by Simone Jaine
“Then you were a bad boy,” she purred. “And that was even better.”
“That was more information than I needed!” Jason called from the office.
“Big ears!” Eben called back over his shoulder.
His hands moved down to Jem’s backside which he gripped and pulled against him. She undulated against his pelvis which started getting him very excited about his prospects for the remainder of the evening.
“How would you like me to…” he began breathlessly.
“La la la,” sang Jason loudly.
The noise reminded Eben where they were. He reluctantly dropped his hands and stepped back which had Jem following him and backing him against the wall.
“Make the drinks while you phone Coco?” he asked. No way would he give that woman the title of mother.
This time she stepped back and Eben watched Jem’s pupils constrict to pin points upon mentioning Coco’s name.
He wondered whether Coco’s essence could be bottled and marketed by Family Planning as Passion Killer. Thinking about her certainly cooled him off.
“No, I’ll be fine. It’ll give me something to do while I listen to her.”
“Okay, see you soon.”
Just as Jem turned to walk away he grabbed her hand and pulled her back for a searing kiss. She rocked against him and he groaned.
“La la la,” sang Jason again.
They pulled apart and Eben was pleased to see a smile on Jem’s face.
“That’ll have to do until later,” he told her firmly. “We don’t want to make certain people who don’t have our stamina feel inferior.”
“I heard that,” she heard Jason tell Eben indignantly as she reached the kitchen.
Close to half an hour later she hung up the phone in relief. Upon receiving the news about Jess coming home, Coco had berated her for not informing her earlier because she had arranged for one of her socialite friends to visit Jess in hospital. Finally fed up with that topic Jem had asked about Coco’s decision to leave Phillipe for the oil tycoon.
Coco had tried to brush the topic off by saying she had decided to stay with Phillipe but Jem hadn’t been willing to let it go. Her mother’s reluctance to discuss it made her determined to hear every detail to her satisfaction since that subject had been deemed more important to Coco than Jess the last time they had spoken. Jem had taken perverse joy in knowing that Coco was ticked off at being asked to explain herself.
I bet the fact he lived in Alaska had everything to do with Coco changing her mind, she thought, feeling a little happier that Coco’s latest ambition had been quashed as she picked up the mugs.
She slipped into the office with the drinks. Both men were tapping away on their keyboards and focussed on their computer screens so neither noticed her arrival. Jem set the coffee beside Jason and turned to put one of the mugs of hot chocolate beside Eben’s mouse pad.
With the clunk of the mug against the coaster Eben’s screen flicked to a game of spider solitaire. Jem recognised from the layout of the cards the half played game was the same as the day before. He obviously hadn’t been playing at all.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“I’ve just been surfing the net,” Eben answered before picking up his mug.
Jem took the opportunity of his hands being occupied to click the mouse on the task bar at the bottom of the screen. She clicked on a button with an unfamiliar logo on the left of it and a full page of code similar to what Jason was working on appeared on the screen.
“What’s going on?” she repeated and folded her arms against her chest.
Eben put down his mug and raked his fingers through his hair. He didn’t try to misunderstand her question.
“Jase and I work together.”
“You have a job?” Jem asked in surprise.
“Why do you say it like that?” Eben asked her, annoyed.
“Like what?” Jem asked.
“Like you sound so surprised that I have a job.”
Jem considered how rude she must have sounded. She bit her lip.
“It’s just that it seemed no big deal for you to stay here and help me with the kids while Jess is in hospital,” she offered apologetically.
“The hours I work can be pretty flexible. As long as everything gets done before the deadline is all that matters,” Eben explained.
“I guess that explains why you’ve often been here when I phone Jess during the day,” she mumbled.
Eben heard her.
“I’m around here during the day because I work with Jason, here, during the day.”
That explains why I seldom see you dressed up, Jem thought. Who would put on a suit and tie to work at their friend’s house?
“And if I appear laid back it’s because I enjoy what I do and I’m doing it for myself, not to impress others,” Eben added.
Ouch.
Jem knew he’d got the gist of the conversation Coco had instigated about him being a bum.
Eben grabbed his mug defiantly, took a mouthful of hot chocolate and swallowed.
“So when? How?” Jem asked, waving her hands to take in the whole room.
“We’ve been working together since the beginning,” Jason told her.
Jem spun around. She’d forgotten he was in the room.
“I knew computer programming was a sort of hobby of his when I was dating his sister Ivy. Later I knew someone who was having difficulty getting someone to write a program for him so I suggested to Eben that we do it. We spent a bit of time together working on it and the job snowballed into more work.”
“So which one of you is the boss?” Jem asked then mentally smacked herself.
Why did that matter?
Thankfully Eben looked amused.
“We’re equal partners. I do most of the tricky technical stuff and Jase is the social wheeler and dealer with the contacts. A bit of our early work was fixing software bugs for a UK company which gave us a good name because they’d tell us their problem and we’d fix it overnight their time while they slept. It wound up leading to a lot of other work meaning late hours and weekends.”
