Contents
Cover
Title Page
About the Author
The GoMo
Also by Maggie Alderson
Copyright
About the Author
Maggie Alderson was born in London, brought up in Staffordshire and educated at the University of St Andrews. She has edited four magazines, including British ELLE, and worked on two newspapers, contributing to many more.
She has published four collections of her columns from Good Weekend magazine and her children’s book, Evangeline the Wish Keeper's Helper, was short-listed for the 2012 Prime Minister's Award.
She co-edited two anthologies of short stories in aid of the charity War Child and also In Bed With, a collection of erotic stories by well-known women writers. Her latest novel, Everything Changes But You, is her seventh.
She is married, with one daughter, and lives by the sea – and virtually on Twitter @MaggieA
Jess stared at herself in the mirror. Was this it? Was she having her GoMo? She looked at herself a bit longer, turning from side to side, and then ran across the room to grab her phone out of her handbag.
‘Trina!’ she shouted, as soon as her best friend answered. ‘I think I’m having my GoMo – how do I know for sure?’
‘You just know,’ said Trina, ‘that’s the whole point. If you don’t know, it’s not your GoMo.’
‘Hang on while I have another look,’ said Jess and ran back to look in the full-length mirror on the wardrobe door again.
Yep, something was definitely going on. It wasn’t simply that she liked what she saw; everything just felt right too.
She wasn’t wearing a special new dress or shoes or anything. She’d worn the whole outfit quite a few times before and she’d always had a good time in it, so it did have that crucial good fashion karma, which might have been helping, but it was more than that.
Her hair was doing what it was told for once, too, falling down below her shoulders with a bit of a wave, but nothing too boufheady. Sometimes it was so big and weird by the evening, she had to scrape it back into a lazy ponytail, but not tonight. Tonight she had Anne Hathaway hair. Wowsers.
She leaned in closer to the mirror. She hadn’t smudged mascara on to her finished make-up either and a quick check confirmed there was no lippie on her teeth. Amazing.
‘You still there?’ said Trina, her voice sounding small from the phone in Jess’s hand.
‘Oh yeah, sorry,’ said Jess, bringing it up to her ear again.
‘So what do you reckon?’ said Trina. ‘GoMo or no GoMo?’
‘So GoMo,’ said Jess. ‘This is it, Treens: I’ve finally achieved my full potential as a woman. Self-confidence and self-esteem from life experience and professional achievement, perfectly balanced with grown-up sexual allure. Just like you told me. The woman completed. I’m having my Golden Moment.’
‘Way to GoMo,’ said Trina, ‘and isn’t this the night of the big date?’
‘Yeah,’ said Jess, ‘that’s why I’m all gussied up and obsessing on myself in the mirror.’
‘Where’s he taking you?’
‘Aria,’ said Jess, quietly; it was so perfect.
‘Wow,’ said Trina. ‘Well, that’s what you get with the Alpha Male. Isn’t that what I’ve been telling you all this time?’
‘Yep,’ said Jess. Alpha Male was one of many other terms and concepts Trina had introduced her to since they’d met a couple of years before.
They both worked at a big insurance company, where Jess ran the staff café and Trina was working her way up to the top in the marketing department. She would most probably get there. She was madly ambitious and read a lot of books about achieving your potential. Being linked to an Alpha Male in a Power Couple with Shared Aspirations was all part of her Master Plan.
Trina was always lending Jess these self-improvement handbooks, but Jess couldn’t be bothered to read them – cookery books and food blogs were her obsession – so she relied on Trina to précis them down to the key elements for her, which she was always more than happy to do.
Trina said talking about a concept, rather than just reading it, made new neural pathways form in her brain, which would make the idea a physical part of her. That had made Jess laugh so much Trina had been quite offended, until she’d remembered that was a negative frame of mind and got over it.
GoMo – the Golden Moment – was Trina’s own idea though. It had come to her a few months earlier, during a ‘life-changing’ week at a spa retreat and she’d been obsessing about it ever since.
About how a woman’s true prime had nothing to do with nubile sex appeal, or ideal childbearing age, but was the moment when your self-confidence peaked as a result of your personal achievements and you were still young enough to be physically gorgeous too.
Trina’s big idea was that while some women achieved their GoMo spontaneously by happy accident, with her help it was something every woman could actively work towards. She was planning to make the concept into a blog, which would then be taken up as a book and made into a feature film. She thought Charlize Theron was the obvious choice to play her in it.
That was what Jess so admired about her friend. She didn’t talk about these kind of things as hopes and aspirations, the way Jess daydreamed about having her own café and bakery, possibly leading to her own cookbook, to pass the time on the train to work in the morning. Trina simply assumed the things she planned would happen and only talked about them in those terms. She always referred to her as-yet-unwritten book as ‘my bestseller’, so Jess had started calling the film ‘your major motion picture’ to tease her, but Trina hadn’t taken it as a joke. That was how she already thought of it. She probably had her Oscars speech planned.
It was all part of her utter belief in the Power of Positive Thinking – which had been the name of the first self-empowerment book she’d ever read. She’d told Jess how she’d found it in her granddad’s shed one boring summer holiday when she was thirteen and had never looked back. She was going to put that detail in the intro of her ‘global blog’.
