Girl Changed

by Mark Bailey

  ‘He was all over me, like piss ants on a fish head,’ said Milly. Rosie started laughing. ‘All touchy-feely and clammy; he’s creepy. I don’t know what’s got into him, Rosie. He all but ignored me Saturday afternoon, and today he wanted details of the court case, of Mom and Christy of … hang on a minute.’

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Did you mention anything to Theo about my circumstances back home?’

  ‘Of course, I didn’t. I told you I wouldn’t.’

  ‘I reckon he’s been catching up on the news.’

  ‘The twenty-five million!’ they both declared in unison.

  ‘He’s on the scent,’ said Milly as Rosie pulled into a park outside Ocean Bells Coffee in Watford. They ordered lunch and sat down inside. ‘He’s obviously been reading the news from Australia online?’

  ‘He called Stuart last night and asked him if he’d seen the news on you about the court case in Australia. He asked Stuart not to tell me he’d called him about you. He wasn’t worried about the … well, you know, general other stuff. He was stuck on the money, though, and carried on about it.’

  ‘Bugger it. I was hoping he wouldn’t find out.’

  ‘If he knows, Milly, everyone will know. I found it myself online; it was easy enough.’

  ‘Righto, Rosie …,’ said Milly as she began. Then she related the whole story to her, from the party in Cottesloe in July 2015, to the correct inheritance. The only thing she avoided was a discussion of Simone. ‘I hope you don’t think any less of me for it, Rosie,’ she said, as they drove back to Watford Therapy.

  ‘How could I? What a story. It’s brilliant. As for the drugs and sex, who cares? Certainly not me.’

  ‘Thanks, Rosie, I knew you’d understand, I don’t know if I should say anything to Theo, though.’

  ‘Just leave him to me, Milly, it’s an H.R. issue.’

  Late that afternoon Milly called Dannii. ‘What happened to Simone and Cameron Chadwick?’

  ‘She’s absolutely brilliant. She told me she had fallen out with Cameron over his reporting of her friends … you and the Boyds … in the press. Apparently, the Boyds are none too pleased either.’

  ‘Really?’ asked Milly sarcastically.

  ‘Yep. Carried on how Cameron was her only true love like she was sacrificing that for you and them, but she had to draw the line somewhere. She said she was considering calling you.’

  ‘She needn’t bother.’

  ‘I asked her about Matt Boyd, and she didn’t deny it. Then she said she needed men and women in her life; one can’t satisfy both sides of her needs. Then she said something else.’

  ‘What, Dannii?’

  ‘She said she was moving in with Matt Boyd — to his unit in Applecross.’

  ‘Really? Who would have thought? Is she boarding or sleeping with him?’

  ‘Mates rates with shagging rights, I reckon, Milly.’

  Then Milly forgot about Simone. She couldn’t care less really and asked Dannii if she wanted to live in Brooklyn, New York, as they discussed her offer from Theo. Dannii said she’d consider it. With persistence, Milly got her to agree in principle to come to Brooklyn for a holiday if Milly moved there. Apart from her work, she thought of little else; then she joined Rosie for lunch at Ocean Bells Coffee again the next day.

  ‘So now that it’s sixty-five, thirty-five, Rosie, it’s virtually a foregone conclusion that you’ll be going to Brooklyn.’

  ‘Yes, and you’re coming with me.’

  ‘I don’t know that I can, Rosie.’

  ‘Why, what’s wrong?’

  ‘It’s Sibby. I need to stay here and get my sister sorted out. Then I’ll be happy to move and work in Brooklyn.’

  ‘Sibby’s dead, Milly.’

  ‘I know she’s dead, but there’s more to it than just Sibby. There are other things going on, and I intend to get to the bottom of it. I can’t just click my fingers and sort it out overnight; I need time, Rosie. Anyway, if you go to Brooklyn, you won’t be coming back here.’

  ‘What’s to come back to? These nuts are running around slaughtering innocent people in London, running them over. Why would anyone want to live here? If they can’t run you over, they’ll try and stab you to death.’

