proofs

Saturday night. It's one night of the week when we hope we would very rarely be put in the position that we have to work. I have managed to never work on a Saturday night, until this weekend just gone.

After Shinding, I invited Ben for drinks at Polly on Brunswick Street. I was going to get to the bottom of this if it killed me. Just a short stroll from my house, I thought it would give an easy and convenient escape route if required (run like mad and lock the door behind me).

To reduce suspicion, I glammed up, like all good girls going out for a Saturday night drink. I arrived a little early, just to make it clear that I had the upper hand. I grabbed a drink, so that he couldn't buy me one, and nabbed a table behind the fish tank.

He was predictably late, about 5 minutes, and looked predictably attractive in some very casual weekend get up. He had a brown A4 envelope tucked under one arm.

He greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and sat down, placing the envelope on the table. There was small talk, and he ordered a drink. Then it all came tumbling out.

My subtle line of questioning began, 'What the hell are you playing at Ben?'

Not surprisingly, this got his back up and he launched into a long and tiresome monologue about how nasty women are these days, that a man can't just be nice and friendly or buy a drink without the woman assigning him some horrendous ulterior motive.

I agreed but pointed out that his behaviour of late did, in fact, strongly suggest an ulterior motive - collusion with Peters, being nice to me, orchestrating photos of us kissing at a work function. He tried to tell me that his affections were genuine. I laughed and asked what was in the envelope.

He, of course, pulled out the photos of us kissing. Then he explained that the partners were considering promoting HIM to the ranks of partner at the partners' meeting on Thursday, and that he would like me to have a quiet word to Uncle to help persuade the vote in his direction (apparently using Kate would have been too obvious, plus she has a boyfriend and is less vulnerable).

The photos, he said, were copies for me to keep. To take away as a keepsake, to remind me of the fun we had at Shindig. And he said, if it ever became an issue, they would be good record of the way I behaved at work functions - lots of champagne and kissing colleagues. Apparently, this is not the only function where I have consumed champagne, the BCF ABC merger was another prime example of my excesses.

Nonetheless, I was, apparently, still looking fabulous and if I wanted to replay the events of Shindig Ben was happy to oblige.