Counting on Love

by R L Burgess

  Her voice was compelling. She had always been able to command a room, even back in their university days when she would take the floor during a tutorial to give her considered and highly intellectual point of view on a contentious topic. Reyna admired her charisma. It was hard not to. Jessica was an attractive woman, and in the past Reyna had wondered if there was a spark between them. There had been the odd flirtation back in their university days, but they had always both been so busy, aiming high, working hard, it had never amounted to anything. Would it now, she wondered? Perhaps over a late night drink.

  “She’s just so great, isn’t she?” Stacey whispered beside her, cutting into her thoughts.

  Reyna nodded, feeling like a naughty schoolgirl who had been caught daydreaming in class. She really needed to focus. People would want to discuss Jessica’s talk, and it would not do for her to have no idea what had been said. She could hardly say, Oh I’m sorry, I missed most of what she said. I was too busy thinking about my love life! Or lack of it.

  For the next forty-five minutes Jessica spoke without notes, in an engaging and confident manner, about Australia, its global position as a leader in finance, the strategies and fiscal instruments that had been used to leverage it through the Global Financial Crisis, and the creative vision required for the country to continue to thrive. She placed a call for action from the leaders in the industry to strive for excellence and pleaded with each and every member of the audience to raise the bar on ethical practice. It was an impassioned speech and the audience lapped it up, showing their appreciation with a roar of applause when she finally stepped away from the microphone. It had been an impressive performance and Reyna was not immune to its effects. It reminded her of how proud she was of her own firm and all that they were achieving, not to mention the high ethical standards they maintained. Once again she was pleased to have been able to bring Meryl, Stacey, and Zoe to this conference to represent the firm. She knew they too would be well received.

  There was a crowd forming around the conference foyer where a group of long tables had been set up with afternoon tea. People were selecting mini cupcakes, fruit, little Danishes and platters of biscuits from towers of food, but Reyna bypassed these in favour of a strong cup of tea. If she ate anything sweet now she would just feel sleepy during the rest of the afternoon’s presentations.

  Zoe appeared at her elbow, balancing a small plate of fruit and Danish in one hand, conference brochure and coffee cup in the other.

  “Would you mind tipping a bit of milk into my coffee, please?” Zoe said. “I seem to have run out of hands.”

  Reyna obliged, pouring as she said, “Say when.”

  “Perfect, thanks.”

  “When did you get in?”

  “I arrived yesterday at lunchtime. What an amazing place.”

  “Isn’t it just. Did you get to look around at all last night?”

  “Yep. I borrowed one of the hotel bicycles and went for a ride along the Todd River into town. I don’t suppose it’s likely to rain is it? I’d love to see that river flowing. ”

  “It’s highly unlikely with this heatwave.”

  The Todd River was a wide, sandy riverbed that rarely saw much water. It was dry most of the time, dotted with towering red river gums and spiky native grasses. Locals considered themselves lucky to see it flow year in and year out.

  Zoe’s mouth turned down. “Damn. I bet that’s a sight to see.”

  “It is. Locals say that when you see the Todd flow three times you’ll stay in Alice Springs for life. I’ve only seen it once myself.”

  “Oh, you’ve seen it. Was it magical?”

  “It was pretty impressive. The banks flooded overnight and we woke up to impassable roads and a cascade of water streaming down the river. The water was a deep, brown red like the colour of clay. I took a lot of photographs.”

  “We?” Zoe asked, her wide brown eyes innocent.

  “My family and I. It was a long time ago when we were kids.” Thinking about her sister and their family trip to Alice Springs all those years ago gave Reyna a sudden deep pain in her heart. “I’d better go,” she said, placing her teacup back on the table. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

  She saw the confusion in Zoe’s eyes as she turned abruptly and walked away. She was conscious that she may have sounded curt, but she was unable to do anything about it, driven by an urgent need to get away from the chattering crowd. Her eyes stung and she blinked furiously, taking deep breaths in through her nose as she left the conference centre and stepped outside into the baking hot air. She walked quickly down the path toward her room and stopped at the door, leaning against it for a moment, protected from view by a tropical-looking shrub with large, flat leaves. She could see the pool from where she stood, trying to get control of her thoughts as she watched a pair of children splash raucously in the shallow end.

