He started fiddling with the silver band around his wrist. ‘You’ve been here a long time. What do you think will happen?’

‘I’m not sure, but I’m guessing it won’t be good.’

‘Scottie’s recently started kindergarten. She’s really settled in,’ he said.

I nodded, glad that his daughter’s name was so distinctive that I easily identified who he was talking about.

‘Desna’s completed her Stepping Up course and is about to become a partner at Warden, Black and Maybank. She loves the lifestyle here.’

‘Yep, it’s a good place for a family,’ I agreed.

‘How long have you been here, in the department?’

‘Getting on for fourteen years,’ I said.

‘That’s a long time.’

He hesitated, glanced past me towards the six-monthly planner on my wall. ‘You’ll find work at another university. If it comes to that.’

‘I don’t want to go to another university,’ I said. ‘I have an apartment here. A home I love.’

He looked startled. ‘Yes, of course, but it’s not like you’re tied down like the rest of us …’ He stopped short of finishing the sentence and looked at the floor, embarrassed. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean it to come out like that. I know you have ties to this place. Sorry.’

‘I’m sure you’ll be all right,’ I said. ‘They won’t get rid of you.’

Notes of restructuring and redundancy: carpet glue and boxes filled with books and old paper.

A list of potential base notes: gas, eucalyptus, soap, uranium, oakmoss, oats, rose, blood, jasmine, sewage, diesel, amber, oil paint, clay, wood shavings, boronia, ambrette, frankincense, industrial glue, dusty papers, old books.

Base notes provide the foundation and soul of the perfume, but that doesn’t mean they are predictable and like to stay put. Like memories, they have a tendency to flare up at any time; they do more than linger in the background. They also have a way of altering and fixing the more volatile heart and top notes. There is a sense of interplay and exchange.

You need patience to appreciate base notes. Whereas top notes burst from the bottle and heart notes develop after only twenty or thirty minutes, sometimes sooner, base notes bide their time.

But for now, the heart notes need my attention.

HEART NOTES

BEFORE I HUNG MY JACKET ON THE HOOK BY THE DOOR OR placed my keys in the bowl on the side table, I always slipped off my shoes and stood with my back pressed against the exposed brick wall and inhaled. Released by the heat, the smell of wool and lanolin drew close, enfolding me in its welcome.