Nadine and Charles used to play a game of mixed doubles with Samantha and James every Saturday afternoon.
The game was always competitive in a healthy way. James and Charles both worked for the same city firm. Just recently James had received a bonus for a deal cut in the teeth of the 2008 crisis. Now Charles was seething with resentment, since he believed James had stolen a march on him in a way that would only be comprehensible to fellow practitioners of quantitative and qualitative easing.
“Don’t get me wrong,” said Charles, as they drove to the club. “James is a good man. But I think what he did was a bit underhand.”
“Well, darling,” said Nadine, who was feeling rather torn between loyalty and business. “I am sure there is some perfectly rational explanation for his behaviour.”
“By the way,” said Charles, “have you noticed he’s growing a beard? – Next he’ll be calling for no Shave November!”
“Darling, I really don’t see it’s important whether one shaves or not.”
“Nadine, I’m surprised at you,” said Charles, who was only half joking, “I thought you didn’t like a fellow who never cut their bib.”
The game, as usual, was close. As it drew to its climax, both girls were up at the net, and the boys were battling it out at the back of the court.
The bearded James pegged Charles back. Charles’s shot dropped short. James came running forward, screaming:
“Mine!”
Samantha ducked.
Nadine stretched to meet the smash when she felt the elastic go on her knickers.
The clean-shaven Charles was reeling on the court.
Nadine was surprised to find the shuttlecock had found its mark in her unshaven jungle.
“I really am awfully sorry,” said James.
But Charles never spoke to him again. Though, to the best of my knowledge, both James and Nadine are still playing shuttlecock together.
*
“Giorgio, you ever play sport with any of your girlfriends?”
“Sometimes I play tennis. I often go skiing and sailing with my girlfriends. It’s fun.”
“No badminton, then?”
“Too energetic. That’s what you need to do if you’re locked in an office all day. Like your friend, Mark.”
“But the girls in the story weren’t locked up in the office all day long.”
“No, but they weren’t the ones behaving badly.”