prying. It was really rather inappropriate of me. I’ll let you get back to your swim.”

they’d be able to play music. Why did Bright think she had slept with him?