  She and Sarit had done just that when they had visited as a family back in the 80s. Not that they had stayed anywhere this fancy. It had been a little motel with an oblong-shaped pool. They had played Marco Polo for hours. She had not thought about that trip in a long time. That was the problem with memories; they could strike like a brown snake and paralyse you in seconds if you accidentally stumbled across them.

  Feeling calmer, she checked her watch and realised the next session was due to start. She would have to forgo spending time in her room. As she stepped onto the path, she nearly collided with Jessica, who was heading away from the conference centre.

  “Reyna! How fantastic to see you.” She swooped down and kissed Reyna lightly on both cheeks, reminding Reyna of how tall she was. “I saw your name on the program and was looking forward to catching up with you.”

  “You’re looking well, Jessica. That was a wonderful talk you gave. I know I’ll be chewing over the issues you raised for some time to come.”

  “I’m glad you liked it.” Her eyes gave Reyna the once-over. “How do you manage to look this fantastic in such heat? Life is obviously treating you well.”

  Reyna smiled noncommittally and said, “Always. Are you heading back to the conference centre? I’m interested to hear the next talk. John McDonald is presenting on the implications of rising interest rates for equity with limited liquidity.”

  “Actually, I was going back to my room to freshen up. Do you have plans after dinner tonight? We should get together for a drink later.”

  It was tradition on the first night of the conference for everyone to share a meal at the conference centre, and it was always a very spirited event. Reyna enjoyed the opportunity to catch up socially with her peers, a chance she didn’t get very often.

  “I’d like that.” There went her early night, but it would be fun to catch up. “Shall we meet in the bar?”

  “How about poolside, eight o’clock?”

  “Sounds perfect.”

  Jessica put her hand on Reyna’s arm, giving it a firm squeeze and said with a flutter of her lashes, “We are long overdue, Rey. See you then.”

  And with that she tapped off down the cobbled pathway in what Reyna noticed were a pair of serious stilettos, her hips swinging.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Zoe (Monday, p.m.)

  Zoe stood in one of the large lines for dinner, holding her empty plate against her chest as she shuffled forward with the rest of the conference goers toward the buffet. People sprinkled themselves around the room, settling in small groups at large round tables with their overflowing plates of food. Zoe wasn’t sure why a buffet always seemed to lead people to stuff themselves. There was clearly plenty of food to go around and no one would starve, but there would surely be a lot of food wasted.

  Meryl joined her in the line. “Don’t mind if I step in here with my friend, do you?” she said to the lady standing behind Zoe, who if she did mind, simply shrugged. “Stacey’s nabbing us some seats. I spotted you in the line and said we’d bring her back a plate of food.”

  “She doesn’t want to choose for herself?”

>   “Nah, been to one conference buffet, been to ’em all. Anyway, she’s not picky.”

  Zoe wondered for a moment if Meryl and Stacey were a couple. They seemed to know each other very well, and there was a certain easy intimacy between them that implied there was more to their relationship than met the eye.

  “You two work together in Sydney? Have you known each other long?” she asked, attempting to sound casual as they inched forward toward the buffet.

  “About twenty years. We actually met at a conference not unlike this one in the States. She was over there on a sabbatical and I was working for an Aussie firm that had international offices.”

  “And you stayed in touch all those years?”

  Meryl gave her a searching look, like Zoe was missing a screw and it was up to Meryl to work out where to put it. “You know we’re together, right?”

  “Oh, uh, no. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”

  “It’s fine. I thought everyone knew.”

  “Even Reyna?”

  “Of course, Reyna. We told her when we came on board that we’re a package deal. You don’t get one without the other.”

