Page 48 of Love Unlocked

AL

‘Fuck,’ Al says, watching Walter sitting on the snot-green New Day studio couch.

He and a bunch of his colleagues are crowded around Natasha’s computer as Natasha has clicked on the view live link.

‘I have it on mine,’ someone shouts from across the room and half the gang scarpers to the other computer screen.

Tony steps outside his office to see what all the fuss is about. He pulls up his trousers and digs around at the front with his hand, pretending to tuck his shirt in. He makes his way to Al, who is seething.

‘Did you know about this?’ Al asks.

‘Know about it? I sanctioned it. We were getting swamped with phone calls and emails from the media and public. We have to address it.’

‘I addressed it,’ Al says, confused. ‘You told me to be the spokesperson.’

‘Yes, about that.’ He motions with his head into Al’s office. He stands behind Al’s desk as if it’s his. He looks out at the view as though it’s his view. His land. ‘We destroyed the locks, didn’t we?’ Then he turns around to face Al.

‘You told me to send them to metal recycling. The team were sending them to Evolution Metal.’

Natasha is eavesdropping and Al waves her away.

Tony looks relieved. ‘Good. Last thing we want is to have to organise getting these locks back to everyone. That would be a pain in the arse.’

Al nods in agreement. ‘Definitely. And most of these locks are from international travellers, we couldn’t go about organising something like that.’

‘I agree. What we could have done, you see, some people are saying, is that we could have asked the public to remove their locks first because we understand the importance of the padlocks. We could have given them the opportunity to reclaim their locks. They did that recently in the UK. In Paris, I heard they sold the locks at auction and donated the money to charities. There might be grumbles about us not doing something like that. But,’ he claps his hands loudly, ‘the good news is the locks are gone so we don’t have to worry about that. It’s better to ask for forgiveness than beg for permission.’

‘Right,’ Al says slowly. ‘Why is Walter on TV? He had nothing to do with the locks being removed from the bridge.’

That was my job, Al wants to point out. He didn’t want to go on television, but why was he replaced with Walter? Again?

‘It looks good to have our environmental guy on so people know we care and that we took action for the right reasons. You began on the right line, now we can use Walter to further it and really hammer it home. Can you please tell me, why does your secretary have a purple eye?’

‘Natasha took an elbow to the eye in training. She’s a boxer.’

Tony leaves, taking a wide circle around Natasha, giving her side-eye all the way, as if he’s worried she’ll leap out and attack him. Al moves back to the computer to watch New Day. Walter looks to him to be like a deer in headlights.

‘How’s he doing?’

‘Actually pretty good,’ Natasha says. ‘You wouldn’t notice him in the office but he’s quite good-looking on TV. Look at the way Prunella’s staring at him.’

Al would like to pick the computer up and throw it out the window into the River Liffey.

‘How did he get on the show?’

‘Prunella did the same with Annie as she did with me. Emails and phone calls all day yesterday.’ Annie is Walter’s assistant. ‘Prunella got those boots in River Island, I was looking at them at the weekend, I’m definitely going to buy them now.’ She turns to him, eyes narrowed. ‘Do you want me to check with Evolution Metal to see if they still have the locks?’ she asks, sweetly, hopefully. He can imagine her digging through the mountain of locks for her own.

‘No, thank you,’ he says firmly and she drops it.

Al stares at Walter on the couch, feeling kind of in shock. All the goodness from his night with Melody falls away, as if it never happened at all, and he’s back to being heartbroken. This polished man he sees on TV is very unlike Walter. He barely recognises his friend anymore. A new shirt and tie, but of course he had to, because of Al’s sabotage. Al had actually unwittingly done him a favour. Out with the old, in with the new. Tara must have helped him out, he couldn’t have done this himself.

He can’t watch anymore. On the New Day couch with Prunella Maguire, Tara would be like the cat who got the cream. It would elevate her social status, in her opinion. She’d be only too happy to tell everybody about her relationship with Walter now.

As he walks away, Natasha hands him an envelope over her shoulder. She can’t look away from the screen.

‘This came for you by courier.’

He opens the envelope and slides the documents out. It’s the paperwork from the bank to buy him out of the house and remove his name from the mortgage and the deeds. He assumes that due to the speed of the paperwork arriving, Tara’s trip to the bank yesterday wasn’t her first in the process. He sinks down into his chair. The blows keep on coming. Each time he feels like it can’t get worse, there is some new part of life that he realises is impacted. Everything has to change. His phone is hopping with messages from friends and family back home who have all somehow seen Walter on TV. Does nobody have a job?