“It’s a play on hedonist. Someone whose life is about the pursuit of pleasure. A Heedonist is someone who works at Heed, and who’s devoted to the pursuit of a good idea. It’s a way to brand us and it’s more fun than saying staff.”
He was still huffy. He’d have embroidered that more. Told her how he came up with it, showed her the matching t-shirt and fitted her out for one. She slipped into keep it professional mode.
“Are you going to tell me the game plan? I mean what you’ve got me doing is preparation for something else, right? It’s more than the admin job you painted it to be.”
“No. What I’ve got you doing is exactly what we need. There’s no other plan. If you’re ready, I’d like to introduce you around?”
She could have argued, but that would annoy him further and prove her own paranoia. She followed Blake back into the main office area and tucked her foot-in-mouth tendency with her anxiety and resentment away, where no one would see them and they couldn’t stand in the way of doing the best job possible.
13: Sour Worms
He’d been worried Aiden wouldn’t come. He’d said he would, but people said they’d do stuff all the time and Cody knew that didn’t mean they’d do it for real. So when he’d seen Aiden standing with his mum he’d felt totes better. This was a good school. The kids here got more pocket money than at his other school so when he had stuff to sell it was easier to find some doofus who would give him a good price.
Plus he’d already had a fight with the toughest kid in his year and given him a bloody nose, so no one was going to mess with him except older kids but he was smart enough not to bother them. Plus he could run fast. He’d rather stay at this school than have to change again, so it was good that Aiden came.
Now Aiden was talking to his year master, Hub the Tub. Cody wished he could hear what Hub the Tub was saying. Probably lies. Probably stuff to make him get in more trouble. He’d probably never see Aiden again. Not that it mattered. The dude was as boring as bat shit anyway, and he kept his phone out of sight so there wasn’t anything to steal from him no more.
He’d won a lot of trophies though. In his office, Aiden had lot of statues like Logies. He said were for the ads he made on TV. Anyone could do that. It was just saying stuff about stuff. Like for example, tomato sauce. All you had to say to get people to buy tomato sauce was, ‘this tomato sauce is the best. Everyone likes it and it makes food taste good’. Or like a car, all you had to say was, ‘this car goes better and comes in really cool colours and has a big engine and mag wheels and you can put your iPod in it, and play all your favourite songs’. Doing advertising was shit easy, but Aiden must have done a lot of it to have so many trophies.
Cody wasn’t sorry he’d broken one of them. He wondered what he’d have to do to make Aiden get mad with him, to make him yell. Aiden didn’t shout at him about the trophy or about the phones, which proved he was a gutless wimp.
Once assembly was over, he’d have to go and say something to Aiden. But he didn’t really have to say anything out of his mouth, he could go and stand next to him and other people would think they were talking. If he like smiled or nodded or something, people might think Aiden was like a distant relo and then Cody could tell them he was famous or something.
Mum wanted him to call Aiden Mr Riley, but he didn’t have to call him anything. He didn’t call any of Mum’s boyfriends anything either. He knew who they were without using their names, including the ones who tried to be friendly and gave him stuff. Sometimes you could take money from the ones who were friendly because they thought you were a doofus kid, and they’d leave their wallets lying around when they were in the bedroom with Mum. If you only took a little bit they didn’t notice. Once he’d taken too much. Mum said that was the reason the man never came back, so now he only took a little bit so they’d think they must’ve already spent it.
Aiden was more like the men who left their wallets out than the men who were angry when they came to the flat. With the angry men you knew straight away you needed to keep away from them. It was better if you didn’t look at them or go in the kitchen when they were there, even if that meant when you were thirsty the only way you could have a drink was from the tap in the bathroom.
Cody wasn’t allowed to talk about the men either. No one was allowed to know about them. Mum said if anyone knew—anyone like Hub the Tub or Sad Face or Aiden, then they might make Cody and Jas go and live in an orphanage where there was no food and it was always cold and other kids beat you up. He and Jas would rather drink water from the tap in the bathroom and miss out on TV every night than go to an orphanage.