  “Wow. That’s amazing. Is it ever difficult? Working together and living together and stuff? What happens if you fight?”

  “We don’t really fight. Sometimes I get huffy and Stacey tells me not to sulk. Sometimes she gets sad and I realised I’ve stuffed up. I just apologise and wait for her to tell me what I’ve done wrong. It usually blows over pretty quickly.”

  Zoe smiled, appreciating the candid insight into their lives. How incredible it would be to have such ease with another person. Would she ever find something like that? Well, first, she admitted to herself, she would need to actually go out on a date with someone. Perhaps it would be worth opening the door a crack and letting her friends set her up with someone. It was starting to feel a little lonely on Zoe island.

  At the table she picked at her food, listening to two young, clean-cut men in expensive suits discuss the likelihood of an imminent stock market crash. She wasn’t actually that hungry. Her head was swimming with information from the talks she had attended so far, and the din in the room was rising as people finished their meals and began to talk in earnest.

  “When interest rates go up, you can bet your bottom dollar the market will tank. Get out while you can, man,” one of the men said.

  “And if it does, I will be betting my bottom dollar because I’ll be buying up all the cut-price stock you bailed out of on the cheap, man,” the other replied, banging his fist on the table.

  Zoe tuned them out, letting the conversation wash over her. It had been a long day. She had been up before sunrise to climb Anzac Hill, or Untyeyetwelye as the local Aboriginal people called it according to her guidebook, and had not been disappointed. She had ridden out to the hill on one of the hotel bicycles, climbing carefully in the grey light of dawn. From her vantage point she had watched as a deep red and orange sun had slowly spread across the sky, inching up to paint the MacDonnell Ranges in front of her in soft purples and blues. She had stayed up there, sitting crossed-legged on a stony patch of ground, as the town had awoken, cars beginning to take to the roads, people weaving past on bicycles, until eventually it was morning. The sky faded to blue and the landscape settled into a dusty green and brown. It was only a short hike down the hill, and a ten-minute ride back to the hotel. She would definitely like to do it again before the week was out, if she could fit it in before the day’s activities began.

  Dessert was brought in to the dining room and people began to queue up again to fill their plates with what looked to be chocolate mousse and strawberries.

  “I’ll go line up,” Meryl declared, pushing back her chair. “Zoe, you want?”

  “Not for me thanks,” Zoe said. The last thing she felt like was dessert. Perhaps it was the heat, but her appetite had all but disappeared. She refilled her water glass from the ice-cold pitcher on the table and took a long sip. She hadn’t realised how thirsty she was. She would have to remember to drink more in this weather.

  She wondered where Reyna was. She hadn’t seen her since Reyna had walked off in the middle of their conversation at the tea table. Zoe had no idea what she’d done to offend her, but the look on Reyna’s face had been clear. Zoe had breached some kind of no-go zone and Reyna was displeased. She wondered if she should say something or would that make it worse? She had only been making polite conversation, and if she had somehow put her foot in it she was equally likely to stumble into the same minefield a second time around. She sighed, trying to concentrate on the conversation around her, but she felt unsettled. She checked her watch and realised with a shock that it was already almost nine p.m.

  “I think I’m going to pop out for a bit of air,” she said quietly to Stacey.

  “Everything okay?” Stacey asked, her brow crinkled with concern.

  “Oh yeah, absolutely. I just feel like some time out.”

  “I get that. Meryl could stay here chatting with everyone for hours, but I get kind of tired after a while. The whole introvert thing.”

  Zoe nodded. She wasn’t exactly an introvert, but she had taken a test once at uni that said she definitely wasn’t an extrovert either. Somewhere in between she supposed. You couldn’t always fit people neatly into boxes.

  “Think I’ll head to bed soon. Catch you guys in the morning?”

  “Definitely. We’ll have an early breakfast if you want to join us. Meryl wakes up hungry and likes to hit the breakfast buffet by seven a.m.”

