A View from the Bottom

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Just before two thirty I got a phone call. "Montgomery Little, Adrian Street speaking. Oh Doctor Browning, don't tell me that I left something in your office this morning, I thought that I'd checked everything before I left."

"Very good, now do you have a pen and paper handy?" She said.

"Yes."

"I want you to be at 'la Maison' at seven thirty, have you got that?"

"'la Maison', seven thirty, yes I've got that, I don't know whether I can afford that."

"Don't lay it on too thick, look out for someone who looks a bit like me, the Maitre 'D' will point her out and I'm paying so don't go overboard, and don't get too friendly, okay?"

"Sure thing, I look forward to seeing you then, 'bye."

"Was that your shrink?" Jane asked.

"Yes, I've been invited to dinner." (You'll notice that I said that I'd been invited to dinner, I didn't say that she'd actually be there.)

"At 'la Maison' I heard, isn't this against the rules?"

"What rules, there are no rules in this situation." I had this wistful look on my face.

I left work full of confidence for a change to drive home. I almost didn't make it, my clunker of a car decided that I'd neglected it for too long and died on me. I looked at all of the gauges and saw that it was just a lack of sustenance, so I rang the auto club and a kind man arrived with a container (you can't call a plastic container a can, can you) of petrol and we managed to get home. I decided to give my car the night off and called a cab, arriving somewhat shaken at 'la Maison' at seven-thirty to be ushered to a table and the waiting Miriam. She stood as I approached and I saw that she looked almost identical to Stephanie (am I allowed to call her that?).

"Hi, good to see you." She kissed me on both cheeks and I held her chair for her as she sat down.

"Good to see you. I presume Doctor Browning has told you what's happening tonight?"

"Call her Stephanie, no-one that knows her calls her 'Doctor'. Yes she's told me all about it. Don't turn around but there's a guy sitting a couple of tables behind you trying to look inconspicuous with a little digital camera in his hand. I'd say that he's watching every move we make, so we'd better make it worth his while." She reached across the table and put her hand on mine. I made no attempt to extricate it.

The hovering waiter stepped over and ceased hovering beside our table so we ordered. I tried not to spend too much but Miriam had no such qualms and ordered up big, and before I had a chance to select a modest wine she'd ordered one from the top shelf. Thankfully it was an excellent vintage.

The meal was superb and the conversation was very friendly, at times I thought that it was too friendly but Miriam seemed to know what she was doing. I signalled for the waiter and asked for the bill. When he came back with my credit card and receipt I said to him. "The Maitre 'D' doesn't seem to be terribly busy right now, would you ask him to call us a cab?"

"Certainly Sir." He said with a smug look on his face. The Maitre 'D' looked sharply at me when the request was relayed by the waiter, but complied anyway.

I had my arm around Miriam as we left the restaurant and I slipped him a rock lobster ($20 note, because it's colour is like a cooked lobster) and that brought the smile back to his face. I opened the cab door and Miriam slid in and I walked around to the other side and got in myself. A photo of us sitting close together and kissing would be added to the growing dossier of our indiscreet meeting.

"Well, how did it go?" Stephanie asked as we walked through the door that she had open for us before we got to it.

"Perfectly. Adrian was suitably charming and attentive."

"Not too attentive I hope?"

"Don't tell me that big sister is jealous."

"Of course not, well maybe just a little, it was the restaurant and the food that I'm jealous of, not you and Adrian." She added quickly.

"It was very nice, and Miriam played her role just right."

"Now we can't have you going home straight away, so what can we do for the next hour or so?" Stephanie asked.

"I don't know about you two, but I'm going to bed, I have to get up at some ungodly hour in the morning. See ya."

"Where does she work?"

"She's cabin crew for an airline, I won't mention which one."

"What if, when this hits the fan I'm asked where I met her?"

"We'll face that when and if the time comes, in the mean time would you like a coffee?"

"Sure, thank you."

"Don't thank me, come and help." We went into her kitchen where I was confronted by an espresso machine.

"I don't have a pilots' licence for one of these."

