Have a good weekend, and good luck with your new job on Monday. I should have Wednesday night free if you’re not doing anything. Give me a call.
Scott
At least he wasn’t doing a runner. I made a mental note to switch my Wednesday night yoga class to another day. It looked as though this could become a regular thing.
CHAPTER SIX
THE WEEKEND FLEW AND, before I knew it, I was nervously driving through peak hour traffic to the sleek grey office of Avalon IT. Bronwyn Wallace, my new boss, met me at the reception desk. Although I had made a special effort with my hair and makeup that morning, I still felt inadequate next to her perfectly manicured style. She presented an air of authority, which gave me the impression that a strand of mahogany hair would not dare leave its place in her glossy bob and her red lipstick would never have the courage to venture outside the carefully applied line around her mouth. She smiled and introduced me to Rachel, the receptionist, a young, bubbly girl fresh out of Business College and whom I was now supervising.
“Hi,” Rachel said brightly, taking her telephone headset off her golden curls and extending a hand for me to shake.
It was a mazelike open office, desks separated only by dividers, meaning that most people sat in groups of two. I was led to a workstation directly behind the reception desk, just hidden from public view by a section divider and, as I was now also assistant to those in charge, just in front of the offices of Bronwyn and Ray, the managing director. I spent the day getting acquainted with the client database on my computer, going through the reception routine with Rachel, and generally taking in as much information as I could about my new company and job. I was desperately trying to remember the names of the twenty staff members I had met when Rachel attempted some small talk via the office intranet system.
'How’s everything going?' The message popped up on my screen.
'Not bad. A lot to remember.' I typed back.
'Do you live close by?'
'About twenty minutes, depending on the traffic. You?'
'Five minutes walk away.'
'I used to walk to my last job. Great exercise.'
'I know, but lately my boyfriend’s been driving me.'
'That’s nice, especially in this weather.'
'Have you got a boyfriend / husband / partner?'
'No, not at the moment.'
Bronwyn walked out of her office and handed me a small pile of handwritten letters. “Abby, could you please type these out for me? When they’re done, you can go home. You, too, Rachel; we’ll just divert the phones. It’s pretty quiet at the moment.”
“Excellent. Thanks, Bron,” Rachel sang out. After Bronwyn returned to her office and closed the door behind her, Rachel’s next message popped up. 'You’ll love Bron. She’s the best boss.'
***
“Hi, Rach.” First day jitters were a thing of the past when I arrived at work the following morning, greeting the receptionist as I breezed past. Bronwyn had left some paperwork in my in-tray the previous night, which I diligently got straight into. After an hour or so, my mind was so wrapped up in words and numbers that I failed to notice the man standing at my desk until he spoke.
“Abby, is it?” I looked up and was pleasantly surprised to see that the voice belonged to a handsome man not much older than me with light brown hair, a friendly smile, and a neatly trimmed goatee. His blue eyes twinkled as he extended his hand. “I’m Sean. How have you settled in?”
“Fine, thank you.” I shook his hand politely. “What do you do here?”
“I’m one of the Account Managers. They’re great here; I hope you like it.”
“Thanks.” I smiled as he turned back toward his own desk.
'Cute, huh?' Rachel’s message popped up on my screen, and I realised she noticed I was still looking at his retreating form.
'Not bad'
'He’s single, just in case you were wondering.'
'That’s nice; now get back to work, young lady.' I put a smiley face on the end to show her I was joking and heard a little giggle a few seconds after pressing the send button.
'By the way, I’ve gotten to know everyone here, so I’m your girl if you want to know anything about anyone.'
'Thanks.' I typed back, then decided it might not be such a bad idea. 'Are you free for a drink after work?'
'I knew you’d be curious. Can’t tonight; how about tomorrow?'
'It’s a date.' I looked over at the rest of the office. Sean had his back to me, his wavy brown hair bouncing as he nodded, deep in a telephone conversation.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“I TRIED TO RING YOU last Friday night. Did you go out?” My mother was calling for her update. “How’s the new job going?”
