‘You can’t expect me to think of everything. Oh, I know. You’ll buy him something nice. A big turkey if he joins in.’
‘This is notA Christmas Caroland he is definitely not Tiny Tim. More like Scrooge but less happy-go-lucky.’ Blythe looked despondent.
‘What would Scrooge want?’ asked Vicky, as the dog did an emergency stop to sniff a lamp post, almost making Vicky trip over the top of her. At least the unscheduled sniff stop gave Blythe a chance to catch them up.
‘Scrooge wants everyone to go away and leave him alone so he can happily ignore the Christmas celebrations,’ said Blythe.
‘Ahh… That’s what hethinkshe wants, but really deep down he wants to be part of a family,’ said Vicky, very pleased with how unexpectedly her suggestion was starting to make sense. ‘Like old Ebenezer, Sam has forgotten how to have fun and enjoy Christmas. He just needs reminding.’
‘Basically, you’re saying to solve Sam’s deep-rooted hatred of all things festive all I need is a Ouija board to conjure up the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future and he’ll be dancing in the streets in his nightgown come lights switch-on day. Is that right?’
‘Exactly.’ Vicky held up a fist triumphantly until Princess pulled on her lead and she lurched up the street. ‘There has to be a reason for it. It’s not natural to hate Christmas that much. Discover the root, uncover the solution.’ Vicky was amazed at her own insightfulness. Sometimes she really had it.
‘You want me to delve into his past and find out why he hates Christmas?’
‘Might be a good place to start,’ yelled back Vicky, as Princess bounded off and she had to run to keep up. ‘Then you could sell him the many benefits of joining in with the village celebrations, possibly through the medium of song, and build up to the full production with Muppets. I bloody love that version.’ She realised she’d lost it again.
‘Are you okay?’ Blythe’s voice was faint as she was now some distance behind.
Vicky was panting with the effort of keeping up with the dog. ‘Not really, no! Have you got any more dog biscuits?’
12
17thOctober
Ludo was deep in conversation with Amir when Blythe entered the office. Immediately she was suspicious. ‘Morning. Is this a briefing or just a blokey chat?’ she asked.
‘We’re discussing long-term business strategy,’ said Amir.
‘That sounds like it should be something that involves everyone or at least the senior team.’ Blythe looked to Ludo to confirm her thoughts.
Ludo stood up. ‘It was more of a general discussion about whether or not it’s worth checking the building applications to the council on a regular basis to pick up any developers early on.’
‘We have great relationships with local developers and some of the bigger nationals too, so I think anything more would be duplication and therefore a waste of time,’ said Blythe, pointedly. She’d nurtured those relationships and they worked well for them. She made a mental note to give all her local building contacts a courtesy call before Amir did.
‘I’m leading on it so it’s my time I’d be wasting. Although I obviously won’t be,’ said Amir, returning to his desk. ‘Thanks for your support, Ludo. I really appreciate it.’
‘Ludo, can I have a word?’ asked Blythe, leading the way into his office.
Ludo followed and shut the door. ‘Amir’s not the devil, you know. You could cut him a bit of slack.’ Ludo looked weather-beaten as he slumped into his sumptuous leather chair and Blythe sat down opposite – her back straight. She should have had this conversation with Ludo weeks ago. Things hadn’t improved since the whole monthly sales record debacle.
‘He might not be the devil but he is trying to undermine me at every turn.’
Ludo leaned forward onto his large desk and steepled his fingers. ‘How so?’
His question had put her on the spot. ‘Well…’ She paused for a moment to think. ‘He mapped out the campaign to leaflet the new estate without consulting me and only when I found out about it did he then agree to have half the leaflets printed with my details, otherwise all the leads would have gone his way.’
‘A simple oversight. In future the main office number will go on all leaflets then it’s the luck of the draw as to who answers the call. So that’s resolved. What else?’
Blythe chewed the inside of her mouth and thought. ‘He’s got two monitors on his desk and they’re both bigger than mine.’ She was convinced he’d only ordered two that size so she couldn’t see what he was up to behind them.
‘The old one was pixelating and he says it’s easier with two. You’re very welcome to order another monitor if you want one.’ Ludo was so reasonable it was actually infuriating.
‘No, thanks, I don’t need two monitors.Nobodyneeds two monitors. That’s my point.’ She wasn’t entirely sure if itwasher point but it was something that annoyed her. ‘He bought Heather an emotional thesaurus to use when she was creating listings. That’s for writing fiction, not fact-based property details.’ She folded her arms.
‘It was just a joke and to be honest her copy has improved since she’s been using it,’ said Ludo, and annoyingly Blythe had to admit that was true.
‘But it implies that we make stuff up and that goes against everything you’ve taught me.’
