Fight to the Top

by S. L. Gape

  “So, what’s this about, ladies?” Mike asked seriously.

  “You wanna go?” Erika said to Georgia.

  “Yes, sure. Ok, well I guess we’ve stressed you both out enough, which we would both like to apologise for. But to cut a long story short, Erika visited me this morning and apologised, we both did. I’m not gonna say we both acted like idiots, because I genuinely don’t think we did, but equally, we didn’t really do great with the situation. We have decided to give it a go. A proper go this time. I’m not saying it’s going to work, I’m not saying we are happy about any of it still. Nor are we going to be best buds, but we will maintain an element of professionalism and try it. I will go back to my original plan of giving it a month and then if Erika’s happy to do so, I’d like us two to have a meeting and discuss how we both feel.”

  “I am happy to do that,” Erika said confidently.

  The table was deathly silent as the two men took in the details, before Derek finally spoke.

  “Thanks, George,” he said. “I know it’s hard, and has been hard, but I think you’re doing the right thing. And thank you, Erika. That was incredibly courageous and shows such integrity, now I can see what Mike meant about you. I would love to sort these fine details, but it looks like I have a flight to catch alone, so I should get off. I will leave this with you Mike?” Derek questioned.

  “Thanks Derek. And thanks for coming over. I actually have a meeting to attend, however, I have a plan for you two. You say you are going to try this, so you need to know more about everything. Both of you. So when I leave I’m going to contact the investors and rearrange the meeting until next week. I want you guys to go up there, spend some time getting to know it, and you can deliver the presentation to them. It’s your baby, so it really shouldn’t be me doing it,” he said.

  “Mike, it really isn’t as easy as that. I have a child. If Dan can’t have time off work I won’t be able to just take off in a couple days.”

  “I’m sorry, Erika, but that’s for you to sort out,” he said, walking out just like that. He was still clearly pissed with her.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Georgia knocked and waited patiently for the door to open.

  “Hey. Dang, we thought you had just left without saying goodbye,” Emily said, pulling her into a hug.

  “Don’t be silly, of course I wouldn’t. When do you have to leave?”

  “In about forty minutes. I just wanted to come over and say thanks and give some thank you gifts,” she said seriously.

  “Oh, you didn’t need to do that. Come on in,” she said.

  Georgia accepted the coffee that Emily had offered her and was happy that all three of them were there.

  “So, I have a gift for each of you. A thank you for your friendship and kindness towards me. So Torrance, for you,” she said, watching her open it.

  “Oh man, you got me a Pacers jersey? Thank you so much. I’m so bummed you’re leaving,” she said, hugging Georgia. “I was totally hoping we could start running together and kick dad’s butt at basketball,” she said sincerely. “Thanks so much for this, it’s totally awesome.”

  “For you, Emily,” she said, handing her the workout water bottle with insightful words written on it. “Sorry, it’s pretty rubbish, but I only went to the sport shop,” she said.

  “Don’t be silly, you really shouldn’t have. And actually, I needed a new one. I go through these so quick,” she smiled easily.

  “And last but not least for you, John,” she said.

  John opened his basketball, “Hey, this is awesome! You can never have too many basketballs,” he said. “But you know you really shouldn’t have. That jersey alone is far too expensive, you really shouldn’t have,” he said sincerely.

  “Guys, you have absolutely no idea how your hospitality has kept me grounded and sane. If it wasn’t for you guys, there’s no way I would have been able to cope. It really is the least I could do,” she said sadly, before continuing on to them.

  Georgia smiled to her friends, incredibly grateful that she had met them. “And seriously, you guys got pretty naff presents in comparison to Torr. More so because I was kind of selfish and got the basketball for you, albeit, I figured we could use that one for water basketball when summer comes,” she said.

  “Huh?” John said surprised, looking between her and his wife.

  “What do you mean? I thought you weren’t here for summer? Are you gonna come back and visit? Or, oh my gosh, say it ain’t so. You’re not leaving?” Emily said, shooting up over to her new friend instantly.

  “Correct!”

  “For real? How? When? Why?” Emily said, clearly confused by everything.