That explained why he had left lots of parties early, Jem thought.
All this time she thought he had been slipping off with his conquest du jour.
She hadn’t realised she had spoken the last thought aloud until Eben answered.
“Yeah, that happened a bit but then I discovered they liked money being spent on them more than they liked me.”
“You’re rich?” she exclaimed without thinking.
“On paper I look rather good,” Eben admitted. “But the reality is that Jase and I have invested most of our money back into the company to allow for expansion. It’s going to be a while before we will get that money back.”
“If you are doing so well then why have you gone out of your way to hide what you do from me?” Jem demanded, indicating the game of spider solitaire that was back on screen.
“It was habit at first,” Eben admitted. “I didn’t want to think you were like the others who saw me as an easy way to a life they’d like to become accustomed to. Then you were fun to rile because you were always telling me that I had a brain and should be spending time using that rather than my surfboard.”
Jem’s face flushed. Her impression of him had been so wrong. Then she became indignant.
“You went out of your way to mislead me,” she said. Then she realised something.
“You didn’t do this on your own,” she accused and pointed a finger at Jase. “He had to know. And Jess. You bastard. You even had my own sister deceiving me!”
“I only asked them not to offer details about me. If you had asked direct questions about me they would have answered truthfully. But you never did,” Eben answered almost sadly.
“That’s because you were such a great actor I believed what I saw!” Jem shouted, ignoring the fact that Jase had stopped typing while pretending not to listen and was now very attentive to their conversation which
was now an argument, at least on her side. She folded her arms across her chest again.
“You must have had such fun pulling the wool over my eyes. Having this big secret that everyone was in on except Jemima.” Another thought occurred to her. “You were the one installing our new database at work and giving the tutorials weren’t you? That explains why Cherie and you were so chummy when I arrived that day. She had already met you and also knew you from stuff I’ve said about you over the years.”
“You talked with her about me?” Eben asked instead of explaining why he had maintained the deception. He was beginning to realise he had majorly stuffed up by Jem’s reaction.
Jem saw red.
“You also said something to Cherie didn’t you?” she demanded. “She definitely would’ve mentioned that you do more than sit on a surfboard and crack open beers unless you asked her otherwise.”
Eben confirmed her suspicion with a single nod.
“But you love me anyway,” he said hopefully.
“Love you? I want to back my car over you!” Jem screeched.
She turned and fled from the room.
“That went well,” Jase commented as he returned to his keyboard. “I told…”
“Don’t say it,” Eben warned.
He rubbed his face with his hands. He had royally screwed up.
“What am I going to do?” he asked.
“Go after her and fix it,” Jase said.
“How?”
“Don’t look at me. I can’t even fix things with superglue. Go after her,” Jase repeated.
Eben opened their bedroom door to find Jem furiously packing her suitcase.
“Don’t go on my account,” he said quietly.
“Jess will be home tomorrow and Aunty Beryl will need this room if you and Jase plan to keep working at night,” Jem informed him coolly.
“That’s not until tomorrow. Besides you’ll want to say goodbye to Jeremy, Daisy and Aidan before you go.”
“That’s low. Using the children to get your way,” Jem replied with a sniff. “In that case one of us needs to sleep on the Murphy bed.”
Eben slid her suitcase to the floor and held her by her shoulders.
“Have I really made you that angry?” he asked.
Jem took a deep breath and breathed out slowly.
“What do you think?” she asked as calmly as she could.
“I think I did something which I now see was stupid and hope you forgive me,” he said.
“I just don’t get it. Why did you do that to me when everyone else knew the truth?” Jem asked, feeling pain over the deception.
“I just wanted you to love me the way I am without trying to change your perception of me.”
“Why would that matter?”
Eben drew them down onto the end of the bed, took her hand in his and rubbed it.
“When I first met you at Jase and Jess’s wedding I thought we clicked but then when we saw each other from then on you always had some uptight yuppie in tow. Even so, you were always friendly, encouraging me to make more of myself. You even offered me a twelve step programme to success,” he laughed.
Jem winced at the reminder of giving financial advice to someone who was doing far better than she was.
“I was an idiot,” she muttered.
“You cared,” Eben corrected, threading their fingers together.
“Of course I did. You’re a great guy and I thought mistakenly, you needed a sense of direction and something to aim for.”
“I thought you were trying to turn me into one of them and I wanted to show you that I am someone worth being with even if I don’t wear suits and have a portfolio to discuss about at parties.”
He looked at her earnestly.
“I wanted to show you that being with someone could be comfortable and fun rather than some upwardly mobile merger. Not only that, I wanted to see if you could love me enough that your perception of my lifestyle wouldn’t matter.”
He dropped to one knee before her.
“Stop,” Jem implored. “Don’t say anything else.”
She looked at her hands which he refused to let go.
