Take a Chance

by Simone Jaine

  Inside Jason’s office Jem pulled free of his grip, crossed her arms and watched him. Momentarily taken aback by the presence of wall to wall computers Mark was silent. He walked around, taking in the myriad screens and ergonomic chairs.

  “It’s like the bridge of the Enterprise in here,” he murmured to himself.

  “That’s what happens when you allow your geeky brother-in-law to design his office from scratch,” said Jem. “But I’m sure you didn’t bring me in here to discuss the decor.”

  “No,” said Mark, recovering his composure. He pointed towards the door. “What are they doing here?”

  “By ‘they’ I assume you mean Greg and Evie,” said Jem.

  Mark nodded curtly.

  “They’re here to follow their sales through,” said Jem. “I was surprised you had forgotten to invite them considering you had invited their clients, ones that they had already met and started the sales process with.”

  “I haven’t forgotten anything and I can’t help it if they’re not moving fast enough.”

  “You’re poaching their sales,” Jem accused.

  “No. We’re a team. It’s in Sachs Walls best interest to get clients signing contracts. It’s closing the sale that matters and that is what tonight is about,” Mark told her.

  Jem felt as though a blindfold had been ripped from her eyes. For the first time she was angry enough to see the truth beyond what Mark said.

  Eben was right, she thought and realised Mark’s strength was in getting others to do what he wanted and make himself look good doing it.

  Mark, unaware of her epiphany, obviously felt comfortable in her presence as he confided “The man who brings in the business and makes the dollars will be the one to get the promotion to head our Asia office in Hong Kong. I am that man.”

  He looked at her and smiled.

  Jem planted her hands on top of the chair between them and narrowed her eyes.

  Where do I begin attacking?

  Let’s begin with his most recent misconception.

  “Man?” she queried tartly. “You seem to have forgotten that three of our sales reps are females and I am too.”

  “Don’t be naive,” Mark said scornfully to match her tone. “Nate’s not going to promote a female to that position.”

  “He might not but Martha could,” Jem shot back, clenching the leather of the seat back with her fingers.

  “You’re dreaming,” Mark snapped back but then added more casually “You know, I wanted you to come with me but I might have to rethink that since you’ve undermined me by bringing in Evie and Greg.”

  “Undermined?” said Jem incredulously. “You’re the one who has undermined them by trying to hijack their clients behind their backs.”

  “I have already explained it to you but I see we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that one,” Mark told her smoothly. “If you want to go to Hong Kong with me you had better not let it happen again.”

  He left the room, leaving Jem ready to heave something through the window. Instead she sat down and clenched her hands in her lap. Some of the earlier, seemingly oblique comments Greg and Evie had made came back to her, now blindingly obvious.

  She had naively thought he always seemed interested in where each client was, but now belatedly realised he had used her information to pick the clients who brought in the most dollars for the least effort.

  How could I have been so stupid?

  No wonder he was always the top salesperson in the company.

  In the past she had ignored the odd niggling comment from the other reps and believed Mark when he told her that it was just jealousy on their part. Now she knew otherwise. Closing the most sales this close to the promotion announcement would make him stand out amongst the other candidates and the repercussions of overtly taking over other rep’s clients wouldn’t matter because he didn’t plan be around afterwards.

  The painful epiphany gave her another insight. This whole evening was all about enabling Mark to do better than his rivals. Cherie and she had spent many hours to make it happen. Had she helped to set it up so that he would get the promotion over her or any other the others?

  Over his dead body, she thought.

  Jem uncurled her fingers and plotted. She wouldn’t let him get away with this unfair advantage even if Duh-boss endorsed it. Too much of his success was already achieved at the expense of others.

  To think he talked of the promotion as though it was a done deal.

  An idea took form in her head and Jem reached for the phone.

  Not if I have anything to do with it.

  After making a call she replaced the receiver.

  That should even the playing field a little, Jem thought with satisfaction as Eben appeared to find out where she had got to. She told him what had happened and her plan to level the playing field. He made a few suggestions and offered to help which she readily agreed to.

  Just after they finalised details Jem heard voices at the front door. Eben left to inform Cherie of the plan while she pasted a smile on her face to go and greet the guests. The smile became genuine when she saw that the guests were Garth and Amy Smith, each holding one of the twins. Their daughter Isabella stood shyly behind her father.

  “Hi,” said Garth when he saw her. “I hope you don’t mind that we came over a little early. We just wanted to have the children settled before the presentation.”

  “That’s fine,” said Jem. “Come in and follow me. You can meet Sonia who’s looking after my niece and nephews.”

  Jem ushered them to the family room. Before long Isabella had joined Daisy in a game with Barbie dolls which they were showing to Isabella’s parents upstairs. Jem and Sonia sat on the couch in the family room cuddling one of the twins each. Eben watched Jem kiss baby Jonty’s dark hair as she cradled him with a wistful look on her face.

