Alec leant against the wall and stared at the closed door. Who was the other one? Jesus, Cecily wasn’t going to say she wanted a threesome, was she?
‘Hello. Here to see Gwen?’
Alec turned to see John approaching. ‘Actually, no. And Gwen’s not here.’
John looked up and frowned. ‘So she’s not...’
‘Who are you here to see?’
John frowned. ‘No one. Who are you here to see?’
Ridiculous answer. ‘No one.’
Shaking his head, John stepped forward and pressed a buzzer. Not Gwen’s.
‘Hello?’ Cecily’s voice.
Why was John buzzing Cecily?
‘It’s John,’ John said.
‘Good. You’re both here,’ was Cecily’s response. ‘Come up.’ The sound of the buzzer announced the door being unlocked.
Alec pushed open the door then stared at the panel. ‘What did she mean, you’re both here?’
‘You’re not here to see Cecily, are you?’
Alec looked at John, who was frowning. ‘Ah, is this where I admit that actually, I know Cecily?’
‘Oh, Jesus.’ John pushed past Alec into the lobby.
Alec followed and the door clanged shut behind him. ‘Why would Cecily want to see both of us?’
‘We need to head upstairs and find out.’
John stormed up the stairs, Alec in his wake. No doubt as soon as he walked in the room, John was going to harangue Cecily for being involved with Alec.
John banged on the door and Cecily opened it. ‘John.’ Then she looked over his shoulder and her eyes narrowed. ‘Alec.’
That was not a good sign. John stepped into the apartment and Alec went to follow, but the other man had frozen in the doorway.
Alec looked over John’s shoulder and saw why—Gwen was standing near the dining table.
A sinking feeling filled Alec’s stomach. This was really not going to be good.
‘Gwen.’ The word croaked out of John’s throat.
‘Good evening, John,’ Gwen said. ‘Please, take a seat.’ She gestured to the couch.
John sat and Alec sat next to him. He lounged against the chair, hoping he looked as if he had nothing to worry about. His mind was twirling, trying to work out what was going on. How had he not known Gwen and Cecily had become friends? What did it mean for both he and John?
‘Gentlemen.’ Cecily stood in front of them and Gwen came forward to join her.
‘Gentlemen?’ Gwen said.
‘Thank you for pointing out that error, Gwendolen. They are not gentlemen. They are liars. That’s what we will call them. Liars. Thank you for coming here, liars. We have something important to say.’
Gwen looked at John and Alec almost shuddered at the hate on her face. Beside him, John stiffened. This was going to be very, very bad.
‘Gwen, would you like to go first?’ Cecily said.
‘I certainly would.’ Gwen’s smile was that of a shark—deeply unpleasant. ‘Two lies, John Worthing. Lie the first—that your mentor was a man, when in fact it was the charming Cecily here.’
Cecily smiled. ‘Thank you, Gwen.’
‘You’re welcome, dear Cecily. I would like to hear an explanation for that lie.’
Alec found himself frowning at John as well. CC was Cecily Carter?
‘I didn’t want to you to be jealous, and I thought if you knew my mentee was a woman, you would be,’ John said.
Idiot.
Gwen turned to Cecily. ‘Do you hear the lack of faith he had in me from the very beginning?’
‘I do,’ Cecily said. ‘He doesn’t deserve you.’
John had obviously decided to dig himself in deeper, because he said, ‘I’m sorry. I’ve known many women who would have reacted with jealousy to the news I was spending a lot of time with a young, attractive woman. I should have known that you weren’t such a person.’
‘Especially after you spent some time with me,’ Gwen said. ‘It should have quickly become apparent that you could trust me with the truth.’
‘A mistake I will not make again,’ John said.
‘Except you did. You sat in my apartment, just metres from this spot, and convinced me that you actually weren’t that into your own party at all and that you were thinking of changing parties for me, when in fact you never intended to do that at all. Isn’t that the truth?’
‘Gwen, I have been studying and thinking and—’
‘For fucks sake, give it up,’ Alec growled. ‘Can’t you see she knows and it’s over?’
