Erotic Refugees (35 page)

It was properly dark when Eoin
got home. He had to turn on the light in the hall just so he could
locate the hook to hang his keys on. There was something on the
floor, something that had come through the letter slot. It was an
inflexible A4 padded envelope, addressed to him in handwriting that
he found familiar.

Eoin kicked off his shoes and
sat down at the kitchen table where he opened the package. He slid
out the contents and stared at them in amazement. It was Damien's
photos, all the best ones he'd taken, from the day after his birth
and right up to a month before the separation. They were the
originals too, as his initials and the date were scribbled on the
back of each one.

Eoin shook his head in
confusion and held the envelope upside down, allowing a note to
flutter out. He plucked it up and read.

“
These are yours. I made
new prints. Jenny.”

He read it again, in a daze.
He'd sent a mail to Jenny a week earlier asking nicely for the
photos and explaining how much they meant to him. He'd never
expected it to work, but now here they were, just like that.

He fixed a cup of tea as he
tried to analyse why she'd sent them. Was she looking for some
favour in return? Or maybe she'd simply realised the photos meant
more to him that they did to her, and had sent them over just to be
nice?

Eoin mulled that over as he
drank his tea—the idea that Jenny was capable of being nice to him
for no good reason. And with a little effort he managed to look
beyond the last couple of years, back to the time where Jenny had
been nice to him a lot, when it felt like nothing could destroy
what they had.

Nothing remained of that now—it
was truly scorched ground—but to remember it made Eoin confused and
sad. How could he forget feeling like that so quickly? And wasn't
there anything between how it was then and how it was now?

Well, it seemed Jenny had done
something to locate that middle ground. It was a small gesture, and
one he'd actually requested, but a gesture nonetheless. Now he
should reply to it, for no other reason than it was a kind thing to
do.

He walked into his living room
and came to a halt before his portrait wall. He took down his
favourite photo of Damien, the one from the park in August. They'd
found a friendly cat, which had jumped up into the delighted boy's
arms. Damien beamed out of the photo with infectious glee, his hair
wild and his eyes sparkling. A moment of perfect childhood
happiness captured forever.

Eoin took it down, removed it
from the frame and returned to the kitchen. He slipped the photo
into the envelope Jenny had sent, crossed out his address and wrote
in hers instead. Then he added a small note of his own.

Thanks. And here's a new one I
thought you might like to have.

He stared at it for a moment,
and then took it to his mail shelf in the hall. Tomorrow he'd take
it to work and post it. And he felt good about that.

Now, though, it was time to get
moving as he needed to be at Rob's in twenty minutes. He changed
his shirt, grabbed his project notes, and pulled on his shoes. He
looked at the letter again as he passed through the hall and
couldn't help feeling, despite all the hard things that had
happened over the last year, a tiny glimmer of hope.

Eoin met Milly on the way from
the tunnelbana station. She gave him a hug and a sad smile. “So it
ends like this.”

“
I know,” Eoin said. “So
what do you think about it all?”

“
Well, the same as last
night. It sucks, sure, but he needs a job, and that is a good job.
I mean, I have my projects, so I won't be bored—there's always
things that need to be wrapped in knitting. But how about you? I
mean, this was half your idea, wasn't it?”

“
It was. But I have a
job, so I can't preach at him. It's just, you know…”

“
Yeah,” Milly said. “I
know, for sure.”

Rob had one window that faced
the street and tonight there were candles burning in it. A very
un-Rob thing to do, Eoin thought, but then realised that it was
probably Karen's idea as she was there for another couple of
days.

He tapped in the code at the
outer door and they made their way up the stairs, walking with
heavy steps as if on their way to an execution.

“
Hello?” Eoin pushed the
door open but got no answer. He unlaced his boots and stepped into
the kitchen where he froze.

Rob was sitting there in
silence. In front of him, on the table, were four bottles of
champagne and four fat cigars. On his face was the biggest
shit-eating grin Eoin had ever seen.

