by Jill Barry
‘Blah blah blah, shut up and get me another drink. You’re a crap hostess,’ Liz said, flicking through a magazine. ‘And don’t you have anything halfway decent for me to read? All this girly stuff here; where’s Mojo? Spin? Q? I’d even take Rolling Stone now, anything’s got to be better than yet another pathetic “wimmins” magazine with yet another pathetic instructional guide on how to give your bloke a blow-job. Hell, it’s not even illustrated.’
‘Get your own drink and shhhh, he’s coming back on now…’ Allegra groped for the remote control and increased the volume on the radio. The news and weather report were done; Jackson Flye was due back on air now. She wasn’t having sex, she wasn’t doing drugs; she figured she could at least indulge in some aural porn, which is basically what his voice was like for her. ‘Oh God…. Listen to that voice, Liz! It’s just sooooo sexy…’
Liz snorted in disagreement and got up to find the bottle of wine they’d opened earlier. Allegra was nestled comfortably on the sofa, feet curled up underneath her as she closed her eyes and smiled at the sound of the DJ’s voice. Allegra’s new apartment was small, but she’d done everything to make it feel as spacious as possible. The sitting room was blessedly large for a Hong Kong flat of this size, that was one bonus. It accommodated a comfortable sofa and a big, squishy armchair, a low table which housed the small TV, a DVD player and the hifi unit. Along the opposite wall were floor-to-ceiling shelves, filled with books and DVDs, mostly belonging to the children.
Otherwise there was nothing else in the room. It adjoined the small kitchen, which had just about enough space for a tiny fridge and a two-ring cooker. The flat was, on the whole, sparsely furnished. The smallest room served as Allegra’s workspace: a desk, a chair and her beloved computer and assorted paraphernalia. The largest bedroom was for the children when they came to stay. This is where Allegra had spent all her money, on big, comfy beds, cheerful curtains, bedside lamps and little night tables to store all their “secret” things.
Her own room, meanwhile, had a single bed, two railings running the full length of the longest wall and holding the few clothes she had kept, and compact plastic chest of drawers. A small nightlight on the floor was the only other thing in the room. She hadn’t even put up curtains, but had hung up a colourful sarong over the window, wedging it into the frame to hold it in place.
Liz had felt horribly sad as Allegra showed her around the flat earlier that evening, and decided she needed to get her a bunch of plants to put on the window ledge behind the kitchen sink. That and a big potted palm for the sitting room. Something alive to bring life into the place. Otherwise, there was an air of hesitancy there which just wasn’t natural. Maybe it would settle down after a while, but Liz doubted it.
Although Allegra had lived there since her divorce was finalised nearly 10 months ago, tonight was the first time she had invited Liz over, mostly because she was ashamed of her shabby little place compared to Liz’s lovely home in Yau Yat Chuen. Allegra had kept her flat brutally clean and tidy. She didn’t spend a cent on herself, saving every little bit she earned for taking the children out to nice lunches and movies and splurging out on Dial-a-Dinner when they were with her.
Her whole life had been turned inside out after the acrimonious split from her husband of 11 years, and she had put up impenetrable barriers around her personal life, living only for her kids. It was a struggle for Liz to get Allegra to agree to join her for a drink; although Allegra said it was just because she didn’t like going out anymore, Liz knew it was because it was cheaper to buy a bottle of wine to share at home than to pay bar prices for a single glass of house white. Even Liz’s insistence that drinks would be on her was met with stony refusal.
Allegra had too damn much pride to accept sympathy in any form. She’d also lost a worrying amount of weight. Liz had no doubt that this was because she wouldn’t even spend money to feed herself properly. The only time she ate decently was during the children’s visits, and even then she would often feign fullness, declining to order a meal for herself, instead eating whatever they couldn’t finish, making a game by pointing out the window and yelling, “Look! A dragon!” and sneaking a fry off their plates as their heads automatically turned to see. Then they would look back at her with mock reproach and tell their mother that she was very, very silly, not like other mums.
‘Liz! What is taking you so long? Have you fallen out the window?’
‘Coming, coming, coming,’ Liz grumbled. ‘Lord, you stop to remove a cork from a wine bottle and you get harassed. Where’s your glass, woman?’