The assembly was soooo boring. Too many teachers yakking on about nothing. Plus someone was eating Sour Worms. Cody could smell them. Plus his ears were getting burned. He had a cap on, but they’d been standing in the sun for so long now the tops of his ears were hot. Cody was glad when Mustafa slammed the back of his head to get his attention. “That your dad?”
“Who?”
“Him with the sunnies.”
“Nah.”
“He with your mum.”
“Nah.”
“Who is he?”
“Just some guy.”
“Some guy your mum is bangin’.”
Cody could see Miss Morris walking down the line of kids towards them. She was ok, she smelled nice, not like the playground. The playground always smelled of bad banana gone all black and squishy. She’d make them stop talking so he said quickly, “No. He’s like this famous guy who does ads on the TV. He’s a friend of the family.”
“I’ve never seen him on TV.”
“He’s not on TV dumbass. He puts thing on TV, like tomato sauce and cars and stuff.”
“Oh.”
Miss Morris was closer now. She smelled of soap. “Yeah, he’s going to put my sister on TV dancing.” That might be true. Maybe if Cody asked Aiden he would put Jas in an ad about something, maybe for an iPod. She could be dancing in that.
“Cool. Do you get to hang with him?”
“Yeah, all the time. He takes me out and stuff, let’s me have any food I want.”
“Be quiet you two.”
Neither of them looked at Miss Morris. That way she might not be sure if it was them two talking or fat Gerald and his gay friend Ali who were in front of them. Bet it was fat Gerald who had Sour Worms.
When the assembly finally ended, like years later, Cody went to stand with Mum and Aiden. He smiled a bit, mostly at Mum so if Mustafa was looking he’d know Cody was telling the truth about Aiden being a friend and stuff.
He was looking at fat Gerald’s family—his mum was fat and his dad was heaps more fatter, when Mum said, “Cody, Mr Riley asked you a question.”
“What?”
Aiden said, “Would you like to do something different on Saturday?”
“Like what?”
Mum said, “Cody,” like he was about to be in trouble.
“I thought we could go indoor rock climbing.”
“What’s that?”
“They have walls that you can climb with special places to put your feet. You wear a harness so you don’t fall. It’s fun.”
“Would I still get to eat?”
Aiden laughed when he said that. What did the doofus think was so funny?
“Yeah, we can have lunch too. Would you like to go?”
“Maybe.”
“Yes or no, Cody?”
“Yeah.”
It sounded ok, this indoor rock climbing; better than staying home. He could tell Mustafa that he was going and maybe when they were at the rock climbing place he could ask Aiden about putting Jas in an iPod ad. Or maybe Aiden would be a doofus and leave his wallet lying around.
When he was back in the classroom he said to Mustafa, “I’m going rock climbing on Saturday,” and he could tell that the dude was impressed because he gave him a Sour Worm.
●
If Aiden didn’t know Blake had a grubby agenda hidden behind the glamour of taking him
on as a full partner he’d have been impressed by Heed’s offices. He hadn’t seen them since Blake had first taken over the empty warehouse space in Pyrmont after growing out of his city-based office. Then it was just a shell. Now it was a very cool workspace.
Technically Aiden was on leave. Technically he was having lunch with a mate, but even though it was another two months till he could officially start work at Heed without anyone being sued, this was a briefing.
Heed’s receptionist brought him a glass of water, and told him a conference call had run over and Blake would be with him in fifteen minutes. That gave Aiden a chance to get a feel for the place. Meanwhile the receptionist was getting a feel for him. Aiden caught him checking him out from behind his desk.
“I’m Evan by the way,” he said, not the least perturbed about being caught out perving.
“Have you worked here long, Evan?”
“Two years. I’m a writer. This is my day job.”
Aiden smiled, he liked the straight up answer. “What do you write?”
“Graphic novels.”
