by S. L. Gape
Georgia smiled at who she assumed must have been John, referencing her, despite having never officially met. “John, you’re on,” she said, putting everything on the floor and stepping forward. “How close can I go? Bearing in mind I’m British and we don’t do basketball.”
“You can stand here,” he pointed to her.
Georgia stepped forward and assessed the net, she threw the ball and it hit the backboard and rolled around the rim. She was convinced it was going to go in, but at the last second it rolled off the side and missed, “ahhhh, boooo, that was very close.”
“Not bad, rookie,” he said. “So, Georgia, nice to officially meet you,” he stepped in, offering her his hand. He was a good-looking guy, salt and pepper hair, and a good build. “If you ever fancy a game, I can teach you, it’s a good sport.” He smiled, picking up the ball again.
Is anyone actually unattractive in this country? she thought. “You’ll regret saying that. I’ll be here every night, and nice to meet you too. Is Emily home? I wanted to return her Tupperware.”
“You’ll make my wife a very happy woman, if you come over and play ball every night,” he said, returning to his lone game. “The side doors open, just go on in,” he said, pointing out the door to her.
“Thanks.”
Georgia knocked once and opened the door, “Hello?” she said, walking in.
“Hey, what are y’all doing here?” she said, walking over and hugging Georgia.
“Hi, how are you? I just thought I’d drop off your dishes, and I also bought you a bottle of wine to say thank you for your kindness yesterday evening,” she said sincerely. “Apologies, if you don’t drink it, I didn’t really know what to get. But I loved the fact you do two litre bottles of wine here.”
“Ohhh I love this brand. You did well. You wanna glass? Or do you have somewhere to be?”
“Um, no I don’t, but surely you have better things to be doing? I don’t want you to feel like you need to babysit me.”
“Hey, cut it out, I told you yesterday that we would be really good friends. I have nothing to do and nowhere to be. I was just planning on relaxing with a glass and some Cougar Town.” She smiled. “So, what do you mean, you were stoked because we have two litre bottles of wine? You can’t get bottles of wine in England?” she said, pouring a glass for each of them.
“Oh no. Yeah we do bottles, however, we can’t get two litre bottles. We can only get litre and half bottles. So yeah, I was pretty excited to see that,” she smiled and thanked Emily, taking the glass from her.
“Easily pleased, huh?” she smirked.
“Well, yes, very much so. I need this, it’s been a bad day,” she sighed. “I was pulled over by a policeman,” she said, shaking her head.
“You what? You got pulled over by a cop? How so? What happened?” she said.
“Yes, I was causing havoc on the road seemingly. It was a red light and I was in the right lane and was turning right. Who knew, there’s actually a country out there that allows you to go through a red light,” she sighed.
“Ohhh, sweetie, did you get a ticket?”
“Nope, he was actually very nice. He told me to take some driving lessons. No, sorry, ‘go take some drivers ed,” she laughed, saying with a gruff, extremely poor impersonation of an American accent.
“Cool accent, not,” she laughed. “Hey, John will take you out at the weekend. You will easily get away with a couple hours on Saturday and if you need it Sunday too. You’ll be fine.”
“No, no; its fine I got a number, work will pay for it, I’ll call them.”
“Don’t be silly, it’s fine. He will be fine seriously. I tell you what, you can have us over for dinner one night, supply the food and beer and then we are even.”
“Well, I was going to do that anyhow,” she said shyly, realising that she really did like this woman.
“Fine it’s sorted, just let us know what time is best. So, how was your first day at work? Tell me all about it. Then we can watch some Cougar Town. It’s my favourite show, and it’s the only show that makes me feel like it’s okay to drink as much as I do.” She smiled wide eyed, and got herself comfortable.
***
Georgia finished up filling Emily in on the details; they had ordered pizza and even John had joined them. They were all united in the decision that she had been mistreated, and ‘allegedly’ it was a complete injustice. What they had done is gave a slightly different unrelated spin on it, and made her realise that Erika would have just been reacting in an emotional way. In reality Georgia would have been the same, but it made her feel bad and felt the need to give her the benefit of the doubt. Surely after the first few days she would ease up on her and realise they would be able to work together so they could finish this whole ordeal and get back to their respective lives. Additionally, if her and her husband were divorcing that was only going to add to the stress and difficulty. Maybe they could be friends and they would be able to work over wine, just like she was here doing with Emily and John.
“Seriously, I don’t think you should worry too much. This Erika is just pissed. When she realises how awesome you are, and that actually, you are worse off, I’m sure everything will be perfect and you guys will work great together, period,” John said.
“Ahhhh thanks so much, you guys, that’s so incredibly kind. Seriously, you don’t need to be this nice to me,” she said sincerely.
“Don’t be stupid. You are super cool, and we have never had any British friends before, let alone a neighbour. She’ll see that too, just give her time. And we’re just being honest with you,” Emily stopped, looking at the door opening. “Hey, baby. How was track practice?” she said, looking at the teenage girl entering the house.
“Hey, Mom,” the girl said, leaning down and kissing her mom. “What’s for dinner? I’m starved,” the girl said.
