by Simone Jaine
“Have you eaten today?”
“Cherie delivered me something to eat on her way out with Martha,” Jem hedged. She hadn’t eaten anything other than the chocolate bar in her drawer in the hope he would turn up for lunch. In the meanwhile she had gotten too involved with what she was doing to notice the time passing. “But what are you going to tell me?”
Nate walked past the door then leaned back into the doorway.
“There you are! I was hoping you hadn’t left,” he said to Eben as he moved into the room. “There seems to be something wrong with my password. When I got it wrong a few times a box with HINT popped up. I’ve typed that in with capitals and lower case but it still won’t let me in. Seeing as you’re still here would you come and sort it out?”
“Certainly,” Eben said, trying to keep a straight face.
He avoided eye contact with Jem knowing they would set each other off. Eben got out of his seat and followed the older man. Before going through the door he turned back to Jem.
“Are you going to be here for a while? We need to talk,” he said.
Jem nodded and he disappeared to follow Nate.
That sounds ominous, she thought. I wonder what about?
She looked at the still overflowing in-tray, sighed, opened up the folder on her desk and continued to read.
Cherie bounced into Jem’s office at the end of the day and placed her hands on the edge of the desk.
“So?” she prompted.
“I’ve finished these for you,” Jem told her and tried to pass her the files sitting in her out-tray.
Cherie didn’t take them.
“Not that,” she complained. “Did you pass the test?”
“What test?” Jem asked blankly.
“The one with the little blue lines,” Cherie prompted.
Jem scrunched up her forehead then realised what Cherie was on about.
“No,” she said quickly. “I thought it best not to take that test. If its positive Mark already has plans to try and oust me from my promotion and Eben will think I am trying to trap him.”
Cherie looked at her sympathetically.
“Denial doesn’t work well in the long term,” she said.
“It just has to work until I’m in Hong Kong,” Jem replied flippantly.
“Come on! I really want to know,” Cherie encouraged.
“I’m not doing it to satisfy your curiosity,” Jem said.
“Then do it to satisfy your own. I’m just here as an impartial observer,” Cherie said as she sat on the corner of Jem’s desk.
“Go away. I have work to do,” Jem politely told her friend.
Cherie’s response was to start kicking her feet against the side of the desk.
Jem decided to ignore her presence and carry on working. She gave up trying to concentrate on her work a few minutes later.
“That’s a little annoying,” she said.
“Is it? I hadn’t realised,” Cherie said innocently. “I’ll have to try harder.”
She began to hum.
“All right! I’ll do it!” Jem said and opened the desk drawer and snatched out the pregnancy test.
She tore off the cellophane wrapper and ripped open the box to remove the package insert which she flattened out on her desk. After skimming the instructions she stalked off to the women’s toilets with the test discretely tucked in her hand, leaving Cherie who was finally sitting quietly on her perch.
When Jem returned, she found Cherie still waiting on the edge of the desk. She dropped the test on a folder out of Cherie’s reach and sat down. Cherie lay flat on the desk and with her fingertips reached the folder and drew it towards her. After sitting up she uncapped the test to look at the result.
“It’s negative,” Cherie announced in surprise.
Jem sat with her elbows on the desk, head in her hands.
“The test takes ten minutes,” she informed Cherie.
“Why didn’t you get one that only takes a minute?”
“I didn’t realise there was any particular urgency,” Jem said and looked at her watch.
“Is it time yet?” Cherie asked.
“No,” said Jem and opened the folder and pretended to read the contents. She was decidedly more anxious than she let on.
“Is it time yet?” Cherie asked.
“No,” said Jem without looking up.
“How can you tell? You didn’t even look at your watch,” Cherie complained.
“Because it’s only been about thirty seconds since you last asked,” Jem said.
“This waiting is making me nervous,” said Cherie.
She got off the desk and started pacing the floor.
“Next time get one of those one minute tests. I can’t stand the suspense.”
“There won’t be a next time,” Jem promised.
“Is it time yet?”
Jem glanced at her watch. Thirty seconds to go. Close enough.
She nodded and closed her eyes while Cherie looked at the test.
“Oh,” said Cherie.
Jem opened her eyes.
“What does it say?” she asked.
“Seeing as you were happy to wait I’ll tell you after you’re in Hong Kong,” Cherie said cheekily.
“Cherie!”
“Okay, okay. You have two blue lines,” Cherie said.
“I’m pregnant?” Jem said in disbelief and looked down at her flattish stomach.
She patted it gently in wonder.
“I’m going to be a mother,” she said, amazed.
Not one to beat around the bush, Cherie gave her only a moment to absorb the news.
“So when are you going to tell Eben?” she asked.
“I can’t,” Jem said. “He was here earlier and when I brought up the topic generally he said he doesn’t want children. He’s going to think I did this deliberately to ensure I get money out of him.”
“What a load of nonsense!” Cherie exclaimed. “Why would he think that?”
