Page 106 of Alice Carver Manifests Her Perfect Life
‘Anyway, more importantly, what’s he doing here?’ I said.
‘He’s drinking coffee,’ said Matthew. ‘Do you want a cup?’
‘No,’ I said.
Matthew shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Sure,’ he said. ‘I guess you’d better get on with your work. So, is it a Carsons-wide initiative? I can’t think why Alistair Fridman failed to mention it.’
Astrid sniggered and held out her cup for more coffee.
I felt a surge of indignation about the two of them laughing in the kitchen and name-dropping CEOs, whilst some of us had been under extreme stress. ‘Hey. You can’t send letters like that telling me to keep away from you, and stay on the nineteenth floor all month, and erect Chinese walls with Mum and Dad, and then just appear where Ilivelike it’s normal!’
‘Yeah, well, the merger is pretty much done,’ said Matthew, ‘so I’m not worried at this point.’ He pushed back his hair which was even more dishevelled than usual. ‘Messy sex hair’ Nervous Jane called it.
‘Well, what about me? What if I’m worried?’
He surveyed me over his mug. ‘Are you worried? We asked Carsons to ensure all employees had access to counsellors.’
Ah. Well, that would explain that email telling us about support services available to Carsons’ workforce. We’d all assumed it was a joke at first, given it contained the phrase ‘your wellbeing is our priority’ and was sent from Harry Piles, who couldn’t give less of a crap about anyone. So: it actually came from Matthew. I stared back at him. He looked more tired than he usually did, and serious. Maybe overseeing people’s fates wasn’t as much fun as it sounded. ‘That’s not the point,’ I said.
‘If I’m making you worried, I’ll leave,’ he said.
‘I’m not worried. But you can fuck off.’
Matthew gave me a slight smile, but as slight as it was, it still had that glimmer of total smugness. I immediately remembered Drunk Stephen saying ‘so cocky you know he’s an incredible fuck’. Then rapidly wished I hadn’t remembered that.
‘He’s not going anywhere,’ said Astrid. ‘I want to check if you’ve kept your job.’
‘You can’t ask that!’ I said. ‘Can she?’ I checked with Matthew.
‘Both of you can ask anything you want.’ Mathew yawned, looking bored. ‘Whether I’ll answer… ’
‘You won’t let them fire Alice,’ said Astrid confidently. ‘But what about Harry Piles? You know he told Alice’s line manager to calm down in a meeting and asked if she had her period or something. Surely you have to make sure he’s out?’
Matthew yawned again.
‘Obviously, the LL Group can’t effectively condone sex-related discrimination in the workplace,’ said Astrid, ‘or ignore gross misconduct. Presumably it’s more of a question of whether they’ve gone for individuals or used it to target at structural level, and whether that leaves it open to a counter.’
Golly, I’d forgotten how intimidating Astrid is when she gets into her legal stride.
‘Luckily,’ said Matthew, ‘we’re on it.’
‘Are you sure?’ said Astrid, doubtfully.
‘Aren’t you scared you’ll cave and accidentally tell her?’ I asked Matthew.
‘No.’
‘What about Guy Carmichael?’ said Astrid.
‘Alice’s charming lover?’ said Matthew lightly.
‘Aha! That sounds like he’s been fired!’ said Astrid in delight.
‘Guy’s fate is down to Alice,’ said Matthew.
‘What?’ I panicked. That didn’t sound good.
‘Well, presumably you’ve manifested the outcome already,’ said Matthew.
