Page 83 of Glow

“A vendetta? Do me a favour,” Scott replied. “He was stealing from the company. People like you think you can get away with anything. It’s as if you live in a parallel universe.”

Richard got to his feet. “You’ve made a stupid enemy of me, young man. Like I said, you’re underestimating me. I’ll smoke them out in the end.”

Scott too stood. “Maybe if you focused on why your son thinks it’s okay to steal and lie to get what he wants instead of going after someone who did the decent thing?—”

“Decent thing? You’re fucking deranged. They’re a fucking snitch.”

“Don’t be so childish. Prin was only?—”

He’d gone too far. Scott stared wildly at Carla. She simply shook her head. To Scott’s dismay, Richard looked like the cat who’d got the cream.

“Prin, eh? Well, well, well. The quiet mouse squeaked, did it?”

Scott had his head between his legs. He focused on his breathing. A technique he’d learnt during his yoga phase but was not working right at that moment. His heart raced like a drum machine. Even his lips were tingling. Was this what a panic attack was like?

Why the fuck did I do that?

The door to the men’s changing rooms opened. Scott both hoped and dreaded it being Prin. It wasn’t.

“Are you okay?” Barry asked, sitting down next to Scott. “I saw you come down here like you had the devil himself after you.”

Sweat was pouring down Scott’s back and soaking into his new shirt. Even that was being ruined by his stupidity.

“Oh fuck, Barry,” Scott replied and burst into tears.

Barry put his arm around him. “Hey come on now.”

Scott swallowed down the sheer terror gripping him. “I let slip to Richard that Prin was the whistleblower.”

Barry let his arm drop. “Oh fuck, indeed.”

“I need to go and warn Prin,” Scott said.

The fact he’d run away was not going to go in his favour. If everything wasn’t completely fucked now anyway.

“He’s gone on his lunch,” Barry said. “I passed him when I came in from mine.”

Scott calmed a little. That bought him some time at least.

“What am I going to do?” he wailed.

“First you’re going to get yourself together,” Barry said, sternly. “Then you’ll call him and explain what’s happening. He can decide if he wants to come back into the office.”

“Good idea,” Scott said. “Okay. I can do that.”

He tried to slow his breathing down.

“Any better?” Barry asked after a moment.

Scott nodded.

“What a pair we are,” Barry continued. “This love business is hard bloody work.”

Scott frowned. “Are things not rosy in your garden either?”

He genuinely had no idea what a lover’s tiff would be like between Barry and Amanda. As for the making up, no one needed that mental image. At that moment, Scott would take any diversion on offer for a few moments of respite.

“I’m in the doghouse,” Barry replied. “Amanda wanted to go to a fantasy film con in Bognor Regis.”