‘Shut up, Alec,’ Cecily said with a smile that reminded him somewhat of his kindergarten teacher, a nun who used to smile before she slammed the ruler over your knuckles. ‘Your time will come.’
So it wasn’t just John who was in trouble. Alec gave up worrying about John and started to marshal his arguments for when his time came.
‘Gwen, I wanted to buy us some time. I knew that if we gave us a chance, we’d become strong enough to deal with the fact we believe different things politically. Yes, I am staying with the party. I love it. I know you love your party, and I’m okay with that.’
‘Oh, isn’t that nice,’ Gwen said, then turned to Cecily. ‘He’s giving me permission to be committed to the party that I’ve devoted my entire life to.’
‘That’s not what I meant,’ John said. ‘Gwen, believe what you want. I don’t care. We are bigger, better than those opposing beliefs.’
‘What a gracious man he is, Gwen, to let you believe what you want to believe,’ Cecily said. ‘But, as you do believe so strongly, do you think you could be with someone who doesn’t care about it?’
‘No, Cecily, I don’t.’ Gwen nodded. ‘Your turn.’
‘Thank you.’ Cecily touched Gwen’s arm, then looked at Alec. ‘I fear I have failed to congratulate you on the award you’ve received for being your party’s largest fundraiser. Twice, actually. And imagine being so important, so beloved of your party that they actually make a rule to allow you not to have to be the member of a branch. You are a legend in your own party room, Alec.’
Alec slowly sat up as Cecily spoke. There was no doubt where she had gotten that truth from, and it was more than he had expected. He looked at Gwen. ‘Poor form, Gwen.’
‘I care about Cecily enough to tell her the truth. Unlike you.’
‘I have told Cecily plenty of truths,’ Alec said. ‘Haven’t I, Cecily?’
‘But not the one that you knew would be of most importance to me,’ Cecily said.
‘You would never have given me a chance if I hadn’t, and hasn’t it been worth it?’
‘Actually, you would have worn me down without the lie,’ Cecily said. ‘It would have been a short relationship, because I would have seen no possible future and would have cut ties before we got in too deep, but it would have been real. You destroyed that. You destroyed us.’
Never in his life had Alec misjudged a strategy so completely. Right now, he couldn’t see his way out of it. ‘Cecily, I’m sorry. I thought it was the only way you would have me.’
‘It’s certainly been a sure-fire way to lose me,’ Cecily said. ‘Was there anything else we were going to say?’
‘No,’ Gwen said. ‘I think that’s everything.’
‘Good,’ John said, standing. ‘Now it’s our turn to speak.’
‘Actually, you’ve both already said way too much.’ Gwen nodded. Cecily went to the door and opened it. ‘Good bye.’
John opened his mouth but Alec forestalled him, standing and grabbing his arm. ‘Ladies.’ Alec hauled John out of the apartment and the door slammed shut behind them.
‘I’m going back in there,’ John said. ‘I’m fighting for my relationship.’
‘You can’t. We have lost this skirmish. We need to retreat, and work out a new strategy. Over a couple of glasses of whiskey.’ Alec started down the stairs.
He heard John yell, ‘I love you’ and then follow.
***
They went to A
lec’s place. John sat on Alec’s lounge and sipped Alec’s whiskey and said, ‘This is all your fault.’
‘How do you figure that?’
‘If you’d gone to that bloody dinner like you should have, I would never have met Gwen.’
‘You were the one who chose to seduce her, my friend. What you should have done, the moment you realised who she was, was walk away.’
‘Which you should have done with Cecily.’
‘I tried. I kept bumping into her. We are fated.’
‘So are Gwen and I.’
‘Before we get into that—CC?’
John slumped against the lounge. ‘No way was I going to tell you CC was Cecily. Not after you became obsessed with her.’
‘Fair enough. I should have done a better job of hiding Gwen from you.’
‘So, what do we do now?’
‘We give them space, to miss us. Then we go to them on bended knee, apologise profusely, speak the open truth and convince them that despite coming from different sides, we can still make it.’
