Intervention 10

I had a communication from a regular contributor to this site. He likes intervention stories and this one fits that bill. It popped into my head and I thought I would share, I hope he and his wife enjoy it.

There is little character development, it goes in quite hard.

I was sitting in the corner of the cafeteria when he walked in. It had sort of become 'our' corner. I saw him join the queue to get his lunch. He looked at me and smiled. We both worked for a large multinational conglomerate. Our division built ships, normally warships. I was an assistant project manager and he was something in procurement or logistics.

All of a sudden, a woman sat opposite me placing her coffee mug and a plate with a cake on it on the table. She did not ask, just sat down. I recognized her, she was a Senior Project Manager on a different part of the warship we were building. I could not remember her name.

"That seat is taken." I told her.

"It is now; I am sitting here."

I was stunned. "Can I help you?"

"No, but I can help you."

"That's very nice of you, but how?"

"To stop you from making the biggest mistake of your life and to save your marriage so you keep your family."

I was amazed at what she said. "What!"

"To save you from making a mistake with Mr Smooth."

"What!"

That was when he turned up at the table.

She looked up at him and said. "Fuck off."

He looked shocked. "But..."

"I will not tell you again, now just fuck off."

She turned her attention back to me, ignoring him.

He just walked away and sat at the table with our friends.

Her attitude did not surprise me, she was known for being direct, blunt and aggressive in meetings but this was over the top. I had never heard her use an expletive. I was sure he would report her to HR for being abusive.

"How is your husband, Mike? Designer and troubleshooter for a construction company if I remember correctly from the last time I met him, unless he has changed jobs of course."

I just shook my head.

She carried on. "He works reduced hours and from home most of the time, doesn't he. Thirty hours, isn't it? Unless he has to go on site to sort out a problem. Must work out well for you, with him working from home he can look after your two nippers, Klara and Ben, Klara must be coming up to four now, Ben just turned two?

"It's useful because working from home, he can get all the housework done whilst the kids are having an afternoon nap. I expect he has to work a bit later in the evening sometimes than you would like so he can catch up with work if the kids have been a bit of a handful during the day. That probably annoys you a little bit after you've done a full day at work and you just want to relax with your husband."

She gave a little giggle. "Tell me when are children never a bit of a handful? Whatever age they are, I've got two grown up ones, and not a lot has changed. Never mind, back to Mike. He probably had to take a bit of a pay drop, but when the kids go to school it will pick up again. I know the family steps up when he has to go away and either your Mum or Mike's looks after the children. Your Dad is quite proud of you, you know?"

My Dad was a welder and Mike's dad was an electrician in the shipyard; they were busy at the moment constructing the new ship at the other end of the yard in the production shed.

How did she know so much about my family? I just muttered. "Thanks."

"How did it start? Did you both end up in the stationary room looking for page dividers, he probably followed you in. Or was it a chat over the printer whilst you were waiting for his one hundred and forty-seven-page report to print, double sided, colour of course, it takes longer. That's often the way. He probably queued it up, saw you head towards the printer room, got there just after you but asked, ever so politely, if he could go first as he was in a rush. He would have chatted, just passing the time of day whilst he waited for his printing, but when it finished printing, he didn't rush off, he stayed and talked."

Now she mentioned it, she was correct, he did not hurry away, it was a nice chat.

How did she know?

"Look, I might get some of the timings a bit wrong but it's the events and the sequence that matters. But just hang in there.

"What was next, a little smile, a nod of the head or a discrete wave every time he passed your desk?"

I work in a big open plan office with several different departments. Then it struck me, I did not know which one he worked for.

"Then he just happens to turn up in the tea bar at the same time as you, and he gets the milk out of the fridge for you. In itself innocuous, but he smiles at you when he passes it to you.

"Then holding the door for you when you leave, again all normal, we all do it for all colleagues, it's just courteous, but he does it with a little flourish and maybe a smile or nod of the head, maybe both."

