“I think he added her when they first met. He fancied her like crazy.”
“Ew! David fancied Sarah?”
“Yeah, but she didn’t like him back. She invited him to that Christmas party because she felt sorry for him. Nothing happened. And I think she’s been too scared to remove him from her friend list in case he goes all weird and tries to get her fired.”
“Yes, well, we all know he’s capable of doing that. But still, I’m not sure you should log on to her account.”
“Don’t worry, she won’t mind. I’m not going to actually do anything to her profile.”
I take a deep breath. The bottle of wine has definitely clouded my judgment. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
Alana squeals. “Yay! I love a good intrigue. Give me your phone.”
I hand it over and she types away on the miniature keypad.
“Got it! It’s the seventh of July, 1977.”
“That was quick.”
“Just call me Lightfinger. So what are you going to do?”
“Well, I thought I would hack into his e-mail and send some weird messages to the bosses from him or something.”
“I love it!” Alana laughs. “Go on.”
I suddenly feel a bit apprehensive. But I’ve started this now. I can’t stop.
The others egg me on.
I start to set up David’s e-mail on my phone.
“This might not work,” I falter. “It depends on whether he’s changed his password or not.”
“You won’t know until you try,” Alana reasons.
I finish setting it up.
“Oh! It’s doing a send and receive,” I squeak in a panic.
“So?” Alana asks.
“Well it means that I’m downloading his work messages to my phone! He’ll know someone’s been in there if I try to send them on.”
“So—don’t send them on. Stuff goes missing in cyberspace all the time,” Alana rationalises.
“Yeah—well I guess I know the password is right. But I’m not sure I want to do this anymore.”
“Oh, come on,” Alana groans. “Give me the phone. You can just plead ignorance later on.”
I totally chicken out. “Okay. Here you go.” I throw it to her.
“Ha! I’m going to have so much fun. Let’s see…maybe we should look at what kind of stuff he’s getting sent. It might give us a clue as to how best punish him.”
I look at Zac. He seems like he’s enjoying being part of the prank. He peeks over Alana’s shoulder.
“Hey, didn’t you say you worked for Ace Advertising?” Zac asks.
“Yeah, why?” I reply, puzzled.
“There’s a message to David from them.”
“Probably finalising my termination paperwork,” I mutter grumpily.
“No—it looks like they’re organising a replacement. Do you know someone called Violet Simpson?”
I sit bolt upright. “Yes! What about her? What are they saying about V?”
“Well, I hate to tell you, but I think she’s taking your place at Bella.”
“What?”
“Did you know her well?”
“Yes! She was my office buddy—we worked together for almost two years! How could she do this to me? I swear she knew what was going on. What else does the e-mail say?”
“It just says that she’ll be arriving on Friday.”
I am so astounded I can barely speak.
“I can’t believe she would do this! She didn’t even act jealous when I got the job! And she sounded all sympathetic when I told her what happened—although she did mysteriously disappear when I tried to straighten the whole mess out. And she let some other woman tell me I was fired! In hindsight, it’s probably because she was planning on taking my place. God! The treachery!”
Alana pats me on the back. “Here, have some more wine.” She fills my glass to overflowing. “You don’t need that crap anyway. You have us now.”
My eyes fill with tears. “Thanks, guys. I’m sorry for being like this. It’s just feels like such a betrayal.”
“I know,” soothes Alana. “So, what should we do? Is there anything we can write to sabotage the both of them?”
“I don’t know,” I moan. “I don’t really care now. They can all go to hell.”
“Come on, Jess,” Zac encourages. “How about we just mess with their schedule? If nothing else, it will mean a bad day for both of them. We can think of more stuff later if you want.”
I sigh. “Okay. Just do it. I’ll deal with the guilt later.”
“You shouldn’t feel guilty! They’re a bunch of pricks who got you fired!”
Alana quickly types away on the phone.
