Bachmann intuitively picked up on what Minnie was thinking and attempted to defend her actions. ‘You caught me off guard. You announced to everyone that Ashton was sick. I was completely in the dark about it. What was I supposed to do? I was, unusually for me, at a total loss. I needed to speak with my people.’
‘I didn’t announce it to everyone,’ said Minnie stiffly. ‘I thought I was just talking to Greene.’
‘Well, we all heard,’ said Bachmann, not accepting an excuse.
‘He felt deserted,’ explained Minnie quietly.
‘It wasn’t like that.’
‘It looked like that.’
Bachmann tutted, a great clicking noise as her tongue rolled off the roof of her mouth. ‘What was I supposed to do?’
‘Comfort him?’
‘Hindsight is a great leveller.’
‘You weren’t concerned about him?’ questioned Minnie, genuinely puzzled.
‘I was blindsided,’ answered Bachmann smoothly, spoken like someone who had an answer for everything.
‘So now what?’
‘I will stick with Ashton. I’ll gain the disabled vote.’
‘He’s not disabled,’ said Minnie sharply.
‘He will be. Eventually.’
‘Is this what the reputation strategist advised?’ asked Minnie.
Bachmann nodded.
‘Is that what you want?’
‘What I want right now is to know the purpose of this road trip,’ said Bachmann skillfully side-stepping the question, a well-practiced politician’s move.
Minnie looked out of the window thinking how to open the crucial phase of the conversation but Bachmann suddenly seemed in no rush to talk. She had sunk back into her seat, head down, looking at her hands. She remained uncharacteristically silent for the rest of the drive to Pillar Point. She checked a couple of messages on her phone but didn’t pass comment or strike up conversation. Minnie, meanwhile, had a tourist moment and gawped out of the window taking in the stunning coastline in the sunshine. It was a relatively companionable silence, which surprised Minnie. She was more used to Bachmann delivering rousing speeches and working a crowd. She had no idea what was going through the woman’s mind. They just sat side by side lost in their own worlds.
As they neared their destination, Bachmann snapped back into action and instructed the driver to pull over.
‘Let’s walk and talk,’ she commanded as soon as she caught sight of the broad beach stretching out before them. She was out of the car and off at a gallop. Bachmann had a long-legged stride that meant Minnie had to use a speed walk, almost a trot, in order to keep up. The beach was beautiful and the tide was out.
After maintaining the punishing pace across the sand, Bachmann eventually stopped at a picnic bench overlooking the ocean. Minnie collapsed onto the seat and took a moment to catch her breath. Bachmann sat on top of the picnic bench, resting her elegant feet on the seat. She focused her gaze on the horizon. ‘Strong rip currents can pull even the most experienced swimmers off shore around here,’ she said.
Minnie watched the waves crashing onto the sand. She could believe it.
Bachmann turned to Minnie. ‘I’m frightened he will go under.’
Minnie nodded. ‘I know.’ There was no need to confirm who she was talking about.
Minnie had one of those surreal spaced-out moments. Home was on the other side of the world to her. She was sitting next to the acting mayor of San Francisco. The routine of work was totally gone now, the loss had left her drifting without purpose. Cut loose from her precious routines Minnie, too, was frightened about going under. It terrified her but it was also strangely liberating. There was a tremendous energy in the ocean before her. An enormous, tangible force that made her think of Jackson. He had to be skilled and fearless to take on such an opponent. Minnie was also thinking about Greene. She needed to be skilled and fearless otherwise he would go under, too.
Bachmann was unsurprisingly more hard-wired to the deceptions and mercenary workings of the world than Minnie was. It didn’t shock her in the slightest to hear that Greene wanted to issue a denial of the disease. She didn’t react at all to the threats against Angie and James George.
Levchin’s proposals and self-promotion of his clinics didn’t seem too outlandish, in her opinion, either. ‘He is running luxurious retreats for private enterprise. He isn’t coming up with a pathogen to wipe out the human race,’ she said.
‘I know that,’ said Minnie defensively. ‘It doesn’t mean that I have to help him promote his business though.’
