Page 93 of Kicks

Eddie jumped to his feet. “Don’t get too carried away, Brad.”

“That’s enough,” James said. “Eddie, sit down please.”

He slumped down in his chair.

“I thought you’d be a better loser than this,” Brad said. “Hope that doesn’t come back to bite you on the arse.”

“Brad. Stop,” James barked.

To his credit, Brad did shut up. Eddie wanted to run out of the whole building. He wished he’d never heard of this stupid competition.

“Brad, you have achieved three percent more revenue than Eddie in the time period I set.”

Brad whooped as if he’d won a rodeo. Eddie truly despised him.

Such a tiny margin. If I’d given the fifteen in the first place, I would have beaten the little shit.

“The best man won then,” Brad crowed.

Eddie gritted his teeth while his whole world imploded.

“I’ll be interviewing you both on Friday. You’ve got the week to prepare yourselves.”

Brad frowned. “You never said anything about that.”

“I did but as usual you probably dismissed it,” James replied. “Did you think the job was going to be on a few sales targets alone?”

The colour had drained from Brad’s face. Yet, Eddie could see a tiny chink of light in the distance.

“Thank you, James,” Eddie said. “I’ll be ready.”

“So will I,” Brad spluttered.

The tone in his voice suggested he would be anything but ready. They both left the meeting room.

“What have you said to him?” Brad asked.

He leaned uncomfortably close to Eddie, who pushed him away firmly.

“It’s like the man said,” Eddie replied. “You were told. What’s the matter? Worried?”

“Hardly,” Brad said scornfully. “You look like shit. Bennett’s throwing you a bone. He knows who the best man for the job is.”

“Brad, why don’t you fuck off?”

Eddie stalked away. It was a lame response. Brad had been right about one thing. He did look like shit. Sleep had been a stranger to him since Billy had stormed out of the flat.

Why did life have such a habit of building him up only to smash him down?

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Scott said as they strolled through the main shopping streets. Scott had a date that night and wanted a sensible outfit. Eddie had come along for the distraction.

“Enlighten me.”

“James has always wanted to give the job to you. He must have thought you’d beat Brad in this stupid competition. Now you haven’t, he’s clever to have given himself a back-up plan. You can learn a lot from him.”

“You think?”

“Sure I do. I’ve always liked James. The only wrong step he ever made was employing Brad the knobhead. I suppose everyone can have an off day.”