‘Can we?’ John stared at his whiskey. ‘Once it’s out I’m dating the enemy, my job is dead in the water.’
‘Is it, though? Have we built this up to be too much of a thing?’
‘Easy for you to say, Mr Golden Boy. Did they seriously make a new rule just for you?’
Alec shrugged. ‘It happens, from time to time. One PM got to attend conventions via teleconference from his beachside holiday home.’
‘Jesus.’ John closed his eyes. ‘You people are demented.’
‘We all are. That’s why we’re in politics.’
John looked at Alec. ‘You really think we can win them back?’
‘I do,’ Alec said. ‘Because they have had a taste of us, and they will want more. It is inevitable.’
‘I hope you’re right,’ John said. ‘Fuck, I hope you’re right.’
Act Three
Cecily
Monday morning, Cecily walked into John’s office and put the bag down in the middle of his desk, disturbing the work he was doing.
‘Cecily.’ John smiled at her. ‘Please, sit. We need to talk.’
‘No, we don’t,’ Cecily said. ‘I am returning Gwen’s things. You will not speak to her again. You will not approach her again. If you do, she will consider it grounds for getting a protection order against you.’
‘Cecily.’ John stood. ‘Surely you can understand that I love her.’
‘No, I don’t,’ Cecily said. ‘You don’t lie like that to the woman you love. You don’t play games with the woman you love. You don’t deceive the woman you love in order to get your own way. Your love was selfish and that makes it wrong. Leave Gwen alone.’
Cecily stormed back to her office. She was still so, so angry. She’d barely slept over the weekend, and that made her angrier still. Alec and John didn’t deserve to steal her sleep.
At lunch time, she headed out to Manuka and met Gwen at Belluci’s.
‘Done,’ Gwen said as Cecily sat down. ‘I delivered your things to Alec, and my resignation. I have an appointment with a temp agency this afternoon and they’ve assured me that with my experience and security clearance, I’ll probably have a job tomorrow. Are you sure you don’t want to resign as well?’
‘No way,’ Cecily said. ‘I’m going to stay, and I’m going to become a politician, and when I’ve got the power I’m going to make their lives miserable.’
In the middle of lunch, Cecily’s phone pinged. A text from John.
‘Please convince Gwen to stay. She shouldn’t give up the party over this.’ Obviously Alec had told him that Gwen had handed in her resignation that morning, effective immediately.
‘She’s not giving up the party,’ Cecily texted back. ‘She’s just giving up you and Alec.’
‘Run, Gwen,’ Cecily said as she put her phone down. ‘Run fast, run far. Get out of here and don’t look back.’
‘I am going to miss it,’ Gwen said. ‘But you’re right—I’m going to find a new way to serve the party, one that won’t put me in contact with users and losers like John and Alec.’
‘In the meantime,’ Cecily said, ‘You’re still coming to my place tonight to try online dating?’
‘Absolutely,’ Gwen said. ‘I want to find some guy, root his brains out and then send John a text telling him I’ve done so.’
‘Maybe we should try Tindr then. It says it’s a dating app but really, it’s a hook-up with strangers app.’
‘Sounds perfect to me,’ Gwen said. ‘As long as we look out for each other.’
‘Always,’ Cecily said.
John
‘Can we call them yet?’ John sat down at the table. He picked up the menu and put it back down. He didn’t feel like eating. He hadn’t felt like eating all week.
He still couldn’t believe how spectacularly things had fallen apart with Gwen. He’d known that, eventually, he would have to confess that he wouldn’t be leaving the party after all, but he’d thought that they would be so in love, her anger would be tempered and they’d be more willing to make it work than to give up.
But she’d caught him in the lie, and her anger wasn’t tempered by anything. It was raging hot and she wasn’t inclined to listen.
‘Not yet,’ Alec said. ‘We need to let them calm down.’
‘Are you sure they aren’t calm yet?’
‘Gwen is refusing any communication and Cecily missed the committee meeting this week rather than even be in the same room as me. They’re still a long way from calm. I was thinking of trying something vegetarian this time. No meat at all. What do you think?’
