by Gemma Crisp
‘And this was just after Kat had offered you the press trip to Europe?’
‘Less than an hour later. The timing couldn’t have been better,’ Nina’s tone dripped with sarcasm, as Tess put her hands over her mouth in horror.
‘So did you call the publicist back? Christ, that’s one phone call I don’t envy you having to make.’
‘Kat and I discussed a strategy first – after I apologised three bazillion times, obviously. I actually wish she had been mad with me – it would have been easier to deal with, but after she got over the shock, she insisted that it was her fault too, because she had approved the text. But I feel like I’ve totally let her down, after she took a massive gamble on hiring me for the features editor role.’
‘Stop beating yourself up – she’s right, you know. Yes, it was your idea to write the truth, and that may have not been the best idea in hindsight, but she’s the editor and has the final say on what makes the cut.’
‘That’s probably why she decided she should be the one to call Hayley back, instead of me. Plus it would have made Hayley feel more important that the editor took her threats seriously enough to deal with the problem herself, rather than letting a minion do it. I wasn’t in her office when she made the call, but she told me afterwards that Hayley screamed down the phone for a full five minutes without drawing breath, and said she’d already composed an email to all the celebrity publicity firms which she was about to send out, explaining to them what we did and telling them never to work with Lulu again. I don’t know what voodoo trick she pulled, but Kat managed to calm her down. It turned out the thing Hayley was most cut up about was how we’d included her quote on our questions being “too gossipy”.’
‘Seriously? You did a hatchet job on her client – sorry,’ Tess apologised when she saw Nina’s grimace, ‘who pays her good money to make sure she’s promoted favourably in the press, but all she could think about was how she had been included in the article?’
‘I’m sure she did care about how we portrayed Nicolette, but I don’t think including her comments helped,’ Nina explained. ‘Kat did enough grovelling for Hayley to take her finger off the send button and we had to promise to run a glowing story about Nicolette’s style commandments in the next three months as compensation, which Hayley has to approve before it goes to print.’
‘So you won’t be writing any more warts-and-all celebrity cover interviews in the near future, then?’
‘Hah, I think I’ve done my dash with them for a while. Romy is welcome to have a crack at them. Kat might decide to write them herself from now on!’
‘So have you lost the title of Kat’s pet?’
‘Shut up. I’m not her pet; we just get on well and like working with each other. I’m guessing I’m not exactly her favourite person right now, but I think she knows I’m punishing myself enough for both of us. I offered to resign but she wouldn’t let me, so then I told her I didn’t think I should be the one to go on the Eastern Europe junket after the debacle and she should send one of the other girls, but she told me I was being ridiculous and insisted I still go – which just makes me feel even worse about the whole thing. It’s like she’s killing me with kindness. Actually, that reminds me, I need to find my passport tonight. Another drink?’ Without waiting for an answer, Nina headed to the bar.
‘What’ll you have?’ asked the barman, his dark auburn hair falling over his brown eyes as he polished glasses.
‘One G&T and one gin with half tonic, half soda, please,’ Nina told him, while thinking, ‘Hmmm, cute. Don’t mind me a bit of brown-eyed redhead – I’d totally go there.’
With a start she realised it was the first time she’d consciously checked out another guy since hooking up with Jeremy. Ever since that first night at the House of Horrors, it was like she’d been wearing a pair of blinkers whenever there was another man in the vicinity, but now those vaguely male-shaped blurs in her periphery were sharpening up and she could no longer ignore them – what’s more, she didn’t want to. ‘Hey, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of window shopping,’ she reassured herself, smiling at the barman as she collected her change. ‘As long as you don’t touch the merchandise.’
Halfway back to the table, Nina realised Mr Brown-eyed Redhead wasn’t the only cute guy in the pub. There was another one sitting in her seat, trying his best to chat up Tess, who looked like she was about to sprint out of the door and keep running until she reached Antarctica. Her breathing was shallow, beads of sweat were forming around her hairline and she was swallowing repeatedly. Taking a closer look at the guy, Nina couldn’t work out why – he was exactly Tess’s type. Shaved head? Tick. Blue eyes? Tick. Nice hands? Tick. A couple of arty tattoos? Tick, tick, tick! It wasn’t like Tess had set the Sydney dating scene on fire, so she should have been loving the attention from a guy who, based on looks, you could package up and put in a box marked ‘Tess’s Perfect Man’. She was probably just nervous.
