The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2404 by Angharad Copyright© 2014 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

It was Monday morning and I had Trish and Livvie with me, we were ferrying stuff that I needed from my old and probably future room, up to Tom’s office. They had their iPads with them so they’d amuse themselves. Hilary was doing something in one of the labs but had said she would come and get them when she fed the dormice.

The deputy vice chancellor had called by to thank me for stepping in to fill the breach and had reassured me that he had every confidence in me. Tom had also called in to tell me to just put everything on hold for a month.

“What about bills and things?”

“Aye, alricht authorise payment.”

“And there are two posts vacant.”

“Aye, weel appoint on a temporary contract.”

“Can you do that?”

He shrugged.

“What if I call it a provisional appointment?”

He beamed at me, “Ye’ll mak a professor yet.”

“I don’t think I want to.”

“Ye said that aboot bein’ a lady.”

“I still do.”

“Aye, weel the rest o’ us think ye’re a natural.”

That was wrong on a number of levels but I wasn’t going to argue. Just before he went back to the dean’s office he gave the girls a bag of boiled sweets which I commandeered and gave them a couple each—otherwise it would spoil their lunch.

Pippa had left a pile of things for me to deal with in a chronological order, so it was easy if time consuming. I signed a few letters and the girls put them in their respective envelopes once I showed them how to fold them to fit the window envelopes and show the name and address of the recipient.

In no time it was lunch and Tom took us out to his usual watering hole. The girls were impressed to see the manager and staff knew us and what we’d order. They made a fuss of the girls who had a cheesy jacket potato and some horrid fizzy drink. It was so warm I just drank iced water.

I asked him about one or two things of which I was uncertain and he led me to my own solution which agreed with what he’d have done. It made me feel a little more confident in my abilities to wear his shoes for the interim.

I dealt with a few calls as well and we left at three, by which time I felt exhausted. Back at home I tried to give the others some time. Cate was being quite naughty which I suspect was to get my attention, especially as I was trying to feed Lizzie. Danni was out with Carly and Cindy and she didn’t come home until tea time. Tomorrow she had football training but when I mentioned it she said she’d remembered herself—it was on the kitchen calendar which bore most of our appointments.

Tuesday was like Monday only I had Danni and Mima with me. I worked through a pile of papers while they went off with Hilary to feed the dormice. Then lunch with their gramps and back home at three, where I did a couple of hours on the survey.

Simon arrived just in time for dinner and reminded me we had a director’s meeting the following week, could I cobble something together for the environmental department. I sent emails to my assistant asking for reports, I also asked Dan to give me a report on the field centre with photos.

Ah hour after Trish and the younger girls went to bed, I followed suit and was zonked long before Simon came up. He was gone before I got up and I did sometimes wonder why we bothered to marry, we rarely see each other.

Wednesday, we had a temp standing in for Pippa. I dictated some letters and she did some filing. Her best attribute was simply that she made tea exactly the way I like to drink it, hardly grounds for a pay rise, but it did compensate somewhat for her inexperience in running the office.

I was standing near her desk when she dealt with a caller. “Hello, department of biological science.” (Pause). “Professor Agnew isn’t here at the present, Dr Watts is standing in for him—yes, acting professor—no I’m afraid she’s in a meeting at the moment, might I take a message—very well.” She looked up at me, “Some tosser wanted to speak to the organ grinder not the monkey—his words not mine—name of Chris Sutton.”

I knew him back at Sussex, year ahead of me. He probably won’t remember me anyway unless it was as the only woman he didn’t bed. I congratulated Delia, our temp, and went back to the pile of papers on the desk.

Returning from lunch with Danni and Mima I was accosted by Chris Sutton, who replete in expensive suit, shoved a potted orchid in my hands. “Dr Watts, I presume.”

“I’m not sure that worked as a chat up line with Livingstone...” I retorted. He looked bewildered for a split second then began to laugh. “Very good, yes I like it.” I groaned inwardly, he hadn’t changed one bit. If only Trish were here she could have tied him up in knots with Quantum Theory, but she wasn’t—it was Danni who was.

“Mummy, can we see the dormice again?” asked Mima and Danni offered to take her down to the lab. Delia called Hilary who came and got them, she rolled her eyes at me and smirked as she left me to deal with Sutton.

“Dormice, there was a character at Sussex who was crazy about dormice, can’t remember if it was a boy trying to be a girl or a girl pretending to be a boy—weird—but quite harmless.”

“It was a girl trying to avoid tossers like you Mr Sutton.”

He looked aghast at me, then at the name on the door, which had been done as a temporary thing with a piece of card over Tom’s name. “Watts,” he read out loud, “It was you?”

“Your powers of deduction would leave Sherlock way behind,” I taunted.

“You’ve certainly blossomed, but surely you can’t be old enough to have a daughter the age of the older of those two.”

“Well she’s my daughter.”

He wasn’t sure what to say to that. Fate however intervened when Simon rang. “Professor, there’s a Lord Cameron on the phone.”

“I’ll take it in my office,” I looked at Sutton, “What did you want anyway?”

“To take you to lunch and over which discuss the sort of deals we might be able to offer on laboratory equipment.”

“I have to make savings of five per cent this coming year.”

“I can offer you better than that, ten to fifteen per cent off list prices.”

“Five per cent across the department.”

“Oh,” he said.

I handed him back his orchid, “Thank you but no thank you,” and retreated to my temporary office shutting the door behind me.