"Then all of a sudden, he is always there, stationery room, printer room, tea bar or walking past your desk. Always cheerful and happy with a smile on his face that seems like it's just for you. But never in the cafeteria when there are other people around, until one day you are there first and sitting on your own. Then he joins you sitting opposite you, your work mates join you and you all sit together, he talks to everyone, they are happy with that, because they have all seen him around, you are glad about that as now your friends are his friends. It doesn't cross your mind that he doesn't seem to talk to anyone else apart from when you are all in the cafeteria, it doesn't cross your mind that he is not being anything but friendly."

She took a sip of her coffee.

"Then one day he asks for your help, just something little, like how to do something on Word or Project. Project is right up your street as an assistant Project Manager. I am guessing it was either the first or last thing when there were only the two of you in the office. What was it?"

"Project, when I got in early one day."

"And you felt good that you could help your new friend?"

I nodded.

"Then later he asked for your help again, this time advice on a personal matter. So that was when you started sitting apart from your friends, not too far away, the next table over at his suggestion. Just once at first. But then twice or so a week. You were the next table over, near your work mates."

I had not thought about it, it seemed natural at the time, but she was correct.

"Then he wanted to ask your advice on a deeper personal matter and that was when he asked your friends if he could borrow you for a few minutes to ask a personal question and as he is a friend of everyone by now, so no one sees anything wrong, well almost no one. But the odd person was suspicious, but that was also part of his plan."

"What plan?" I ask.

"All will become clear soon. So, you go and sit in the corner, he leans forward and asks for your advice, something big, like death of a close friend, family member, maybe a former girlfriend, no I have it! A terminal illness?"

That was astoundingly accurate. "Mother, cancer."

"He didn't touch you; he looked sad, he leaned back so you couldn't touch him, but you wanted to?"

I did not remember any of that apart from wanting to reach out to comfort him.

"Let me guess, he said there was a fifty-fifty chance it will go into complete remission?"

"Yes, she was nearly through chemo and they wouldn't know for a week or two if it worked."

"I will bet he also asked you not to share the information with his new friends, he didn't want their condescending looks or pity.

"Tell me, do you or your family have any experience of dealing with cancer?"

"No, not really, none of our family has had anything to do with it, a few of our family friends have."

"Ah, that's what I thought. Right, I guess after that you sat with your friends most of the time but once or twice a week you sat alone with Mr Smooth? At this very table. It was noticed again, still part of his plan

"Then one day he suggested going to the coffee shop outside the yard on Tuesday, their quietest day by the way. Just you and him. He said it might be a good idea to go separately so people didn't get the wrong idea. When you got there, he told you his mother was responding to the treatment, and it was looking good. Then you did the same thing the next Tuesday."

That was spookily accurate to what had happened. I did not see it until she pointed it out.

"I am guessing this carried on for about two or three weeks. Then he came in very happy one day and whilst you were sitting here at this table, 'your' table by now, he told you the tests were good and his mother was going to be fine, not completely out of the woods yet, but ninety nine percent. And you were happy for him. Then he said he had no one to celebrate with and asked if you would go out to dinner with him to share the joy. He would pay. But he insisted you told Mike all about it. Was that when you realised, apart from mentioning him at the start, you haven't mentioned him to Mike at all? The separate table, the coffee shop trips outside the yard. But you had told Mike about the little bump that Karen had in her car, and in the rainstorm the other week all of Suzie's clothes fell off the washing line onto the garden and had to be washed again or some such trivia. You felt guilty. So, you declined his offer."

How did she know about Karen's bump in her car?

She carried on. "It's just a shot in the dark, but was that when you started to spend more time sitting at this table and not with your friends?"

Again, I hadn't noticed, but now she mentioned it, she was correct.

"Was that when he started asking more about your family, he had already asked some family stuff and he knew of Mike and what he did, he asked about Klara and Ben. He probably knew quite a lot about your family by then. Like you had little knowledge of cancer. That was why he chose cancer as his 'event' of choice to entrap you. but now he wanted the dirt."