  ‘Yeah, well if you go to the States there’s a good chance you’ll be shot.’

  ‘No one’s ever going to win this argument, Milly. By the way,’ said Rosie changing the subject, ‘I talked to Theo last night and put things into perspective for him.’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I told him what you said yesterday about your annual income … just from the interest you’ll receive. I addressed the issue from a “who needs who” position, stressing you obviously don’t need Theo or Watford Therapy.’

  ‘I honestly hoped it wouldn’t come to that, Rosie, with other people knowing my financial position. I don’t want people to know I have money. It will affect the way they interact with me.’

  ‘Anyone who’s interested will know; it’s just a click away online. Anyway, you’ve gone some way to address it on Facebook.’

  ‘I suppose so.’ She was starting to rue her decision to get one up on Simone.

  ‘But no one will know, not from Theo or me at least. As for Theo, he’s a bib ’n’ braces man there, Milly … of classic English stock. They only respect money, power, and position ...’

  ‘And gender … the male gender that is.’

  ‘Yes, sorry, you’re right. So don’t bother appealing to his English generosity because there isn’t any. You have it all over him now; he’ll never trouble you again. You don’t need him because you have more money than he has … that’s how he’ll see it … you have more power, regardless of your gender.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ answered Milly again, rather despondently. She returned to work and decided to talk with Theo later that afternoon about her position at Watford Therapy. She took Rosie along as a witness.

  ‘What can I do for you, Milly?’ asked Theo. He wasn’t quite sure that he wouldn’t be receiving the employment equivalent of a ‘Dear John’ letter, in audio, which would set his plans for expansion back considerably. Why would anyone work when they earned the equivalent of £480,000 per annum without getting out of bed?

  ‘As I understand things, my employment options are as follows, Theo. I can oversee the three operations: Brooklyn U.S.A., Watford, and Twickenham. But in doing that, I’ll need to drop my required hours counseling from the current fifty percent to whatever I can manage after attending to my management role.’

  ‘Yes, Milly. If you consider a worst-case scenario, you may not get any counseling in at all.’

  ‘Then I have the option of managing one of each of those branches and continue counseling. If I decide I want to stay here in Watford, it will mean I’m not partly responsible, as I am now … in conjunction with you … for managing the Twickenham branch.’

  ‘Correct,’ said Theo who was starting to feel a little more confident she would continue in some role.

  ‘Then there’s my third option. I buy a house in the Bahamas, lie on the beach and drink Pina Coladas while being attended to by Mandingo, or indeed, as you have no doubt read, Theo, his girlfriend or even his sister and live a life of absolute pleasure and debauchery.’

  Rosie grinned. She put the back of her hand over her mouth and turned away. Theo just sat there looking totally nonplussed.

  ‘I don’t know how to answer that, Milly.’

  ‘But for my fair complexion, Theo, I would be there now. But I’m wondering if you would consider another option?’

  ‘I’ll consider anything.’

  ‘Okay, drop my role back from full-time to part-time.’

  ‘I can’t do that …’

  ‘Just hear me out, Theo,’ interrupted Milly. ‘Employ your new Ph.D.- or PsyD. - qualified employee here in my role. Twickenham is fine and is run well by Dr. Elizabeth Jones, albeit she doesn’t want to end up in a management role doing your paperwork. Then I
will oversee both branches while you toddle off to Brooklyn with Rosie, Stuart and your granddaughters for a year.’

  ‘I see,’ said Theo as he considered it.

  ‘I’m suggesting a year Theo because I have things I need to sort out with my dead sister Sibby’s affairs. It will mean I may need to fly off to Scotland for a week, here or there, but it could also mean I may be here for weeks, even months at a time when I can focus my full attention on Watford and Twickenham. I would like to commit to a twelve-month role as casual, part-time until I get my sister’s affairs sorted out, then I will come back full-time and move to Brooklyn in a permanent role.’

  ‘I can see how it might work.’

  ‘If you look at it objectively, Theo, as far as the business is concerned, nothing will change at all because I will shift into your current role now … just floating around, helping with invoices and filling in when one of the others wants time off. Currently, everyone including me has caught up on holidays, so technically, that shouldn’t be an issue for another twelve months.’