"Not a problem, just place a couple of cups under the spout and press that button, while that's happening I'll rustle up some nibbles."

We sat in the kitchen and sipped coffee and nibbled, chatting in between mouthfuls. I was feeling relaxed and comfortable with Stephanie. "We didn't make our next appointment before I left this morning, when do you want to see me again?"

"Ring me in the morning so I can check me schedule. Or else, we can see each other tomorrow night and arrange it then."

"Very tempting I must admit, but don't you think that we should keep it on the straight and narrow, at least for the time being?"

"Spoilsport. Of course you're right. Ring me tomorrow, there may even be developments on the work front."

"Probably, once he's got his teeth into this he's going to gnaw away at it until I'm stripped of any remaining dignity I have left. I can see him now, 'shagging the shrink, have you no shame?'

"But you haven't, have you, you don't have to lie." We chatted for a while longer then I called a cab to take me home to my suddenly even lonelier bed.

The next morning brought the expected drama in large doses. "Adrian, a word please." The boss issued his invitation for me to attend the meeting in his office. "When I send you to see a Psychologist, it is to get you back as a productive staff member, and now I find that you have begun a relationship with her."

"Where did you get this bunch of lies?" I was on the attack immediately.

"Someone brought it to James' attention that you had dinner with her last night and took her home and spent several hours with her. Do you deny that happened?"

"Yes, I emphatically deny these scurrilous allegations."

He took a folder from his drawer and spread it open on the desk. Whoever took the shots was an expert, they were good, and clear, and damning out of context. "What do you say to these?"

"I say that someone is trying to damage my reputation in this company, and not for the first time I might add."

"So you deny that this is Doctor Browning that you are having an intimate dinner with last night?"

"Yes."

"Do you also deny receiving a phone call from her yesterday afternoon in which she invited you to dinner, and rather than doing the right thing by keeping your relationship on a professional basis you accepted that invitation?"

"Yes. Have you quite finished with these false allegations?"

"Yes."

"Then let me tell you exactly what happened. While I was at my session with Doctor Browning yesterday, I realised that there was something very familiar about her, so I asked her if she had a sister that was a cabin crew for an airline. It turned out that she had."

"How do you know my sister?"

"She was crew on a flight that I had about eighteen months ago and I remember her because not only was she the best looking of a pretty good looking crew, but she had the best personality of all of them. I complimented her as I left the plane and I later saw her as she was leaving. She smiled at me and I smiled back, and there seemed to have been a connection that I was unable to follow up on, what with me being happily married at the time. I have to admit that over the past few months her face keeps bobbing up in my dreams."

"Would you like to meet her?"

"What, when?"

"Tonight, she's flying in this afternoon and is staying with me tonight, she flies out in the morning at some disgusting hour. She's based in Sydney but whenever she has a stop-over here, she stays with me."

"I'd like to catch up with her, if that's alright with her."

"She'll ring when she gets in and I can put it to her, if she's agreeable I'll ring you with the arrangements."

"And that's exactly what happened, she called me and arranged for me to meet her sister Miriam, at 'la Maison' at seven-thirty and we had a very pleasant evening, and I defy anyone to prove otherwise."

"I'll accept your word on this. Thank you for being so frank with me."

I walked to my desk. Jane looked at me and whispered, "Someone's gunning for you, he's been shooting his mouth off that you've been seen having it off with your new Psychologist. Be careful."

"As usual he's got it all cocked up and I feel like confronting him with this. How many people has he told?"

"We've all heard it several times."

