Shelby tracked him down in the kitchen where he was heating noodles, brewing jasmine tea and brooding about his five o’clock probation meeting. He’d been at LuxLife three months and while some parts of his job came easily, there’d been an angsty period over a change of procedure he’d initiated that had fouled up. To say he was nervous about having his position confirmed was an understatement. He’d been nervous for weeks, a low-grade anxiety that made it difficult to relax.
Felix had been on his case about it. ‘This isn’t a formality. We have a waiting list of people who want your job,’ he’d said, and since it was Adam’s error, he had to cop it on the chin. But he couldn’t afford to be without work and if they boned him he’d have instant money worries.
Shelby made him nervous too. Nervous in a kind of roller coaster, thrill-seeking way that had nothing to do with the fear he might lose his job and everything to do with how much he enjoyed talking to her.
‘I need to tell you about the hat parade,’ she said.
If he’d been paying more attention to her words and not the funky overalls she was wearing, that might’ve made sense.
‘It’s not exactly a parade in the march along sense,’ she explained. ‘It’s just that on Thursday before we break for the holiday if you want a hot cross bun you have to wear a hat. Basically, everyone wears a hat. No hat, no bun.’
‘If I wear a cap, I get a bun.’ It seemed like a fair exchange. It was easier than choosing a cheap card.
She scrunched up her nose. ‘A cap will do the job.’
‘Hang on.’ Now he was listening as well as watching. ‘You don’t really think it will.’
‘No, no, a cap is fine. Gets you a bun. It’s just that some people go all out.’
All out in the hat department. He had a minor brain blank wondering what that could mean. ‘What will you wear?’
‘Oh no.’ She shook her head, a mock serious expression on her face. ‘I don’t hat and tell.’ The look she gave him, eyebrow wiggles, sucked in cheeks, and fish lips made him laugh. It made him think about hooking his hand into the strap of her overalls, pulling her close and giving her a kiss to tell about.
Except this was work and mostly he just felt a kind of queasy that noodles for lunch wasn’t going to fix. He watched Shelby leave the kitchen. It might be the last time he saw her.
‘Hey,’ he called.
She turned back. ‘What do you need?’
To have worked out what the rest of that sentence was going to be before he opened his mouth. ‘Sorry, I—’ He felt his face get hot and itchy. To have a plan B if things went south, to have no more debt and savings in the bank, to quit arguing with Scott, to call his dad and try to speak civilly, to have a conversation with his mum without making her cry.
To have a friend like Shelby who made him laugh.
‘Stella thinks you’re a great addition to the team. If you’re worried about your probation period, you don’t need to be.’
‘Felix,’ was a dick about it, ‘said you’d have no trouble replacing me.’
‘If he told you we have a list of people who’d sell a limb to work here, he’s right, but I’m sure he didn’t mean to put you on edge. None of them are you.’
‘I stuffed up.’ He’d cost the company time and money. Oh, shit, he was going to lose his job. By the end of the day he’d be unemployed, short on rent, low on hope and long on fucked.
Shelby came closer. ‘And you made things better in the end.’
That was true. He’d been right about the new process being more efficient, he just hadn’t anticipated all the steps he needed to get there.
‘Stella says sometimes you have to break things to see how they can be put together differently.’
He’d know if that was a theory she’d apply to him in a few hours.
Shelby’s eyes got big. ‘Oh Adam.’ She slapped her hands on her sides. ‘You should never have been worried about this. That’s not how we do things. We’re going to fix this right now.’
And she did. She marched him to Stella’s office, interrupted another meeting saying this was urgent and in less than fifteen minutes his position was confirmed.
‘I’m super sorry you were concerned Adam,’ Stella said after she’d outlined the projects she wanted him to focus on. ‘I think you’re doing a great job. I can’t wait to see what you break and fix next.’
His noodles were cold, and Shelby had disappeared before he could thank her, but everything else was looking up. He sent her a private LuxChat message.