  ‘Why do you want to go back to casual?’ asked Theo.

  ‘Because, and I say this respectfully, you can be an absolute ass to work for, Theo, so I wouldn’t trust you to honor any change in a full-time role in any agreement with me. I feel you would use U.K.’s employment laws against me …’

  ‘You’ve used them against me.’

  ‘You had the contract drawn up, mate. I just signed it. So, where were we? That’s right, if I’m casual, then I’m casual, and that’s it, and that’s all. There will be no arguing over sick leave, bereavement leave, annual leave or any other leave entitlement because there won’t be any. It won’t matter if I don’t start until 9:30 in the morning and leave at 3.00 in the afternoon when there’s nothing for me to do because I will be a casual employee. I will also be able to work from home without feeling guilty about not being at work. It will actually save you money, Theo.’

  ‘What about your counseling role?’

  ‘I won’t be counseling anyone unless I’m needed in a backup role.’

  ‘What if something happens to one of the other two doctors here in the U.K?’

  ‘What if some space junk falls in from outer space and lands on Watford Therapy?’ countered Milly.

  ‘What if my partner is bent on retiring and I have to take on her role full time?’

  ‘Then I suggest, Theo, you have bitten off more than you can chew and need to reconsider your position in relation to your partnership.’

  ‘I don’t know; I’m just playing the devil’s advocate, Milly. But I can see where it might work.’

  ‘We can play “what if” all day, Theo if we want to, but there’s not much point in bringing up all these scenarios … we’ll just have to deal with it if it happens. Who would have thought I’d be in this situation now, with the sister I didn’t know I had? I can tell you one thing, though … I’ll never be properly settled until I get those issues with Sibby sorted out … and as you know, I do have another option now.’

  ‘Please let me consider it, Milly.’

  ‘Of course, but don’t take too long about it. Like you said to me on Sunday … as soon as you can or sooner would be good.’

  When Theo left, Rosie began locking up. Milly told Rosie she had called Annis Baird, Theo’s employment advisor, asking her opinion. ‘She advised me to go part-time or act for Theo in a consulting role. I didn’t bring the consulting role up with him because I have to set up a company, get insurances, get certification … that kind of thing and I can’t be bothered with it.’

  ‘As you said, it’s not about the money anymore. What will you do if Theo doesn’t agree to it?’

  ‘Honestly, it won’t worry me one bit, Rosie. I’ll stay where I am and sort my affairs out; then I’ll probably buy myself a couple of cartons of fifty plus sunscreen.’

  ‘You’re a character; there’s no doubt about that.’

  When she got back to her unit, Milly turned her computer on, and there was an email from Theo. He said he believed that her suggested changes could work; he just needed to get around the detail with Annis Baird.

  What a good idea, thought Milly. She sent an email back.

  ‘Thanks, Theo … by the way, we need to replace Rosie too.’

  Theo emailed her back an hour later. ‘Hasn’t she told you yet? She’s not going; she’s staying here in the U.K. with you.’

  Milly called Rosie and talked with her and then she called Nari. There was no answer.

  Chapter 23.

  They say half the world has no idea how the other half lives, but Simone Kelly found out. A chance encounter with Milly and Dannii at Lee’s Lounge, a coffee shop in Perth where she had been working, had changed her life and her aspirations forever. She wasn’t content anymore.

  Milly never wanted for money; her rich uncle saw to that. Dannii was wealthy with her family home in Cottesloe with its HIS and HERS matching Mercedes-Benz, like two pedigree mutts sitting in the driveway, and that wasn’t the half of it. There were business interests, mountains of cash, and property in Australia and the U.K., as well as the flashy cars and that mansion from the night of the party — the Boyd family home. It all challenged Simone and her diminishing self-worth. She coveted what they had. And now she’d learned that Milly’s future lay obscenely secure with an inheritance bequeathed her by the late James Anderson. They were all connected, and all their friends — the ones who mattered — were rich, thought Simone. Money, it seemed, looked after its own.