‘Here’s your drink, Tess. Hi, I’m Nina, Tess’s cousin.’ Sticking her hand out, she gave him an approving glance as he stood up, returned her handshake with a strong one of his own, then held out her chair.
‘I’m Jack. Nice to meet you. Sorry, did I take your seat? I was just talking to your cousin about the book I saw in her bag – it’s one of my favourites.’
Nina glanced at Tess, who was staring off into the distance with her fists clenched, doing her best to ignore the conversation. It seemed Nina would just have to do the hard work for her.
‘I see – so are you a local, Jack? We live up the road in Potts Point, but I’ve had a shocker of a day at work, so Tess dragged me here so I could vent while numbing myself with gin.’
‘That sucks about your work. I’m friends with some of the guys who work behind the bar, so I’m here quite a bit.’ He glanced at Tess hopefully. ‘Maybe you’d be interested in joining me for trivia next week?’
Before Nina could accept on her behalf, Tess emerged from her comatose state, looked at him blankly then shut him down with, ‘Sorry, I’m working all next week. And the next. And the one after that.’
Jack knew when to wave the white flag of surrender. He shrugged, then said, ‘No problem, I get it. Well, if you ever change your mind, you know where I am. Have a good night, ladies.’
Nina made sure he was out of hearing range before hissing, ‘What’s wrong with you? He was totally your type and you just shot him down in flames! It wouldn’t have killed you to meet him for trivia!’
Tess glared at her. Her breathing was slowly returning to normal; as she uncurled her fingers, Nina saw the marks where her fingernails had dug into her palms. ‘I didn’t want to, okay? Just because you think I should do something doesn’t mean I have to do it, you know.’
‘Yes, I do realise that, Tess,’ Nina said patiently. ‘However, when a perfectly cute guy who doesn’t seem like an axe murderer makes an effort to have a chat and wants to meet up again, I don’t see why you wouldn’t agree. Don’t take this the wrong way, Tess, but it’s not like you’ve had guys bashing down the door since we moved to Sydney.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Uh, because I live with you, remember?’
‘And I spend a lot of time at the hotel where I work. So how do you know that I haven’t met someone there? Isn’t there some study that says the majority of couples meet each other in the workplace?’
‘Oh my God, have you met someone? Who is he? When can I meet him?’
‘I’m not saying I have met someone there, Nina. I’m just saying that you don’t know everything about me,’ Tess explained, like she was talking to a three-year-old.
‘Oh. Sorry. You’re right, you’re right.’ Nina toyed with her straw, then couldn’t resist asking, ‘So you’re definitely not seeing anyone?’
‘Bloody hell, what is this – a scene from Sex and the City? Okay, yes, I am seeing someone! It’s very new and I’m not sure how it’s going to go, so I’d rather not analyse it to death, if you don’t mind
.’ She squirmed in her seat. ‘If and when I’m ready, then I’ll tell you about it, okay?’
While Tess went bright red in the face and looked like she was already regretting her revelation, Nina nodded, smiled, did an internal happy dance and mentally started to plan their first double date.
seventeen
‘Hi, my name is Nina; I’m from Sydney, Australia; my traffic light is red and here’s my joke – why can’t Robbie ride a bike?’
The forty-nine other travellers on the Global Bus Eastern Europe trip looked at her expectantly, except for the obnoxious South African guy on the back seat who was busy telling anyone who’d listen about his Viennese conquests from the previous night.
‘Because Robbie’s a fish.’
