Men at Work [Quick Read] by Mike Gayle

Chapter 1
    “What would you do if you won the Lottery?”
    It was just after ten on a Sunday night in May and thirty-one-year-old Ian Greening was sitting in the Red Lion with his girlfriend Emma Kavanagh having one of their amusing but daft conversations.
    “How much are we talking?” asked Ian. “Many millions or just the one?”
    Emma considered the question. “Many,” she said after a few moments. “I reckon you’d need six or seven million to totally change your life.”
    “Cool,” said Ian. “Six or seven, eh? Where to begin? Well, it’s obvious that I’d buy us a new house with his ’n’ her bathrooms so that I wouldn’t have to walk over your underwear to get to the shower. Then maybe I’d pay off my mum and dad’s mortgage. A luxury yacht would be nice and I’d get myself a season ticket for the Blues. Actually scrub that. I’m a millionaire now, aren’t I? So I’d be able to afford a box at the Blues!” He glanced over at Emma and grinned. “Oh, and I suppose I’d have to take you on the holiday of a lifetime because if I didn’t you’d moan at me for the rest of my life.”
    “And is that it?” asked Emma.
    “Obviously I’d buy a few flash cars. You know the drill, a couple of Ferraris and maybe a Range Rover for when I need to take you to Tesco’s but other than that I think I’m pretty much done.”
    “And what about work?”
    “What about work?”
    “Well, I assume we’d both give up work. So what would you do with all your spare time, you know, when we weren’t jetting about or lounging on our yacht?”
    Ian laughed. “What are you talking about? I’d be more than happy for you to give up work, but what makes you think I would?”
    Emma stared at him in amazement. “So you’re telling me that if you won seven million pounds on the Lottery you would still get up every morning, make your way through the traffic to get to work, put in your eight hours and then fight your way home again, even though you didn’t have to?”
    “Yeah, of course I would,” replied Ian. “There’s no way I’d ever give up work. Not in a million years. Not even for seven million pounds.”
    “But why not?” said Emma, more than a little bit confused by her boyfriend’s reply. “Why would you carry on working in what – no offence, babe – is a temp job that you never quite found the energy to leave?”
    “I just would,” said Ian.
    “Why?”
    “I just would. There’s no reason. I just would.”
    “BUT WHY?”
    There was a silence and then Ian said, “Because I love my job, okay?”
    Emma looked at him. Her face was puzzled. “I know you like your job but you actually love it ?”
    Ian nodded. “It’s true! I don’t care who knows it. I love my job.”
    “Yeah, but when you say you love it, you really mean that you like it a lot, don’t you?”
    Ian shook his head. “Nope, when I say I love it, I really do mean that I love it. I adore it. If my job could get up and move around I would follow it and kiss the ground it walked on. That’s how much I love my job.”
    “But you don’t love it more than anything else in your life do you? For instance, you don’t love it more than those awful sandwiches you’re always making?”
    “You mean the Greening Cheese Wonder?” Ian felt hungry at the very thought. “Ham, cheese, Branston pickle, with a layer of crushed salt and vinegar crisps all wedged between two slices of white bread and garnished with a half radish?” Emma nodded as Ian found himself wiping a line of drool from the corner of his mouth. “Yeah of course I love work more than those.”
    “Okay,” said Emma, clearly still wanting to make her point. “How about your comic collection? I can’t believe for a minute that you love work more than those X-Factor things you’re always going on about.”
    Ian sighed heavily. “X-Men, Emma. They’re called X-Men.”
    “X-Men, X-People what’s the difference?”
    “What’s the difference?” Ian couldn’t