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developer ever since leaving uni. Only then, did his father grudgingly recognise he’d earned his stripes – but he’d still be the new boy. Not the boss’s son.
    ‘No favours here,’ his father had told him sternly. ‘You’ve got to work your way up. No one knows we’re related – got it?’
    It worked because Ed had never been allowed in the office before. And because his dad had always made it a rule not to talk about his family at work, no one knew he had a son. In fact, it was a frequent topic of conversation by the water cooler and the snack machine at break time.
    ‘Watch out for Old Bill,’ one woman said to him. ‘He’s a tough nut. Fair. But tough. And whatever you do, don’t ask him about family. His wife died years ago and he’s had a few since.’
    He’d felt awful then. A real traitor. Especially when the girls took him into their confidence and told him about their boyfriend problems. That’s how he’d learned that one of the best ways to hook a woman was to listen and then gently suggest that they’d been treated unfairly by their men. Yes, really! Sure – he would love to go out for a drink after work provided the boyfriend didn’t mind. She was going to dump him, was she? Well, he wouldn’t like to interfere but he was pretty sure she was doing the right thing.
    But then Dad got ill. ‘Nothing serious,’ he told Ed and Nancy. ‘I’ll be here for a while yet.’
    Even if his dad had lived, Ed would never have trusted him again. It had all been a lie. The prognosis had been a death toll from the beginning. And apart from having to handle the shock and Nancy’s grief, he also had to cope with the whole business thing and telling the staff that actually he, Ed, who had worked his way up to land manager was actually the boss’s son. And now he was in charge.
    ‘We knew you were his son anyway!’ one of the girls had chortled.
    They did?
    ‘You look just like him!’
    Really?
    ‘’Sides, he told one or two of us that you were his son. We just weren’t allowed to let on we knew. He said it would be easier all round.’
    Smart, he had to admit.
    ‘Are we going to keep our jobs?’
    Definitely.
    And somehow, Ed had managed to keep everyone’s confidence and be the boss of his father’s medium-sized property firm which had just about survived the recession. Just as important (well almost) was the fact that the water cooler sessions survived. Of course, he couldn’t carry on going out with the girls: none of them had been serious anyway and besides, he’d always ended it on a good note. But he did enjoy the chit chat and listening to their latest problems. It helped him work out how women thought.
    Now, as he helped himself to a tumbler of water, he was tempted to tell one of the girls – especially that gorgeous auburn-haired temp – about his problems with Tatiana.
    ‘Hello?’
    For a moment there, he almost hadn’t recognised his new mobile tone (just downloaded as a trial from Men magazine).
    ‘Ed?’
    Shit. This was Tatiana’s real voice. Something bad must have happened if she’d returned his call that fast.
    His mouth suddenly felt dry. He’d never felt comfortable just relying on condoms. ‘Are you all right?’
    ‘I’m back, Ed. Can you meet me at the flat?’
    ‘What’s up, Tatty?’
    ‘Tell you when you’re here.’
     
    The funny thing about ending a relationship – and he’d done it enough times! – was that the other person usually sensed it and came up with something that made you feel a real heel for adding to their problems. It might be redundancy. Or ‘flu. Or a lost cat. Something anyway that meant you had to feel sorry for them for a time (which of course he did – genuinely). But it also meant you had to put off the telling them for a while if you were a decent person which Ed tried to be. He really did.
    So clearly, thought Ed, as he ran up the white stone steps through the autumn leaves (must sweep them up!) before punching his ID code