Page 67 of Love Unlocked

‘We’re not going to get the technical bureau in here, Al, I just want you to tell the truth, and if it’s you who’s doing this, to stop.’

‘I’m telling the truth.’ He chuckles. He can’t help it. ‘That had absolutely nothing to do with me. Is it even illegal?’

‘If you use the account to defame him then you’re liable to be sued in civil court. If you use his name to make money from people then you’re committing fraud and that’s a crime.’

Al is baffled. ‘Did someone make money from this?’

‘No,’ Ryan says.

‘So there’s no crime. And it wasn’t me.’ He looks from Ryan to his partner. ‘Look, don’t get me wrong, because of what Walter did, I was incredibly angry. I invited him to move in with me and my fiancée because I wanted to help him out. I got him a job here because I wanted to help him out. And after thirty years of friendship, two weeks before Christmas, he took my fiancée and my house. I was very angry and hurt about that. I did some petty things afterwards but you have my word that I did not set up the dating account or write those things. I’ve had a good weekend and I think I’m out the other side. Today is the first day of me really not giving a shit about him and her.’

He’s not missing them at all.

Suddenly Walter appears in view, speeding through the open-plan office, weaving through the maze of desks with a cardboard box in his hand. He comes straight towards Al’s office.

‘You can’t go in there,’ Natasha yells.

He ignores her and bursts into the office anyway. The force of the door almost hits Stafford but it’s like he has eyes in the back of his head, he spins around and catches it with his hand.

‘Ryan, I’m glad you’re here to witness this,’ Walter says, panting, all stressed. He looks terrible, pale, as if he hasn’t slept for weeks.

‘Walter, I told you to stay out of it,’ Ryan says. ‘We’re having a conversation.’

Walter slams the cardboard box down on Al’s desk, and stands back. The box knocks over the bottle of water, into Al’s lap. He pushes back his wheeled chair from the desk and pats down his trousers. Walter points at the box, as if he has no words.

‘He’s done it again.’ Walter is trembling from head to toe. A ball of rage, it’s firing out of him in all directions; a crazy-hot energy. ‘It’s abuse, harassment in the workplace,’ Walter says loudly so that he attracts Natasha’s and other employees’ attention.

Both gardaí look at Al doubtfully. Al holds his hands up in defence, having absolutely no idea what is going on.

‘What’s in the box?’ Ryan asks Al.

‘I have no idea. I hope it’s not a head.’ Maybe the wrong joke at the wrong time in the wrong company. ‘I didn’t give him the box. I have no idea what’s going on here.’ Al rubs his head, genuinely stressed now.

Walter reaches into the Amazon box, packing peanuts flying everywhere, and pulls out an enormous purple dildo.

Natasha lets out a screech of laughter, her cackle audible from every corner of the office. She swears loudly, unable to stop laughing. Everyone has been watching discreetly and Natasha’s outburst gives them licence to stare and now it’s like open day at the zoo. All anyone can see is Walter, standing like the Statue of Liberty, with an enormous purple dildo in the air. Quite a thick, detailed one.

‘Oh Jesus, I’m going to piss myself,’ Natasha says, sliding off her chair and onto her knees beside her desk.

Al stares at the dildo in shock. ‘I had absolutely nothing to do with that.’

Walter erupts, spitting with venom, and at first it’s difficult to take him seriously with that in his hand, but then he starts to push buttons. ‘You just can’t stand to see me happy, can you, Al? You were happier when I was the tag-along, the shadow, the poor old Walter you could throw your scraps at. But not anymore. You can’t stand that I’m breaking away from you. You can’t stand that Tara loves me, not you. You can’t stand that I’m important in this office. You can’t stand that I’m living your life and you’re out in the cold. For once you’re not in control, Al, for once you’re not Mr Popular, the guy whose word everyone hangs on. You’re not The Stroke in here anymore. It’s about me now.’ He punches his chest. ‘Me. I’m owning my own

space.’

Who is this guy, who is owning his own space? And speaking like that. Where has easy-going Walter gone? Who is this cringeworthy idiot?

Stafford is looking at Walter uncertainly. Ryan seems embarrassed for him too. His little speech has not done wonders for himself, but instead casts Al in a more favourable light. Walter has admitted to stealing everything from Al: his home, his workplace, his wife-to-be. What a parasite. He never saw Walter as that before, but it’s what he has become. Good, let him have it. Al has moved on.

‘You’re not the only one who can have what you have,’ Walter continues. ‘I work here too. I pay the mortgage and I can sleep with Tara whenever I want to.’

Until now, Al had almost been enjoying the show, but that last sentence makes him clench his fists, which is the desired response Walter is trying to bring out in his friend in front of two members of the police force. He wants him to lose his temper, to show him his dark side. He’s goading him. But thankfully the two men in the room have the same sense as Al too. It’s a step too far.

‘That’s enough,’ Ryan says, hand on Walter’s arm.

Everyone in the office heard Walter’s outburst. They all heard that Walter is sleeping with Al’s ex-girlfriend. He has to turn away from the glass, he spins around in his chair and focuses outside, on the Liffey, on the buildings. Melody’s apartment building. Walter is wrong. Al’s heart has healed, is healing. It’s too soon but he’s already met somebody. It’s too soon and he knows that he’s crazy about her. Walter is wrong. And Al was wrong too. Al thought that he could never love again, could never find joy again, could definitely never trust again, but Al knows that he can be happier than he ever was before because Melody feels like a best friend and a girlfriend all in one. He can talk to her honestly as he did with Walter. The physical connection is deeper than it was with Tara. As for trusting her, he has never met a more honest woman in his life. She wears her flaws on her sleeve. She airs her fears, she shares her mistakes. There is no pretence that she is perfect. The only person in this room who is still holding on, is Walter.

So Walter’s words don’t cut him as they would have a few days ago. They just reveal Walter for who he is. Al had tried to turn both Walter and Tara into the people he dreamed of them being. He perhaps was the delusional one in the threesome, trying to create and shape something that wasn’t real.