Thank you for sorting me out.
And immediately wanted to call it back because he’d made it sound personal and maybe a little suggestive. He went to make more tea and by the time he was at his desk with the pot, Shelby had responded with a winky face and the words I’ll sort you out anytime.
That made his face get hot again, but he was blaming the tea.
The sunny feeling lasted all afternoon, but his temperature control was tested as he was leaving for the day.
‘You went ahead without me.’
He heard Felix before he saw him, which was business as usual; the guy had a boomer of a voice, bested only by Dave.
‘You interrupted Stella for no good reason and you know how jammed her calendar is.’
He cringed for the person being chewed out until he rounded the corner and saw it was Shelby.
‘The meeting could’ve waited,’ Felix said and looked at Adam. That’s when it became obvious this was about him, his meeting with Stella that Shelby had pulled off on the fly and left Felix out of.
‘Adam, congratulations. I’d like to have been at your confirmation meeting, but unfortunately Shelby didn’t notify me that the time had changed. You have a new contract letter to sign. You’ll need to log in to the employee portal. Make sure you do that before you leave tonight.’
Shelby had put herself out for him and now she was under fire. ‘Shelby was helping me out.’
‘Adam, you don’t need—’
Felix talked over Shelby. ‘Did you ask her to bring the meeting forward?’
He shook his head, but he didn’t mind admitting he’d been sweating bullets. ‘No, but—’
‘Then Shelby was making life harder for Stella. As you’ve waited months to be confirmed, I’m sure you could’ve waited a few more hours.’
That was entirely reasonable, but it was also making a big deal of things. It’s not like Stella didn’t know how to say no when she needed to. ‘I was anxious and Shelby—’
Felix cut him off again. ‘Did a nice thing without thinking about how that affects other people. I need your contract paperwork now, Adam. Shelby should have told you that already.’
Shelby’s eyes were down, her lips twisted. He’d caused her a problem and he didn’t want Felix to have another reason to be shitty with her. He went back to his desk, logged on again and completed the paperwork. It wasn’t the triumphant moment it should’ve been.
He opened LuxChat and brought up Shelby’s name, then typed Felix is a fucking dickhead. I’m sorry I made life hard for you. He looked at the send button. He deleted the fucking because maybe that was going too far and since calling the head of HR a dickhead in writing wasn’t smart, he deleted the whole first sentence and hit send.
He didn’t hear back till morning and he might’ve predicted the result.
She responded: You didn’t make life hard for me. It was just one of those things. It’s all good.
After that he didn’t see Shelby for days. Easter Thursday, he came to work in his favourite cap. It was black and had the word thinking embroidered on it in white letters.
The first person he saw was Dave who wore a plastic shower cap with pink flowers on it. ‘Want my bun, bro,’ he said.
December wore a hat she’d made herself out of a plush toy octopus. Its tentacles were tied under her chin. Stella wore a Sherlock Holmes cap. Felix wore a shiny top hat that made him look about seven foot tall. There were big fancy wedding hats and a bunch o
f berets and bucket hats; straw cowboy hats were big and so were Akubras, but the hat he most wanted to see was Shelby’s.
He had to wait half the morning to catch sight of her. She wore a sloppy knitted beanie that came down low over her forehead and fell in soft folds over her head, into a woolly puddle at the back of her neck. It should’ve had the word adorable written on it. It was the kind of hat that was made for cold winter nights and snuggling by the fire, or late Sunday breakfasts at a favourite café. Maybe she’d get to wear it with whoever had sent the roses, whoever she sorted out in her life away from work.
He really liked looking at Shelby in the sloppy knit hat. Cute girls in adorable hats were his new porn. He admired her for the fact she’d brought spare beanies so that no one who’d forgotten their hat missed out on a bun. He didn’t like the fact Felix had an opinion about that. Said it was cheating. No hat, no bun. He made Shelby frown and since her forehead was hidden under rows of stitches she was all downturned lips, and narrowed, lowered eyes. He almost went to her, stopped himself because what was he going to say after I like your hat and Felix is a dick? Anyway, she shook it off and went about making sure everyone was enjoying themselves like it was nothing she wasn’t used to.
