" So as you can see Mr. Thomson, it's all finished to a very high spec. I'll let you have a look around on your own."
Syed could feel his mobile buzzing insistently in his jacket pocket. He walked into the small back bedroom, rather grandly described in his brochure as boasting a river view.
'Maybe if you stood on a ladder and had a telescopic neck' he thought, looking at the screen on his phone.
He noticed how he always automatically stroked his finger across the name on the screen, as if his touch could transmit through the waves.
"Christian. What do you want? I'm with a client."
"You sound like a cheap tart. Have we got any bread?"
Syed smiled as Mr. Thomson wandered past, his feet clicking on the cheap laminate.
" Why would I know?" he hissed "I'm in Shadwell. Look in the bread bin, or the freezer. Or go to the bloody Minute Mart. Oh and if you do, take a carrier bag with you this time, we've got enough to paper Buckingham Palace." He paused to draw breath "And why aren't you at work?"
Christian sounded guilty. " Well there was only one class today, and I couldn't get the front door open, bottle top stuck under it I think.."
Syed snorted "That's a pathetic excuse."
" I learnt from the master. Can you come home? It's not as if either of us can get the sack. We own the companies."
Syed nodded at Mr. Thomson, mouthing 'Sorry' and wishing that the portly fifty something would stop flagrantly checking out his rear.
"No, but we could go bankrupt and have to live in a skip." he grumbled.
Christian laughed " It would be beautiful, we could make curtains from bin liners. Please come home. I miss you."
"I've only been gone an hour you big fool." Syed could swear Mr. Thomson had just winked at him.
The sun beating through the dusty window touched Syed's skin. He remembered, with a pang of pleasure, Christian's heat in the warm rumple of sheets that morning.
" Go back to bed. I'll be home in twenty minutes." He snapped his phone shut and turned to smile apologetically.
" I'm so sorry Mr. Thomson, something has come up. There is someone, I mean something, I urgently need to do at home."