  Simone was confused when she split with Milly in 2015. She would be forever grateful to Cameron who, despite popular opinion, wasn’t just any port in a storm. But she should have departed that port long ago. Just like a storm, good weather follows the seasons and Simone had stayed over four seasons too long. She had hankered after a family briefly but was reduced to wondering as the novelty of her relationship with Cameron wore off. She wasn’t reconciled with her sexuality and was unsure where thoughts of family were headed. She hoped she could banish that sexual yen — whichever one wasn’t required — to the periphery of her life where it caused no harm. She recalled how Milly struggled with it.

  Her problems were exacerbated by her chosen career of journalism, confronted by companies like Google and the way online news is reported. Who knows if she would have a job tomorrow, or Cameron either for that matter. She had tried to influence Cameron’s reporting of the Boyds but had told him too much. To Simone’s dismay, he included everything she told him in news publications, regardless of whether he was told them in confidence. ‘I’m only securing my job,’ he claimed.

  Cameron was a beautiful person, one of life’s gentlemen. He was handsome, kind, and totally selfless, which is why Simone stayed for so long. But in the end, when it all boiled down, he had no money and never would. Arguments around news of the Boyds and Milly ended their relationship. It gave her an excuse, a way out, and for that Simone was grateful. She trod a fine line between placating the Boyds and keeping Milly at bay and was nearly caught out by Dannii at the airport. Dannii had seen nothing; she was convinced of that. Even if she had seen Sim and Naomi, she would never put two and two together. Dannii had a huge I.Q. but was just plain dumb in a lot of ways.

  Worse than a duchess without a duke, Simone was a duchess without peerage. Her class was blue collar, but her aspirations C.E.O. She didn’t want the work, but she craved the salary and knew what to do; she was beautiful. She would use her talents and nature’s gifts to connive and entrap a wealthy prize. A family unit, bound by children, secured for life by the Family Law Act. They would forge a path forward, Simone and her children, if her options diminished or situation changed. You don’t need a man if you have his children; they entitle you to his money, she decided. ‘Dear oh dear,’ she had practiced the line, ‘I’ve missed my period … I forgot my pill.’ She laughed, and her thoughts ran away as she drove to Dannii’s place in Cottesloe and dialed Matt Boyd’s number.

  ‘Heard anything on your d
ad’s sentencing yet, Matt?’

  ‘No, it can’t be long now, though … anything from Milly McTaggart?’

  ‘No, why’s that?’ asked Simone. She thought Matt paranoid. She told him yesterday of Milly’s comments on Sim Charles when they drove home from the airport with Dannii. She presumed Sim told him of their chance meeting at the airport.

  ‘Oh, I don’t know, just thinking out loud,’ answered Matt.

  ‘No. Nothing interesting. Apparently, she is thinking of moving to Brooklyn, New York, with her job.’

  ‘Okay,’ replied Matt.

  ‘I’ll see you this afternoon. I’ve got the last of my gear from Cameron’s place, and I’m heading to Dannii King’s now.’

  ‘I can’t wait.’

  ‘Me neither,’ replied Simone enthusiastically.

  Simone marveled at the way the young wealthy nouveau regarded their relationships. There was never any jealousy — at least none that she had seen. Cameron Chadwick and Dannii’s D.N.A. would still be on, or about, her person when she splayed her feminine wiles for Matt tonight. Simone was a honeypot of carnal pleasure, cooking with ingredients from acquaintances and friendships, even fleeting connections, but she would limit that now and concentrate on Matt

  Boyd Jr. She must stick to her plan; everything depended on it.

  ‘I don’t know when we’ll catch up, Dannii,’ said Simone as she left Dannii’s place in Cottesloe.

  ‘Nothing will change, Simone, at least not as far as I’m concerned; it’s been great fun. I’ve only asked you here to collect your gear because my folks will be back later this week and I don’t think they’ll be going away for a while … not Mom at least. They flew to the U.S. after the U.K. for some R&R. Oh, before I forget, I won’t be going to Brooklyn now either.