No Place in the Sun Read Free Page B

himself about the closedown, just left it to poor old Andy to break the news.
    Walter gestured back towards the canteen; Andrew hadn’t emerged all morning. ‘Jesus I feel really sorry for poor old fairycakes, imaging getting a kick in the hole like that. He always thought he was the heir apparent, who would have thought that the old guy would have a bit of life left in him? The curse of the Viagra generation.’
    The younger man shook his head. ‘I never would have figured Milton as having an interest in women. I mean his wife must be ten years dead and he never talked about women or anything, just golf and money; that was all I ever heard him on about anyway.’
    Walter was suddenly angry. ‘Fuck Milton. I’m more concerned about myself, and you should be too. I reckon that if another job comes up I’m off, I’m not waiting round for this place to empty out, it would be too bloody depressing.’
    Tom didn’t know what to do, being faced with losing his job was a shock. ‘I suppose that’s the way to go, but it’s hard to call it. Depends on what’s on the table I suppose, if he’s offering a lot of money I’d stay on, otherwise I’ll go to the best offer I can get.’
    A young woman walked in and started to mooch around the cooker section. Tom got reluctantly to his feet and walked over to intercept her. ‘Good morning, madam, can I help you?’
    ‘Just looking, thanks.’
    Tom turned and walked back to the couch; any other time and he would have persisted and tried to get a sale, but today he just wasn’t in the humour.
    Walter was smiling again. ‘Losing your touch, son. Not like you to let one off like that!’
    Tom sighed; it might be time to start looking around right enough.

    Milton appeared just before closing time, all business as usual and looking at his watch pointedly as Tom rolled down the shutter a couple of minutes before six. The old bastard would never change, make you listen to his spiel on your own time and not waste a second of selling time.
    Old habits die hard, thought Tom to himself, as he walked back to the canteen to hear what was happening.
    The boss was his usual brusque self. ‘Well, Andrew told you the bad news?’
    They nodded silently.
    ‘I had no choice really, since those people moved in we were just pushing water up a hill. You guys are the best in the business, but we can’t compete with their buying power.’
    He outlined what would happen next, the morning paper would have a big advertising spread and they would try to clear all the stock from the warehouse and then from the shop floor in about two weeks. On the last few days they would have further reductions on the display stock for take-away customers only.
    ‘There will come a point where the remaining stock will be worth less than the cost of staying open for two days. At that point we’ll close the door and leave it there. Everyone clear on all that?’
    Tom couldn’t wait to ask a few questions. ‘What about us? Do we get a severance payment of some kind?’
    ‘Tom, Tom, always thinking about the money.’ Milton was his usual sarcastic self.
    ‘Hang on now.’ Walter came to Tom’s aid, ‘that’s what has us all here. What about the money, what have you in mind?’
    ‘Well, you will get your full month’s basic, along with any residual commissions and you get statutory redundancy on top of all that. That goes without saying; don’t I always pay you for what you do? Have I ever left any of you short?’
    Tom was angry; they were being pushed out without an extra penny, after the effort they had made for the old bastard. ‘It’s not fucking good enough.’
    Milton reddened; he wasn’t used to being spoken to like that. ‘Mind your tone, young fellow’ he said angrily.
    Walter moved in to calm things down. He spoke quietly. ‘I agree with Tom. To be fair, we could leave now and you would have to shift a warehouse full of stock on your own, and you know that you need us to do it. We need to be