Fight to the Top

by S. L. Gape

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Erika woke up feeling groggy. She was immediately hit with the recollections of the previous night. Her head was hurting real bad and her eyes felt raw. She felt as though she’d been punched. Checking her phone, there were no messages on there, which just made her feel crappy all over again. She needed to get up and get packed, as they needed to drop her mom off before they left. She was not looking forward to the long ass journey back home, trying to entertain a five-year-old, as well as having a forty-year-old who wasn’t speaking to her. Not exactly her idea of fun, but she needed to face it sooner or later she guessed, making her way up to start.

  On her way to the bathroom Erika noticed the hotel paper that had been pushed under her door, picking it up she read the note.

  Hi, I didn’t want to wake you. I have left, as I didn’t really feel up for the journey back. I’ve rented a car from reception. Please say thanks to your mum for dinner, and that it was lovely to meet her. I’ll see you in work on Monday, have a safe trip back. G

  Erika stood there dumbfounded. How the hell had this gone so wrong? She couldn’t believe she had just left. What the hell was she supposed to tell her mom now?

  ***

  Erika had finished putting everything in the trunk before making her way back up to her mom’s room with Dulcie’s clothes to change into. She prepared herself for the lecture, which she so wasn’t ready for, knocking on the door and waiting for them to open it.

  “Hey, Mommy. Are we going swimming? Where’s Georgia? Is she still sleeping? Nonna’s not got a door to Georgia’s room like we got,” she said.

  “Hey, baby. No swimming today, but we can go in the pool and have a barbecue this afternoon, okay? Georgia had to leave already, she needed to get back home. Here’s your clothes, how bout you go change? We have a long day ahead, so we need to get on the road soon.”

  “Mommy, will momma be at home when we get there?”

  Erika sighed heavily. “I think she’ll be working baby,” she said, trying to sound as bright as she could about it.

  “Stai bene?” her mother asked. “What’s happening, Erika?”

  “Nothing mamma, don’t worry. I’ll go help Dulcie.”

  “Bambina, don’t shut me out, not again. She didn’t know you were gay, but why did that matter? Please tell me you have not cheated on your wife with this woman? She is nice and kind woman, and she likes you a lot and Dulcie a lot, this is clear. But this…is no good, you are married, Erika.”

  “Mom, please just leave it. I am not cheating on my wife, and no she didn’t know I was gay. I guess she was just a little pissed that we were friends and I didn’t tell her, after everything that happened last week. It’s fine.”

  “No cussing. So, why she left?” her mother asked, walking off, with a disapproving shake of the head, and not giving her an opportunity to reply.

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  “Hi, sorry I’m late,” Dana said, kissing Erika on the cheek and sitting down.

  “It’s fine, how was work?” It amazed her that you spend most of your adult life with someone and have a child with them, to then be sitting in front of them in such an awkward manner.

  “Yes, stressful but I guess you know that more than most. How was Fort Worth, and the new boss? Did you get everything you needed done?” Dana asked in between looking at the menu, making it completely evident she didn’t have any interest in the questions or the answers. Erika thought about Georgia and the interest she paid when having a conversation, before recalling their last words and being immediately saddened.

  “Yes, it was good and your daughter loved it. Plus, we got to see mom. So, that helped me out, considering I was there for work and all,” she said sarcastically.

  “Great!” she slammed. “You’re still pissed I couldn’t take her?” she said, nodding her head behind the menu.

  Erika snatched the menu from her hand, forcing Dan to look up at her. “Honestly Dan, I don’t think we’ll be here long enough to eat…” she started.

  “You invited me for dinner,” she said sarcastically.

