Lindsey, Himari and I work in the accounts office at an old-established but slightly falling-apart food factory in deepest Devon. We make pastry products, cakes, cake mixes and powdered drink mixes. The printer was just whirring into life for the fourteenth (and last) time before lunch. On a Friday, lunchtime was a bigger landmark than for the other days of the week. For one thing, most of the ovens were shutting down for...

It was Thursday again, so Lindsey had announced she was going to Pilates as usual. Charity, the blind woman, had invited Jennifer, the wheelchair user, and me to her house on the other side of Tiverton. So Himari, Mandy, and Nicole had decided to meet at Mandy's house, just up the lane from me. I collected Jennifer and she showed me how to dismantle her wheelchair for putting in the car after she'd transferred herself int...

We were all squashed into my kitchen once again. Mandy had brought a friend of hers who was also a neighbour of hers the other side, up the lane towards the farm. She was a distant neighbour of mine, too, and we knew each other only by sight, even if only when she drove past in her Mini. I'd never seen her with anyone, she must live alone. Rover, the cat, had become used to people coming into the house every evening. She...

First, I had to get Charity, the blind woman, to where Jennifer, the wheelchair user woman, lived. I went to Charity's house and guided her into my car. It was raining lightly and we hurried out of her house and into the car, her cane poking everything in front of her, including me a couple of times but she didn't notice and I didn't say. Much the same thing happened outside Jennifer's house except in reverse, the rain dr...

My kitchen, the one I'd thought was plenty big enough, began to look a little bit on the pokey side. Everyone squashed in as best they could. Himari, Lindsey, Jennifer, Charity and the new girl Mandy. “Everyone, this is Mandy, my friend and next-door neighbour, more or less. She ...” “Wait, wait,” Mandy broke in. “Is that more-or-less next-door neighbour, or more-or-less friend?” For an instant, nobody knew whether to lau...

Between invoices, I told Himari what Jennifer and I had got up to last evening. Fortunately, the office CCTV had no audio capability. I could see her eyes sparkling, although she was curious about me having to use the other wheelchair. “How would you feel about using it when you go there?” I asked. “Well, I would, obviously, if she asked me to in her own house. I'd feel awkward, though, knowing I could walk.” “Yes, I felt...

Next evening, Himari and Lindsey couldn't come. It was Lindsey's Thursday Pilates group, and Himari had something inscrutable to do but she didn't say what it was. Jennifer didn't seem to mind just being the two of us when we'd talked about it last evening, so she wanted to meet anyway, at her house. She gave me the address and when I arrived, bang on time, she took me inside and showed me a spare wheelchair, which sat ju...

They all arrived on time. I'd heard a car draw up alongside the house as opposed to outside the front door, and I watched Lindsey get the wheelchair out of the boot and assemble it for her friend who heaved herself into it directly from the front seat. Jennifer was wearing a fleecy coat and a woolly hat, so I guessed that she didn't like the cold wet weather we were having. I opened the kitchen door just as she got to it...

The next day, Tuesday, was normal right up until the moment when Lindsey came in looking for a report the MD had asked for. The office door swung shut and Himari and I looked at Lindsey, back in her more familiar work clothes, to see what the reaction would be. She sauntered across to her normal perch, sat on it, and looked at us for a few seconds. “Hey, I enjoyed last night,” she began. “When's the next meeting?” We all...

Monday morning came around soon enough. I knew Himari went to a relative's house on Saturdays, and I went to my middle brother's house for Sunday lunch so we'd had all weekend to think about Friday night, and to prepare suitable excuses and apologies if the need arose when we met again on Monday morning. When Himari got into the office at about one minute to nine our eyes met, clearly searching for the other person's feel...

My name is Stella and I work at an old-established but slightly falling-apart food factory in deepest Devon. We make pastry products, cakes, cake mixes, and powdered drink mixes. I am twenty-seven years old and single again after finally catching him red-handed with Suzanna, a floozy from the firm of lawyers next to his sports shop. A few months later (alright, weeks then) I was beginning to feel the lack of someone to pl...