Allegra lifted her glass for Liz to refill and smiled. She was glad she had Liz, who might be a bit of an emotional train-wreck herself sometimes, but at least they could prop each other up. And she’d been a solid pillar of support over the dark months of the last two years, as Allegra’s life was torn apart by lawyers and a husband who didn’t love her, but buggered if he was going to let her go anyway, not least without making sure she first suffered as much as he could possibly arrange.
‘And it’s the Midnight Hour here on Central FM, I’m Jackson Flye, ready to take your calls… And while you’re dialling, here’s Maroon 5 and my favourite song off their CD Songs About Jane, this one’s called Sunday Morning…’
As the song began playing, Allegra squealed. ‘That’s my favourite song off that CD too!’ she said, excited to hear the song, despite the fact that Songs About Jane played on endless repeat on her hifi all day anyway.
‘Oooh, it’s a sign, Allegra! He must be your soulmate! This was meant to be!’ Liz had put on a high-pitched voice, grinning. ‘Jackson and Allegra sitting by a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N…’
She didn’t get a chance to finish the silly rhyme as a cushion had been flung across the room and she put her hands up to catch it. ‘Why don’t you call into his show?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, and say what? “Hi, I’m Allegra and you have the sexiest voice I’ve ever heard in my life, how’d you fancy coming over for a massive shag session?” Somehow, I can’t see that going over too well. Central FM probably has storm troopers stationed around town, ready to abseil into the flats of crazed, lonely women calling up to harass their DJs,’ Allegra said.
‘Actually, pass me the phone, maybe they do have crack ninja pirate squads just for that purpose, and one of them could come crashing in through my balcony doors and whisk me away, ooh, maybe he’d be really sexy, like Johnny Depp’s twin brother or something. Or Keanu Reeves. Oooh, yes, like Keanu Reeves in Speed. Yum, yum, yum…’
‘You’d lose the security deposit on the flat if a bunch of sweaty blokes dressed as ninjas did come crashing in through your balcony door, you wombat,’ Liz said. ‘I’d go back to thinking about having sex with the radio, if I were you. Bit less messy, although it would bugger up the internals, I imagine — both yours and the radio’s.’
‘Oh, you’re just no fun,’ Allegra huffed good-naturedly. ‘Anyway, hush now, he’s taking a call, maybe this one will have the guts to ask him out on a date…’
‘Hi, you’re on the air with Jackson Flye…’ The DJ’s voice was deep and husky, hot honey, molten chocolate… ‘And you are…?
A woman’s voice came on. ‘My name is Perdita…’
‘Perdita? From the Latin perdu, meaning lost? Beautiful name…’ Jackson Flye responded. Allegra smiled. He was smart, too.
‘ “Perdita from the Latin perdu”?’ Liz scoffed, interrupting her thoughts. ‘Christ, he’s full of it. More likely Perdita from 101 Dalmatians, can only mean she’s a dog.’
The woman caller had laughed, a little taken aback by Jackson Flye’s observation. ‘Yes, I guess so, although I’d never really thought about it that way,’ she said. ‘I wanted to ask your opinion as a guy, about a silly problem I’m having… See, there’s this man I like, and I think he likes me, but I’m confused. He’s really flirty and friendly when we’re together, but…’
‘Has he asked you out?’ Jackson Flye asked. ‘Have you spent any time alone togethe
r? Or always with a group of people?’
‘Well, that’s the thing. He’s got a steady girlfriend. They’ve been together for about two years, he said. So what I don’t understand is why he’s flirting with me… I’m not going to be the “other woman”, but at the same time, he’s so cute and it’s really nice to have all that attention from him,’ Perdita replied.
‘Honey, he sounds like bad news to me,’ Jackson Flye said. ‘Take it all with a pinch of salt, that’s my honest opinion. I don’t think he means to hurt you, but nothing is going to come of this. If he was really into you, you’d know it for sure by now.’