  “Just listen for once, huh? You won’t need that. No, I’m not pissed. Yeah, I was. She’s your daughter, too, not like you act like it!” she spat. “But it’s always so one sided. I’m not the stay at home mom. We both have challenging and esteemed careers, but the difference is nothing will ever come above my daughter. And as for you, well nothing will ever come above your job,” she yelled. Calming herself down a little, she started again. “I think we both know it’s over. I don’t want to waste any more time, Dan. I’m done, I’m over it and I’m past caring or getting upset any more. We haven’t spent the night together in well over a year. Geez, I can’t even bring myself to say the words ‘make love to you’. We haven’t kissed, held hands, or been affectionate in any way. We’re rarely even in the same house at the same time. And honestly, do I think we can work on it? No, I don’t. I thought I could and I thought you moving out would totally be the perfect opportunity for us to realise what we were doing and get back on track. But seriously, it’s made me realise a lot more is wrong than is…fixable. Maybe if we tried to stop or manage it, like a year ago, it would have been different, who knows? I don’t know if you’ve met someone else,” Erika held her hand up to stop Dan from talking until she’d finished her point. “Honestly, I don’t wanna know. Seriously, I’m pretty sure I don’t care. But for what it’s worth, I never gave up so easily. What I want is for us not to have a damaged child. What I want is our child to have a stable, loving upbringing rather than settling for second best. Or doing herself out of being in love, and somebody wholly loving her back, just because she has two moms who don’t love each other anymore. I would rather her have two separated parents than that. I want a divorce, Dan. I’m sorry it’s come to this, but really, there is no alternative.”

  “Wow, great speech,” she said sardonically. “I…I think you’re right, things have changed for us both. I don’t know when or how, but it has, so I agree. We can file, and I don’t want to have a messy battle. You can have Dulcie full time and we can arrange amongst ourselves a set time she comes to me, and we’ll sort out the house and belongings like adults. I’ll stay with my folks until I find a place of my own,” she said, as if the last fifteen years meant nothing; as if it was as simple as picking up the groceries.

  Erika knew wholeheartedly what she was doing was for the best, but she never expected her wife to be so nonchalant about it, leaving her somewhat unbalanced. She didn’t expect for her to break down in tears, but she never expected to be so blasé about it either. In that moment after listening to Dan’s response, she would have bet everything she had on the fact that Dana had already moved on and that’s why it had come to this. Either way, she couldn’t know. She didn’t want to know either.

  “Okay, well how about you have her this weekend? She hasn’t seen you in a few weeks and was asking this morning for you.”

  “Oh, um, well…I hav…”

  “Lemme guess. You have plans? I tell you what, Dan, forget it. Don’t blame me when your daughter starts feeling the same way I did. Like you’re second best. Call me when you have time for her, K?” she snapped, before getting up and leaving her wife alone in the restaurant, and walking out of her life, ‘their’ life forever!

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  “Ohhh honey, I’m sorry. Things are not going so smoothly at all over here, are they?” Emily said to Georgia after she’d filled her in on the whole trip.

  “Nah, not really,” she rolled her eyes. “I’m just annoyed. It’s like…I don’t even know. It’s like she is, devaluing being gay. I know that’s stupid as she is gay, but I just don’t know why you would do it?” she added, sipping her beer.

  “I don’t think she’s done that, sweetie. I just think she’s in a pretty rough place and probably just wanted for one night to not have any label, ya know? Like, not a mom, not a boss, not a lesbian, not a wife. Just a normal woman
out for a normal drink with a colleague, doing what so many take for granted.”

  “You don’t think she’s done anything wrong?” she said astounded.

  “No, no, I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is, I can appreciate why she felt the need to do it, but she should have told you the next time for sure. She screwed up on that front,” she said back to Georgia, almost trying to backtrack.