That was when she pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and laid it on the table and smoothed it out. I could see several lines of writing.

My friend saw the piece of paper, he stood up, he had a worried look on his face. The Senior Project Manager just turned and looked at him. He sat down.

She looked back at me and carried on. "It was probably towards the end of that week or maybe the next week he started doing Mike down, calling him a house husband. He implied he was a bit of a loser because he didn't work in the shipyard, not outright just an implication. Said you could do better than Mike, but he understood you couldn't leave because of the children. Because sometime in the last two weeks you told him how unhappy you were with Mike's working practices, forgetting to mention that you had no work to do on an evening when you got home and most days dinner was on the table waiting for you. So apart from playing with your children, you had nothing to do over the weekend but enjoy your time with your husband and children; you probably forgot to mention those little bits."

She took another sip of her coffee and gave a small grimace, probably wasn't very warm by now. I know my tea was cold.

This was getting scary again. She was correct but I hadn't seen it, but that was not what he said.

"No, he never did Mike down at all, in fact he praised him."

She turned the piece of paper over and there was writing on that side as well.

"The alternative style as often used by the accomplished seducers of married women."

My mouth hung open.

Nothing stopped her. "He never did Mike down, but he praises you, so the effect is the same but gentler. He raises you up instead of doing Mike down. He raises you above Mike, you are no longer equals. Have you mentioned how much Mike earns at all because he has a pretty good idea what your wages are."

"No, that's personal, I would never share that."

"Ah but you did share personal information about family and your life, probably not financial information. What did you tell your new friend that you haven't told Suzie or Karen or any of your other work mates?"

Oh shit. I had told him stuff that I had not shared with my friends, and I had known them for years. I just can't remember what it was.

"You see, after all your little chats earlier he had all the information he wanted, he had all the ammunition he needed. You've laid yourself completely open to a man who is in fact a complete stranger. He could have been lying to you. Have you gone on the Internet and researched cancer? Did he say what sort of cancer it was? Do you know how much of what he said was true?"

It never crossed my mind that my new friend would lie to me, why would he. I thought to myself what would he gain? Then it struck me what she said about an accomplished seducer of married women. Oh Shit.

She ran her finger down the piece of paper in front of her. "Was this one of them? 'I'm sure he does his best but if Mike had a proper job, you could have a better car instead of that ratty old Fiesta."

I shook my head. How did she know I had a Fiesta? I love that little car.

"Or was this one of them? 'I am sure Mike loves you, but he seems to care more about his job' or 'being a part time house husband is an honourable thing, but it's not a proper job.'

"Is Mike's job a part time job?" She asked. "I never found looking after children a part time thing. How about this? You told Mr Smooth you get annoyed at Mike because he goes away at short notice, well he would, that is part of his job. And you would have to sort out one of the Mums for babysitting whilst he was off doing a site visit. You and Mike would have discussed all that before he accepted the job, which was a promotion. But I bet you didn't mention that to Mr Smooth over there?" She said, nodding to my new friend. The cafeteria was nearly empty now lunchtime was over, it would just be drinks, snacks and cakes from now.

She turned and looked at him. "Shouldn't you be at your desk now?" He got up and left.

That was a good point, that could get me out of this situation. "Yes, I must go too."

"No, you don't, I have cleared our little chat with your boss, Jamie, he knows where you are and what is happening."

She carried on. "Perhaps this was the one. 'Mike's job has a lot of responsibility, but It must be hard on you when he goes away at short notice, leaving you with everything at the last minute'. You agree, but, well, it's been fine every time for the last three years until Mr Smooth mentions it. Then he will add something like. 'Well Mike has to do it, it's his job, even though you are probably earning more than him'.

"Okay, another one. He goes on about how Mike is living it up in a hotel, eating in a restaurant and having a few beers with work mates in the bar whilst you are at home looking after your children, he may even mention their names. When in fact Mike is probably eating sandwiches or a burger from a greasy spoon roadside cafe and crawling round a construction site till it gets too dark to see, or he has brought flood lights in so he could work later so he can get home quicker to his adoring wife who is about to cheat on him with Mr Smooth."