“Are you published?”
“Not yet, so here I am behind this desk,” said Evan with a TV game-show host hand wave to indicate the impressive steel and glass console.
“Is this a good place to work?”
Evan appeared to check for prying ears, looking left, right, and up towards the upper deck. “Better than some.”
“Are people happy here?”
“You wouldn’t be a spy for Blake would you?”
Aiden smiled again. Heedonists hadn’t yet been told of his impending arrival. “I might be. Does he have others?”
“He’s very tricky, but we do love him.”
“I’ll let him know.”
“Please do. That can’t hurt my run at a bonus one bit. Are you a new client?”
“No, I’m a friend.”
Evan pursed his lips and frowned. “If I’ve already offended, please accept my apologies.”
“You’re cool, Evan, but one more question.”
“If I can have one too?”
“Shoot.”
“How did you get that bruise?” Evan pointed to his own forehead then gestured to Aiden.
“Rock climbing. Tell me, after Blake, and yourself of course, who’s the next biggest personality in the office?”
“That would be Jonesy. Tony Jones.”
“Leave you alone two minutes and you’re already chatting up the staff.” This from Blake, coming down the staircase and into the reception area. “Shit mate, what happened to your noggin?”
“I took Cody rock climbing. I was telling Evan I’m out of practice.”
“Bullshit. You were pumping Evan for information.”
“You always were a conspiracy theorist.”
“You have no idea. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
As they were leaving the reception area, Aiden heard a bell ringing. Not like the electronic bell Cody’s school used, this was an old-fashioned hand-held bell. He looked at Blake, “Fire alarm?”
“New business bell. Wait a mo, have to find out what we won.”
Blake disappeared back into the office, Evan trotting after him, but was back in quick time with a cat-got-the-cream expression. “Account Right Software. Didn’t think we’d win that one. Now we have to keep it.”
He pushed the glass door, stepping aside to let Aiden go through first when a voice stopped them. “Blake, when are you back?” They both turned towards it.
Aiden saw a woman on the landing above them, dark hair, rosy skin, plump ruby lips, hands jammed on hips, an impatient look on her face.
“You can finish without me,” said Blake, hand still on the door, foot over the threshold. He had no intention of turning back.
“If I could finish without you I would.”
“Do whatever you think is right.”
The dark curls bounced as she shook her head and pursed those red lips. Her frustration with Blake amused Aiden. He thought of the Sour Worms Cody liked to eat, tart and sweet at the same time.
“Is he always this hard to get along with?” he called up to her.
“This is a good day,” she laughed. Her smile was liquid candy.
Blake said, “Aiden Riley meet Bailey Wyatt.”
Aiden went, “Bailey!” as Bailey went, “Aiden!” and Blake said, “Later, you can meet each other later,” pushing Aiden out the door, turning back to flip the bird at Bailey.
On the walk to the restaurant, Aiden said, “That’s Bailey. The Bailey. Your Bailey. When did you employ Bailey?”
“Same time I employed you, but she could start straight away. I need her for six months, a strategy and admin role. Mostly stuff I should have paid more attention to. But you know me and paper pushing. She’s more or less mop up detail.”
“And why would she want to do that? Didn’t she have her own events company?”
“Yeah. Remember the energy job, the blackout?”
“I remember winning it in a competitive tender from you.”
“It was Bailey’s.”
“Oh shit.”
“Yeah. Not that she stuffed up, but she lost a few accounts as a result of it so I’m taking advantage of her availability.”
Aiden was amused. “I’ll get to work with the famous Bailey.” This would be a side benefit, getting to learn about Blake’s muse Bailey up close and personal.
“Nope. I don’t want you tangled up in that crap and I don’t want her doing anything else.” Not that Blake’s ‘never the twain shall meet’ desire was going anywhere. First chance Aiden got he was talking to Bailey.
When they reached the restaurant it was obvious Blake was a regular judging by the amount of fawning from people wearing long white aprons. When Aiden looked at the menu he understood where Blake’s love handles came from.
