Page 5 of Thrill

Lisa sniggered and sat down at the table. She nursed a cup of tea.

Breakfast time had always been pandemonium in the Healy house.

“You love her really,” Lisa said.

Danny reached for the ketchup bottle. “Hmmm. It’s just aswell, isn’t it?”

He helped himself to a tiny bit. He could feel his mother watching him.

“Was that Monica?” Danny’s father, Andy, came in.

“Unfortunately,” Danny replied.

“Here, love,” Lisa said, leaping to her feet. “I’ve done you a plate. Do you have time?”

“Yeah,” Andy replied. “Don’t have to be on-site until nine thirty. How about you, first-born?”

He clapped Danny on the shoulder.

“I’m so excited for another day shifting dildos from one side of the warehouse to the other,” Danny replied. “I don’t know why I don’t sleep there and be done with it.”

The smile on his father’s face dropped.

“Still,” Danny continued. “Who knows what might happen?”

Lisa put a plate of food down in front of Andy. “If you hate it so much, maybe it’s time to find something else.”

Danny sighed. “For what?”

“Look at Monica. She managed to find a job she likes.”

Monica worked as a personal trainer at a very high-end gym. She often came home with decent tips, especially at Christmas.

“Or Ben,” Andy said. “It’s not too late.”

Ben, his younger brother, was studying at university. He wanted to do something with test tubes. Danny always seemed to zone out when he told him about particles and bio-whatnots.

“I think that ship has sailed,” Danny replied. “I’m not exactly university material.”

“Things will get better, love,” Lisa said. “Who knows, John might get another job and you’d get his.”

John Parry was Danny’s boss. He saw the warehouse at Pleasure Seekers as his own personal fiefdom. He wouldn’t be moving on for another twenty years.

Is that all I have left? Waiting to jump into someone else’s shoes?

“Something will come up, son,” Andy said.

He reached across and squeezed Danny’s hand.

“I know,” Danny said. “But not today. I’d better go. If I miss my bus, what’ll happen to all those dildos?”

“Go on, Dan.”

“It’s Monday. It’s tradition.”

Danny sat in a forklift truck, his colleagues Connor and Paul looking at him expectantly.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Danny replied, shaking his head. “Once and once only. We’ve got to get those pallets moved before the trucks get here.”