a lot of things suddenly piled up in front of him : chloe telling him that brightland met everybody at the office , yet pritchard telling him a lot of crap about bumping into her at the house ; both of them saying they hardly knew each other , and yet her calling him simon ; and the friend in distress , the fact pritchard had finally had dragged from him and st cloud hadnt believed , the friend who needed pritchards help that night .