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level, even if it could be a hassle having to infuse and drain four bags a day.
    As the fluid drained out, taking all those toxins with it, I ripped open the cardboard wrapper and pulled out the latest acquisition to my library. I was getting quite a collection. Like I said, I had to get the variety somehow, didn’t I?
    This one promised plenty of XXX action in the jungle, with a bunch of crew-cut, war-painted hunks. The jungle looked suspiciously like a Beverly Hills landscaped garden, but I wasn’t about to split hairs over the accuracy of a porn set. Let’s face it, no one really cared about the background, right? It was like those old Star Trek sets—you ignored the polystyrene boulders and painted sky to concentrate on watching Kirk pace around like a caged tiger. Well, I always had, anyway. The man even managed to make those awful uniforms look sexy.
    A bit like a certain delivery courier I could think of.
    That odd little sucking sensation I got when the bag was full pulled me back into the present. After I’d unplugged and chucked the sealed bag in the medical waste bin, I took another look at the DVD case. Nope, it just didn’t appeal to me at that moment. Seeing those porn stars impersonating soldiers, all I could think about was my new military-style haircut. I ran a hand over my shorn head.
    Would Ollie even notice it? And if he did, what would he think?
    I decided to fill myself up with the next bag and commit to another four hours of looking like a beach ball. I had a conference call due in a couple of hours, but so long as I put on a decent shirt and angled the webcam right, no one could tell I looked any different from how I used to. Except the hair, of course.
    My boss would probably like that, though.
    Turned out he did.
    “Afternoon, Ben. You’re looking well.”
    I plastered on a smile. James would never be able to tell how forced it was over the screen. “Feeling great, James. How’s the family?”
    The family were perfect, as ever. I smiled and nodded and tried to look interested, though, because his kids were cute. The youngest daughter reminded me of Zoe when she was little.
    James Littlejohn led a kind of charmed life, it seemed. He’d used his trust fund to set up a financial services software company straight out of business school, and despite not having much computer savvy, he’d surrounded himself with those who had the necessary skills. What’s more, he’d managed to keep most of them on with his generous contracts. I certainly wasn’t about to argue 16
     
    with my deal, as despite having a serious health condition, I was able to work from home with only a very small slice off my old salary.
    “And how’s your health?” James asked.
    “Oh, can’t complain.”
    “I don’t suppose we can ever tempt you back to the workplace? The engineer we’ve got in now isn’t a patch on you. My computer’s slowed right down.”
    I gave a wry grin. “Much as I’d love to help you out, it’s not easy while I’m on this dialysis. Believe me, you wouldn’t want all my medical equipment littering the break room. I know how you felt when Tamara had her breast-milk pump in there.” The look on his face when he’d walked in on her had been priceless. Her expressing milk while I’d been on a break hadn’t bothered me, but then again, at the time I’d been in the middle of seeing Zoe through puberty and having to talk with her about periods and safe sex. I think my embarrassment about female matters had long since been overcome.
    “No, no, of course. I was forgetting about that.” James looked flustered, and I took pity on him.
    “When I get a transplant, I’ll be right back there, I promise.” I said when , not if , because James didn’t need to know the real situation with waiting lists, did he?
    It was true, I would have loved to have gone back and resumed tinkering with the computers and not just the code, but I couldn’t cope with the idea right now. All those workplace