  “But, she had a hot ass blonde paying her some attention…which it doesn’t sound like she got too much of for a long ass time,” John said, waving the barbecue tongs around. “Why would she? As a guy who likes women…correction, woman,” John winked to Emily. “If it was me, and I’m pretty sure numerous amounts of other dumb guys, if you don’t tell the first time it’s a mishap. So, you go and correct that the following morning. If you don’t, it becomes...well, it becomes difficult. She’s now getting some interest, and if she tells, she faces losing that. She probably feels pretty crappy over the failing marriage, so it’s a catch twenty-two. You tell her, she stops chasing you. You don’t, you have gotten sucked into a world of lies. I know it’s not what you wanna hear, but if I was feeling so crappy, I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell you either. But that’s why us guys get into all kinds of crap with lies,” he said from the barbecue.

  “Okay, so you guys both think I’ve overreacted,” she said quietly. She was feeling somewhat annoyed that her only friends didn’t really see her point on this, and more annoyed that she was feeling this way about them. Why was she caught up like this?

  “No, we’re not saying that at all, you’re misinterpreting us. We agree it’s wrong to withhold the truth, especially when you are spending time together and have got acquainted on a different level, on a sexual level,” Emily said seriously.

  “Wait, I didn’t sleep with her,” Georgia said shocked.

  “No, but you kissed and you wouldn’t be this pissed if you didn’t like her. But as a mom, there’s been times when I’ve been desperate for just one night to be someone else. And it’s great, but the next morning you wake up and you deal with life. Then yeah, you tell the truth,” Emily reiterated.

  Maybe they were right? She wasn’t a parent, and maybe she genuinely did do it for that reason. Regardless of that, she found it that easy to lie to Georgia numerous times after that. And that she couldn’t get over, she could not deal with liars, she hated it. She’d been burned in the past by them, so she wouldn’t put herself in that situation again.

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  Georgia had been sitting in the car for almost twenty minutes. She’d not seen nor spoken to Erika since Thursday night when they argued. And she hadn’t been back here, seen or spoken to anyone in this place since she walked out and left. Equally, they had all thought she had left and gone back to the UK. So, when she walked in all hell would break loose…all over again. She knew this was going to be bad, and was annoyed at herself for getting involved where she shouldn’t have. They were getting on so well, and she would have totally been able to do this had it stayed platonic, just the way it was. But instead, she had to go and get blindsided by a beautiful woman! Georgia thought back to last week, the night Erika opened the door with the black halter on, recalling later in the evening as she got up to go to the bar when Georgia noticed for the first time that it was backless. Her first view of the smooth dark skin beneath her top. She could remember the slightest piece of material on the top around her neckline and then a thin tie across the centre and that was is it, the rest was exposed. Her tanned, perfect, naked back. It had caused a stir inside her, and it was that moment she knew she was playing with fire. Georgia stopped and scolded herself for letting her thoughts wander back to the incredible woman.

  Georgia knew she had to do it at some point. It was five to nine and according to Erika’s email to the heads of departments last night, there would be a meeting at nine am. Basically it was now or never. An inopportune moment for her to walk in on the meeting and surprise them all, just what she’d always dreamed of, she thought sarcastically!

  Georgia arrived at the office and was met immediately by Mike. “Hey Georgia, how you doing?” he said seriously.

  “Amazing!” she responded pointedly, trying to ignore the looks and whispers from the two receptionists.

  “Come on, if anyone can pull this off y’all can. I’ll quickly check and see they are ready for ya,” he said.

  Mike returned a couple of seconds later, “All set, united front, remember?” he pointed his finger at her.

  ***

  Georgia walked into the room, feeling incredibly uncomfortable. More so because the person she needed to have an alliance with to help her get through this with, was Erika. Not the best of plans given the situation at present and their parting words to each other. Keeping her eyes on Erika, she noticed her eyes were warm and apologetic, allowing her to relax a little in the situation unfolding before her. Additionally, it allowed her to block out all the gasps and confusion from them all, as she concentrated on the beautiful face.

  “Hi, Georgia. Please come in and sit?” Erika said warmly.