She didn’t ignore him, but she didn’t seek him out either. And since he’d caused her trouble that was fair. That’s when he started filling her water jug. It was no big deal. He was filling his own and if hers was empty it was an easy twofer. Because he normally got to the office before she did, he didn’t even have to interrupt her, just swing by her desk on his way to the kitchen.
It was months later, in the middle of the year when he learned that Shelby’s roses had been from Stella. It was a LuxLife tradition. Every year Stella picked five people who’d made an outstanding contribution to the company to send roses on Valentine’s Day. The woman was a tech guru and an ace CEO.
If Shelby had an admirer, he was still a secret, and Adam had no reason to wonder about how she spent her time out of the office, except that it became a kind of game he played with himself. Did she like Netflix and pizza or was she more of a party hard girl? Was she into fancy restaurants or raves or home cooking? Was she a gamer or a reader, a festival fan or an exercise junkie? Did she collect teaspoons with those enamelled tops that said Innaloo, Dondingalong or Useless Loop? Did she knit her own hat? Did she dream of backpacking Europe or climbing Everest or buying a new car, or having Stella’s job one day?
What did she taste like?
That last one, ah, that vision lighting up his brain about standing close to her, about asking for what he wanted and having her say yes, about flicking his tongue over the bow of her upper lip before taking her face in his hands and sharing a first kiss—that could get him into a lot of trouble.
The very same category of idea looked like it was going to get Dave into trouble. He was having a thing with Christina Alexiadas from product development. A hot and heavy thing that they both thought was secret and almost everyone knew about, on account of how they couldn’t keep their eyes or their hands to themselves and then made the weakest excuses for when they got caught out.
You had something on your face.
Can you undo this clasp?
Your label was sticking out.
Could you open this bottle for me?
I was just checking you hadn’t lost an earring.
Also, there was the fact that Felix thought it was funny to call attention to them, as if the time Christina sat on Dave’s desk phone and engaged the intercom and the whole office heard him say, ‘You were on fire last night, babe,’ wasn’t enough to do that.
They’d essentially all gotten used to Dave and Christina being a thing that could cause nausea when Adam’s birthday rolled around in July and Shelby asked him to pick a day for his holiday. Since it fell on a Saturday he’d figured he’d missed out.
She’d rolled a spare chair up beside him. ‘Hey new guy, do you want to take the Friday before or the Monday after off?’ she asked.
Unexpected and very cool. ‘The Monday.’
‘Good call. You can snuggle in while all of us LuxLife wage slaves slog in to work on a cold morning.’
Someone to snuggle with would perfect the idea.
‘Even better if your partner can take a day off too,’ she said. Mind reader.
‘It’ll just be me and Feral,’ he said and watched for Shelby’s reaction. She’d made a move to leave, but he’d stopped her. Now he wanted to hold her in place a while. ‘Feral’s morning breath is like garbage rolled in sewerage.’
Shelby laughed. ‘I don’t know whether to suggest medical attention or worry about the fact your partner is called Feral.’
‘Feral belongs to my roomie, but she likes me better.’
If she’d had a single doubt that Feral had fur, it was trash now. He could see the depth of amusement in her eyes. ‘Feral sounds like a handful.’
Since Feral was a big, old, well-fed tabby cat who liked to sleep on Adam’s feet, this wasn’t far from the truth. You needed both hands to move her; she could make herself liquid.
‘I hope you and Feral will have a great birthday together,’ Shelby said, and this time he had no clever conversation to stop her leaving.
She rocked forward to stand at the same time as he moved to square his chair with his desk and their knees brushed and her skirt flicked over his thigh, a hushed second later their eyes caught, but before he could think of anything to say, she was gone.
And that was the best career move for both of them.
