Take a Chance

by Simone Jaine

  “My sister says she is in pain. Is there anything you can give her?” Jem asked him.

  He gave Jess a reassuring smile as he entered the bay and picked up the chart attached to the foot of the bed.

  “Is the pain bothering you?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Jess groaned.

  “Would you like something for it?”

  Jess nodded slightly and winced.

  The nurse looked down at the chart in his hands.

  “We’re in luck. The consultant charted something when she did the ward round this morning. It’s going to make you sleepy though,” he warned Jess.

  “I don’t think you mind, do you?” Jem asked her sister.

  Jess blinked.

  “She doesn’t mind,” Jem assured him.

  Jem watched as he removed a pre-loaded syringe from a drawer in a cabinet against the wall opposite the foot of the bed. He checked the details on it then slowly injected the contents into a valve on a drip taped to the back of Jess’s hand.

  Moments after the nurse withdrew the syringe, Jess’s eyes drifted shut.

  “She’s going to be asleep for a few hours now,” he said as he started to copy the details onto the chart.

  “That’s okay,” said Jem as she settled back in the chair with Aidan on her lap. “I’ll just stay a few more minutes just in case.”

  When they got home from collecting Daisy from kindy Jem was surprised to see Mark standing on the front doorstep holding onto a large box. Attached to his car was a large enclosed trailer.

  He watched the car go into the garage and waited for Jem to open the front door.

  “You said you’d be home,” he accused as he brushed past her with the box and headed towards the kitchen.

  “I had to collect Daisy from kindy,” she told him and followed him through.

  Invite yourself in, make yourself at home. I’ve obviously got time to spare and nothing better to do.

  Mark took his baseball cap off and dropped it beside the box he’d placed on the bench. Catching sight of his reflection in the microwave door he finger combed where the cap had flattened his hair.

  Jem rolled her eyes. Next to Eben’s take-me-as-I-am presence she now found Mark’s vanity annoying.

  Daisy took the opportunity to put Mark’s cap on her head. It sported the emblem of the exclusive high school he had attended. Jem knew he had got it at a school reunion and used it to proclaim he was a have, not a have-not. If he hadn’t dropped out of university she bet he would be sporting one in his university colours.

  “What’s in the box?” Daisy asked.

  Mark drew his attention away from his grooming and frowned at the presumption Daisy showed to take his precious cap without asking.

  “Bottles of wine for the presentation,” he told her and looked at Jem.

  “Cherie found out I was going to be on the Shore for a meeting this afternoon so asked me to drop everything off to you. It was out of my way but I thought I’d see how you are doing. Is your sister feeling any better?”

  “She’s awake now so things are looking good,” Jem told him.

  “That will be a relief to everyone.”

  His eyes skimmed the collection of toys in the family room, the moderate pile of ironing left on the couch in the lounge and the general untidiness that can be attributed to most households containing young children. He patted Jem’s hand.

  “I bet you can’t wait to be back at work instead of being a housefrau,” Mark commented.

  Jem frowned.

  In the beginning she had felt guilty for feeling resentful about having to look after the children at such a critical time in her career. Although trying to keep up with her work around the children’s needs was difficult, with Eben’s help she was managing.

  When things settled back to normal she would miss the children’s lively antics and it would feel strange to be completely in control of her life again.

  “We’ve had our moments,” Jem admitted “but the kids are great and I’ll miss their mischief. Going back to work with such strong competition for that promotion will be easy after this.”

  Mark grinned.

  “That’s good to hear. It means I won’t have to go easy on you.”

  Jem laughed.

  “Does that mean I’ve softened you up enough to give you the bad news?” Mark asked.

  “What bad news?” Jem asked quickly.

  “I’d better give the good news first,” said Mark. “Cherie managed to get a marquee for tomorrow night but because of the short notice the closest hire place she could get was in Pukekohe. The marquee is currently being packed up from an event and will soon be on its way here.”

  “Then what is the bad news?” Jem asked, thinking that Cherie would be ready to chew nails after having to look as far south as Pukekohe to find a marquee, not to mention organise other paraphernalia hire for this presentation on top of everything else she had to do for it.

  “The bad news is that with the distance they have to travel to get the marquee here they’ll only have time to erect it. You’ll need to install the flooring, the lighting, furniture and so forth.”

  “That’s not so bad,” Jem told him.

  “That’s not quite all,” Mark said, taking her hand in a melodramatic gesture.

  “The trailer out front has stuff in it for the presentation but the hire place needs the trailer back in another…” Mark glanced at his watch “hour. I’m sorry I won’t be able to help unload everything as my appointment is so soon but I can save you the hassle of returning the trailer by collecting it on my way back.”

  “Are you going to come back afterwards and help set things up?”

  Both Mark and Jem turned to see Eben in the kitchen doorway. Neither of them had heard him come in.

  “I don’t believe we have met,” said Mark, his fingers tightening on Jem’s hand.

  “That’s Uncle Eben,” said Daisy who was now patting Drongo while he devoured a tin of cat food she had spooned into his bowl.

