Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith Page A

father. “With an
is,
not an
ice.
”
    Matthew wondered whether this made a difference. He had a very clear idea of what she would be like, however she spelled her name. Blonde hair. And sharp features. And a nose for money.
    They moved on to other subjects. Gordon had recently sold off one of his businesses and told Matthew about what had happened to it in its new hands. Then he related developments at the golf club, where a new secretary had been appointed and had upset some of the members by unilaterally changing the date of the annual dinner dance, a small thing perhaps, but a big thing for some.
    And there was more of that sort of news, although Matthew paid even less attention to it than usual. He was wondering: what if I didn’t have my father behind me? What if somebody came along and took all that support away from me? How would I react to being done out of my inheritance? Badly, he thought.

21. Demographic Discussions
    Pat came into the gallery to find Matthew at his desk, sunk in thought. She looked at her watch. “You’re in early,” she said brightly. Matthew looked up at her and mumbled a good-morning.
    Since his father had left ten minutes earlier, he had been sitting at his desk thinking of the implications of Janis. It was possible–just possible–that she had no ulterior intent, that her interest in his father was emotional rather than pecuniary. But was that likely? Matthew could not imagine that anybody could find his father attractive; indeed, he was a most unromantic figure, with his thoughts of balance-sheets and the Watsonian Club and Rotary lunches. Could any woman find any of that interesting? Surely not. And yet, and yet…It was one of the constant surprises of this life, Matthew had found, that women found men attractive, against all the odds, and irrespective of the sort of man involved. The most appalling men had their partners, did they not, and these women often appeared to
like
them. There were so many examples of that, including people in the public eye. It was well-known, for instance, that psychopaths took rather well to the world of business and that modern business culture encouraged precisely that sort of personality. Some of these business moguls were often much sought after by women. Why? Because such men were cave-men, without their physical clubs, perhaps, but with the modern equivalent, and there were some women who simply found such men interesting.
    And of course one had to remember–and Matthew did–that there were many women whose condition was one of quiet desperation. There were many women who wanted a man and who simply could not find one, for demographic or other reasons. Such women will accept anybody who comes along and shows the remotest interest, even my father, thought Matthew.
    He looked up at Pat. “Why are there so few men, do you think, Pat?”
    He asked the question without thinking, and was immediately embarrassed. But Pat smiled at him, apparently unsurprised to be greeted this early in the morning with such a query.
    â€œWell,” she said. “Are there so few men? Aren’t there roughly the same number–to begin with–and only a little bit later, when the men die off, does the number of women go up? Isn’t that the way it works?”
    Matthew frowned. “That may be true,” he said. “That may be true in terms of strict numbers, but why is it that even before the point at which men start to die off, there do not seem to be enough men to…to go round? Isn’t that what women find?”
    Pat thought about this for a moment. Matthew was probably right; there never seemed to be enough men to satisfy women. Now that sounded odd; she would not put it quite that way. There never seemed enough men to provide each woman who was looking for a man with a man. That was it. Yes, Matthew was right. “Yes,” she said. “It’s not easy to find a boyfriend these days. I