“Okay. So I’ve sent a message to Violet telling her that her flight has been changed to three hours earlier than it really is. That way, she won’t make it, even if she’s early. Now, should we just delete this message so David doesn’t get it, or send it anyway?”
“I don’t care,” I say with my face buried in my hands. “They’ll probably figure it out, regardless.”
“I think we should send it,” Alana answers her own question. “I’ll just delete the bits that make it look like a forwarded message and re-send it. Hopefully David won’t notice the e-mail is sent from his own address. And if he tries to reply, he’ll be sending messages to himself, and it’ll take him a while to figure out what’s going on. There’s no way he can trace it back to us.”
I take a big gulp of wine. I’m not used to feeling so beaten down.
Grover looks over. “What are you guys doing?”
“Corporate espionage,” Zac says casually.
“Excellent,” Grover approves. “Let me know if I can be of assistance. I almost bankrupted my last company.”
“Yikes. I wouldn’t want to get on your bad side,” I say.
“No, you wouldn’t,” he says seriously.
“Done!” Alana deletes David’s e-mail account from my phone and hands it back. “It’s okay, Jess. We’ll look after you.”
“I know. Thanks. It’s just that my whole life seems a bit surreal. Less than a month ago, everything was so normal. And then I got broadcast on the news as a homeless person, showed my butt at a fashion show and then I got fired from the best job opportunity I’ve ever had. And now my co-worker has backstabbed me and I have no money and my boyfriend is a thousand miles away….” I trail off, aware that I’m rambling.
“Look, I don’t know what half of that even meant,” Alana starts, “but just focus on the positives. You have a whole bunch of awesome new friends, an easy job and a roof over your head. If you really want to go home in a few weeks, you’ll have enough money then. But I think you’ll have a lot more fun staying here with us. That guy of yours can wait. He doesn’t sound all that special to me.”
“But he is!” I screech. “He’s cute and funny, and it feels like forever since I’ve seen him.”
“I’m sure it will all work out,” she assures me. “There’s not much more you can do tonight. Just have drinks with us and forget about all that.”
“Yeah,” Zac agrees. “I’ll help you settle in to your new life. And I’m sure Miki will too.”
Alana rolls her eyes but doesn’t say anything. I fight the urge to giggle.
“Yeah, I’m sure Miki will be a great help,” I say dryly.
“Why did you say it like that?” he asks curiously.
“No reason,” I reply quickly. “Sorry, I’m just feeling a bit frustrated. Miki and I will have to go out shopping some time and get to know each other a bit better.”
“I bet she’d love that,” Zac agrees.
I smile half-heartedly. “All right, come on, Alana. Top me up!”
TWENTY-TWO
Zac won’t tell me what the upcoming adventure is, even though I beg him every day leading up to the eleventh. That’s eleven days. Eleven very long days where he refuses to give me even a tiny hint. He’s very good at keeping secrets. He’d be a good person to confess to if I eve
r committed a murder.
I bought a bike from a little shed at the market on the main road. It was really cheap because it didn’t have all the whiz-bang features of the ones back home. It reminds me of a bike I had as a teenager. No gears, just a front and back hand brake, and a big basket on the front. You don’t have to wear helmets here, but I contemplate getting one anyway. It’s been at least ten years since I’ve ridden, and I’m not feeling very confident.
Zac thought it was hilarious. He watched me from the balcony as I rode wonkily up the road to our building’s bike cage. I’m so glad Miki wasn’t around to see. I couldn’t bear the thought of her watching me make a fool of myself. It was bad enough having Zac laugh at me.
It’s finally Saturday morning. Our school is only open part of the day on the weekends, so they don’t need as many staff. That means the whole gang managed to get some time off. The teachers that were supposed to be working were able to do a shift swap with those who didn’t want to come.