‘Greene and this Dr Whatshisname are using each other,’ Bachmann said. ‘It is a behavioural pattern typical of extremely successful people. You have spectacularly managed to get yourself caught in the middle.’
‘Is blackmail a behavioural pattern of successful people, too?’ asked Minnie, still worried about the threatened repercussions.
Bachmann smiled and shrugged, ‘No comment.’
‘I’m here because of Greene. I’m not interested in helping Levchin,’ said Minnie. ‘He’s not a nice person,’ she added, visibly upset.
Bachmann looked hard at Minnie. ‘You’re the mathematician, right?’
Minnie nodded.
‘Ashton Greene and this doctor share a common denominator. Divide each of them into two equal parts and it comes down to work and money. Don’t make this more complicated than it is.’
‘I’m being blackmailed.’
‘Heavily persuaded.’
Minnie sighed and said after some deliberation, ‘I’ll apologise but I’m not discrediting Sid Zane. I’m not prepared to promote Levchin Care Clinics either.’
Bachmann’s eyes settled on Minnie with unblinking intensity. ‘Darling, it doesn’t sound as though you have a choice. Greene is good on his word. Forget about your friends for a second. If he decides that your career is over, it’s over. You must put yourself first.’
‘If I could just talk to him,’ said Minnie.
‘Let me be blunt,’ said Bachmann, her Californian twang stretched out the sentence. ‘You’ve put yourself in a non-negotiable situation.’
‘It’s not right,’ said Minnie shaking her head.
‘I know that you like to give the impression that you are reliably stupid but I know a smart woman when I see one.’
‘What should I do?’ asked Minnie.
‘Save yourself,’ she said to Minnie without needing to consider her answer.
‘Will you help me write the apology? I’m good with numbers not words.’
‘I had noticed,’ said Bachmann dryly.
Minnie waited expectantly. Bachmann eventually answered. ‘The last time you spoke out it had disastrous consequences. Based on that recollection alone, I believe I have no choice but to let you have access to my speech writer.’
‘There is one other thing,’ said Minnie.
‘He wants to break up with me?’ snapped Bachmann. ‘And he sent you to tell me?’
He. Me. You. Minnie physically felt the intonation in those three words. It was like sharp steel pins in a voodoo curse. She flinched.
She could have sweetened the message but the facts remained the same. Greene did not want to get married to Bachmann.
Bachmann was absolutely bewildered. Minnie realised that this was a woman who had not experienced much rejection in her lifetime.
‘He couldn’t tell me himself?’ asked Bachmann.
‘He…’ Minnie tried to respond but Bachmann suddenly cut her off.
‘No one breaks up with Bachmann!’ The grammatical shift to the third person now sounded like political fighting talk.
Minnie chewed her lip nervously, knowing that whatever she said right now would not be well received.
‘Does he plan to hide from the world forever?’ questioned Bachmann. Her lips were pulled into a tight line.
‘He doesn’t want to get married,’ Minnie said quietly.
‘He needs me more than ever.’
‘I’m no
t sure he feels the same way.’
‘Men like Greene don’t have feelings. He will be fine.’
‘He just needs…’
‘He knows I’m planning to announce my candidacy for the State Governorship,’ rasped Bachmann, interrupting Minnie once more. She looked incredulous. ‘Why would he do this?’
Minnie had a pretty good idea. He was cutting ties with everyone; determined to retreat so no one could watch his demise into a cruel illness. She didn’t voice this opinion.
‘I know you have a mutually beneficial, er, arrangement,’ said Minnie carefully. ‘Greene donates money to your campaign while your political, um…’ she was going to say ‘influence’ but changed her mind and said, ‘…reach is useful in business.’
Bachmann glared at Minnie. ‘Get to the point.’
‘The wedding is off but it doesn’t mean the break-up can’t be handled in a civilised and…’ Minnie paused again, trying really hard to say the right thing, ‘mutually beneficial manner.’
