Free Doing the Right Thing by Alexis Lindman

and the telephone, beckoned her over. “Seen our new name?”
    Addie nodded.
    “Genghis and Bob are in with the new people. Three men.”
    Addie hurried into the open plan office most of the staff shared. At the far end was a corridor of private rooms occupied by Bob and Genghis among others. Addie pulled off her coat. She had no idea how the takeover would affect her. She might lose her job.
    If it hadn’t been for the money she wouldn’t care. But the requirement to have a reasonable amount breathing life into her bank account at regular intervals was a necessity. Even though the Jefferson-Smiths helped with the mortgage, Lisa still relied on Addie’s contribution to the household expenses. Plus, Addie had debts of her own.
    She looked round the room. Everyone huddled in their cubicles muttering into phones. No printers whirred, no keyboards clicked. No surreptitious surfing of YouTube, just the muffled murmur of worried voices. Addie could guess what everyone was doing—ringing wives, husbands and partners with the news of possible redundancies, retirements and relocation.

    “Better look busy, Addie. New brooms sweeping clean and all that,” Graham said as she sat in the booth next to his.
    “I don’t need to look busy, I am busy.” Which was more than could be said for Graham, a large Australian pest, similar to a kangaroo, bulky and belligerent, but less attractive and less active. Graham didn’t lift a finger if he didn’t need to. He had the natural charm, but not the svelte figure of a rattlesnake.
    Graham was the senior sales dog’s bollocks. Whatever he claimed to do, he managed to delegate most of it elsewhere. He made a big thing of his expertise in arranging the foreign coach travel, which, as far as Addie could make out, involved the carting of over-sexed teenagers to France on part-exchange visits with their pen pals.
    Graham’s French was terrible. Addie had thought she’d give herself appendicitis laughing when he’d told her he thought “ Moi aussi” meant “I’m an Australian”.
    “There’s bound to be some redundancies.” Graham rolled round on his chair to talk to her. Addie swallowed when she saw he was wearing his dangerously tight brown trousers and the purple shirt. Versace—he’d let everyone know, but they were fighting a losing battle to cover his body.
    “You must be worried then,” she said.
    “Why?”
    “If we’ve been taken over by a bigger organization, all the foreign paperwork will be done centrally.”
    Graham looked so concerned that Addie felt guilty. For at least three seconds.
    “Delia says I don’t need to worry,” he mumbled.
    Addie winced as Graham cleaned his ear with his finger.
    “But you’re only part-time,” he pointed out, putting the same finger in his mouth.
    Addie refrained from asking whether Genghis’ comment had come before or after she’d got out of his bed. Genghis had done a good job of keeping the affair a secret, but she knew Addie knew. Addie presumed Graham must have some redeeming feature for him to have attracted Delia, because he was her exact opposite—disorganized and lazy. Maybe he was hung like an elephant. Addie shuddered.
    She settled down to her first job of the day, printing invoices for the previous month, and at the same time began to research Lincoln for a forthcoming trip.
    * * * * *
    The important people remained behind closed doors all morning. Daisy Chain, child of stupid parents, and secretary to Bob and Genghis, took coffee in a few times, but emerged with no information other than the fact that all three guys were gorgeous and Genghis was being nice. Genghis and nice didn’t usually appear in the same sentence.
    The longer they were cooped up in there, the more nervous everyone became.
    People began flitting between partitions to chat, spreading rumors of death, destruction and plague to ensure everyone stayed as worried as them. Various senior people went into Bob’s office, then returned to their own