Universally Challenged

by Anna Bell

  ‘Thank you for sharing that with me,’ said Jessica.

  ‘You’re welcome. You’re just lucky we didn’t try to get in the Natural History Museum. I don’t think you would have been so interested in my virtual tour of the fossil hall.’

  Jessica laughed. ‘You’re a fossil geek, too?’

  ‘Guilty. I just love old stuff. Can’t help it.’

  ‘You’d love the Jurassic Coast in England,’ said Jessica. ‘People walk the beaches and they’re always finding fossils.’ Not that Jessica had ever been fossil hunting, but she’d once been for a drive around the Dorset villages and seen that’s what people did.

  ‘That sounds great. Much nicer then having to go out in the deserts of Arizona to go dinosaur bone hunting. I once begged my parents to take me there for summer vacation. I got all excited one year when I thought we were going, only to find that we were only going to the Grand Canyon and then into Nevada so my parents could go to Vegas. I cried the entire week.’

  ‘The hardship of being a child and going to Vegas.’

  ‘Hey, actually it is a hardship. At ten you can’t drink, you can’t gamble, can’t go to strip clubs. The only thing to do in Vegas as a kid is eat and get hot.’

  ‘Ok, I’m sorry,’ said Jessica laughing. ‘It just sounds more exciting then camping in France.’

  ‘Come on, France – all that culture, good food.’

  ‘Not when you camp. We’d spend the two weeks stuck in an oversized blue tent, playing in the nearby playground and getting burnt on the days we went to the beach. The nearest I got to speaking French was ordering pomme frites from the little food wagon.’

  ‘Ha. I always imagined being European and getting to spend your summers traipsing the Louvre or in gondolas in Venice.’

  ‘I wish. No, it was like going on holiday in England, only you got seasick on the way there, had to spend hours in the car with mum and dad fighting over what side of the road they were driving on, and being stuck in a tent that always smelt of cheese, thanks to my dad’s obsession with stinky Brie.’

  Jessica had a pang of nostalgia for her parents. As much as she was taking the piss out of their family holidays, she loved her parents deeply. The way that Jessica’s mum had spoken to her on the phone a couple of days ago had been troubling her. She couldn’t imagine not being close to her mum. She wondered what the counsellor would have said about that; probably that Jessica had imagined a better relationship with her mother because that was what she pined for.

  ‘Here we are: Dean and Deluca.’

  Jessica looked up at the famous food shop and her stomach flipped. Her earlier worries about Clarity and SinoDam seemed to have slipped away and all she was thinking about was Jake. She had to keep telling herself that this wasn’t a date with Jake. But as the evening progressed, it was getting harder and harder for her to tell herself that.

  Chapter 22 – Jess Burns

  Jess’ head was spinning and her eyes were aching. She hadn’t concentrated so intently for as long as she could remember. Despite having spent the whole afternoon at the conference she still didn’t think she knew anymore about Chinese utility companies. The speakers might as well have been speaking Dutch, for all the sense it made to Jess.

  The rest of the delegates were standing up chatting animatedly around her about what interesting presentations they’d been hearing, yet she couldn’t take any of it in.

  ‘That was great,’ said Jake, as he got up from the chair next to her.

  ‘Yes,’ said Jess, nodding but lying. She just hoped if she bluffed through it, eventually it would all make sense.

  ‘I just hope that your presentation is up to the same standard tomorrow,’ said Jake, smiling. ‘Now, I hope you don’t mind, but I spoke to the conference organiser this morning before you got here. I asked them if you could run through your presentation.’

  Jess felt all the muscles in her body tense and she froze to the spot. She’d been in denial, pretending to herself that she’d wake up back in her own life before the presentation. But as tomorrow morning loomed closer the possibility of that happening seemed less and less likely.

  ‘I don’t know. I think maybe I should go over it by myself again, before I share it with anyone.

  ‘Come on, it will be good for you to get a feel for the room. And plus it will only be little old me in the room with you.’

  Jess followed Jake up to the podium. They waited as the other speakers packed up their notes, and for the delegates to clear the room.

  ‘I guess we’ll be about an hour,’ said Jake to one of the women organising the conference.

  ‘Sure, take your time. I’m going to be in the Silver Corridor organising the drinks evening for tonight. Just shout if you need me.’

  Jess could have sworn that Jake could have asked the conference organiser pretty much anything and she would have agreed to it. It was the way her eyes grew wide as she talked to Jake.

  ‘Thanks,’ said Jake.

  The conference organiser walked out of the room, but not before she’d given Jake a final once over.

  Jess stood in front of the laptop and looked out at the ballroom. It looked bigger from the stage than it seemed from where she’d been in the audience.

  She hated public speaking, she always had. She had no problem talking until the cows came home to the school children she taught, but when it was a room full of adults it was a whole different ball game.

  She got nervous speaking at the end-of-year recital, when the majority of the audience were parents. Not that the parents were ever listening to Jess; they were always too busy waiting for their child’s big moment.

  She’d been watching the delegates all afternoon: scribbling notes, recording presentations on iPhones and nodding in agreement at intelligent points delivered. She shuddered at the thought that people would be doing that when she was talking.