‘Ashton Greene doesn’t get to break up with me. I can’t break up with him. Your not-so-private tête-à-tête at The Savoy has seen to that. We’re stuck with each other. I can’t leave someone who is…’ she hesitated and opted for a politically correct assessment, ‘…medically challenged. He can’t leave me because Greene Inc does very well out of my political connections, thank you very much!’
‘You both want the same thing, sort of,’ said Minnie lamely.
‘Pah!’ snorted Bachmann. ‘You’re forgetting that I know the man. Greene always wants more.’
‘He admires you. He told me so.’
‘So now what?’
Minnie offered a carefully-hedged answer. ‘Greene wants me to orchestrate the perfect break-up.’
Bachmann’s eyes lit up with an interested glint. ‘Is he suggesting that both parties can exit this relationship with no damage whatsoever to reputation and business?’
Minnie nodded. Finally, she had Bachmann’s undivided attention.
‘The perfect break-up?’ repeated Bachmann.
Minnie nodded again.
‘Genius. I love an oxymoron!’ laughed Bachmann, her lungs blasted out a gust of air that landed on the last syllable, which, although unintentional, unfortunately reminded Minnie that she was never far from stupid.
Bachmann’s shook her head and looked bemused. ‘And how does one propose to do this, Miranda Chase?’ she asked.
But Minnie, the supposed hardened brainiac, didn’t have an answer.
Perfect chaos indeed.
Bachmann swivelled around on the picnic bench to face Minnie. ‘Let me know when you work out the fine details to this perfect break-up. In the meantime, I will help you with your apology, or whatever it is that Greene wants, purely because I happen to be feminist friendly.’
‘You sound like an intimate hygiene product,’ said Minnie truthfully.
Bachmann laughed. It was a relaxed laugh though, not a theatrical guffaw that Minnie had heard her release in front of a crowd. ‘I see that you’re still working on that goal, the one where we think before we speak,’ she said.
There was a genuine pause on Minnie’s part. ‘I do think,’ she said, watching waves drag shells back into the sea. ‘I think too much. That’s the problem.’
‘Well, I couldn’t possibly encourage a woman to think less, especially as I’m so…’ she paused dramatically, ‘feminist friendly. This must mean there is no cure for you.’
Minnie could detect no meanness or malice in Bachmann’s voice.
‘I’m so sorry that I can’t take back what I said at The Savoy,’ said Minnie.
‘I don’t understand why you care so much,’ said Bachmann. ‘You don’t know me or Greene.’
‘I hurt you. I hurt him.’
‘Votes and stocks,’ answered Bachmann with a shrug. ‘You need to grow a thick skin in this business, Miranda. Greene knows that, too.’
‘It’s more than that though, isn’t it? What about your wedding?’
‘You’re not going to sit there and make a case for true love, surely?’
Minnie considered her hopeless situation with James George. She paused, ‘I suppose not,’ she said.
‘Oh shit,’ said Bachmann. ‘What’s his name?’
Minnie had no intention of talking about James George to anyone, least of all to Parker Bachmann but she couldn’t stop the words rushing out. It was an avalanche effect.
‘The worst part is that I forgave him the minute I saw him in bed with someone else,’ babbled Minnie, head in her hands. ‘What kind of person does that make me? I want him back. I don’t care what he has done.
‘I’ve looked to the future and I see the memories we will make. I know what our three children are called. I’ve bought the curtains for a family home we don’t even own yet. It is not just about the past five years. It’s about a future we were supposed to have together. It was meant to be. I don’t know how to be without him.’
Bachmann sat and didn’t say a word. She had stopped staring out to sea and was looking at Minnie.
Minnie clutched her stomach. ‘I have this shocking ache that threatens to derail me. I can’t go back to being the person I was before James George loved me. I was no good. I saw myself as this unpretty person who had mathematical excellence going for her and nothing else. James George changed that. He’s given me confidence and self-esteem. He asked me to marry him and it was the best feeling in the world. He is a good person who made a mistake. We all make mistakes.’