I pack a small backpack with some pyjamas, a change of clothes and a toothbrush, and then wait at my building’s bike cage for Zac and Alana. Apart from them, Grover is also coming, plus three or four of the other teachers I still haven’t gotten to know very well. Alana told me that Sarah is coming too. I’m looking forward to seeing her so I can quiz her about Violet.
By 9am, we’re all assembled and ready to go. Zac leads the way. For once, Miki isn’t tagging along. Apparently she had to go visit her aunt in Shikoku. And Grover’s girlfriend isn’t with us either. She didn’t want to join us if Miki wasn’t coming, so it’s just a bunch of rowdy Western ex-pats.
We end up down at the river and ride upstream along the path I found the day I got lost. It’s warm, but definitely not as hot as it’s been. The sky is overcast, but it doesn’t look like it will rain.
“Okay, will someone please tell me where we’re going now?” I ask, exasperated.
“Oh, didn’t anyone tell you?” Zac says innocently. “We’re going to Kyoto.”
“Kyoto? Isn’t that ages away?”
“About forty kilometres. We can ride almost the whole way up the river.”
Kyoto! The home of the geisha and the spiritual centre of Japan. How exciting.
“Cool. Why was it such a big secret?”
“We just wanted to mess with you,” Grover laughs. “No other reason.”
“Thanks a lot. Much appreciated,” I puff as I try to keep up with the others. I’m not as fit as I thought I was.
Sarah slows down a little and rides beside me.
“How’ve you been?” she asks gently.
“All right. I guess Alana told you I knew about Violet.”
“Yeah, she did. How did you find out?”
“Oh, I called my office back in Australia to see if my manager was back yet and they told me,” I quickly fib.
“I’m so sorry, Jess. Violet started this week. She’s nowhere near as nice as you, though.”
“Thanks, Sarah. Normally I would say that’s not true, but I’m not so sure after what happened.”
“Well, she’s getting along with David just fine. She’s even started bowing and pretending she’s half Japanese. Her and bloody Hiroshi are doing my head in.”
I laugh. “I didn’t think V had it in her. I never knew her to be such a suck-up. But maybe she just saw the opportunity and went for it.” Obviously I was out of the picture. And maybe she held a grudge because I was going to call in sick to the staff meeting on the day they gave me the job. Well, I really don’t care anymore. In fact, I’m almost grateful it happened. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here, peddling up the river to Kyoto with my new best friends.
“Hello? Earth to Jess!”
“Sorry, I was lost in thought.”
“That’s okay. I was just wondering if you’ve spoken to your guy back home lately.”
“Oh, Luke. Yeah, he’s fine.” Actually, I haven’t spoken to him since our last internet chat. I’ve been so busy with school and then brooding about Violet that I haven’t been in the right frame of mind to call him. But we have exchanged a couple of short messages—cute little just-thought-I’d-write-to-say-I-was-thinking-of-you type e-mails. And then this weekend popped up and I totally forgot. I’ll call him when I get back. Maybe tomorrow night.
“I suppose you miss him a lot?”
“A bit. It’s a shame that everything worked out the way it did. It would be nice if he was here. Or if I could go home just for a few days to see him or something.”
“I sometimes feel like that.”
“Do you have someone back home too?”
“No, I just mean it would be nice to fly home and see friends and family for a few days. I don’t want to go back there long term or anything. I just want to say hi and get my fill of English dinners before coming back to the land of endless sushi.”
“Have you been back at all?”
“Nope. I might this Christmas, though.”
“That would be nice. I can’t decide whether I want to stay here or not.”
“You still have plenty of time to think about it. I’m sure you will see things more clearly in a few months.”
“I hope so. It would be much easier if I hadn’t met Luke. Or if my best friend Alex wasn’t there. I have a gang back home too.”
“Your friends aren’t going anywhere. I’m sure they’re quite jealous of you.”
“I wouldn’t know. Only Alex has bothered to write!”
“Well, they can’t be that worthy of worrying about then,” Sarah points out.