  ‘Right, put your memory stick in the laptop,’ said Jake.

  Jess looked down at her shaking hands and wondered how she was going to operate anything. Jake followed her gaze down to her hands and reached out and took the memory stick, brushing the tips of her fingers as he did so. Jess’ emotions were heightened from nerves and the touch of Jake’s hands felt electric.

  She kept quiet as he loaded up her presentation and handed her the remote control.

  ‘I’m going to sit right in front of you. What I want you to do when you’re not reading your notes is to look at me. Any eye contact you do with the audience, do just with me. Ok?’

  Jess nodded.

  ‘Ok. I’m going to sit down now. Just read your notes and you’ll be fine.’

  Jess took a deep breath and steadied herself behind the podium. She knew it was ridiculous to be nervous when there was only Jake in the room, but she was. She tried to remember all the tips her mother had tried to tell her when she’d been at school. Imagine everyone in the room in their underwear.

  She looked up at Jake, who was smiling at her in encouragement, and she started imagining him in his underwear. She started wondering whether he was a boxers’ or briefs’ wearer. If he’d wear those irresistible tight Calvin Klein boxers that clung in all the right places. Her mind wandered to whether he’d have a toned stomach or even a six pack. And then she drifted down to imagining whether he’d have athletic legs.

  ‘Ahem,’ said Jake clearing his throat.

  Jess blushed furiously. She knew he couldn’t possibly know her exact thoughts, but she wondered if he’d seen the look of lust that had come over her.

  ‘Sorry, Jess, I know you’re nervous, but just make a start. It won’t be that bad.’

  Jess made sure she looked squarely at her notes. She banished all thoughts of underwear and muscles, and instead she imagined that she was back in her hotel room and that she was just running through the presentation to herself and the mirror.

  ‘The change in Chinese law to allow the private energy firms to operate.’

  ‘Speak into the mic,’ said Jake, authori
tatively.

  She didn’t know what had come over her, but suddenly his tone of ordering her around was making him appear really sexy.

  She started the sentence again, this time positioning the microphone nearer to her mouth.

  This time there was no heckling from Jake. He nodded and smiled as she started to read the words in front of her.

  She’d practised the presentation over and over the night before in her hotel room, stumbling over concepts that she had no idea of the meaning of. Luckily, her notes had been marked so that she knew when to change slides. She could almost rattle it off. Every so often she looked up at Jake, but each time she quickly looked down at her speech. Not because she couldn’t remember what she was going to say next, but because he was looking directly at her.

  By the time that Jess came to the end of her half-an-hour presentation she’d begun to talk slower, her words clearly enunciated and she’d almost got used to hearing her voice echo around her from the microphone.

  Jake clapped and Jess took a mock bow. Thank goodness she’d had a practice run of this. She wasn’t going to say that she was going to be relaxed tomorrow, but at least she wouldn’t be as nervous.

  ‘Your presentation is brilliant, no one will know that you have no idea what you’re talking about,’ said Jake. ‘The tricky bit will be the questions.’

  Jess’ heart sank. She’d forgotten whilst doing the presentation about the questions.

  ‘There are a couple of strategies we could employ. We could go for the classic intercepts: setting off a fire alarm or giving you an urgent phone message that you have to dash off to take. Or we could go through the most likely questions that you might get asked.’

  ‘Hmm, let’s see. Unless the questions are the past winners of American Idol I don’t think I’ll be much good. How bad are these questions going to be?’

  ‘Well, you could be lucky and there could be none. But you’re bound to get one or two. I thought of a couple of points in your presentation that might get further questions. We could look at that, if you like?’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Jess. Jake rose out of his chair and helped Jess shut down her presentation. She didn’t know what she would have done without him. He’d been so understanding over this whole situation.

  She wondered if she was in his situation, someone telling her that they couldn’t remember their life, whether she would be this nice.

  Leaving the ballroom behind them, they sat down in the empty Silver Corridor at one of the small tables. Jake started to pick through her notes and point out areas that might get questions. He started telling her of recent relevant investments LMG had made that could support some of the points.

  Jess tried desperately to take it all in, but at the same time she was lost, watching a stray eyelash resting on the top of his cheek. She desperately wanted to wipe it away. She was so used to doing similar movements to Benjy. But kept having to remind herself that this wasn’t her husband. He was a work colleague; she couldn’t be too over familiar.

  The conference organiser who’d let them use the room earlier came over and bought them glasses of wine. ‘You’re a bit early for the drinks, but you look like you could use a couple.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Jess, suddenly eternally grateful. Wine was just what she wanted after the last couple of hours.

  Jake took it as a sign that they needed to take a break. They’d been analysing possible post-presentation questions for over an hour.

  He sipped his wine and then looked at his watch. ‘Were you planning on staying for the drinks tonight?’

  ‘I hadn’t really thought about it,’ said Jess.

  In truth she hadn’t thought about it at all. She’d been so busy that afternoon trying to concentrate and make sense of the afternoon session, and worrying about her impending presentation the next day. It hadn’t occurred to her that there were going to be plans that evening.