"No, I would never do that to Mike."

She raised an eyebrow. "No, maybe not? But it has crossed your mind."

I tried to hold her eyes, they bored into me, she could see the truth. I could not stop myself looking down in guilt. It had crossed my mind, but I had too much to lose to do it, it would never have happened whilst I was still married.

"So which one was it that he got you annoyed at Mike with?"

"The eating in restaurants."

"Ah right, so everything has been fine for the last three years until Mr Smooth starts to point out the faults, he has probably targeted those from you little chats. I bet you hate cooking for the children when Mike is away because he normally does it?"

"You probably mentioned that and then he expanded the story to you cooking for the kids whilst Mike is eating in swanky hotel restaurants, because that is what you wanted to hear."

"No, it wasn't." I said loudly, but there was an element of truth in it.

"How long was Mike away last time? Four, five days? Two weeks or so ago, wasn't it?"

How did she know that?

"Yes, three weeks. Hull, it was only going to be for four days, but it was a week and over a weekend, he got home late Sunday, he was shattered, I had to take the kids to his Mums on the way to work."

"If I get the story right then? Mike more than likely had been working thirteen-hour days, the legal limit, including the weekend and then illegally drove home to be with his wife who had to look after her own children over the weekend with help from parents, and then you act the martyr because Mike asked you to drop the children off because he was tired. You had to detour half an hour to drop your children off at his mother's, was that because you wanted to rush to see your new friend, Mr Smooth because he would support you? He would understand, he would listen. Mike didn't listen last night. He just fell asleep; you wanted more, but all you got was a cuddle. Well, it was just before eleven at night when he got in and he had been on the road for over five hours to get home to his wife and family. At least the traffic would not be too bad that time on a Sunday evening.

"With Mike being away Mr Smooth had all week to undermine him, did he say something like 'You need a rest after the week you've had'. 'Mike should be here for you', 'I'm sure he could come home to spend a weekend with his lovely wife, then go back on Monday'. I bet on that Monday Mr Smooth had a dig at Mike, just a little one saying something like, 'Mike could have dropped the kids off and then gone back to bed'.

"I bet Mr Smooth understands after what you told him in your chats that Mike only gets called in when it's almost too late and contracts and time scales are going to be missed."

Now that was really spooky, that was almost the exact words that he had said, how did she know. "Yes, that was what he said, how did you know?"

"I didn't, I guessed, I know his sort."

She took a sip of her coffee. "Urg, it's cold."

She looked round to the counter, that was when the deputy head of HR walked in, that was weird. Nice chap, David, we had chatted a couple of times. He waved to us. She waved back with her cup.

"Was it after one of the visits to the coffee shop on Tuesday outside the yard or the following Friday during your intimate chats with Mr Smooth at this very table that he asked you to go out on that Monday, he suggested that you meet after work to celebrate his mother's recovery? But this time he suggested you tell Mike it was a late meeting, just in case Mike got the wrong idea. And you agreed?"

"Yes. Friday. How did you know?"

She ignored my question. "So, you had not told Mike about Mr Smooth and now Mr Smooth got you to lie to your husband."

All of a sudden a fresh hot cup of coffee turned up, there was tea for me, I do not drink coffee. It was HR David. How did he know that? He put them down and walked away, sitting at a table further down the cafeteria with his own drink and a laptop.

"Yes." I felt ashamed.

"To make matters worse, he suggested that you tell Mike at the last minute about the late meeting. That would be normal for an emergency meeting, but that was Mr Smooths' way of asserting his control over your family. He would feel powerful making your husband cook your food and then having you sitting in a plush restaurant with him. Because now rumours may have started to reach Mike just as he planned. That was a shitty thing to do, so from here on, Mr Smooth is now known as Mr Shithead."

I was stunned at what she said, and not the name calling.

She took a sip of her coffee, I think she was giving me time for what she said to sink in.