“I guess. I think most of them are just terrible with computers. Well, Paul isn’t, but I know he’s not interested in conversation. He and I had a bit of an…interesting relationship.”
“Ah, say no more. I had one of those myself.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah this guy called Philippe. He lived in Paris, so I only saw him once a month. But he was this gorgeous tortured artist type. Very good in bed. And he wrote me poetry. I could never settle down with him, though. Too depressing.”
“Ah. So, have you dated anyone here?”
“Not really. The Japanese guys don’t really look at me. I think they’re scared of my red hair.”
“But don’t they love Nicole Kidman?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. But I’m not exactly Nicole Kidman.”
“You’re very pretty, though. And sweet.”
“Anyway,” she ignores me, “the only other guys to pick from are the ones I meet through Alana at Starlight. And most of them don’t stay for longer than a few months. Or they meet a Japanese girl, get married then and turn into salary men.”
“What about those crazy night clubs you go to? Don’t you meet people there?”
“Yeah, but the guys you see there aren’t really relationship material. I’ll take you out one night and show you what I mean.”
“Oh.” I think for a bit. “What about Zac? Has he always been with Miki?”
“Zac’s more like a brother to me. He met Miki about six months after I met him. And by then, he was well and truly in the friend category.”
“What about Alana?”
“I think she’s secretly seeing one of the students at your school. But I’m not completely certain.”
“Really?” My eyes widen. “I thought we weren’t allowed to associate with students out of class.”
“You’re not. That’s why it’s a secret.”
“I’ll have to ask her later.”
“Don’t tell her I told you.”
“I won’t.”
***
We all pedal contentedly along the river. I pull up beside someone every now and then to have a bit of a chat. Zac obviously already misses Miki because he talks about all the cute things she does for ten minutes straight. I find it difficult to reconcile the sweet little mouse that Zac sees her as with the spoilt brat I know. But then she is attractive—so Zac is probably just being a typical boy—thinking with the wrong part of his body as usual.
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Eventually I get to Alana. I ask her why she’s working at Starlight when her dad is so obviously well off and could rent her a penthouse in Umeda.
“I’m not going to take charity from my dad,” she says, annoyed. “I want to do my own thing. Besides, he doesn’t believe in giving me everything on a platter. He worked his way up from nothing, and he thinks I should do the same.”
“Sorry, I was just asking. So, is he still around?”
“He’s in Hokkaido at the moment but he’ll be back next week, I think. He hasn’t been to Japan since he was a kid. I think he’s forgotten how much he likes it.”
“Hey, I was wondering,” I say, casually changing the subject. “Are you seeing anyone at the moment?”
“Why?” She eyes me suspiciously.
“I don’t know. You’re always teasing me about Zac and Luke, but you’ve never mentioned whether you’re interested in anyone yourself. Maybe you have a thing for Zac and you’re just trying to put me off the scent.”
“Zac?” she laughs incredulously. “I’m sorry, but that Aussie accent is a complete turn-off. All I can think of is those mingers on Neighbours.”
“Gee, thanks. I suppose you find my accent annoying too, then?”
“I don’t care what you sound like. I only care what someone’s going to be yelling out when I’m shagging them. I can just imagine Zac now—‘oi Sheila, wanna root?’”
I crack up at Alana’s terrible imitation of the Australian accent.
“We don’t sound like that! And no one says root anymore. Unless you’re twelve. Or a coming of age movie from the eighties.”
“It doesn’t matter. He could be saying ‘God, you look gorgeous,’ and all I hear is ‘strewth—you look grouse.’”
“I think you have some issues you need to address there. But anyway, you’re distracting me from the original question.”
“Which was?”
“Are you seeing anyone?”
“Maybe.”
“Who?”
“Can I trust you?”
“Of course. But why would you need to trust me?”
“Well, I’m a team leader so I should be setting a good example. Promise you won’t tell Nigel?”
“I promise.”
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