Remembering all that, Jess realised she’d tuned out of what Trina was saying and snapped back to attention just in time to hear her say that she’d had a text from the man she’d met river kayaking – part of her programme of doing at least one new thing every month.
‘Oh, that’s great news, Treens,’ said Jess. ‘I had noticed you’d stopped mentioning him, so I thought you might have given up on that one.’
‘You know I never give up,’ said Trina. ‘I knew he’d call eventually and now he has. So that’s working out nicely for me and it sounds like it’s all come together for you, girlfriend, achieving your GoMo on the night of your all important put-out date with your Alpha Male.’
Jess felt a slight lurch of anxiety. One of the books Trina was obsessed with was The Rules, a guide written by two American women on how to snare the man of your dreams by playing hard to get.
The most important of the Rules was never to sleep with a guy until at least the third date. Since reading the book, Trina considered this the eleventh commandment – she just hadn’t had the chance to put it to the test yet, as none of the guys she’d met recently had gone as far as a third date.
So it had fallen to Jess to try it out on Adam . . . Adam! Jess felt slightly queasy – and other more pleasant and naughty things – thinking about him and what might lie ahead tonight, the crucial third date.
She thought he was probably the best-looking man who had ever asked her out – definitely the most eligible – and still couldn’t quite believe it had happened, but from the day he had joined the firm a few weeks ago and started coming into the work café, there’d been a lovely flirtatious banter had between them.
It had started with
him complimenting her on her flat whites and then going on to say, ‘I’d tell you how much I like your buns as well, but it might not sound right . . .’
For a moment Jess had wondered if he was taking the mickey out of her unkindly – she was self-conscious about her high, round bottom – but his mischievous grin had seemed genuine, so she’d smiled back and had then started to look forward, ever more keenly, to his morning coffee runs.
He was pretty regular in his habits, coming in at about 11.15 every day, so she knew exactly when to refresh her lipstick and make sure she was on the espresso machine. On the odd day when he didn’t come in, she felt really deflated.
It was on one of those disappointing mornings that Trina had got the whole story out of her and had then set about finding out exactly who this handsome skinny flat white and a banana muffin guy was. She’d been so excited when she rang with the news the next afternoon, Trina could hardly understand what she was saying.
‘It’s only Adam Walker,’ she squealed.
‘Should I have heard of him?’ asked Jess.
‘He’s the hot new talent they headhunted to be the head of new business – he’s only thirty-six, and he’s on the board, Jess. He’s such a high flyer and he’s flirting with you over your cupcakes. He’s the Alpha Male you’ve been waiting for – I bet you’re glad you ditched loser boy now, huh? You would never have attracted Adam Walker’s attention with his low-level energy still in your life.’
Jess couldn’t take it in. The bit about ‘loser boy’ she understood. Trina was talking about her ex, Neil, whom she’d finally found the strength to leave after nine years, just a few months before. That was why the whole dating thing was still weird for her – she’d been out of the game so long. So she got that – and so wasn’t going to go there; it was still painful to remember how devastated he’d been – it was the stuff about Adam Walker being a big shot that didn’t make sense.
‘If he’s on the board, why’s he coming to get his own coffee? All the other executives send their PAs down.’
‘Because he’s young and cool and they’re all old farts,’ said Trina. ‘That’s why they’ve hired him, for his fresh modern ideas. He doesn’t have a PA, or his own office. He sits out among his team, working alongside them. They all love him, he’s legendary for it. Google him!’
Jess did and was impressed – and somewhat overawed – by what she read. He was so out of her league, his friendly banter with her was clearly just part of his edgy, modern-boss, down-with-the-workers persona.
Yet despite that, she couldn’t help noticing that their daily – or practically daily – exchanges at the coffee counter were developing in an interesting way. He’d started coming down a bit earlier each day and as there wasn’t usually a long, grumpy, caffeine-craving queue at 10.15, there was time for a bit more of a chat.
Over the weeks it moved from him asking her how she had got into catering as a profession and where she wanted to go with it, to asking her where she liked to eat out, until the Friday morning when he suggested they should visit her favourite café one day – together.
Jess had been so surprised she’d dropped his change and had to grovel around on the floor to pick it up. He’d come round the end of the counter to help her and she’d looked up to find him crouched next to her, grinning as he held out a $2 coin, their heads suddenly very close together in the hot confined space.
She stood up so quickly she banged her nut on the open drawer of the till.
‘Now I really will have to buy you a coffee,’ he’d said, back on his side of the counter as she stood on hers, rubbing the lump on her head and feeling like a complete idiot, ‘or at least sell you an insurance policy against injury in the workplace.’
Before she could think of an answer, she realised he was handing her his business card.
‘Text me this weekend, if you’re free,’ he said, ‘and we’ll have that coffee, yeah?’
Jess had just nodded, too surprised to answer.
Trina was thrilled when Jess filled her in on developments as they windowshopped together after work that night – their Friday ritual – and that was when she had first introduced Jess to the concept of The Rules.