"Right, that's it." I got up and went back into the boss' office and requested an immediate staff meeting. We all met in the meeting room. "I'm sorry to have to call you together like this, but word has reached me that someone in this office has been spreading rumours about me and my new Psychologist. I would like to set the record straight. "Yes I did see a new Psychologist yesterday, I won't deny that. Yes I did take a woman to dinner last night, I don't deny that, and yes I did spend some time with her after dinner, I do not deny that this happened. What I do deny is that the woman that I took to dinner was Doctor Browning." I looked directly at James when I said that. "The woman was in fact Doctor Browning's sister Miriam, who works for an airline as cabin crew, and who just happened to be on a stop-over here last night. I have met her before, and I asked Doctor Browning to speak with her when she arrived here yesterday afternoon, and see if she would be willing to have dinner with me. I'm happy to say that she did, and we had a splendid evening together, and will probably do the same again the next time that she's in town. Now, the rumours that have been circulating implied some wrong-doing on my part. This is patently untrue, so I have decided to contact my lawyer and press charges of libel against the person who started that rumour. James you will hear from my lawyer very soon. Thank you all for your time."

As we filed out of the room I heard the boss invite James to visit him in his office. Part one of the plan completed.

Stephanie rang late in the morning to confirm my next appointment for nine o'clock the following Tuesday. I didn't see her until then although we spoke often at night.

Part two of the plan commenced almost immediately. A student friend of Stephanie's contacted the boss to request permission to conduct a survey as part of her Doctoral Thesis. She was researching the correlation between the work environment and home lives of staff. She emailed a copy of the questionnaire for approval, which was given.

At the next staff meeting the following morning, she presented her questionnaire. "I have to emphasise that for this questionnaire to be effective you will all have to be totally honest in your answers. You will notice that you are not required to enter your name or identify yourself in any way, so that your privacy is preserved. The information that I gather from this is designed to gain a general picture of life in the workplace and how it impacts on your private lives, even the little things like how does working overtime affect you relationship with your family, and questions like that. The results will be collated into general information graphs only, no individual information will be included. I thank you for your participation and if you could take the time now to complete the forms I'd appreciate that."

We all sat around completing the questionnaire and I have to admit that they were cleverly put together, especially the one about being delegated work that someone else was supposed to be doing, the way that the delegation was made, and the way that the outcomes were seen by management. I hoped that the point of these questions was not lost on him.

She gathered them all together and placed them in a folder. She cast a quick glance at me and sort of half smiled before she left. We went back to work.

The day passed much like any other day except that more of the staff were speaking to me, a point not lost by 'Slimy Bastard', it was affecting his confidence.

Things were getting a little strained on the work front, James was becoming short tempered and hyper critical, blasting staff for miniscule infractions that would normally be glossed over as inconsequential. It got to the point where on Friday afternoon I confronted him and told him to get a grip because he was affecting the whole staff with his attitude. He stormed out and spent the rest of the afternoon in the lunch room ignoring any and all of us.

I had a surprise visitor on Saturday afternoon. I answered the doorbell to see Heather standing on my doorstep. "Hi." I said politely.

"Hello Adrian, can I come in?"

"Sure, what's the problem, you and James haven't had a fight have you?" I could see from her reaction that they had, that and the bruise barely showing under her heavier than usual make-up.

"Oh Adrian, darling, I don't know what's got into him these past few days. He's been so irritable all of the time and critical of everything that I do, and then on Thursday we had a blazing row and he called me all sorts of disgusting names and told me that he could see why you were so happy when I left you. You weren't happy, were you?"

"No I wasn't, I was devastated to put it mildly."

"I'm sorry for what I've done to you, will you ever forgive me?"

"Yes, you're forgiven." I had a pretty good idea what was about to happen next.

"Do you have any feeling for me, please tell me that you don't hate me."

"I don't hate you, I'll never hate you."

"I don't suppose that. . ."

I didn't let her finish. "Listen to me Heather, I still have feelings for you, and if I'm honest there was a time when I would have said to you that all is forgiven and please come back, but not now, it's because I have doubts that I could ever trust you not to do it again that I can't take you back. I've moved on from that and am looking to a future in which you have no part. I'm sorry but that's the way I feel right now."

"And there's not possibility of you changing your mind?"

"No, no there's not."

"Does your new Psychologist have something to do with this?"

"What do you mean? Don't tell me that James told you that there was something between me and Doctor Browning?"

"He might have mentioned something about that."

"This could be part of his change in attitude. He went to the boss with the same allegations, and I was able to deny any wrong-doing on my part, I even told him that I would be suing him for libel."