‘But we’ve only known each other for a couple of weeks, Jackson,’ Perdita said, her voice imploring, clearly hoping Jackson Flye would conclude that this mystery flirt of hers was madly in love with her and prepared to dump his loving girlfriend in order to be with her, that all he was waiting for was a sign from her. ‘Maybe he’s just trying to work out how he feels before he does anything… you know, like ask me out… or leave her…’
‘Perdita, listen to me. Guys are driven by one thing and one thing only, and that’s sex. He might fancy you, but as long as he’s in a relationship, you’re screwed. Or not, as the case may be… If he really wanted to be with you, he’d move heaven and earth in order to be with you. But I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on your behalf, on the off-chance that he is the one bloke on the planet who is the exception to the rule, then you’re just going to have to relax and let him sort himself out. Believe me, if a guy likes you, he’s not going to forget he likes you. It might take days, weeks, months, even years before he’s finally ready for you… and who knows, you may hopefully have moved on and found a guy who’s emotionally available to you in the meantime. Don’t waste your time, sweetheart, life’s too short for this kind of crap.’
‘I know you’re right, Jackson,’ Perdita said, sounding sad. ‘Thanks… thanks for listening.’ She hung up.
‘Ladies, you are all beautiful, intelligent, gorgeous women, and you deserve to be treated like goddesses,’ Jackson Flye told his listeners. ‘Don’t accept anything less. If a guy isn’t prepared to treat you with respect and honesty, move on. There are a million other blokes out there waiting for you… Speaking of which, here’s a song on just that subject, and it goes out especially to Allegra…’
Allegra sat up with a start and stared at Liz, who was snuffling into a cushion, trying to keep a straight face. ‘Bitch, you called him!’ she hissed, mortified. Although she did get a shiver from hearing Jackson Flye say her name. That would fuel her fantasies for a few nights at least.
‘It’s an oldie but a goodie, just like Allegra herself, I’ve been told,’ Jackson Flye continued. ‘Elton John’s Are You Ready For Love…’ The opening bars of the song began playing. ‘I hope you’re ready for love, Allegra, because I’m sure you deserve it.’
Both girls burst into a fit of giggles. Allegra thanked her lucky stars again for Liz. She’d never have made it this far without her friend, even though sometimes it did seem like Liz was out to publicly humiliate Allegra as much as she could for her own personal amusement. When Jackson Flye signed off at 1am and Allegra finally switched off the radio, Liz went home.
Carefully shutting the door behind her, Allegra sat on the sofa and listened to the sounds of the city at night, thinking about Jackson Flye’s words. Was she ready for love? She didn’t know, but it would be nice to be in love again. To have someone who was in love with her. She couldn’t even remember what it was like.
Slowly, she got up, tidied the room, washed out the wine glasses, switched off the lights and got ready for bed. Pausing at the doorway of her own room, she turned and went instead into the children’s empty bedroom, climbed into Daisy’s bed and, breathing in the beautiful baby smell of her youngest daughter on the pillow, closed her eyes and missed her children.
Chapter Two
LIZ WAS SEETHING. What was she going to do now? The seminar was in two days’ time, how on Earth could she find a replacement actor in time?
‘Clive, look, you’ve really screwed me around,’ she said through gritted teeth, as Clive squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. ‘God, I need a drink.’ She pulled a tiny silver hipflask out of her top drawer and took a swig.
‘The bottom line is that I don’t know who else to call,’ she told him. ‘Now that you’ve buggered up my schedule with this other project you’d forgotten you’d committed to, you’ve got to find someone to take your place. I can’t go up there in front of the top 30 senior executives of Buckland Corporation and no actor to oversee the role-play workshops. Allegra’s going to have her hands full running the whole event anyway; I can’t ask her to take the workshops on well. Anyway, it needs to be a bloke. These CEOs and vice-presidents find it hard enough to take anyone without a dick seriously in a business sense; stick a woman up there for role-play games and we might as well re-enact The World of Suzie Wong.’
She slammed her hipflask back into her drawer and buzzed her PA, Rose. ‘Give Mr Mayhew access to the conference room, please. He’ll need a phone, a large pot of extra-strong coffee and a pair of stainless steel underpants, because if he doesn’t find me a replacement actor by the end of business today, I’m going to neuter him.’