The crashing waves took over the silence when Minnie stopped talking. The wedding was already planned in Minnie’s head. It was going to be small and simple. She would buy an off-the-peg wedding dress and borrow her mother’s jewellery. She had decided on dried rose petals to be thrown as confetti and silver ribbons tied around the chairs.
‘I’m starting to really like the idea of the perfect break-up,’ said Bachmann eventually, attempting to lighten the mood. ‘By the looks of it,’ she added, staring at Minnie, who was still holding her stomach, ‘true love sounds worse than major abdominal surgery without anaesthetic.’
Minnie nodded.
‘Why do you want to get married so much, Miranda?’ questioned Bachmann quietly.
Minnie shrugged. ‘I’m a conformist. I like security. I want to be normal. Like everyone else.’
‘No one is normal, Miranda,’ said Bachmann gently. ‘No one is perfect either.’ She paused and added playfully, alluding to herself, ‘Well, okay, maybe some people are more perfect than others.’
‘I just want to get married to James George and put all this drama behind us.’
Bachmann looked Minnie in the eye and said, ‘You’re the mathematician, not me, but even I can see this man sounds like a variable in your life. I don’t think you’re going to work him out.’
‘Have you worked Greene out?’
Bachmann shrugged. ‘Ashton is a genius at making money but he has yet to realise that making people happy requires considerably more investment.’
Minnie could detect a veil of sadness hanging over the sentence.
Realising that it was getting too personal, Bachmann changed the subject. It was a smooth move.
‘Did you really get arrested?’ There was an amused gleam in her eyes.
Minnie turned and faced Bachmann. ‘How did you know about that?’
‘Ashton’s helicopter was spotted making an impromptu visit to a women’s correctional facility out of town. I had it checked out.’
‘Did your sources tell you that I was Tasered, too?’
Bachmann’s bright eyes widened, lashes feathery. It was the first time Minnie had ever seen her speechless. ‘Holy cow,’ she said eventually. ‘I don’t believe it.’
‘It’s true,’ said Minnie dryly. ‘I have the emotional scars to prove it.’
There was a relaxed pause punctuated by a sharp screech from a seagull overhead. It broke the moment.
‘Let’s drive back into town,’ said Bach
mann. She had snapped back into mayor mode. There was work to do.
‘You go,’ said Minnie. ‘I know someone who lives not far from here.’
Bachmann nodded. She elegantly swung her long legs off the seat and stood facing Minnie. ‘Get in touch with me when you’re ready to talk to the speech writer. I’ll make the arrangements for you.’ And with that she was off, striding across the sand with her shoes in her hand.
Minnie watched her until she disappeared, becoming part of the shimmering heat haze in the distance.
Then she sent a text message to Jackson.
15
Silver Star Grill
Jackson sent a text back. It was late afternoon and he had just finished surfing for the day. Perfect timing, he said. The famous surf break, Mavericks, was just half a mile off shore from Pillar Point.
Minnie walked to the Silver Star Grill. Cars and pick-up trucks were parked outside. She liked the look of the restaurant – a large, wide wooden veranda with brightly coloured chairs and tables. Panoramic windows offered an unspoiled view of the ocean. The place had a relaxed atmosphere – informal and fun.
Jackson had told Minnie he would bring some friends to reassure her that it wouldn’t ‘feel like a date’. She was very glad about that even though she was always nervous when it came to meeting new people.
The surfers had shed their wetsuits like a second skin. The dress code was casual – men in bright board shorts, loose tees and flip-flops. The girls were pretty much dressed in similar fashion, which immediately made Minnie feel out of place. Her knee-length navy dress and sensible T-bar shoes were more suited to an office than a beachside eatery. She hesitated. Then, suddenly, Jackson was in front of her. She was just about to shake hands when he hugged her. The familiar bear hug, lifting her feet off the ground.
‘Hey, good surprise! London’s loss is my gain,’ he said cheerfully. ‘What made you change your mind?’
‘Unfinished business,’ replied Minnie, pulling a ‘don’t-ask’ face.
Minnie Chase Makes a Mistake Page 16