On Saturday evening, showered and meticulously groomed, I arrived at the Beckford Arms at about nine-thirty. While ordering my drink at the bar I spotted him through the throng, sitting at a corner table with an older white-haired man. I took a roundabout route towards them so that he would see me approach, prepared to flee instantly if his reaction was not welcoming.
He saw me, grinned and stood up. 'Hello, Mark, isn't it? Great to see you. This is Andrew, he's my boss.'
'I don't want to barge in.'
He found a chair for me while the older man and I shook hands. 'Good thing you turned up. Tom's been pestering me about his holidays. We've exhausted the subject now, haven't we?'
'No we ain't. It's nearly a year since I had any time off. To ask about a holiday now is not unreasonable.'
'Tom, if you have a holiday you'll be bored stiff after a couple of days. You're like me. I haven't had a holiday for yonks. All my time is taken up with business. My advice to you is to forget about holidays. What's the point in them? We're too busy. We don't have time.' He took a sip from his glass and looked at me. 'What about you?'
His question was so vague almost anything would have done in reply. 'I had a week in France a couple of months ago.'
'Enjoy it?'
'Mostly.'
'Went to France, ages ago. Pyrenees. Crossed over into Spain. Beautiful, love to do it again one day, when I retire maybe. I bet things are different for you, let me guess, a salaried position with a big employer. Tom and I are not so fortunate. Ferns and Foliage is a little shop I run selling a few gardening bits and pieces. I scrape around for business here and there to keep a couple of people who work for me busy, looking after the pot plants in office buildings, that sort of thing.' He spoke softly in humorous self-deprecation.
Tom immediately contradicted him, his voice quiet but clearly audible. 'It's not a small shop, you must have about twenty people working for you. You ain't fobbing me off this time, Andrew. I bet everyone else, except me, knows how much holiday they're allowed. I bet every one of them has a contract saying what his holidays are, like people are supposed to have.'
'Now you mention it, what does your contract of employment say?'
'You never gave me one.'
'I must have done.'
'You didn't.'