{"id":1296,"date":"2022-08-06T15:02:24","date_gmt":"2022-08-06T15:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1296"},"modified":"2022-08-11T12:56:49","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T12:56:49","slug":"the-pros-and-cons-of-resentment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/the-pros-and-cons-of-resentment\/1296\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pros and Cons of Resentment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ensuring his surgical facemask and sunglasses cover enough of him to render his identity unrecognisable, Chris crosses the road to the dark frontage of Patel\u2019s Stores and slides into the corner recess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wearing sunglasses and a mask at night might attract attention, except this is Pond Street W1, where the twenty per cent who aren\u2019t are asking, \u201cWould sir like to see the wine menu?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His PR consultant boss, Gordon Price, is in the restaurant opposite. The bastard is wining and dining Clarissa Vroom, daughter of the recently ennobled Frank Vroom, a former car-salesperson, who is drinking buddies with the Minister for Greasing Palms. While as juiced as a fiddler at a barn dance, the Minister bemoaned the lack of cheap PPE to Frank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo problem,\u201d said Frank. \u201cI have contacts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGet me some,\u201d he slurred. And so, Frank fell into a multi-billion-pound contract for enough PPE to kit out the entire NHS with plastic bags disguised as surgical gowns by the expedient of attaching arms and lasering the words, \u201cAnti-Viral PPE\u201d on the front. As is the case with Chinese factories, they got it wrong and so \u201cAunty Viral PPE Plc\u201d was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clarissa is an old school friend and Chris introduced her to his boss to get their business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to marry that bitch,\u201d Gordon declared after she\u2019d left. Chris envied Gordon\u2019s confidence but his declaration upset him because he loved Clarissa and had done so since they were fourteen \u2013 he just lacked the self-belief to do anything about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside Patel\u2019s, Chris turned on his transceiver and tuned in to the bug planted on Gordon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry about the name,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cWe can turn it into an ingenious play on words.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, you\u2019re so clever,\u201d Clarissa giggled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood, glad you think so. Look, I\u2019ve been pondering. I know it\u2019s early in our relationship, but I wondered if you\u2019d consent to marrying me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris clenched his fists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh Gordon,\u201d Clarissa said, \u201cI like you, but it\u2019s Chris who brought me here. I\u2019m drawn to him like a butterfly to a magnet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA what to a what?\u201d Gordon exploded, \u201cYou stupid bitch, that makes no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love Chris. I always have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a fucking moron.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI guess you\u2019ll find that\u2019s Gordon,\u201d Clarissa giggled again. \u201cGordon is a moron.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat? What are you talking about?\u201d He reached for his phone and text messaged Chris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G:>You\u2019re fucking sacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C:>I don\u2019t care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris crossed the road, burst into the restaurant, whacked Gordon square in the face with a right hander Tyson Fury would have been proud of and swept Clarissa up in his arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t call my fianc\u00e9 a stupid bitch,\u201d he snarled at the prostrate Gordon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clarissa looks at him, \u201cHow did you know?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cErrrmmm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou. Were. Jealous. You followed us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris nods his head and thinks, \u201cFuck, I\u2019ve blown this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clarissa smiles, plants a huge smacker on his lips and says, \u201cOh Chris. How sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are, dear reader, pros and cons to resentment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ensuring his surgical facemask and sunglasses cover enough of him to render his identity unrecognisable, Chris crosses the road to the dark frontage of Patel\u2019s Stores and slides into the corner recess. Wearing sunglasses and a mask at night might attract attention, except this is Pond Street W1, where the twenty per cent who aren\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[597,646],"tags":[648,649,20],"class_list":["post-1296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-597","category-august-2022-envy","tag-chris","tag-gordon","tag-his"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-kU","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1296"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1305,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296\/revisions\/1305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}