  “Sounds good, I might squeeze in a bike ride before breakfast, but I’ll probably be back by then.”

  It felt good to get out of the stuffy dining room and into the cooler night air. She actually shivered a little, remembering that the temperature at night in the desert was always much cooler. It felt good to be cold after the furnace of the day.

  In the darkness, she could see the shapes of people dotted around the pool, quiet murmurings and the occasional bark of laughter drifting across the water. It would be nice to sit by the water for a moment before bed and feel the stillness of the desert evening. The pool, which had looked so inviting during the day, was now lit up with an array of discreet yellow lights, creating a warm and romantic environment. She hadn’t had a chance to swim yet and she realised there were actually people in the water now, their heads bobbing in the darkness like seals. She let herself through the gate in the pool fence and scanned for an empty lounge chair, spotting one over by the children’s splash pool.

  She plonked herself onto the chair and leaned back, letting the tension flow out of her body. It was going to be a big week and she needed to pace herself.

  “Zoe?”

  She sat up with a start as she realised Reyna was saying her name from the table next to her. She was seated with a woman whose silhouette Zoe couldn’t identify in the dark. There was a candle flickering at their table in a glass jar and an ice bucket with a bottle of something sticking out of it. “Oh, hi. I didn’t see you there.” She eased herself up off the lounge with a little groan.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “No, just tired.”

  She stood and stepped into the light of their table.

  “Zoe, this is Jessica.” Reyna gestured to the woman sitting at the table, who on closer inspection she instantly recognised as Jessica Myers, the conference’s plenary speaker. “Jessica this is a colleague of mine, Zoe Cavendish. Zoe is one of our star employees at Azoulay House.”

  “Great to meet you, Jessica.” Zoe extended her hand. “Your talk today was excellent.” Jessica took Zoe’s hand in both of her own and pressed it lightly, her skin smooth and cool to the touch.

  “A pleasure to meet you, Zoe Cavendish,” she purred, holding Zoe’s hand for a moment longer while she smiled slowly in the candlelight. “Will you join us for a glass of champagne? We have a whole bottle to get through and neither of us seem able to make much of a dent in it.”

  “Well, I…” She trailed o
ff, unable to think of a reason not to stay. Would it be awkward with Reyna? She glanced at her as if to ask for permission and immediately felt irritated with herself, as if Reyna cared what she did. “I’d love to,” she finished, pulling out a chair and sitting decisively.

  “Wonderful. We don’t have another champagne glass but if you don’t mind using a water glass, I’ll pour you a drink.”

  “I’m not fussy.” She glanced again at Reyna, aware of the dark eyes on her. It was impossible to read her expression but her face had a serious, contemplative look.

  “How have you enjoyed the first day, Zoe?” Reyna asked.

  “It’s been a blast already.” Zoe took the glass Jessica had poured and raised it to her lips, enjoying the feel of the bubbles on her tongue as she took a sip. “Everyone has so much knowledge to share, there are so many great people to talk to, and we’re in Alice Springs. What more could I ask for?”

  Reyna smiled at her and Zoe felt a warmth spread through her. Probably just the champagne.

  “Cheers to being in Alice Springs.” Jessica held up her glass and the three of them clinked glasses.

  Their conversation in the candlelight was easy, touching on Reyna and Jessica’s history, things they were looking forward to about the conference, and the sights of Alice Springs. They finished off the bottle in the ice bucket as the conversation flowed.

  “I climbed Untyeyetwelye this morning,” Zoe said, pronouncing the syllables carefully. “It was amazing and I’m going to do it again tomorrow. Would either of you like to join me?” Was she crazy? The voice of her friends in her head said she most definitely was, inviting the plenary speaker of the conference and the CEO of her firm to join her on a pre-dawn bike ride.

  “What time will you go?” Reyna asked. “Is it far?”

  “Well, you have to get up at six to make it in time for the sunrise, but it’s only a ten- minute ride from here. We can use the hotel bicycles if you’d like to come. They have plenty of them available.”