Read An English Boy in New York for Free Online Page B

away.’
    â€˜That’s brilliant,’ I said. ‘Thanks.’
    â€˜This is a huge relief for Ben,’ Dermot O’Leary said. ‘Failure to get Home Office approval would have been a major setback.’ Dermot does like to state the bleeding obvious.
    â€˜Ben,’ she went on. ‘I had to use a lot of professional credit to arrange this. If you screw up, even once, then I am going to be in big trouble. I will probably be shuffled out of my job and end up working in the ASBO team, or in a maximum-security prison, or even worse, I could end up working in the Home Secretary’s office.’
    â€˜What’s wrong with the Home Secretary’s office?’
    â€˜My ex-husband works there.’
    â€˜I didn’t know you’d been married!’
    â€˜Look, this isn’t about me,’ she said impatiently.
    â€˜Everything will be fine,’ I said confidently. ‘When have I ever let you down?’
    â€˜You need to call every day, Ben,’ she repeated. ‘They will be monitoring.’
    â€˜Like
Enemy of the State
?’ I said, impressed.
    â€˜And it needs to be a Skype call, with video. It may be recorded. You can’t call from a payphone outside a strip club at four in the morning. Nor do I want to be called in the middle of the night,’ she said. ‘New York is four hours ahead. You need to call me by midnight US time, but that is 4am here. So you need to be calling me by 2pm every day. That way you’ll be calling me by 6pm UK time. Do you understand?’
    â€˜Of course,’ I said, scribbling this down. ‘I’ll put it in my phone, AND my diary.’
    â€˜Ben,’ Ms Gunter said. ‘I’m doing this as a favour to you. Because you helped me out of a sticky spot earlier this year when you won the knitting thing.’
    â€˜Thanks, Ms Gunter,’ I said. ‘I really appreciate it.’
    â€˜OK, but after this, we’re square.’
    Sheesh, I thought as I put the phone down, trying to quell the shiver of anxiety that ran through me. All I have to do is skype the woman every day.
    What could possibly go wrong?
    Wednesday 8 th May
    7.12pm
    I’ve invested in a new phone. If I’m going to be doing all this skyping I need a big screen and a powerful battery. I’ve gone for the SBC Stiletto. Very thin and murderous. I’m not normally a big gadget freak but I do love this phone. It has some pretty cool games on it too. I’ve also discovered a knitting app which is amazing. You can use 3D graphics to design your own virtual garments and mess about with the colours, the weaves, the wool thickness and so on. It is totes.
    I gave my old phone to Mrs Frensham, as she is the only person I know who doesn’t have a smartphone. I tried to explain pay-as-you-go to her but I don’t think she got it.
    Gex came over today to discuss the trip. He also reported that the TV licensing man had managed to fix the giant telly.
    â€˜So did you pay the licence fee?’ I asked.
    â€˜Nah, we don’t have to cos of Gramps living with us.’
    â€˜That can’t have gone down well,’ I said. ‘That guy was working on that telly for ages.’
    â€˜He was cool about it.’ Gex shrugged. ‘I made him a cheese toastie.’
    â€˜Yes, I can see how that would compensate,’ I said.
    Gex was looking very chipper. Dare I say, almost excited?
    â€˜You looking forward to taking a bite out of the Big Apple?’ I asked him.
    â€˜Oh yeah, man,’ he said. ‘Those New York girls are going to go mental for us.’
    â€˜Really?’ I asked. ‘What makes you think that?’
    â€˜The thing about American girls, right,’ he said, coming closer to me and speaking in a low voice, ‘is that they love our English accents, innit?’
    â€˜You don’t really have an English accent though,’ I pointed out. ‘You have a sort of