  “Is he staying here too?” Mark asked Jem as Eben crossed the room and rested his arm around Jem’s shoulders in a possessive stance.

  “Yes. He sleeps with Aunty Jem,” Daisy answered, oblivious to the red flush creeping across Jem’s face at the way her statement was interpreted.

  “It’s not what you th-”

  “Thought you’d get, an additional helping hand when time is so short. Luckily enough I’ll be around. After you return that trailer can we count on you to help set up now that Jem knows she has that much more to do?” asked Eben.

  He smiled at Mark, all teeth and insincere. Mark got the message and removed his hand from Jem’s. He made a show of looking at his expensive watch. “I’d love to but I’ve got a lot on this afternoon and tonight Nate wanted to meet and have me go over the presentation material with him. I would say that I’d come afterwards but you know how these dinner meetings can drag on and I don’t want to commit myself and then let you down because of circumstances beyond my control.”

  Like a few too many scotch on the rocks with Nate as part of the old boys’ networking, Jem thought.

  The tension in the room was interrupted by the sound of Drongo heaving.

  “What’s that noise?” Mark asked.

  “The cat’s bulimic,” Jem told him as Eben picked up Drongo to take him outside and hopefully make it in time to prevent having to spot mop the floor. Daisy followed him.

  Seconds after they were out of sight they heard Daisy’s wail.

  “Eeeeew! He puked on my shoe!”

  “Wipe your shoe on the grass,” they heard Eben tell her through the open door.

  “It’s raining. I’ll get wet.”

  “Would you rather smell like cat puke?”

  Instead of looking disgusted as Jem had expected, Mark smiled. Shortly after that Daisy came in and Drongo snaked past Eben to return to his cat bowl.

  Mark lifted his baseball cap off Daisy’s head as she passed him and settled it back on
his own head.

  “I’d better be going”. He nodded at Eben. “It’s nice to finally meet the man in Jem’s life. See you tomorrow night.”

  “I’ll walk you out,” Jem said.

  By the front door Mark looked out at the wind driven rain and paused.

  “Before I forget,” he said. “Would you give me your account password? There are several files I need to access and it would be easier for me not to have to go through Cherie piecemeal to get them.”

  “I can do better than that. Tell me what they are and I’ll email them to you,” Jem replied.

  “I don’t want to put you to any trouble especially when I know how busy you are going to be,” Mark said.

  “No trouble,” Jem assured him. “I’ll be working remotely after the children go to bed as I have a few things on the go and don’t want to stuff up meetings set up with potential clients next week, not to mention annoy a few software developers in the bargain. Emailing you files won’t be a hardship.”

  “I’ll send you a list of what I need and I’d appreciate it if you could email them to me as soon as you can,” said Mark, pleased. “See you tomorrow.”

  He held his baseball cap to his head and headed out in the wind and rain towards his new company car, a silver Toyota Prius.

  Jem tried not to be resentful as she closed the door. When she had his job she was only paid mileage on her car. She had done a lot of travelling in her position and the amount she got paid didn’t even cover replacing the brake pads due to regularly getting stuck in the stop-start peak motorway traffic. Not to mention exacerbating other problems that appeared in older cars.

  He’d been in the job for less than a month and had negotiated himself a new lease vehicle, upgraded every other year.

  “It‘s all in how you sell yourself,” Mark had once told her. “You give people the information in a way that makes them do what you want. I just pointed out that we looked more successful if we presented ourselves that way. When asked what could give that impression of course I had a few ideas...”

  And they all involved a friendly chat after a few beers with Nate who happened to have attended the same school, Jem thought sourly.

  She returned to the kitchen to find Eben leaning back against the kitchen bench with his arms crossed.

  “That’s quite a skill he has,” Eben said.

  “What skill?” Jem asked as she scooped the empty cat food can off the floor and rinsed it in the sink.

  “How he twists the knife by rubbing in his special treatment from the boss and tells you to go to hell yet sounding regretful about it.”

  Jem tossed the can more forcefully than necessary into the recycling container inside the pantry door.

  “The weather isn’t getting any better. How about we move your car out of the garage and we transfer everything from the trailer into there?” she asked, ignoring his comment.

  Eben hadn’t finished reflecting upon things.

  “I suppose it’s a handy skill to have in sales,” he mused.

  Chapter 9

  Jem leaned her elbows on the bench, brought the mug to her mouth, took a sip of hot chocolate and nearly groaned in delight.

  It had taken longer than they had thought to shift the trailer uphill to the garage door. The plan had been to transfer everything off without being exposed to the rain only to discover the trailer was too high to fit in the doorway. Instead they’d had to wipe everything down as they went and were soaked by the time the trailer was finally empty.

  Mark had arrived back shortly after they had finished. If Jem hadn’t known better she would have thought he had just waited out of sight until the work was done.

  After a quick shower and a change of clothes she found her drink of hot chocolate satisfyingly rich and it was warming her on the inside which was more than Eben’s earlier comments had.

  “Mark didn’t tell me to go to hell,” she corrected, resurrecting their discussion.