"So it's not true?"

"No, my relationship with her is strictly professional (up to now)."

"What am I going to do, I can't go home, I just can't face him again in his present condition. Do you know what he did last night?"

"No."

"He went to the pub and got very drunk, it seems that he got into a fight and did considerable damage, he glassed someone (Glassing is when a glass or bottle is broken and jabbed into someone's face, it can lead to permanent disfigurement and loss of sight. Those guilty are severely punished)and is locked up. There's a hearing on Monday, so he may be late for work."

"If he glassed someone, he may be in for a while."

"Please Adrian, can I stay here with you tonight? I promise that I won't get in your way."

"I suppose so, you can have our old bed, I'll take the spare."

"No, I don't want to put you out, I'll take the spare bed."

"If you insist, I'm okay with that."

She went out to her car, our former good car, to collect some things. "I see that you've still got that old clunker."

"Yeah, one of these days I might upgrade to a new clunker."

I fed her a frozen pizza and we and a glass of red to go with it, and we talked. "Life with James seems to have been going downhill for some time, it was almost as soon as I moved in with him that he began to lose interest in me (Stephanie predicted that would happen, once he'd won the prize he'd lose interested in it.) I can't seem to arouse him anymore and he blames me for that. I can't remember the last time that we had satisfactory sex, I can't remember the last time that I had an orgasm, with you it was just about every time we made love, but with him it was rare and getting rarer by the day until I was dreading the contact with him. The past few days I've been sleeping in another room. (That would do his self-confidence the world of good)

"I can remember the last time that I had an orgasm, it was the last time that we made love."

"You've had no-one since then? You haven't even, you know?"

"Do you mean jerked off? No, not even that."

"Oh Darling, I've really hurt you, haven't I?"

"Yes you have, but I forgive you for that and I'm just about over it." She was just about to suggest that we should maybe try sex if only to relieve my tension. "I know what you're thinking and, flattering as that might be, no, I can't do it."

"Do you have, have you had, any lady friends?"

"No, there has been no-one and there is no-one. I am not in any condition to contemplate even trying to find a woman that I can have a relationship with, so I'm not going to try."

"I never realised the hurt that I could have caused you when I left, I was convinced that James loved me and that we could make a happy life together, but I've come to realise now that the only person that he ever loved was himself and that there's no room in his life for me or any other person. Please Adrian, I need to be held for a few minutes."

What was I to do? I took her in my arms and held her, held her while she sobbed her heart out. I was even tempted to kiss her but my mind told me that this would be a very stupid move. I pushed her gently from my tear soaked chest. "What you need right now is a nice warm milk drink and off to bed."

"Milk? Since when have you been drinking milk?"

"It's a part of the treatment that Doctor Browning has me on to try and get a good night's sleep, and improve my mental outlook. It seems to be working."

"Oh, I supposed it's worth a try."

I made up a mug of hot milk with honey and malt extract, and we sat at the kitchen table and drank them. Then we went off to our separate beds.

I had just got into bed when my mobile rang. "Hi Steph."

"She's there isn't she?"

"Are you psychic or what? Yes she's here, crying and begging for forgiveness, I've sent her to bed, she's a mess and James hasn't helped at all. I'm beginning to feel a little guilty and responsible for his present situation, you see he's been involved in a pub brawl and glassed someone. He's in the remand centre right now."

"Adrian, listen to me, you are not responsible for him or his predicament, he brought that on himself by his actions toward you. It was only a matter of time before this happened, all you've done was to set this in motion, and why did you do that? To save your own arse. It was a matter of self defence, self preservation, you didn't start this whole mess, he did. It was him who self promoted himself to gain a position that he was not ready for, would never be ready for. Have you ever heard of the 'Peter Principle'?"

"No, what is that?"

"It's the principle where people are promoted to reach their level of incompetence. He had reached that point and you were doing yourself, your boss, and possibly even James a favour by highlighting that situation."

"Changing the subject, when am I going to see you again?"

"You know the rules, not while you're my patient."