Clive got to his feet. He wisely guessed that asking Liz to arrange for a sandwich as well as the coffee would be a bad move, and went into the spacious conference room at Apex PR to start calling every bloke with a pulse that he could think of. At this point, he’d take the first person to say yes, and so would Liz.
Back in her office, Liz stalked the length of the room, back and forth, back and forth. What if Clive couldn’t find anyone? The upcoming seminar was not the biggest event she’d tackled, but it was certainly the most lucrative. In addition to its primary role as a public relations specialist, Apex had quietly branched out into corporate training seminars aimed at senior executives from Western companies, looking to do business in Asia.
So far, all her clients had been American and, Liz thought, God knows they needed all the help they could get in terms of accommodating local Asian practices, cultures and sensibilities. Some of the guys who walked into the training sessions were unbelievable; she had honestly never thought such bloated, egotistical jerks existed outside the worst, most clichéd movies Hollywood could produce.
But time and again, they proved her wrong. Yet, thanks to her no-nonsense approach, her refusal to take any of the misogynistic shit they handed her and, most of all, because her methods garnered solid results, Apex’s reputation in the field grew. Allegra was the perfect foil to Liz; she soothed and smoothed over any ruffled feathers, somehow convinced their rich and powerful clients through flattery and gentle flirting that yes, of course they were supermen, but here in Asia, things worked differently. And they wanted to make money, didn’t they? So why not relax and concentrate, she cooed, placing her hand on their shoulders and leading them back to their seats.
‘Allegra?’ Liz had called her friend. ‘That giant fool Clive has really screwed us this time. Turns out he forgot he’d signed a contract for another project before he agreed to do the Buckland event with us, so now we have no one to oversee the role-play workshops. What are we going to do?’
‘For a start, take me off the bloody speakerphone, you know I hate it,’ Allegra said, trying not to panic. ‘And stop shouting at me. It’s not my fault.’
‘I know it’s not your fault, but if I don’t shout at someone now I’m going to go in there and rip his stupid head off his stupid shoulders,’ Liz yelled. ‘Look, if this isn’t fixed within the next three hours, we’re going to have to call Buckland and try to postpone the seminar.’
Allegra’s heart sank. Postponing on a client as powerful and influential as Buckland was as good as cancelling. Buckland had arranged for its top executives to fly in to Hong Kong from all over the region. And if the event was called off, Apex’s reputation would be ruined.
‘Look, I’m sorry, I just need to blow o
ff some steam. Clive’s trying to find a replacement, but if he can’t, and we do have to cancel, don’t worry — you’ll still get your fee, I’ll make sure of that,’ Liz said. She knew Allegra was living virtually from hand to mouth these days. She’d turned down offers of fulltime work, insisting she was managing, that she couldn’t commit to a permanent position because she wanted to be available for her kids whenever they needed her.
‘Don’t be daft. If the project is canned, Apex doesn’t get paid. So you can’t pay me,’ Allegra said, stiffly. ‘I’ll cope, maybe see if I can do a couple of extra shifts at the magazine or something. Anyway, we’ve still got a few hours before we need to commiserate; maybe Clive will surprise us both and find someone to do the job.’
In the background, Allegra heard a muffled thump as Clive burst into Liz’s office with a whoop. Her heart leapt; he’d done it, she thought. Sure enough, Clive’s fifteenth call had been the charm. Neither Liz nor Allegra had ever heard of the actor he’d lined up in his stead, Jack something-or-other. Clive fervently assured them that Jack would be great, that he’d eagerly accepted the offer, and had promised to be in Liz’s office first thing in the morning for a briefing.
‘Knowing our luck, he’s only available because no one else will give him a job because he’s totally unemployable,’ Liz said to Allegra, glaring at Clive as she spoke into the phone. ‘And this means you’re going to have to be here at 8am tomorrow. Buggered if I’m going to face this loser on my own, because if he is even half as useless as Clive, I’m going to nut him.’
She hung up and turned to face Clive. ‘You just bought yourself a stay of execution,’ she told him. ‘But if this Jack person lets me down in any way at all, I will feed your testicles and his through a sieve to my dog. Clear?’
‘Clear,’ said Clive. He had no doubt that Liz would carry out her threat. She was like the Incredible Hulk. You should never make her angry.