  “Of course he did,” Eben replied beside her, recalling what he had said. “I’m just paraphrasing.”

  “No, he didn’t.”

  Eben put his coffee on the bench, his eyes steely in colour.

  “He did.”

  “Did not.”

  “Did so.”

  Jem put her hot chocolate on the bench and glared at Eben.

  “Why are you so determined to make Mark sound bad?”

  I didn’t like him touching you so familiarly as though he had the right to.

  Eben fiddled with the handle of his coffee mug as he sought for a reason that wouldn’t cause her to accuse him of acting like a Neanderthal.

  Hmm. Too tricky. Put her on the defensive instead.

  “You’ve always talked highly of him and I can’t see why. What makes him so great?”

  “He’s career motivated, has goals and knows what he wants to be doing in five years.”

  “Admirable, I’m sure.”

  “Yes, it is,” Jem agreed, noting his sarcasm. “Aside from having a plan instead of drifting like some people I could name it means he’ll be a good provider.”

  “You don’t seem to be the sort of woman who would like to be kept,” Eben observed, choosing not to remark about her drifting comment which he knew was aimed at him. He picked his coffee back up and took a sip.

  “I’m not. I have a job I love and I’m great at it.”

  “What about kids? If he had kids would he be a stay-at-home parent?”

  Jem snorted.

  “Not likely. I can’t see him swapping business lunches for nappies and projectile vomiting.”

  “What about you? When you have a baby would you like to be a stay-at-home mother?”

  Jem blanched and was quiet for long enough that Eben turned to put his coffee back on the bench so he could hug her.

  Something is not right here.

  “Why are you asking these questions?” she asked instead. “What do you have against Mark?”

  I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to answer questions.

  Eben made a mental note to find out later why the thought of a baby would upset her. He turned and faced her.

  “I don’t like slick people who shift work to others and make it sound as though they’re doing you a favour.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  She’s not going to like me pointing this out.

  “It means that I’ve observed this guy dump the responsibility of setting up a client function on your lap when you’ve moved here to look after the kids during a stressful time for your family. Not only has he delegated everything to you he’s made sure he is too busy to be of any help whatsoever.”

  “Okay. You’re right,” Jem conceded and touched his arm in a conciliatory gesture. “Mark is very career orientated so he tends to only think about work. He probably hasn’t considered that I’ve been given everything to do because Cherie usually takes care of this sort of thing and makes it seem effortless.”

  “So his dedication to his career compensates for him being a prick the rest of the time then?” Eben asked. “He also seems like the sort of person who’ll take credit for everything at the end while he is at it.”

  To his surprise, instead of denying it, Jem frowned.

  “I’m right, aren’t I?” Eben said, amazed by his insight.

  I should rant more often.

  “We’ve had discussions about him taking credit for my work before,” Jem admitted.

  “What did he say?”

  “Only that he doesn’t point out who contributed what during a presentation and if he has left out giving me credit at times it was by omission and not on purpose.”

  “You said times as in plural,” said Eben. “Does that mean despite pointing out his omission he keeps taking credit for your work?”

  “On occasion,” Jem said reluctantly.

  “What are you going to do about it?” Eben asked. “You can’t let him get away with it especially when it could affect who gets picked for the promot
ion to Hong Kong.”

  “There’s not really much I can do without looking petty. At any rate part of the success the sales reps have is due to me doing the background work for them. All of them know how much I contribute. I doubt anyone would believe Mark does it all on his own.”

  Eben placed his hand over hers.

  “That might be true but the reps aren’t the decision makers. What does your boss think?”

  Jem gave a humourless smile.

  “I have two bosses. One is a throwback to the era where women were expected to stay in the kitchen and not think for themselves. Nothing I ever achieve will get his respect. The best I can do there is work with my male counterparts who may get the credit but know it’s not all theirs. Martha, my other boss, is pretty switched on. She knows who does what and she knows me. I’d like to think she’s too clued up to be fooled by Mark.”

  “But who makes the final decision?”

  “Officially they both do but when Martha has a strong opinion on something she finds a way to get Duh-boss to share it. She’s made Sachs Wall far more competitive, productive and profitable since she became actively involved. If she has chosen someone for the job then they will be the best person for it.”

  Jem removed her hand from under his.

  “Hang on a moment. How do you know about the Hong Kong promotion?”

  He was saved from having to answer by a loud thump and a scream coming from upstairs as well as a knock at the front door.

  Thank heaven for Aidan. Who would’ve thought I’d ever think that?

  “I’ll go sort Aidan out. You need to answer the door and tell them where to stick their tent.”

  He gratefully headed towards the chaos upstairs.

  “You never said who told you about Hong Kong,” Jem called after his retreating back as she moved to the hallway.

  “Jess must have mentioned it,” Eben said, pausing on the bottom step.

  “Why would she tell you?” Jem demanded, ignoring the door buzzer being held down.

  He turned around at the foot of the stairs. “Because she knows I’m interested in what you’re up to.”

  Especially since you broke up with your fiancé Alan.