“There’s some leftover pizza. I didn’t know what time you would be back. This is Georgia, she’s from England, and she moved in across the street yesterday,” Emily said.
“And, I think we may be able to grab a new person to play ball with Torr,” John said. “Georgia this is our daughter Torrance.”
“Hey.” The athletic girl looked to be around sixteen said. “Sorry to be rude, you guys, but I have a few tests coming up. I’ll take the pizza and go study. Nice meeting you, Georgia.”
“You too.” She smiled.
“Sorry about that, she’s completely absorbed in track, which means that school and ‘us’ have to maintain a level of, how do you say….Oh blackmail,” she laughed. “That’s to ensure she keeps her grades up,” Emily said, smirking.
“Hey, nothing to apologise for. My nieces are half her age and they are interested in me for about an hour, and then the novelty wears off.” She smiled. “It’s great that she’s so motivated.”
“Ahhhh, don’t be fooled by that. She is incredibly intelligent, but all she’s interested in, is making a career of track. She could do far better on studies, but she literally pulls out the grades she needs to keep everyone off her back and that’s it. She’ll do the studying she needs and then she’ll be all over Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, whatever new form of social media is trending this week. You get the point?” Emily said, rolling her eyes.
“Ouch, sucks to be a parent,” Georgia laughed.
John laughed at the woman, before nudging his wife. “Heeeeyyyy, baby, she sounds like an American already. So, have you seen this show? It’s so funny, and this one here thinks that it permits her to drink every night because of it,” John said, starting the TV show.
“I do not drink that much.” She slapped her husband’s arm playfully.
They were a gorgeous couple. Georgia thought back to the many films and TV shows that she had watched with characters that are the high school prom king and queen and stay together and get married. She was wondering if it was not actually stereotypical after all. These two completely sold that story she thought as she lo
oked around the room at the pictures of them both barely much older than Torrance.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Georgia felt worse today than she had yesterday, and albeit the lack of sleep and the heavy and large amounts of food yesterday hadn’t really helped her. She was well aware it was the nerves from firstly another day at work, but secondly the whole lift situation. In reality, the only person nice to her yesterday was the receptionist. Worse still, she was probably a little fuelled by the beer she’d had at lunch when she agreed to this, and she should have just faced the rush hour roads again.
“Too late now,” she said to herself, finishing styling her hair. The swims each morning were seriously amazing. And if she left in a month, this would completely be the biggest thing she’d miss. She should really look into that. She didn’t need a massive house, but if she relocated out of the city centre when she moved back home, she may be able to get a smaller house with more land that she could get planning permission to build an indoor pool. Hmm worth a look, she thought.
Georgia heard the car beep outside. Grabbing her belongings and coffee cup before leaving her home, she awkwardly walked into who knew what with this person.
She was suddenly scared of what she was going to walk in to. And it annoyed her that she was letting this whole situation take control of her, this was not the person she was. Fuck she was a senior director. She controlled an office for a multibillion pound global company, she needed to sort her shit out.
“Hi, sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Hey daaaarlin, not to worry. I only just arrived. Nice to meet you, we haven’t officially met yet. I’m Anne,” said the older woman, holding her hand out. “I hear things weren’t so great for you yesterday.”
Phew, Georgia thought relieved. She seemed lovely and nice, causing her to instantly relax and start chatting.
***
Georgia was impressed by the front of the Americans, holy hell, they did not hold back. She had been in the heads of department meeting for the last hour and a half. Mike was chairing it and had outlined that this would be ‘allegedly’ for this and only this meeting. Moving forward it would be on a roster basis between Georgia and Erika. Great, they all fucking hated her! Jesus, she needed to stop swearing so much, her mum would not be happy if she was swearing like this when she went home.
They went around the table and introduced themselves, with about as much interest in doing so as a fish being introduced to a sand pit. Interestingly, whilst Erika was not being so much of a cow, her smarmy, shitty little PA was smirking to every single person that was an arse. Funnily enough, he was driving her a little more and more with every arsehole move he was making. The only way and probably the most appropriate way to assimilate him, was that awful guy, the PA one in ugly Betty, she thought. Albeit she didn’t actually know if Tim was gay. Unlikely she thought, he was acting like a little prick, just like the character did though.
Georgia didn’t know what had come over her, but seriously, she was actually getting off on it almost. She scrolled over her phone and sent an emoji of a questioning face and a fist to Julia. Straight away she received an emoji filled response of giggly faces and streamers back, with ‘you go girl!!’ Georgia smirked and was actually relatively happy when she looked up and noticed Tim and Erika catching her smirking into her phone. Screw it, screw you all, she thought to herself. She would do this, if it killed her. And she would stand her ground, she was the boss after all. If they thought they would take her on, bring it on, it would be easy enough to fire their arses.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Erika walked out of the boardroom annoyed. Mike had totally made her feel incapable, and had completely undermined her. He was acting like his loyalties were all with Georgia, and not her. They had worked together for so many years, and he spun her this tale that this situation would be great for her. But now he was making her feel like she was worthless, and like she had been demoted after all.
