Turning Forty Read Free Page A

Benson-Lawless.’ We shook hands and although her grip was firm her hands were soft. For some reason this took me by surprise.
    ‘Nice to meet you Lauren,’ I replied, ‘and yes, I can confirm that rumour.’ ‘You don’t think much of us do you?’ she asked, scrutinising my face. ‘You think consultants are a waste of time.’
    ‘Glorified accountants billing us at a thousand dollars an hour to tell us what we already know in a way that we can’t understand? I don’t think you’re a waste of time, I think you’re geniuses. I just wish I could get paid as much for doing so little.’
    It was a bit of a gamble, insulting her like that, but whether it was the beer, or the tiredness, throwing caution to the wind seemed to be the order of the day.
    ‘Do you smoke?’ she asked, reaching into her bag.
    ‘No, but I’m told I’m good company by those who do.’
    Lauren arched her left eyebrow coolly. ‘Is that so, Mr Beckford? Well, I think I’ll be the judge of that.’
    We made our way to the outside terrace where half a dozen other smokers were huddled under a canvas canopy.
    ‘So what brought you to Oz?’ she asked, grinning, as she drew deeply on her cigarette, sending a plume of bluish smoke into the air.
    ‘Take a guess.’
    ‘A girl,’ she replied. ‘You look like the kind of guy that would move continents to woo a lady.’
    ‘Wrong,’ I replied. ‘It was work, although to be fair a girl was sort of in the mix too but not in the way you’re thinking.’
    ‘Was she nice?’
    ‘She was the best.’
    ‘Do you always speak so highly of your exes?’
    ‘Only the good ones.’
    ‘Well, that would rule me out,’ she said playfully. ‘No ex of mine has ever had a good word to say about me.’
    ‘Maybe you’ve been going out with the wrong guys. If you’d dated me and we’d split up I’m pretty sure I’d find something good to say. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d be devastated that it was over, and I’d do everything I could to get you back but I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to sing your praises to some pretty girl outside a bar one day.’
    ‘What exactly would you say to this,’ she paused and raised that eyebrow again, ‘ pretty girl outside a bar?’
    ‘Well, Lauren,’ I replied, ‘I’d say how you were always great fun to be around and to illustrate the point I’d tell her about that great weekend we had when I took you scuba-diving on the Great Barrier Reef.’
    Lauren laughed. ‘I was great, wasn’t I? None of your friends’ girlfriends were interested in diving but I had a go even though it wasn’t my usual thing.’
    ‘That’s right,’ I replied, ‘I was so proud of you and all my mates were really impressed.’
    ‘And how about that night we both got crazy drunk and ended up gate-crashing a karaoke party in that Cantonese restaurant? I couldn’t get the microphone out of your grip! It was like power ballad after power ballad, all the greats: Benatar, Turner, Tyler! You slayed them all!’
    ‘I was on form that night,’ I said as Lauren beamed a killer smile in my direction. Wide, mischievous and steeped in suggestion, it confirmed that a connection had been made.
    Cigarette over, we returned inside and I offered to get her another drink but at the bar I got sucked into a conversation with my boss that proved impossible to escape until he’d finished. By the time I managed to break away and get served at the bar Lauren had inevitably been sucked into a conversation of equally epic proportions with her own boss and with two drinks in my hand and an ache in my heart it felt like our moment was over. However at the end of the night as colleagues were finishing off drinks and calling cabs, she came over and said: ‘For what it’s worth, it was fun being your ex. I hope you’ll always speak fondly of me.’
    ‘It’s a promise,’ I said, ‘but how will you speak of me?’
    She pulled a goofy face, screwing up her eyes and flaring her nostrils, but