  Georgia laughed before telling them the days events as she threw her bag in to her car. She was glad John had spent a couple of hours over the weekend with her driving. She completely felt at ease and confident driving again. Entering the postcode, she followed the directions on the sat nav on the twenty-minute journey to Erika’s place.

  Georgia pulled up on the driveway of Erika’s house, and it was very much how she expected. It was a gorgeous property, with bikes and toys visible in the garage. Georgia walked up and knocked on the door waiting for it to open. Inside she could hear Dulcie crying. Oh dear God, what’s happening? she thought to herself, wondering what an earth was going on?

  Erika opened the door with such anger, she practically ripped it off the hinges. “I knew this was impossible, I said so,” she confirmed. “I’m sorry, you will have to go alone. I suggest you keep that quiet for a couple of days, because Mike is sure to fire my ass when he finds out, and you will have nobody that will be able to help you. Dulcie, will you please cut it out for just a minute?” she snapped, rubbing her head.

  Georgia was completely confused. She didn’t know what was going on, and more importantly, she didn’t know how she was supposed to react or what she was supposed to say to her. They weren’t friends. She didn’t know her really, and she didn’t know how to broach it without getting her head snapped off.

  “What’s the matter? What’s happened?” asking the only thing she could think of.

  “What’s happened? I told you what would happen? I told him on…”

  “Ok, stop a moment, and calm down. Do you mind if I come in?” she said, walking in before Erika had a chance to respond. “Hi, Dulcie, pleased to see you again. How come you’re crying? What’s the matter, sweetie?” she asked the little girl as she was sobbing uncontrollably, and leaving Erika to deal with her apparent anger issues.

  Georgia had somehow managed to calm down Erika, who in turn had managed to calm down Dulcie. They were sitting down at the breakfast bar discussing what the problem was. It seemed she wouldn’t find it easy to just get up and go, like she had highlighted to Mike. Either way Georgia was concerned as they needed to make a move.

  “I’m sorry about being rude to you. I didn’t mean to. Again, you seem to keep taking the hit for my crap. I did explain this, didn’t I? It’s too short notice. Dan can’t get the time off work, and Dulcie’s grandparents are on vacation, so what the hell am I supposed to do?”

  “What about your nanny?”

  “I can’t ask Taylor. She just finished school, she needs to have some time alone, plus she’s away visiting some friends. I can’t go, Georgia. It’s as simple as that,” she said bluntly.

  “Well, I can’t go without you. I know nothing about this place, the way you work out here, nothing. Can we realistically do it remotely?”

  “What choice do we have?”

  “How hard is it over here to take kids out of school?” Georgia asked.

  “What do you mean? Taylor’s just finished school.”

  “No, not Taylor, Dulcie. So back home, if my sister wants to take my nieces out of school when it’s not half term, the parents get fined. Do they do the same here? If not, why can’t we just take her?”

  “You spend absolutely no time with your nieces, do y
ou?”

  “Erm, no, not so much. Why, what’s that got to do with anything?”

  “Well, she is five. What, will she be doing? Sitting at the head of the table talking to the investors about the future plans?”

  Georgia rolled her eyes. “No need for sarcasm. All I mean is, at least if we’re there we can sort something out. Girls love kids, they can watch her whilst she colours.”

  “Who exactly? We’re opening an office. Nobody’s there yet.”

  “Shit yeah, forgot about that point. My heads all over the place. Right. Ok, well you said last week you were resigning and moving home. Mike said that you could still do this from back home, so why not do that? Can’t we take her to your parents to look after her the days we have meetings? Where possibly you can keep her with you. If she’s anything like my nieces and nephews, you just take an iPad or some videos, she’ll be happy to chill doing that.”

  “Videos? Please tell me that reference is because you don’t watch much TV and it’s not because the UK is not as advanced as DVD’s?” she said, shocked.

  “We have DVD’s and blu ray’s. I just still call them videos,” shaking her head. “Look are we going to do this or not? Because we need to crack on either way.”

  “Why are you doing this? Why are you going all out to help me? When…when I did what I did? Or is it a ploy, are you going to go back to Mike and say how unprofessional I am, and that I took my kid?”