  “Okay y’all, thanks for your time this morning. As you saw last night/this morning, I needed to have a meeting with y’all. As you can now see, this is the reason why,” she stopped and pointed to Georgia. “Georgia is back! For those of you that have been discussing the fact that she had returned to the UK and left, that’s obviously incorrect. And now you will realise why I didn’t text you back about it, for those of you who were texting,” she said, looking around the room, disappointed at her team and the sheepish looks they were wearing. “So, to bring y’all up to speed, Georgia never left, nor would I have let her. We were both up in Fort Worth last week, starting on the new office. We purposely refrained from messaging any of y’all, so we could focus on what we have both been brought in to do. And Mike and Derek, the UK version of him, were right. We make a great team and this will be an incredible opportunity for us both to work together and improve our knowledge and experiences. As well as utilising each other’s skills.” She stopped and looked at Georgia, smiling. “Lastly, what happened before is over. I get y’all wanna have my back, and you maybe don’t like change, but we don’t do that here,” she rebuked. “If I hear people talking, or refusing to help and do their jobs, or be unkind in any way whatsoever, I’ll be down on you so hard you won’t know what hit you. As I said, I get that you were all being loyal to me, and I appreciate that. But we don’t operate like that. I will not have anyone screwing this up. It’s not ideal, but remember Georgia didn’t come after this. This wasn’t her idea, and so you either work with us, or there’s the door,” she said seriously, pointing to the boardroom door.

  Everyone was silent, and Georgia was impressed with her impetuousness. She gave it to them hard and they didn’t look like they were about to take her on at all.

  “Any questions?” Erika asked. The silence was deafening.

  “Good, okay. So, for information purposes, Georgia is the new boss, yes. However, I will be the one reporting to her and you guys report to me still. We have one aim and twelve months to do it in. It’s no different to the others, but ultimately, this will be the global flag ship. So, if we are going to exceed and excel at anything, it has to be this. Bonuses will ride on this! Georgia, you want to add anything?”

  “Well, I guess my main thing as we discussed last week is, I don’t know this place. The way it works, the clients or well anything. So, although, they have sent me over to be above you, I don’t work that way. And I don’t want to under the circumstances. For me, I would like you and I to work collaboratively to pull this through, and I would like all of you guys to be part of that so we achieve it, together. We can’t do it without all of you. You people are the experts, and we need your expertise to make that work. So, as Erika said you have two choices. So, who’s in?” she asked.

  Erika turned to her, “Bring it, I can’t wait to…What did you call it? Smash the arse out of this thing
?” she said, smiling at Georgia, as she repeated the words Georgia had used last week.

  Georgia laughed back to Erika at her teasing, glad they could remain professional in front of the staff. “Nice,” she said, looking at the room, taking in the quiet grumblings of ‘count me in’ around the table.

  ***

  Georgia and Erika watched everyone leave when they finished the meeting. When the last person left, Georgia sank in her chair and sighed heavily, “Thank God that’s over,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “Erm, thank you for that,” she said politely. “And thank you for your support. I don’t know if it will work, we shall see. But thank you all the same,” she said seriously, getting up to leave.

  “Don’t go!” Erika said, suddenly embarrassed. “It was the least I could do. And they will,” she said optimistically. “If they don’t I’ll fire their asses,” she said seriously. “Listen, Georgia. I’m sorry again about last week. I was dreading this morning. If you’d come, or how you would be with me? I never meant to hurt you, or lie. I would never have lied to you or anyone, that isn’t what I’m about. I am a coward, but I’m not a liar. I would never have intentionally done that. I have spent all weekend regretting it, and I didn’t do it to you…for you or…because of you. It was something that I needed in that moment for me, just because of everything that was/is happening in my life. If I could take it back, I would in a flash. I would have just told you and taken the risk of you backing off, I…” she stopped, as they were interrupted by the knock on the door. Erika was the one to sigh heavily now. “Come in,” she said unhappily.

  “Heeeeyyyy,” she heard as a woman Erika had never seen before walked into the room.