“You’ve given me a lot to think about. I need time,” she said quietly.
Eben finally released her hand but instead of standing up as she expected he leaned forward and planted on her lips the softest, most tender kiss she had ever received.
Then he finally drew back and she felt as though she could start breathing again.
“I just wanted to give you something else to think about,” he said softly with a wistful smile. Then he got up and left the room without looking back.
Chapter 27
Jem sat on the end of the bed for several minutes after Eben had left the room with many emotions roiling around inside. She understood his reasons for the deception in the beginning but they’d known each other for years so surely he knew she wasn’t money orientated like the bimbos he seemed to attract.
Of course he knew you were different, a caustic little voice in her head pointed out. You were usually with some yuppie at a party when you saw him and then you became engaged to one. You were always telling him to make something of himself so why wouldn’t he think money was of extreme importance to you?
Far out Jem, that voice added. You’re turning into your mother.
I am not! Jem thought in horror as she clenched her hands into fists on her thighs.
I make my own way and don’t expect to be carried by anyone else, she mentally told that annoying voice. And as far as dating yuppies go I can’t help being attracted to men who have similar goal orientated behaviour to me.
Aha… that caustic voice responded. Then why did you dump your date and spend the evening with Eben at Jess and Jason’s wedding? Too much champagne?
Possibly. Although it was more to do with my date being a jerk.
Jem’s thoughts went back to her sister’s wedding and all the stress involved in the lead up. She had really felt for Jess.
Coco had refused to contribute to the expenses or even attend the wedding because she considered Jason beneath them socially. It just happened to be coincidental that she decided that after he had refused to allow her to pay for everything with several concessions including that Coco would choose the venue, invite a lot of people he’d never met and specify what the bride and groom wore.
Coco had mistakenly thought that Jess would pull out of the wedding without her approval and had been put out that Jess hadn’t even tried to mollify her when she took Jase’s side.
Toka, Jess’s father had no money to spare because he and his brothers had recently mortgaged the farm to clear scrub and plant more pine trees. Jem knew he had felt awful about not giving his daughter the wedding of her dreams. To make amends he had insisted upon paying for a belated honeymoon. They had only learned he had borrowed the money to do that when going through his financial documents after he had died.
Jason’s parents had only enough money to get by. At the time his father had heart problems and had not been able to work for the months leading up to his operation and his mother had worked nights as a cleaner to pay the bills. Despite being told that they weren’t to pay for anything his parents had paid for the photographer and champagne for the toasts.
Since Jess and Jason both had large student loans and had been flatting for years they didn’t want the traditional gifts guests usually gave. Instead they found a beautiful compromise to keep costs to a minimum.
The wedding ceremony had been performed by Jase’s Uncle Ted who was a registered celebrant. Their vows were exchanged on a golden beach where only a slight breeze kept everyone from getting too hot under the summer sun. Jess wore the tea length, pale pink ball gown Coco had bought for her first University ball. Jem had worn an ice blue one her mother had paid for in her role of bridesmaid as they both knew it would irk Coco if she ever found out.
Their bouquets were origami roses made by a friend in shades of pink and white and were so well done yo
u thought the roses were real until you touched them. They also had smaller origami roses threaded through their hair.
Jason and Eben wore black jeans, their concession to the occasion being their white poet shirts. The whole bridal party wore bare feet.
Afterwards, everyone sat on picnic blankets and feasted on the large variety of food the guests supplied. When the sun went down they built a bonfire and a DJ friend supplied the music.
By then Jem’s date had long since gone. Her opinion of him changed from discerning to pretentious when he repeatedly belittled what he called a “low class event”. His not so subtle veiled comments as to the reason for the wedding usually finished with him looking at Jess’s waist line. Jem told him to leave during the picnic after he snidely suggested she was risking salmonella by eating Aunty Beryl’s fried chicken.
Jem never even missed him. Instead Eben had plonked himself beside her and entertained her with his banter. Then they had spent most of the evening almost exclusively together talking and dancing. But that’s where it ended.
Eben had left the following day to return to student life at Otago University at the other end of the country. Because of the distance and lack of funds he only returned after exams at the end of the year.
It had never occurred to her that he was attending university as he had seemed so much more mature than a lot of the guys she had dated. When she hadn’t heard from him after the wedding she just assumed she had read more into that night than he had.
By the time he returned Jem was dating someone else and the only times she ran into him was at the odd party.
Two years later Jess had Jeremy. To make up for Coco’s lack of interest, Jem had visited as often as she could. By then Eben always seemed to be already there when she called in to see her new nephew.
The house Jess and Jase had been renting was so small that Jase had set his computers up in the lounge. Looking back, Jem reflected that Jase and Eben had usually been using them when she arrived. Soon afterwards they often left to go surfing. She had thought they had been playing games and were being considerate by giving her time with her sister and nephew. She now realised they left because she and her sister couldn’t chat together without distracting them from their work.