  “Seriously, I’m forty years old. Life’s too short for holding grudges. I said I forgave you and I do. I’ve moved on. Now, this,” she stopped, pointing to them both. “Well, I can’t do it without you, I need assistance from the person who knows all there is to know. You seemingly have had a pretty rubbish time of late, and I can’t imagine having to just dash off and leave your daughter for a week is going to assist matters. Equally, it’s probably been a difficult time for her, so I don’t want any more stress on her either. So the way I see it, this is our only option. If you need to stay at your parents’ and I just go in, then that’s fine. Or, if you want me to change the hotel to somewhere closer to them, we can do that too. I’m easy,” she said seriously.

  “Gimme a sec?” Erika said, rushing off in a different direction, leaving Georgia where she was.

  ***

  “Okay, it seems like we’re on. I hope you know what you have let yourself in for. Hey, Georgia,” Erika said sheepishly. “Firstly, thank you. Secondly, I know you owe me nothing, but can we keep this from Mike? I mean, I’m not asking you to lie for me, but…”

  “It’s fine. Enough said, I won’t say nought,” she said quickly.

  “Hey, Dulcie?” Erika called out.

  “Uh huh?” Dulcie walked out holding her teddy bear, still red eyed from the excessive crying.

  “You fancy going on a little road trip and visiting Nonna?”

  Dulcie was giving Erika a questioning look, as though she was trying to trick her. “When?”

  “Right now. Georgia’s coming too. Well, not to Nonna’s, but on the road trip.”

  “You are?” she said quietly.

  “Ummm, if that’s ok with you,” Georgia said, unsure of what else to say or do.

  “I like that idea a whole lot,” she said, smiling the faintest of smiles with a couple of sniffles.

  “Right, ok. I will literally be ten minutes, I promise. Thank you, Georgia. Hey, why don’t you make us some coffees for the journey while I pack?”

  “Well, chances are I may need to just buy us one, as I can’t actually work out how to use my own properly yet. But, I’ll have a go,” she said.

  ***

  Twenty minutes later, they were in the car and on their way to Fort Worth. Dulcie had more stuff than both of the women put together, but as Erika had highlighted, they needed to make sure she had stuff to keep her entertained through the week.

  “Mommy, can we put Frozen music on please?”

  Erika sighed and rested her head against the headrest. She mouthed sorry to Georgia.

  Georgia was confused about what she was saying sorry for, but turned to face the window and take in the views on the journey.

  “Baby, I will put it on, but Georgia will not want to listen to ‘Let it Go’ for the next four hours, so we listen to it once, and then shut it off, K?”

  Dulcie sighed heavily, “Okay, but we’ll just see because Frozen maybe is Georgia’s favourite too?”

  Georgia couldn’t help but giggle. She turned further in her chair, being aware that Josh and Alex always told her off when she was laughing at her nieces and nephews, usually resulting in them ‘playing up’ more for the attention.

  ***

  There had been a difficult silence for the first part of the drive, feeling somewhat forced. Understandably so given the very surreal circumstances and tremendous change to the dynamics. They were both clearly unsure of how to deal with the situation, and had obviously both wanted to make an effort following the previous week. However, they just couldn’t find any common ground. Simply put, they were nothing alike, regardless of what Mike thought.

  Georgia looked back behind her, noticing the quietness in the back seat. “Oh, thank god,” she whispered, noticing that Dulcie was asleep, switching the CD off.

  Erika was laughing at her. “Welcome to parenthood,” she said, immediately feeling a blush appear. “Um, sorry, I didn’t mean…” she stopped.

  “It’s okay, don’t worry, I know what you meant. My brother and sister say it to me all the time,” she smirked. “I didn’t think you were insinuating that we were going to start co-parenting.”

  Erika looked confused. “Actually, I thought you may think I was insinuating that you would be an in-house babysitter for me this week because of the situation we are in. Although, I don’t think my daughter’s kindergarten would be too impressed with her teaching her class so many cuss words,” she smirked over to Georgia who was looking sheepish.