“I saw Luke’s band play again, and yes, the job’s pretty good so far, but it’s only been two days.”
“How is Luke?”
“He’s great. He hasn’t changed much really, just gotten taller, and he’s got a couple of tattoos. The girls still love him, and he’s awesome on the guitar.” That should cover it.
“I can just imagine,” said Mum. “Marie wasn’t happy about the tattoos, and she’s never been overly impressed about all the girls,” she chuckled. She took a deep breath, which meant that she was considering asking a personal question. “Have you heard from Josh?”
I knew she’d ask eventually and had been biding her time. Josh had been the dream son-in-law of both my parents– handsome, successful career, reasonable finances, treated me nicely—all the stuff my parents deemed a pretty good catch. I think they were more upset about our breakup than I was.
“I haven’t heard from him,” I told her. “I’m not expecting to, and I’m not contacting him, either. We broke up remember?
“Yes, I know.” Mum sighed. “Sorry.”
***
The Wednesday happy hour was afoot when Rachel and I walked into the pub on the corner near our office. It was beginning to fill with office workers. Men in shirts and ties and women in tailored pants and silk blouses gathered around small, dark wooden tables for impromptu, informal meetings. The place smelt like furniture polish, which was a pleasant surprise, having grown accustomed to the faint smell of vomit and stale beer of Springers. We found a vacant table with a couple of stools situated around a pole.
“Do you like it at Avalon so far?” Rachel took a mouthful of her rum and diet coke and slid onto the burgundy leather stool.
“I like the atmosphere, and the people seem nice.”
“They are, generally. Bronwyn’s great. Ray is okay. Everyone else has their moments, I guess, but they’re all pretty good on a day to day basis. Pippa in accounts can be a bitch sometimes, and Pete has a tendency to talk to your breasts, but you’ll work them all out. They’re all pretty harmless. Most of them are married, or partnered up; I spend half the day transferring personal calls.”
“Is Bronwyn married?” I was curious to know more about my immediate boss.
“Divorced.”
“Kids?”
“No.” She leaned forward and spoke more quietly. “I heard a rumour that she and Ray are... you know.”
“Together?”
“He’s married.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. Then she sat back and returned to her normal voice. “But I’m not sure how true it is.”
We sat in silence, pondering the possibility of truth in the rumoured affair. I couldn’t quite picture it. Bronwyn was a stunning, sophisticated woman in her mid-to-late-thirties. Ray was a slightly podgy, grey-haired fifty-something, not altogether unattractive, but you couldn’t doubt his business sense, having been one of the original partners to start Avalon IT from the ground up. It was obvious they got along well as colleagues, but the image of them caught in a passionate clinch didn’t quite make sense. Then again, I didn’t actually know either of them.
My plate of potato wedges arrived, sided with sour cream and relish. I dug in greedily. I was always starving once five-thirty rolled along. “Help yourself,�
�� I told Rachel.
She screwed up her nose. “Thanks, but I don’t eat carbs; I’m watching my weight.”
“Up to you, but you honestly don’t need to watch anything.” Rachel was slimmer than I was. But I remembered a time when I was needlessly paranoid about my own weight. Nowadays I let my hunger do the talking, and it worked for me. I hadn’t dieted in years.
“So what do you think of Sean?” The name of the office hottie broke into my thoughts.
“He seems nice, but I haven’t really spoken to him.”
“Well, as I said, he’s single and about thirty-ish I think. He’s not really in the office much as he’s out visiting clients most of the time, but he’s in every morning at least.”
“He’s got gorgeous eyes.” I decided to play the game just to appease her.
“He’s easily the hottest guy in the office. I’d definitely go for him if I was single.” She grinned. “He was checking you out, too.”
I stop mid-bite and swallow. “He was not," I scoffed. "He can’t. He sits with his back to us.”
“Well, maybe you didn’t notice, but I did.” Rachel folded her arms huffily and then tilted her pretty blonde head in a listening motion “Is that your phone?”