“He’s had ex-girlfriends who wanted him for his money. It was enough for him to cultivate a beach bum image to weed out prospective girlfriends looking to be kept. You should know,” Jem said bitterly “because he asked you to keep quiet about what he was doing here so I wouldn’t find out he was doing well for himself.”
“He never asked me to keep quiet about anything important,” Cherie told her, feeling bewildered. “As far as I knew he was the computer tutorial guy. If that pays so well I’ve got to stop aiming for CEOs.”
“You didn’t know that he and my brother-in-law are business partners then?” Jem asked.
“Are they? No, I didn’t know that. He only introduced himself by his first name. I had no reason to think he was any more than an employee,” Cherie assured her.
“Then why…”
Her question was interrupted by someone bursting through the door.
Chapter 30
While Jem and Cherie waited for the results of the pregnancy test, Eben sat in Nate’s office with only one goal in mind; to escape before he started banging his head against the wall in frustration.
Nate’s initial query had turned into others and no matter how many different ways they went through something, as soon as they moved onto something else Nate forgot most of what he had learned. This was despite Nate managing the task only minutes earlier.
Considering Nate was also forgetting how to use the help function, Eben was beginning to suspect that Nate had some sort of dementia that was affecting his short term memory.
He was extremely relieved when Nate agreed to stop the tutorial where they were, on the grounds of giving him time to absorb everything he had learned. Before he could think of something else he wanted clarified again, Eben quickly excused himself and escaped the room.
Glad to be free of the endless loop of teaching the same thing repeatedly he headed down the hallway towards Jem’s office. Knowing what he had planned made him feel a little nervous.
I’m going to propose right after
this no matter what, he thought as he ducked into the men’s washroom to relieve himself.
Inside the men’s bathroom he was surprised to see Mark looking at his watch while standing there with wet hair. The room had a strangely familiar pungent reek to it. Glancing at the nit comb and aerosol spray sitting on the hand basin beside him, Eben deduced Mark’s purpose and smiled to himself as he nodded and walked past.
Seeing Eben enter a stall, Mark silently seethed. Cherie had booked him an appointment to see Martha later this afternoon, long after he would have normally left for the day. Since it had been booked straight after the long meeting Martha had with Eben yesterday he had a feeling it was to do with the work Jem had done that he had taken credit for.
He was almost certain Eben had stuffed things up for him somehow and he was getting to be a desperate man. He had to have that promotion. By the time Eben came out to wash his hands, Mark had a plan.
“So who do you think is the father? Me or you?” Mark asked Eben conversationally as Eben pumped liquid soap onto the palm of his hand.
“What are you on about?” Eben asked, only half listening as he turned the taps on and rinsed.
Is Mark claiming “parentage” of software I wrote?
“You know. Jem’s knocked up.”
The water squirted up Eben’s sleeve. Mark was pleased to see that Eben appeared taken aback.
“No she isn’t,” Eben finally responded coolly.
“Oh yeah, it’s not confirmed until she takes the test we bought together this morning.”
“What?” Eben exclaimed as he finished washing his hands and pulled off a paper towel to dry them with.
Mark waited until Eben threw the towel in the bin.
“You know we were an item until she decided to chase you,” Mark mentioned without rancour.
“You two were never an item,” Eben asserted. “Jem would’ve told me about it if you were.”
If Jem never said anything Cherie would have definitely filled me in, he reassured himself.
“We kept it to ourselves obviously. In a small workplace like ours dating co-workers would provide an easy target for gossip and innuendo.”
Eben still seemed to doubt him so Mark had to think quickly.
“Why do you think we work so well together then?” he asked slyly. “Not to mention Jem made sure I got the best accounts, at least until you came along.”
Eben seemed to be swaying in his conviction so Mark took the opportunity to hammer the spot he knew would hurt.
“At least I have a chance back with her if you don’t want to claim my baby,” he added happily, dabbing at his eyes with his handkerchief. Those chemicals were eye-watering and he couldn’t wait to wash them off.
Eben’s response was to slam the bathroom door open on his way out. Mark didn’t bother to hide his triumphant grin.
Eben stormed his way to Jem’s office. Was she another woman looking for someone to provide for her? Even worse, had she been having him on about not being able to get pregnant?
He burst into her office, momentarily taken aback by Cherie’s presence as he had wanted to have this conversation in private. Any thought of that was wiped when he spied the pregnancy test sitting on her desk. It appeared Mark had been telling the truth.
“What’s that for?” he demanded, pointing at the test.
“It’s a pregnancy test,” Jem said defensively, rising from her chair. “I have something I want to tell you.”
“I think I had better be going now,” Cherie said. “Bye.”
She slipped out the door, but not being able to help herself she left it slightly ajar and stood beyond it so she could clearly hear everything said.
“Bad Cherie,” she murmured to herself and smacked the back of her hand for listening to a private conversation.
Inside her office, Jem faced Eben.
Time to confess.
“I’m pregnant,” she began.
“So I heard,” Eben responded darkly. “Who’s the father?”
Without thinking Jem slapped him.
