In a way, she was his most regular girlfriend and so Jake presumed she would end up with Tony all to herself, one day. She was playing the waiting game, letting him get all of his other women out of his system before he chose her, above the rest.

‘Okay, well I’ll see you soon, then.’

Tony nodded and gave her a weak smile, then walked her to the door and closed it sharply behind her. That done, he breathed a sigh of relief. ‘It’s hard being a bachelor and having to get rid of the women in the morning, Jake, all they want to do is hang around.’

Jake felt sorry for the women in Tony’s life. One minute they had all the flattery and attention they could want and the next minute they had nothing.

‘I’m going for a shower.’ Tony picked up his mug and walked towards the bathroom. ‘I tell you what, though, if you’ve got nothing better to do for the moment, you can start tidying this place up a bit.’

Jake looked around the apartment. It had been one hell of a party; there was no way he was going to clean up after Tony and his guests. Then a thought occurred to him; just to annoy Tony even more, he would ask Lydia to go up there and give it a spring clean, after they had left. That way she could nosy around to her heart’s content.

Eventually, Tony emerged from the bathroom. Jake was reading the paper and drinking more coffee. ‘Anything in particular we have to do today?’ asked Jake.

‘Not really. I want to go and see Angus, give him and Elsie their bonus face to face. He’s done some good work lately, maybe me shouting at him worked out for the best.’ Tony had never apologised to Angus about shoving a gun in his mouth and he never would. He was hoping that his Christmas bonus might just do it for him.

‘Whatever you say. Everyone else’s bonuses are already sorted, even the strippers. Sharon took care of all that. By the way, I thought I would ask Lydia to pop up here to clean up your harem; that’ll definitely give her something to gossip about.’

Tony rolled his eyes. ‘If gossip was an Olympic sport, she’d have a string of gold medals.’

‘It amazes me how she gets away with it. Everyone who works for you has to sign a confidentiality contract and be police checked, so how did Lydia get the job?’ Jake looked up innocently.

‘Your Sharon, listening to her sob stories, that’s how,’ he said, then he burst out laughing. ‘Christ, her wig’ll fall off when she sees this lot. She’ll have enough material for a month!’

19

FESTIVITIES

Christmas came and went in a blur. The accounts showed that it had been a profitable one.

On Christmas day itself, they were all relieved to be able to forget things for a while and go to Elle’s for dinner. She had laid out the fatted calf. Everything looked splendid.