A short while after the meeting, Vanessa walked into her office. “How you holding up, sweetie?” she said to Erika, who was looking off distantly.
“Hey, yeah it all kinda sucks, you know?” she said sombrely.
“Is Dulcie back home? The meeting wasn’t exactly great, was it? You wanna come over for dinner this evening?”
“You know what, I’ll take a rain check. I want a night with my girl, cuddle up, watch Frozen, maybe get a Luigi’s. I dunno, bake some cookies maybe. Chill in the pool. But thanks, I dunno what Mike’s playing at, but honestly, I’m just about ready to quit.”
“Come on, don’t do that. You are just in a crappy place right now. Go see Mike and talk to him, or ask for a couple days off to clear your head.”
“I can’t do that. This chick just got here. Plus, I only just got back from my mom’s. It’s fine, seriously, I’m good. I just need some time with Dulcie.”
“How’s things with you guys?”
“Yeah, ya know?” she said sadly. “Look, I need to do this report for her ladyship, you mind if we catch up later? I just wanna get this settled and then head off home to my baby girl.”
“Yes of course, if you need anything you know where I am right?”
“I know, I know,” she said, attempting a smile.
***
Erika couldn’t concentrate at all. Her head was in a million and one other places, and the last thing she was able to do was finalize this darn report. She could feel herself getting more and more frustrated, equally making the process considerably harder. What wasn’t helping further was the fact that she was getting upset and angry about the whole thing. She could normally do this with her eyes closed, but at this moment in time she was completely unmotivated, and she was disengaged. Erika sighed loudly, slamming her pen down. She picked up her phone and walked to the window dialling the number, and looked out over the busy city.
Erika listened to the dial tone, as she heard it connect, “Ciao bambino come stai?” she heard the soothing voice of her mother.
“Ciao, Mamma. Not… so good, Mamma,” she said, allowing the tears to fall.
“Baby, what’s the matter? Hey, come on, you’re scaring me. Are you okay? Is Dulcie okay? Erika please?”
Erika controlled her breathing, “I’m fine, I’m sorry for worrying you, Mom. I’m just having a pretty bad day, well week,” she scoffed. “Month actually.”
“Baby, I know things aren’t great at the moment, but you have a beautiful daughter. You are both healthy. I am, well, I believe I am healthy. You have a loving famiglia, this will be a little setback. You need to not let this takeover you. We need to focus on the positive energy, bambina.”
Erika heard a knock and a hello, so she turned around to face the door. She quickly wiped her tears as she stood in front of Georgia, which really was all she needed right now. “Mamma, I need to go, call you later, ciao,” she said, hanging up before her mother had a chance to respond.
“Hey, what’s up? Is everything okay?” Georgia said, rushing over to Erika and shutting the door behind her, which unfortunately, was a little too heavy and resulted in it slamming.
“I’m fine,” she snapped.
Georgia stopped herself from being reactive, and inwardly counted to three. She breathed in deep. “Well, clearly you aren’t,” she said quietly. “Look, why don’t you go home? Take the report, and do it there? You can email me it tomorrow. Go spend some time with your family.”
Erika was mad, who the hell did she think she was? It was up to her to send people home? She could feel herself boiling.
Georgia could read that Erika was pissed off, something else to add to the list she thought. Jesus this woman hated her. “I hope that didn’t come across like I was trying to domineer, because that wasn’t my intention. I will cover for you with Mike and say you have gone to do the report as you were being interrupted, if I need to?”
Erika looked at Georgia blankly, “I don’t need cover with Mike. But I will go; I’ll have it
in your inbox before the end of the night,” she stated.
“Seriously, I can wait until tomorrow. If it’s easier. Either way, the options there,” Georgia said, walking off before Erika had an opportunity to dismiss her further.
***
“Hi Georgia, do you have a minute?” Mike said, coming into her office and shutting the door behind him.
“Yes of course, is everything okay?” she asked, concerned at the look on Mike’s face.
“Um, yes. Well, no, actually. I was wondering if you could tell me what happened today please.”
“Today? When today?” she said confused.
“With Erika? What happened between you two?”
“Oh, right. Sure, I wanted to ask her for some information, so I went to her office and walked in and she was on the phone. She turned around and was crying. I said to her why didn’t she go home and that I could wait for the report until tomorrow. She said no, she’d have it to me before the end of the night and I left. Why’s that?”
“So, you didn’t storm into her office and slam the door and make her cry?”
“What?” she spat incredulously. “Are you joking? Of course I didn’t. I’m not going to lie, I shut the door when I saw her crying and rushed over to her, and it did slam, but that was nothing to do with her per se. I was concerned, she was clearly very upset. But no, I wasn’t the one to make her cry,” she couldn’t believe this. Erika had completely screwed her over, again. She genuinely thought she was doing a good thing. She was livid, and she had a good mind to go to Erika’s house and bawl her out over it, but what was the point? She was seriously fighting a losing battle in this place. Plus, seriously, if anyone had ever done that in front of her nieces she’d go mental. It wasn’t fair to do that in front of her child.