As the crowd groaned, Nina said, ‘Hey, I didn’t say it would be a good joke!’ then handed the microphone to the tour guide, and found her way back to her seat as the bus cruised through the Austrian countryside. She smiled at Adam, the Canadian guy who’d sat next to her that morning when they’d all piled into the bus for the drive from Vienna to Budapest. As he made his way to the front to announce his name, country and what his relationship status was using the required traffic light colours, she wondered if he’d go the joke option or choose to tell two facts and a lie about himself – they’d been told they had to guess which of the three was the lie. As a way of breaking the ice between the motley crew of travellers who had decided an Eastern European tour was right up their alley, Nina could think of worse things. She wondered how many lame jokes Annie, their disgustingly perky English tour guide, had heard before.
‘Hey, guys, my name is Adam; I’m from Vancouver, Canada; my traffic light is green, and here are three things you don’t know about me – I have a twin brother, I live for ice hockey and I still believe in the tooth fairy.’ A chorus of boos followed him up the aisle as he returned to his seat.
‘Phewf, it’s a tough crowd out there,’ he complained good-naturedly.
‘Tell me about it! Then again, we weren’t as bad as some of the others, even if I do say so myself. So, you’re into ice hockey, huh? I’m guessing that bit was actually true?’
‘Yup, I’m an only child.’ He looked at her, straight-faced, before cracking a smile that showed off perfectly straight, whiter-than-white teeth. She could almost see her reflection in them.
‘No wonder you still believe in the tooth fairy with teeth like that,’ she joked.
‘Okay, okay, you got me. I was kidding about the tooth fairy. My parents spent a fortune on them when my brother and I were kids. Which might explain my obsession with ice hockey – I wasn’t allowed to play it, thanks to said money being spent on my teeth.’
‘The Canucks?’
‘Dude, of course! I can’t believe you had to ask! Is there any other team? Hang on, how do you know about the Canucks? I didn’t think they had ice hockey in Australia.’
‘They don’t – I’m just one of those people who knows a little about a lot.’ Nina neglected to tell Adam that Jeremy used to spend his hungover weekends watching ice hockey games with Leo before his friend left for South America.
For the rest of the bus trip, Nina and Adam chatted about travelling, the similarities between Sydney and Vancouver, and his work as an advertising art director. They swapped war stories from the media industry and compared notes on how things worked differently in each country. Confessing that she would be writing an article about the trip when she got back to work, she made him promise not to tell any of the others in case they felt like they had to be on their best behaviour whenever she was around. It wasn’t like she was an investigative journalist who would splash an exposé across the major newspapers in Australia, but she was acutely aware that some people thought journalists were on par with used car salesmen and real estate agents when it came to trustworthiness.
As they drove through the outskirts of Budapest, she also discovered that Adam’s twin brother was gay, and found herself confessing her problems with Johan – how he was heavily immersed in Sydney’s gay scene and didn’t seem interested in their friendship anymore. She actually couldn’t remember the last time they’d spoken, let alone caught up in person.
‘God, sorry!’ she apologised after he’d finished giving her some advice on how he dealt with it when a similar thing happened between him and his brother. ‘I haven’t even known you for twenty-four hours and I’m already treating you like you’re my therapist!’
Adam looked at her with his deep green eyes, smiled his killer smile, and said simply, ‘Happy to help.’
Later that night, Nina was walking along the Danube River with some of the other girls after spending the afternoon checking out Heroes Square, followed by a river cruise. They were en route to a bar that Annie had promised was currently the hottest place in Buda. Predictably, talk moved from where the nearest Zara store was to the guys in their group.
‘That Gerrard is a bit of a fox; pity he seems like such a dick,’ Ash, an Irish brunette, announced.
‘Is that the Saffa who was bragging about his supposed conquests from last night while everyone was introducing themselves on the bus?’ asked Michaela, a feisty Kiwi whose wardrobe seemed to consist solely of All Blacks merchandise.
‘Yes, unfortunately,’ sighed Ash. ‘I’m sure he’ll try to hit on all of us before the tour finishes. If I get liquored tonight and any of you see me talking to him, please promise you’ll come and save me – I don’t trust myself around arrogant good-looking men when I’ve being doing Jägerbombs.’