‘The thing is never to be too available,’ she said, ‘and you mustn’t ring him ever. Really, never. So don’t ring him this weekend, even though he asked you to; be strong. Then when you see him in the café again next week just say, you’re really sorry, but you lost his card – and then give him yours, so he has to ring you. A man like that has to feel he’s doing the running, otherwise he’ll lose interest.’
‘Really?’ said Jess, disappointed. She’d been planning to ring him the next morning.
‘100 per cent,’ said Trina. ‘Don’t give him the satisfaction of calling him first. That’s what he’s expecting. He’s a really good-looking guy, he earns a bomb, he drives a new series Merc . . .’
‘How do you know all that?’
‘Duh!’ said Trina. ‘I’ve got access to the HR files and I went down to New Business on an entirely spurious mission and had a look at him in the flesh. You’re right, hot as – and he works out every day in the company gym.’
‘Is that in the HR file too?’
‘No,’ said Trina. ‘Just did a bit of subtle research.’
‘I hope you didn’t mention me,’ said Jess.
‘Of course I didn’t. So have you got the idea? Don’t call him, and make sure you have your business card ready in your pocket on Monday morning so you can – so casually – give it to him.’
Jess nodded. She could see the logic in it. Man the hunter and all that. It was worth a try – and she was such a novice at this adult dating business, she needed all the expert help she could get. She’d met Neil at uni, when no-one did ‘dating’. They’d had a big pash at a party once, but that had been it until a few years later, when they’d met again at a mutual friend’s wedding.
It had all just happened after quite a lot to drink and some fooling around on the dance floor and it had felt easy and natural. After that first night, they’d happily fallen in together without any fuss, getting along together so well, with loads of mutual friends and shared experiences already laid down. She hadn’t had to play any games with him, or follow any rules, but it was all different now.
Once you were in your thirties, all the nice men you knew were already taken and meeting a guy seemed to be a much more formal and contrived activity. Even if you didn’t go in for internet dating – and Trina has been researching that for both of them – it was like learning a new life skill. Oh well, at least she had a well-informed teacher.
‘Oh and another thing,’ said Trina, as they said goodbye at the entrance to Town Hall station. ‘He’s an Aries…’
Jess followed Trina’s rules to the letter. Adam had come down even earlier than usual for his coffee on Monday, pleading a late night before, but it wasn’t until he was paying that he mentioned anything other than that and his order – one of Jess’s feta and sun-dried tomato filo triangles, for a change.
‘So, you didn’t call me on the weekend,’ he said. ‘Were you busy?’
‘Oh yeah,’ said Jess, rather too quickly. ‘Yeah, I had a really busy weekend, crazy, and, er, I’m afraid I lost your card . . . Look, here’s mine – why don’t you call me sometime and we’ll have that coffee?’
Adam took it and looked down at it for a moment, as though he’d never seen a business card before.
‘Right,’ he said, looking up at Jess again and nodding, a surprised look in his eyes. ‘I’ll do that.’
And he walked out of the café, pushing her card into his wallet.
He didn’t wait until the weekend to call her; he rang that afternoon, just as she was leaving work.
‘Hi, cupcake,’ he said.
Jess didn’t know who it was at first. Nobody called her ‘cupcake’, although she did make them every day of her life.
‘It’s Adam – Adam Walker. You know, skinny flat white . . .’
‘I was just thinking, rather than waiting until the weekend, would you like to have a drink with me tonight?’
Jess was just about to say ‘Yes, please!’ when she remembered another of Trina’s rules. You could never be available the same day.
‘Oh, that would have been so nice,’ she said, feeling like an utter fake, ‘but I’m busy tonight. I could do, er, Thursday?’
Adam paused for a moment. Jess thought Trina was probably right. He wasn’t used to this.
‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’m just checking my calendar, yeah, Thursday’s good. I’ll text you the venue on the day, OK?’
‘That would be lovely,’ said Jess, still not quite able to believe she was behaving like such a manipulative maneater. Especially not with someone so gorgeous. Who was the first man to ask her out for months. But anyway, she’d done it now.
‘And one other thing,’ said Adam. ‘I think I’ll have a chocolate chip cupcake tomorrow.’
The drink was great. Jess found Adam really funny and easy to talk to, even though he’d chosen a really cool and fashionable bar that might have intimidated her with someone she felt less relaxed with. It was attached to a restaurant that everyone was talking about and after their second cocktail, it had taken all Jess’s strength of mind not to take up Adam’s suggestion that they stay on to have dinner there. He’d booked a table just in case, he admitted.
Luckily Trina had drilled her again at lunchtime on the Rules details. Busy, busy, busy. Never available at the man’s whim. So, pressing her fingernails into her thighs to keep herself focused, Jess had breezily replied that it would have been great, but she had some crucial things at home she had to get on with.
Like filing her spices in alphabetical order, she thought, or counting her teaspoons. But she wasn’t going to tell him that.
‘OK,’ said Adam, with that slightly dazed look on his face again. ‘Perhaps we could have dinner some other time then?’
The GoMo Page 1