  ‘I wasn’t sure, after you met your friend for lunch I thought that you might have made plans for dinner.’

  ‘No, no plans.’

  ‘Right, well, it’s just that I said to some friends that I might go and meet them in Central Park. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra are playing one of their free concerts and we’re going and taking picnics.’

  ‘Oh, is that tonight?’ said Jess. The first year she’d seen a poster in the staff room at work for the same concert in Brooklyn, she’d tried to go. She’d asked Benjy if he’d wanted to go to it and he’d laughed. ‘Not quite my bag, baby.’ Katie’s answer had been the same as Benjy’s. After two more years of asking them, and two more sets of no’s, she’d given up.

  ‘Do you want to come with me? Me and my friends, I mean,’ he added, quickly. ‘I’ll understand if you want to stay here at the conference.’

  ‘Oh god, I couldn’t think of anything worse,’ said Jess. She watched Jake’s face fall. ‘Staying at the conference, I mean. The park sounds great. I’ve been trying to go for years but no one wanted to come with me.’

  Jake looked a little relieved. ‘I’ve been going for the last three or four years. It’s one of the things that reminds me how great the summer in Manhattan can be. I even went to the one in Prospect Park in Brooklyn last year; that was great, too. There’s a Dean and Deluca en route. We can stop off there and get some food, if you want?’

  ‘Fab, I’m obsessed with Apple Miches from there.’

  ‘Great. I’ll message my friends.’

  Jess felt excited about going out with Jake for the evening, but she still felt guilty. No matter how many times she told herself that she’d spoken to Benjy yesterday and that he was married, she still felt that by spending an evening in the company of another man she was somehow cheating on her husband.

  Chapter 23 – Jessica Anderson

  Jessica felt like she was so full from food that she was about to explode, yet she still couldn’t resist putting another bit of Manchego cheese into her mouth. Jake and Jessica had got well and truly carried away in Dean and Deluca.

  They had been buying enough for Jake’ friends to share, too, or at least that had been the rationale for buying a cheese platter for six, and bread, crackers and olives to accompany it. Only his friends had never found them. Jake’s phone had run out of battery. They’d wandered around aimlessly for a while trying to spot them amongst the thousands of people. But after Jake knocked over a bottle, of what looked like very expensive red wine, in someone’s picnic they had decided to move far away from the accident and sit down.

  Embarrassingly, they’d made a very good dent on the six-person platter. Jessica’s Achilles’ heel was a good cheese, and with so many in the platter she couldn’t help herself and neither, it seemed, could Jake.

  ‘You see, this is why you’re so lucky with your weather,’ said Jessica, squeezing another olive into her mouth.

  ‘Lucky that we’re sat here at six thirty at night and I’ve still got beads of sweat on me?’

  ‘That’s disgusting. No, I mean if you did this back in the UK, there would be a very high chance that we’d be sat huddled under umbrellas in the pissing rain.’

  ‘Would we be huddled under the same umbrella? As that doesn’t sound so bad to me.’

  Jessica felt her cheeks flush. She’d hoped some of his earlier comments had been flirty but there was no mistaking that one. That was a definite flirtation. It was quite frankly the best date she’d been on, in a long, long time. And it was surely only going to get better when the music started.

  Jake was smiling and looking directly at her burning cheeks, which was setting them off more.

  ‘Do you go and see the orchestra much other than in the parks?’ asked Jessica, desperately wanting to take the focus off her blushing.

  ‘Yeah, I used to go really regularly, but the last year has been... well, I haven’t had the time to go.’

  Jessica noticed the slight hesitation mid-sentence, and she wondered if it was something he used to do with his ex-girlfriend. He had slipped in a few things over
the last few days and suddenly changed the subject, which had made it sound like it was do with an ex.

  ‘Oh, how come?’ said Jessica.

  She’d decided she wanted to know more about him as a person. Over the last few days he’d learnt more than enough about Jessica and her problems.

  ‘Well,’ started Jake. Yet he didn’t get to finish the sentence as just at that moment the members of the Orchestra and the conductor walked on stage to riotous applause.

  Jake smiled apologetically, before turning to sit beside Jessica to face the orchestra.

  Whatever Jake and his past were hiding, it would have to wait until after the concert.

  Jessica had watched in wonder at the free concert where some of the finest classical music she’d ever heard flowed over the audience in the park. The light quickly faded and soon all that she could see were the flickering candles dotted around the picnics and the lights of the orchestra.

  As the final piece of music was played fireworks started to light up the sky. It was a perfect end to a perfect concert.

  ‘Wow, I can’t believe how amazing that was,’ said Jessica.

  ‘Yeah, it was pretty spectacular. Always a good show.’

  Jessica snapped out of her daydream and began giving Jake a hand tidying away their picnic food back into the bags. They both reached for the pot of olives at the same time; Jessica recoiled, feeling like she’d received an electric shock.

  Jake grabbed Jessica’s hand. ‘You’re freezing,’ he said. ‘You should have said, you could have borrowed my jacket.’

  Jessica hadn’t noticed when the air temperature had dropped. She’d been too caught up in it all. But now that he mentioned it, she did feel chilly and she could feel her arms had goose bumps.