Shelby: Before
Christina wouldn’t come out of the ladies. That wouldn’t be such a problem if Dave wasn’t in there too.
‘If they were, you know, doing it, that would be one thing,’ December said. ‘But they’ve been in there arguing for the last half hour and I don’t want to poop in the middle of someone’s crisis.’
It was a fair point. Not that it worked on Dave. His response to Shelby’s request that he leave the ladies was met with him pounding on the door of the cubicle Christina was inside and shouting. ‘It’s not that I don’t love you.’
‘It’s just that you love your mum more,’ Christina shouted back. ‘You should’ve stood up for me.’
The last person who’d stood up for Shelby was Adam. Adam who was secretly filling her water jug every morning, adding slices of lime and lemon, sometimes mint and strawberries. He’d pretended not to know what she was talking about when she asked about it, as if he didn’t have the same things in his own water jug. The last thing she wanted to do was embarrass him. He was the guy least likely to call attention to himself. And in an office mostly full of look-at-me extroverts she cherished that about him.
‘She’s my mum,’ Dave said.
‘And you’re scared of her.’
‘Shit all I am,’ he protested, or maybe that was agreement. It was a kiwi thing.
The cubicle door opened, and Christina came out. Her eyes were all smudgy. ‘We’re over.’
‘What? Because my mum said you didn’t need dessert?’
‘Because, you dumbass brownie baker, when I said I’d love some you sided with your mum.’
‘You can’t break up with me over that.’
‘It’s not like I don’t know I’m fat. You’re fat too, but you get dessert and I don’t. That’s not how it works.’
‘Babe, you can’t break up with me over a piece of pav.’
Christina gave Dave a look Shelby knew stood in for the words watch me. She pushed past and left them standing there.
‘Dave, you need to,’ she made a gesture towards the door.
‘She can’t break up with me over something my mum said. That’s fuckin’ ridiculous.’
‘You’re in the ladies.’
He gestured to the outside world. ‘I’m upset and I’m not ready to go out there. How are we supposed to work together now?’
That might be a problem. ‘You’re both professionals.’ Although right now there wasn’t much evidence
of that. Dave looked like he might cry. ‘You worked together before.’
‘Yeah, nah, but now we’ve seen each other naked.’
Shelby put both hands up to stop him saying more. This was why office romances were a bad idea. This was why she kept her distance from Adam, because she could easily want more than a professional relationship with him and then she’d be the one crying in the bathroom because office flings came with a heavy serving of unnecessary scrutiny and, when they ended, the unhappiness was a toxic river of discontent that spread everywhere.
‘Dave, please don’t cry.’
He rubbed the back of his hand against his nose, so she grabbed some toilet tissue and thrust it at him.
‘I thought, I thought she was, you know, the one,’ he said, taking the tissue and blowing his nose loudly.
There was a knock at the door. ‘Can I come in?’
‘Give us a minute,’ she called.
‘Like I’m busting, hurry up.’
‘Use the men’s. Knock first.’
There was a rumble of agreement and the outer door banged. Sometimes being responsible for LuxLife’s people came with unusual challenges. Like toilet triage.
The break had given Dave a chance to pull it together. He splashed water on his face and gave a big shuddery sigh. ‘S’pose everyone will be laughing at me now.’
‘You wore a shower cap at Easter. Since when have you worried about people laughing at you?’
‘Since I got my heart broken over a piece of pav,’ he said.
You’re not supposed to hug employees, but she wanted to. Dave needed a hug. He needed a lesson more, and the part of Shelby that wasn’t trying to get Dave to quit the ladies was high-fiving Christina for making her stand.
‘She can’t break up with me over meringue.’
‘I think she broke up with you because you didn’t back her choices. And if you didn’t take her side over something simple like wanting dessert, it kinda suggests you might not be there for her for the big-ticket items.’
Dave rubbed his face. ‘Shit a brick,’ he said. Which had a way of focusing them on their location.
Tinsel In A Tangle Page 3