“I know what you’re thinking,” said Blake.
“This’ll be good.”
“I don’t eat here all the time. But you look like you could do with a good feed. Though you do look better, other than the head. Rock climbing! You and this kid, have you taken him on then?”
“I tried not to, but yep. I’m Cody’s Big Brother. It’s been a month now since he stole anything from me, so that’s an improvement in our relationship, which mostly consists of me taking him somewhere and him eating. I don’t think we’ve had a conversation that wasn’t based on me asking him questions and him saying, ‘whatever’ or ‘I dunno, dude’.”
Blake laughed. “What possessed you to get into this? I thought you were trying to get out of it.”
“I was, but I got over myself. The kid has no one. The mother is, well, she’s interesting, and there wasn’t anyone else. I can’t imagine I’m doing him any good, other than in a dietary sense, but I guess he could do worse.”
Blake picked up a breadstick and broke it in half. Drinks appeared without having been ordered and a waiter hovered. Blake ordered for them both with his customary lack of consultation and Aiden sat back to enjoy the ride. Whatever showed up from the kitchen was bound to be good.
“You seem better, Aid.”
“I’m trying. Good days and bad. I was worried about having all this time off, but it’s probably a sensible thing, though I’ll be glad to get into a work routine again.”
“That’s my cue then.” Blake took a couple of loose pages from his suit coat pocket and spread them over the table, moving a salt cellar and bottle of olive oil. “This is the org chart. Has all the staff listed, excluding you and Bailey. There are eighty-five Heedonists now. That’s twice the number I thought I’d have. We have over a hundred accounts, but it’s eighty-twenty rule in terms of the income. I want to grow the number of accounts that give us quality income, and I want to grow the total number of accounts, and the number of staff. That’s first.”
Aiden took a breadstick and bit the end off. He looked at the chart showing the company structure, the names of the people employed, their titles and their reporting lines. Ever
y organisation chart Aiden had ever seen had been as much an explanation of the formal structure of the office as it was a game of Snakes and Ladders. Some careers rose on the back of others, some slid out backwards. He thought of Karen Ho whose career he’d boosted, and Rodney Stone whose livelihood he’d taken away. He knew the formal office structure would have nothing to do with the power games at play and the interpersonal relationships that mattered. He knew he’d have to work out who on this chart was standing on a ladder and who was riding the snake’s back. When he looked up Blake was grinning at him.
“And second?”
14: Bag of Wind
Blake rolled his sleeves up—that was one of his tells. Sleeves rolled up meant get ready for a wild ride. He had the look of a kid at Christmas, not sure which present to open first. He was eighty percent wonder and twenty percent greed.
“That’s where it gets interesting.”
Aiden knew Blake’s agenda was bigger than ‘hey it’s about time we worked together again, how about it partner?’ But until he’d agreed to join Heed, Blake had sensibly kept his trap shut about his game plan. Now Aiden wanted to know if he’d sold his soul to the devil in his best friend.
“Tell me I’ve not made the worst career decision in my life,” he said, trying to see though Blake’s glossing of self-satisfaction to the substance below.
Blake settled down to rip the wrapping paper off his plan, piece by piece. “What is it you’ve always wanted?”
Aiden frowned. That was a trick question, like a tiny present packaged in a big box. The answer was Shannon—from the exact moment she looked in his eyes. “You mean from work?”
Blake nodded impatiently and they both lent back to allow a waiter to deliver their entrees. Neither of them looked at the meal.
“Creative freedom. Quality accounts, high...”
Blake cut him off, “Yeah, yeah, I’ve got all that. That’s what we all want. What do you really want?”
“I want to write and direct my own movies, you know that. But even if I was talented enough, could raise the funding and was happy to live in my car till I managed to get distribution, it’s still a pipe dream. The industry here is so small. If I’d’ve stayed in LA, possibly, but...”
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