The familiar tune reached my ears then too. I rummaged through my handbag and quickly answered it without bothering to look at the caller ID.
“Hello?”
“Hi.” The voice on the other end of the line caused my pulse to race.
“Scott.” Scott. I had completely forgotten he had tonight off. “Sorry, I was thinking about calling you.”
“It’s okay. I was just sitting at home, all by my lonesome, getting bored, doing nothing.” He chuckled. “Are you free tonight?”
I tried to suppress a grin. “I’m having a drink right now with a friend from work, but I can see you later.” In the corner of my eye, I could see Rachel raise a questioning eyebrow.
“That’s cool, take your time. I’ll just be home anyway. See you soon.”
“Anyone special?” Rachel leaned forward as I tossed the phone back in my bag.
“Just a guy I know.” I looked around the room, unsuccessfully attempting to hide the small smile that lifted the edges of my lips.
“’Just a guy’ hey?” She wasn’t buying it. “Boyfriend in training?”
“Not even that.” It didn’t feel right talking about someone I wasn’t really in a relationship with, especially with a co-worker I only met two days previously, so I attempted to change the subject. “So what’s your boyfriend like?”
Her eyes went all dreamy. Is this what I used to look like when I spoke about Josh? Bleuggh, How pathetic. Cute, but pathetic. Maybe I was just a little envious.
“He’s WONDERFUL,” she gushed. “His name’s Lachlan, and he’s one of the couriers that comes into the office. That’s how we met. Been together for two months now.”
Ahh… new love. I remembered that. That high you got from just knowing you will be soon seeing that person, the little shiver from just the thought of a kiss, the weeks of non-stop sex. I thought of how in just hours I would have Scott’s lips on mine. How he kissed perfectly right from the beginning-– not like Josh, whom I had to ‘train’ to kiss me the way I liked. How my own stomach had performed flip flops at the sound of Scott's voice on the phone just now. NO. This was different. I concentrated on what Rachel was saying, reminding myself she was most likely in love and I was, well, in lust if anything.
“And we’ve been joined at the hip ever since,” she finished with a broad smile.
“He sounds lovely,” I told her, although I had rather rudely tuned out. “You sound like you’re very happy.”
“I am.” She looked at her watch and slurped up the last of her drink. “Sorry Abby, I really should go. Lachlan will be waiting for me, and you sound like you’ve got a hot date. I expect details tomorrow, and they’d better be good; otherwise, I’m still batting for Sean.”
“See you tomorrow, Rachel,” I said wearily, as though I was bored with the conversation, picking up my handbag and following her out. On my way home, I couldn’t help but laugh at Rachel’s enthusiasm over my love life. Why is it that those who are in love aren’t happy unless everyone around them is in love as well? I thought Sean seemed nice and was very good-looking, but I wasn’t going to get excited about it. At the very least, he would make work more enjoyable. The love spell crossed my mind. It was entirely probable that I could meet someone at work; people had been doing that for years. But despite Rachel’s high hopes, I knew it was silly to dwell on it too much; otherwise every man I met would be a potential boyfriend, and that was bordering on desperate. No thanks. For now, I was just going to enjoy myself.
I pulled up on the street outside my block of flats, rather than park around the back as usual, and ran up the stairs with the intent of picking up a few necessities for the evening at Scott’s. I stopped abruptly when a thought hit me. What was the etiquette for this type of thing? Do I leave straight after or do I stay the night if it’s late? Would it be presumptuous of me to bring a change of clothes or was he expecting me to go to work in the morning straight from his place? Although it would be easier to go to work from his unit in the morning rather than double back to my house first, it wasn’t really something that had come up in conversation— not that it would even occur to me to bring it up until now. Deciding to play it safe, I popped a change of undies and some make up wipes into my handbag with the intention to come home later anyway.
Scott greeted me at the door, pleasingly shirtless, wearing just a pair of loose navy drawstring pants. The black tattoos on his arms were almost animated against his fair skin. “Aren’t you cold?” I asked, allowing myself to be drawn into a hello kiss.