John gaped at him. ‘Food? We’re going through hell and all you can think about is food?’
‘It is not all I can think about,’ Alec said. ‘It is, however, the only thing right now that can give me comfort, and I need comfort. So yes, I am thinking about food.’
‘I can’t believe they still won’t talk to us,’ John said. ‘Okay, I can understand Cecily not wanting to talk to you, because you are annoying as hell. But Gwen and I were falling in love. How can she just throw that away?’
‘The assumption being Cecily and I weren’t in love?’
John scoffed. ‘You’d only been on a few dates. Gwen and I were talking about a future together.’
‘So were we.’ John scoffed again and then something amazing happened. The smile slipped from Alec’s face and his expression darkened.
‘If you are going to be a turd, I can see no reason to continue this friendship,’ Alec said. All seriousness.
For the first time, John saw that Alec was as hurt as he was. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t realise you and Cecily had become that close.’
‘Well, now you know.’ Alec picked up the menu. ‘Fuck it, I’ll have the burger with the lot and chips. Maybe the extra cholesterol will remove me from this mortal coil a little earlier.’
John picked up the menu again. Nothing appealed, so he just got a toasted ham, cheese and tomato sandwich to make himself eat something.
‘When can we call them, do you think?’
Alec shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I know we need to let them cool down, but do we approach them, or wait for them to approach us?’
‘If we wait for them, it could be a cold day in hell.’
‘It could. But if they realise they want to be with us, that would be better than us once again trying to convince them that we really mean how we feel.’
‘I hope they do.’ John shook his head. ‘I don’t want to imagine a world without Gwen.’
‘Nor I one without Cecily. But we have to own that we have done the wrong thing, and then make it up to them.’
Back in the office, John sat in his chair, looked around the room and could not see one thing that he was interested in doing. Damn, but he wished his mother was still alive. He could call her and confess everything. She would call him every name under the sun, then help him work out what to do.
Well, his mother wasn’t ali
ve any more but home was still there, and he needed a break from Canberra and all the memories of Gwen. So he got online and booked his tickets and by 7 pm that night was on a flight from Canberra to Brisbane.
His father lived in a white Queenslander on some acreage outside of Ipswich, an hour’s drive from the airport. When he pulled up after 10 pm, the house was dark. Pinned to the front door was a message.
‘Beer in fridge. Old room ready. See you in the morning.’
John smiled. It was exactly what his mother would have done. She’d trained Dad well.
John got the beer, then went and sat on his bed. It was warmer than Canberra, delightfully so, and he leant against his pillows and stared up at the white wooden ceiling and took in a deep breath of the eucalyptus scented air and breathed out some of his stress. The warmth, and the beer, and being at home must have helped, because he slept like a log.
He woke to the smell of bacon frying. He stumbled out into the kitchen to find his father standing at the stove, his mother’s apron on. ‘When did you learn to cook?’ John sat at the counter.
His father frowned at him. ‘I’m always known how to cook. It was just your mother loved doing it, and I loved letting her do what she loved to do. But you will recall who it was who got her breakfast on her birthday and Mother’s Day before you and your brother were old enough to look after it.’
John had forgotten that. He hadn’t forgotten the terrible breakfasts he and Paul had made. ‘I still can’t believe she ate them.’
‘Confession time. She only ate while you were in the room. The rest went into her bedside drawer, and then she threw it out when you weren’t looking.’
John laughed. ‘Smart move.’
‘Coffee’s done.’ His father nodded at the percolator on the stove.
By the time John had made his coffee, breakfast was being served at the counter. The windows looked out on the bush that surrounded the house.
They tucked in and ate in silence. Then John followed his father around doing the chores—watering the garden, letting the chooks out and collecting the eggs, chopping up some fallen trees for firewood. Lunch was salad sandwiches, and then more work—clearing trails through the bush, pulling some weeds, re-securing the fox proofing on the chicken coop, chasing the chickens back into the coop for the evening.
The Importance of Ernestine Page 18