“
Um, Rob?” Eoin said
delicately. “Have you gone mad?”

Rob beamed at him and shook his
head. “No sir. But come on, sit down. Karen, get in here, we're
on!”

Milly pushed her way into the
tiny kitchen and squeezed into the chair next to Eoin's. Karen
emerged from the other room, wearing striped yellow tights and
black nail varnish, and beamed at them.

“
Look,” she said, “I
didn't want to say anything, but since Rob got the job offer I had
to hurry things along and—”

“
Cut the intro,” Rob
said, “and just bloody tell them!”

“
Okay,” she said and took
a breath. “Alright. It's like this. You remember that idea you said
we could have, the one you didn't use?”

“
No,” Eoin said, still in
a daze. “What idea?”

“
Oh you know! The one
where you photograph your haircuts and upload them and get people
to comment on them, you remember? Anyway, me and Preben had done a
bit of work on that before you changed the plan, so Preben took
that idea as a case study for his marketing course. I helped him to
get a demo together, just to show off the idea. We decided we could
do clothes as well as hair and—”

“
Karen, you're a nice
girl,” Milly said. “And I love to hear you tell a story. But if you
don't tell us the actual news, and right now, I'm afraid I will
have to kill you.”

Karen nudged her brother, who
looked as if he'd detonate into bloody chunks if he had to be kept
quiet any longer.

“
They fixed us a deal,”
he blurted out. “A fucking deal!”

Karen pulled up a chair and sat
down beside him. “A five fucking figure deal. That's five figures
in Euros, and the first figure sure as hell isn't a one!”

Eoin grew light-headed and grabbed the
edge of the table for support. “Rob, Karen, for fuck's sake, how
much?”

Rob grabbed Eoin's notebook,
scribbled on the cover and slid it back across the table. Eoin read
the number and blinked. He squinted and read it again. Beside him
Milly squealed and threw her arms around him in a crushing hug.

“
Wait,” Eoin said. “Wait,
wait … they are giving you this money? And which they? Who the hell
is they, Rob?”

“
Sixty was their
first offer,” Karen said. “But Preben's trying to push then harder.
Plus maybe extend the time we get to develop it—”

“
Who?” Eoin shouted in
desperation.

“
KR, the Danish clothes chain,”
Karen said. “Preben had a contact there, and they're looking for
interactive ways to show off their collections, with communities
and forums and what have you. He presented it, and they just loved
the idea. Suited them down to the ground.”

“
It's brilliant,” Milly
said. She jumped to her feet, slipped by Eoin's chair and threw her
arms around Karen. “It's bloody brilliant, girl!”

They squealed for a while and
Rob rolled his eyes at Eoin. “Shush down there. Come on, we have
stuff to discuss.”

Milly resumed her position at
the table, still grinning like an idiot. Rob shoved a bottle of
champagne at her.

“
Here, make yourself
useful and open this.”

Milly nodded and began
stripping the foil. “So how's this site going to work?”

“
Well,” Karen said,
“basically you present yourself and the clothes you like and why.
Then other users can comment on what they think works on you or
not. You'll be able to try lots of KR clothes virtually, tagged
with style, colour, cut and so on. It's all on paper since we
needed a good functional spec to show KR. But now there's databases
to build and Flash to program—”

“
Wait,” Eoin said with a
bewildered shake of his head. “Hang on. Just how long have you
known about this?”

“
Preben was talking to them for a
couple of months, and I didn't want to say anything until we were
sure. But I called him right after the party and told him to fix a
meeting with them today, and push the whole thing forward. I wanted
to try and save Rob from a fate worse than death.”

Eoin turned to Rob. “So you're
not taking the job?”

“
Nope,” Rob said with a
self-satisfied smirk. “Called Linus just now and told him to take
his job and bloody well stuff it.”

“
He did in his arse,”
Karen said. “I've never heard such grovelling and apologising from
a grown man. Pathetic, it was.”