  “I’m really sorry,” she whispered. “Interestingly, I’m not normally this bad. I keep having words with myself, as my mum will kill me if I swore like this in front of her,” she squirmed. “I am more aware though, I just keeping forgetting because I’m putting so much pressure on myself,” she said seriously.

  Erika was giggling to her, “Hey, don’t worry. She’s kinda tuned in to right and wrong. So it’s doubtful she would then think it’s funny to start repeating it. Anyways, more importantly, you have been ‘having words with yourself’? What the actual hell?” she was laughing.

  “What?” she said.

  “What is that even? You talk to yourself?”

  “No, well yes. How do you not know this?” Georgia said evenly. “So, clearly it’s British terminology. You do something wrong you have to tell yourself off,” she continued.

  “Tell yourself off?” Erika was paying more attention to Georgia’s face, which was unreadable.

  “Yeah. So, if I’m doing something wrong I go in to the corner for a few minutes, and tell myself off for doing wrong. I reprimand myself,” she said seriously. “You know, a bit like the naughty step but for adults?” she continued.

  Erika was looking at her seriously. “Like…is that a British thing? I mean that super nanny does that with the kids, puts them on the naughty step or in the naughty corner. But you’re telling me you do it for grownups too?” she asked mortified.

  “Well yeah, but it’s not just for kids. We need to do it too, even as adults if we’ve been bad,” she said. She was trying so hard but couldn’t help the pull on the corner of her lip.

  “Oh no, you’re totally fucking with me. You are evil,” she said, laughing loudly.

  “And you say about my swearing?” Georgia asked. “Anyways, sssshhhh, your kid’s adorable, but I cannot listen to ‘Let it Go’ another four hundred times,” she said, smiling.

  “Ahhhh, you wait till we get to the hotel. I’ll warn you now the movie will be on auto play,” she giggled.

  “Dear god. Mike
did book us two separate rooms, didn’t he?” she asked animatedly concerned.

  “Actually, I have no idea what he booked, did he tell you?”

  “Erm, you’re clearly asking the wrong person, he hates me,” she smirked.

  “He does not. He was way more pissed with me than you. And on the contrary, he told me on a number of occasions how amazing you were,” she said quietly.

  “What can I say? They all do,” she smirked.

  Erika looked at Georgia and rolled her eyes.

  “And then they get to know me,” she laughed.

  Erika was shaking her head at Georgia, glad that it had become somewhat more relaxed. Her back was starting to cramp already and her neck and shoulders were tight. The stress of late was certainly doing a big number on her. She would need a spa day with Taylor like she had mentioned when she returned for sure.

  “Are you okay?” Georgia asked, pointing to her neck.

  “Yeah, just getting old. My neck and shoulders are just cramping up. Why, are you offering to massage me?” she quipped, smirking.

  “I’m not that nice!” she laughed. “Actually, I saw a service sign a little while ago. I was going to say, I could do with going to the bathroom, and we could swap. I’ll take the wheel and you could chill out for a bit, lay the chair back and sleep. I’ve had some driving lessons now, I’m a pro, what can I say?” She smiled sincerely.

  “You want me to wake Dulcie, and grab a bite for lunch?” Erika asked her.

  Georgia was quiet for a few moments. “Look, Erika, I have nieces and nephews, but I see them a couple of times a year, at Christmas and birthdays only. I don’t really interact…well, with anyone actually, I just work. But least not with kids. So asking me questions like that, is almost like asking me to order a burger in Russian. I don’t know? I’m assuming your daughter has routines, so if you need to wake her to eat so she sleeps tonight or doesn’t miss her feeding time, etc. Sorry, that really made her sound like an animal.” She grinned. “Clearly, as you can see I’m not very good at this. The point I was trying to make is, I’m honestly easy. She’s a good kid and very entertaining, and due to her being here, I’m quite happy to be led by you guys. I don’t want to upset anyone’s routines, so long story short, if you need to wake her to eat then yes. I can eat. I rarely do, but I always can. If not, I will grab some crisps from the store when we stop for the bathroom and we can eat when the little un’ wakes up,” she said sincerely.