Anna [J.Shelby]

CHAPTER SIXTY

"I can't believe the men have gone out, left us to it on Good Friday. Bloody unbelievable" Anna scoffed.

"They're men, aren't they?" Lizzie raised her brow at Anna's comment, Anna stared back at her before shaking her head.

"Pisses me right off, why should we be stuck in here with rowdy and drunken men, going their7 game." Anna shrugged her coat off before she sat at her desk grumpily.

"You rolled out of bed on the wrong side this morning" Lizzie commented.

Anna glared back at the woman, she had, on her better days, learned to tolerate. But this was not one of her better days.

"Oh let us guess, the kids played up going to school again" Esme asked Anna.

"Yes! They bloody did! They bloody did"

"Anna, just.. get on with it" Polly waved her off, Anna stood and glanced over to Polly.

"Are you alright Poll? You look like shit" Anna told her bluntly.

"Thank you, Anna" Polly replied sarcastically.

Polly's head settled on the safe with a sigh and sniffle, she mumbled, "I forgot the combination"

"24-8-22" Lizzie replied, Anna raised her brow at the woman as she crossed her arms.

"How do you know the paper cash combination?" Polly asked Lizzie in confusion.

"Tommy must talk in his sleep, ey Lizzie" Anna taunted her.

"He's changed the combination!" Polly groan.

"You've put it in wrong" Lizzie told her.

"No, I haven't!" Polly insisted.

"Your hands are shaking" Lizzie told her and opened up the safe for her.

"Yeah, Poll what's up with you this morning, you really don't look right" Anna called as she picked up the pile of books, the other women began pouring in.

"You worry, Anna. About everybody, everything" Polly shrugged her off with mutterings.

"And actually I am sleeping with Tommy okay, now and then because he wants to now and then. When the mood takes him, except we don't sleep, its hard to sleep bent over a desk isn't it?" Lizzie informed them.

"Happy?" Lizzie asked them.

Anna exchanged a glance of amusement with Polly before she shook her head.

"Right, well we're on our own today girls so if we get them in, hurry along the proceedings, and tell them to piss off, I'm sure that'll make us all happy" Anna told the ladies.

"Where are the men today, then?" Cathy asked.

"Getting drunk over a stag while outside in the freshest air for miles. Heres me, 5 months gone and stuck at a desk in shitty old Birmingham" Anna replied, and her comment cracked the others up.

"We're still bloody closed!" Anna shouted at bamging on the door, Polly going to anwser it.

"It's alright, it's me!" Linda's voice called over the other side of the door before Polly let her in.

"Arthur said you'd be short staffed today because they're on a works outing" Linda smiled.

"Well a 'work's outing' is one way to put it" Anna mumbled to herself.

"I brought sandwiches and lemonade I made myself. I'll make tea and empty ash trays but I won't handle money or slips. Arthur says what you do here is illegal but not immoral"