Rob shrugged. “Well, no point
makin' enemies, is there?”

Milly shot the cork from the
bottle and everybody gave a cheer.

“
Nice one, Milly,” Rob
said. “Give that here.” He poured a sloppy serving of champagne
into the glasses and each one was eagerly grabbed.

“
Sixty thousand Euros,”
Eoin said, letting the number echo in his head. “There's a catch
surely, I mean there's always a catch.”

“
Sure there is,” Karen
said. “Lots of hard work. And if they like the working prototype
there'll be a lot more actual development. We could be stuck doing
this one project and nothing else for a very long time.”

Eoin grinned. “That's not much
of a catch. In fact that all sounds kind of great. And this money
is just for the prototype?”

“
Yip,” Rob said. “To buy
the rights to the idea and the work we've done so far, and get the
prototype running. If it works the way they want, and it will,
they'll pay us more to develop it properly into an actual service.
I'm talking proper wages. And if this thing gets big, the work
could last for years!”

“
Think of it!” Milly
said, pouring more champagne for herself. “All the kids will be
logging in to tell each other what they should be wearing. It'll be
huge! Do you have a name for it yet?”

“
The demo was called
Fasher, you know, for fashion—”

“
And not at all close to
'flasher'”, Rob pointed out.

“
Well the name's the
least thing to worry about now,” Eoin said. “First off we'll need
an office space, and a company name, and a logo—”

“
Plus we'll have to start
paying Rob some wages,” Milly said, “since he'll be our full-time
employee.”

“
Well what about you?”
Eoin said. “You don't have a job either.”

“
Oh don't worry about me,
I have my ways. I'll be fine.”

“
Okay,” Eoin said. “And
that money sounds like a lot, but it won't last long. But it
doesn’t stop us from taking other work, does it? There’ll be four
of us, and—”

“
Five of us,” Karen said
with a scowl. “Can't forget Preben who fixed the deal, can we? Five
equal partners in this.”

Eoin turned to Rob, who gave a
shrug. “Sounds fair, since he's doing all the sales work. Five
equal shares it is.”

“
So,” Rob said. “Anybody
want a cigar?” He looked around the table to three heads being
shaken. “Seemed the proper thing to do.”

“
Save them for when the
big-shot business guys come to visit,” Karen said.

“
Or return them to the
shop,” Eoin said. “You kept the receipt?”

“
Nope,” Rob said. “I'm
not doing that. They'll be coming out with us tonight. And, I know,
sore heads from yesterday and all. But tough. No excuses. Yesterday
was a wake, this is a proper bloody celebration. Yeah? You with
me?”

They clapped, and clinked
glasses. Eoin took a frothy swallow.

“
Sick day tomorrow then?”
he said.

“
Oh yeah,” Rob said with
a grin. “I think ye can count on that.”

Chapter
38

“
Give me a Maher,” Eoin
said. “And don't spare the mayo.”

Brian wiped his hands and slung
the tea-towel over his shoulder. He took a step back and gazed up
at the new addition to his sandwich board.

“
Never thought I'd see
the day. I had to get rid of the Plato to make room for it.” He
sighed. “I liked the Plato. Important life lesson number one—never
make a bet with that jammy bastard Rob. And a Maher for the lady
too?”

Alice smiled politely. There
was no way she was going to eat one of those vile things. She liked
to think of herself as adventurous, but this anglophone compulsion
to smother things in mayonnaise was just too much. Not to mention
the mashed egg, which made it the least desirable food item she
could possibly imagine.

“
I think I'll pass. I’m
allergic to egg, especially in its goo form. Give me a Sagan, a
small one. With salad.”

“
Right then. Sagan,
Maher, pair of lattes.” Brian turned to Eoin. “Well done on the
company, by the way. Rob tells me you signed the
contract.”

Eoin grinned. “Thanks. Yeah,
it's all official now, plus I think I've found a nice office space.
Not too far from here actually.”