“No, not really. I don’t feel the cold much.” He led me to the lounge. “Drink?”
“Tea would be great, thanks.” I took off my jacket and sat down on the couch as he banged around in the kitchen. A shoot-em-up game on the TV had been paused. “Where’s my cousin this evening?” I yelled to him.
“Out with Dan and Silas,” Scott called back. “I think there’s a girl involved, so I doubt he’ll be home tonight.” When he returned, he handed me my tea and resumed his game.
“I’ve just got to finish this bit, and then I’ll be right with you.”
I sipped on my beverage and sat forward, watching the progress as the main character wandered through a spaceship shooting a range of evil droids, battling monsters, and completing various missions. I ended up helping him with some of the puzzles, discovering that they were my strong point while he was better at the tactical fighting. Not that his lack of cerebral skills during console games was something he was willing to admit.
“That’s not going to work,” he argued stubbornly. “I’ve been playing these games for ages.”
“It’s a coordinate; five rows across, three rows down. That’s what those numbers mean. Just humour me at least, and try it.” I was getting so frustrated I was practically shouting.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” He sighed. “Alright.” His character performed the action I had suggested. The wall moved, exposing a new path. The puzzle had been solved. “Oh,” he said sheepishly. “Sorry, you’re pretty good at these.”
We got so involved that I didn’t notice the two hours that passed until Scott’s character finally got killed during a rather arduous mission and he decided to give it up for the night.
“Shit. Is that the time? You should have said something. Sorry, Abby.”
“It’s okay, I got into it. Can I have a go sometime?”
“Sure.” He moved closer to me and gave me a soft kiss on my cheek. “You look really sexy in your work clothes.”
“Thank you.” I unsuccessfully tried to suppress a yawn. It had just gone ten o’clock, my usual bed time.
“I’m sorry the game went so late. You can stay over, you know.” Now he told me.
“I didn’t bring anything...” He planted a kiss on my neck,
distracting my train of thought. “I guess I can just get up early...”
“I’ll make it up to you.” We explored each other’s mouths intensely, him leaning farther on me until I was lying back on the sofa with his body stretched out over mine. I ran my hands over his strong arms and down his bare torso. There was no way I was going home now. His knee was between my legs, pushing my skirt up as his hand burrowed under my shirt. I was about to reach for the drawstring of his trousers when he suddenly jumped off me, pulling my top back down in the process. The front door opened and in walked Luke, with an unfamiliar girl right behind him. I quickly sat up, pushing my skirt down, but slightly too late to hide what we were up to—or about to be up to.
“Oh shit. Sorry, Luke mumbled, his face flushing.
“Er... hi.” Embarrassed, Scott ran his hand through his long fringe, then looked at me, and burst out laughing. “You should see your hair.” I reached up and realised half of my hair had come out of its bun and gained an instant visual of my dazed self. That, together with the fact that we had been caught red-handed, made me collapse in a fit of giggles.
“You dickheads.” Luke shook his head at us as we composed ourselves then turned towards his companion. “Guys, this is Jennifer. These idiots are Scott and Abby.”
“Hi.” She waved shyly. She had very long, straight, golden hair, big breasts atop a slim frame, and big blue eyes framed by dark lashes. Her hair and lashes were obvious extensions, and her breasts made mine look tiny. She looked like she could be a model and was exactly what I had learned to be Luke’s type. She wasn’t any different to the other girls I had seen him with. I found myself wondering if Scott was attracted to the same women and shot a glance at him to try and gauge his interest. If anything he looked a bit annoyed at having been interrupted during a pleasurable moment.
“Take a seat,” Luke said to Jennifer, knowing full well what had been disrupted and teasingly attempting to irritate us further. Jennifer took the one-seater while Luke ambled off to the kitchen, returning seconds later with an opened bottle of beer for each of us. “How’s work, Abs?” He moved to playfully sit between Scott and myself, but not before Scott glared at him and moved to the middle of the couch, closer to me, forcing Luke to take the outside seat.
Flirting With Magick Page 5