“How dare you?” she gasped as she fisted her hand to try and reduce the pain of her stinging palm.
“How dare I? More like, how dare you!” Eben roared at her.
“It’s not what you think!” Jem cried.
“You don’t want to know what I think!” Eben thundered.
“You’re obviously not thinking! And I’m not discussing this here or now. Get out! Get out right now!” Jem demanded and tried to push him out the door.
It would have been easier to move a mountain as Eben refused to budge. Giving up, Jem grabbed her hand bag and coat, and fled the room in tears, almost knocking Cherie over after getting through the door.
Inside her office Eben angrily paced up and down. His cheek stung but he refused to rub it. Cherie entered the door behind him and slammed the door shut. Eben stopped pacing and turned to face her.
“Would you crouch down and face that way?” Cherie asked waspishly, pointing to the window behind him.
“Why?” Eben asked warily, despite his black mood.
“Because I want to kick your butt but my skirt is too tight to lift my leg high enough.”
The imagery of her comment was enough to reduce the tension, just a little.
“You’d do more damage stomping on my foot in one of those,” Eben said roughly, indicating her high heels with a finger.
“The only reason I haven’t is that I’d like to think you are a good guy even though I have my doubts at the moment,” Cherie said, crossing her arms and tapping the fingers of one hand against her elbow.
“I’m not the one who said I could never get pregnant yet managed it pretty quickly,” Eben said sharply.
“Is that what is upsetting you?” Cherie asked.
Before she could say more, Eben continued.
“That’s only part of it. I’m angrier that there is doubt as to who the father is,” he spat out.
“What on earth are you talking about?” Cherie asked, bewildered.
“Mark appears to be keen to take the role of father,” Eben ground out.
“Mark? He’s never even dated Jem. You’re the first person she’s even been with since I’ve worked here. I’m her best friend so I would know,” Cherie said emphatically.
“He said they kept their relationship quiet to prevent office gossip.”
Cherie’s mouth dropped open. She considered it for a moment then shook her head.
“I don’t believe it,” she said and added. “Think about it.”
“I did. That’s what made me so angry,” Eben growled.
“Oh! Would you hang up that Y chromosome of yours for a minute and think it through?” Cherie responded in exasperation.
“I did. He said they bought a pregnancy test together and it was the first thing I saw on her desk when I entered the room,” Eben began.
“I can’t explain how he knew about the pregnancy test,” Cherie interrupted “but how about you consider his track history and Jem’s?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll make this easy since you’re having trouble grasping the obvious,” Cherie said a little condescendingly because he was having trouble seeing something that was so perfectly clear to her. “Out of Mark and Jem which one do you perceive as being more honest?”
“Jem,” Eben said without hesitation.
“Very good. Now which one do you see as a pathological liar who will do anything to arrange things to get what he wants? ” asked Cherie.
“Mark, obviously,” Eben replied flatly.
Cherie nodded.
“But what would Mark hope to achieve by breaking us up?” Eben asked.
“Maybe the pregnant solo mother would drop the promotion or perhaps just revenge,” Cherie suggested.
Either idea made a plausible scenario. Eben berated himself for not considering Mark’s motive before yelling at Jem.
“I’m so stupid,” he said, dropping into the closest chair which h
appened to be Jem’s.
Eben rubbed his face with his hands. Cherie crossed over and patted him on the shoulder.
“Yes you are but what are you going to do about it?”
Eben scowled at her.
“She still misled me about not being able to get pregnant,” he reminded her.
“It wasn’t intentional,” Cherie told him. “She had reasons for thinking the way she did.”
Cherie reminded him of Jem’s broken engagement with Alan and how soon afterwards he had a pregnant wife. When she finished Eben looked distressed.
“I’m such an asshole,” he said and looked at Cherie as he sprung out of the chair. “I hadn’t even thought of that. What can I do to thank you?”
“Name your first-born after me,” Cherie quipped as he headed for the door. “Where are you off to?”
“To do some serious grovelling,” Eben said and disappeared down the hall.
Jem was deciding which microwave meal to have for dinner when the intercom buzzer went. She crossed the room to it and held down the talk button.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Can I come up?” a familiar voice asked.
“No,” she said flatly and released the button.
The buzzer went again. Jem tried to ignore it. She walked across the room and turned the radio on to drown out the sound. By the time she had the volume loud enough to do the trick it hurt her ears so she turned it off.
No longer in the mood to think of food, she went into the bedroom and closed the door but still heard the buzzer through the wall. Determined not to listen to it, she lay on the bed and clasped her pillow around her ears. If she listened carefully, a faint buzz could still be heard.
“Aaargh!” she screamed in frustration.
Maybe if I yell at him he’ll go away.
Angrily, she got up and marched back into the living area but got only half way across the room when the buzzer abruptly stopped. She told herself she was relieved to have avoided a confrontation and not disappointed that he gave up so easily.
Feeling a little deflated she sank onto the couch and was still there when someone knocked on the door a couple of minutes later.