‘Mmm, I could totally go a Jägerbomb right now – how far away is this goddamn bar?’ demanded Lorena, a gorgeous Puerto Rican from LA. ‘You’re welcome to Gerrard, honey: I have my eye on Adam, the Ryan Gosling lookalike – he’s even Canadian like Ryan!’
Suddenly, Nina was glad it was dark. She had no idea why, but she could tell she was blushing.
‘You’ll have to fight Nina for him!’ Michaela squawked loudly. ‘I was sitting behind them on bus and I don’t think their banter stopped for the whole three hours!’
‘What are you talking about?’ Nina protested. ‘We just happened to sit next to each other and got on well. He’s all yours, Lorena, I promise. Plus, I’m taken, remember? Red traffic light and all that?’
‘Hey, what happens on Global Bus tours stays on Global Bus tours!’ Ash chimed in.
At the bar, Nina made a concerted effort to steer clear of Adam. She didn’t need to add fuel to any rumours, plus she wanted to get to know the other travellers in the group, to find out who they were and why they were here. After a few hours of flitting from one group to another, deflecting any questions about what she did back in Sydney and why her boyfriend wasn’t with her, she found herself doing tequila shots with Gerrard and his posse. Ash was sprawled on his lap, having ignored the warnings Michaela and Lorena had dutifully delivered. Nina was wondering if there was any point in reminding her of their earlier pact when she slowly became aware – thanks to the butterflies that had taken up residence in her stomach – that Adam was now standing beside her.
‘Been avoiding me, huh?’ He smiled, checking out her navy bodycon dress with bright orange stitching. ‘Nice dress.’
‘Thanks. And I wasn’t avoiding you. Just thought I should get to know the others better, seeing you hogged all my time on the bus,’ she tried to joke, hoping the three tequila shots weren’t slurring her words.
‘Can I get you a drink – to apologise for monopolising you?’ he said, with a wink that somehow seemed charming, not cheesy.
Without waiting for an answer, Adam grabbed her hand and led her to the packed bar. She stood awkwardly next to him, wishing she hadn’t worn such high heels. She kept forgetting that most men weren’t as tall as Jeremy – with her five-inch stilts, she was only marginally shorter than Adam. ‘Just the right height so that I wouldn’t have to crane my neck if we kissed,’ she thought, then reprimanded herself. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Nina. As if you’re going to kiss him – you’ve obviously h
ad too many shots. Pull yourself together, for Christ’s sake.’
She stared at the cluster of white blond hairs on the back on Adam’s hand – the hand that was still holding hers. Yanking it away, she pretended to fumble in her bag for her wallet, only to find a glass of champagne staring at her when she looked up.
‘I got you a glass of Veuve – is that okay?’ Adam shouted in her ear.
Nina nodded and took a sip. Suddenly she was boiling hot. ‘Let’s find somewhere to sit down.’
Perched on a red velvet banquette, Nina watched the Global Bus party rage around them. Adam was talking to her, but she wasn’t really listening. She was vaguely aware of the words coming out of his mouth, but she was too busy trying to make sense of what was going on inside her head to process them.
‘C’mon, Nina, enough with the butterflies and acting like a teenager,’ she scolded herself. ‘You’ve had too much to drink. Jeremy might be on the other side of the world, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist. Don’t be sucked into the Global Bus tour trap of getting it on with a complete random. Yes, he’s very nice. Yes, he’s very cute. Yes, he gets you, and the industry you work in, which Jeremy sometimes doesn’t. But you’ve known him for approximately eighteen hours, so let’s just act like adults, shall we?’
Halfway through her pep talk, she realised Adam had just repeated a question.
‘Sorry, say that again? It’s a bit loud in here,’ she said, hoping he hadn’t realised she’d been in a completely different world. A world where she had a long-term boyfriend whom she adored, she reminded herself sternly.
‘I said, if I ask you something, will you tell me the truth?’ He was looking at her intently.
‘Um, sure. Although it depends what it is – if you want to know how many pairs of shoes I have, I might not tell you the truth,’ she joked, looking hurriedly away as she caught Lorena staring at them from across the bar.
‘You know earlier today, when everyone had to get up at the front of the bus and describe their relationship status as a traffic light colour?’