  Sonia looked happy holding Ben. She leaned towards Jem.

  “When are you going to have a baby? Jess has a big head start and she’s younger than you.”

  Ah. The insensitivity of youth.

  Eben wondered how Jem would respond. He noticed her forcing a smile.

  “I’d prefer to be married first,” Jem told the teenager. “I’m a bit old fashioned like that.”

  “May I have a hold?” Eben cut in, to prevent Sonia making another ill-conceived comment.

  He sank beside Jem on the sofa.

  “Okay,” said Jem and handed Jonty to him.

  Eben took the little bundle and rested him on his lap, supporting Jonty’s head so that he could look around. Jonty made eye contact and broke into a wide toothless grin.

  “Hey, he likes me,” said Eben.

  “It’s probably wind,” said Jem.

  Sonia watched them.

  “You two will make beautiful babies,” she said.

  “Excuse me, I think I hear someone at the door,” Jem announced briskly. She stood up and walked to the door without looking back.

  “Did I say something wrong?” she heard Sonia ask Eben.

  Eben responded but by that time Jem was too far away to hear what he said.

  Mark was greeting guests at the door by the time she got to it. He was in his element, charming the executive board members of a hotel chain. With an unspoken agreement between them, Jem escorted the group to the marquee where she introduced them to Cherie, Evie and Greg. She lingered long enough to see that they each received a drink and introduced them to the Smiths before heading back to the door. She rejoined Mark and they worked together, greeting people for the next half an hour and welcoming them inside.

  Despite what Jem now thought of Mark personally, she knew that they worked well as a team, intuitively knowing what the other had in mind and acting accordingly. Not only that, she knew he was having a successful night on the personal front as well, judging by the looks he received from some of the PAs and secretaries. She would bet he now had a few more phone numbers added to his little black book.

  “We’ve got a lot more p
eople here than I thought we would,” Jem murmured to Eben as they squeezed past a couple of servers with empty trays to get into the marquee. “I’m beginning to think Mark invited everyone in the database.”

  “He’s got a short time left to make a big impression,” Eben commented.

  “There’s going to be a big impression, all right,” Jem agreed “but it is going to be a team effort.”

  While the sales reps worked the room she sailed around the marquee, ensuring every guest received attention. On one round Eben paused beside her.

  “I just want to warn you that Drongo has escaped from the laundry,” Eben said. “Someone opened the door thinking it was the bathroom.”

  “Oh no,” said Jem. “He’s bound to have another go at the food. We’d better find him.”

  For the next few minutes they surreptitiously looked for Drongo as they passed tables and made small talk with clients as they went. He wasn’t anywhere to be seen but Jem suddenly heard heaving under a nearby table. She cringed as she realised the sound she heard was Drongo vomiting up the chopped liver she had given him earlier in the vain hope he would be full enough to stay away from the food.

  Cautiously she lifted the hem of the tablecloth from the floor and Drongo shot out. She was about to go after him when she saw Eben cut off his escape by snatching him up under one arm, a small plate of savouries still held in his other hand. Drongo started to struggle then realised there was food close to hand so cooperated.

  Jem watched from the marquee door while Eben opened the exterior laundry door, removed a sausage roll from the plate and tossed it in. As intended, Drongo raced after it, with Eben closing the door smartly after the cat got through.

  Jem grabbed a fistful of serviettes, plopped them on the plate in her hands and walked to the serving table from where she had heard the sounds. Thanks to the circulating servers most clients’ plates were full so no one was hovering around the table. She might be able to discretely remove the evidence and no one would be the wiser.

  Relieved that Drongo wouldn’t be around to cause further problems, she crouched down and resolved herself to removing his last meal. She used the serviettes to transfer the squishy liver to the plate. Luckily it all moved in one piece and had only dampened the plywood underneath.

  She sighed with relief. Beside her an elegant pair of two toned heeled shoes appeared and a pair of men’s black dress shoes beside that.

  “It’s not necessary to genuflect in my presence,” Mark’s amused voice said from above her.

  Jem hit her head on the table as she backed out.

  As she stood up she saw that Sabrina Price was standing beside him. Sabrina was a partner in a nationwide accounting firm they were hoping would use their software in all their branches. She was lovely to deal with but the other partner Ted Warner, to put it politely, wasn’t.

  “What do you have there?” Sabrina asked Jem.

  Jem looked at the plate in her hand. It looked relatively presentable as long as you didn’t know what it was.

  “Pate,” said Jem.

  “Looks good,” said Mark. “I think I’ll try some.”

  Chapter 17

  Before Jem could do anything Mark had plucked a cracker from a tray and scooped up a bit of the “pate”.

  “I think I’ll try some too,” said Sabrina as she picked up a cracker.

  Jem swept the plate out of Sabrina’s reach. Mark’s hand holding his cracker stopped its journey to his mouth as he looked at her in surprise.

  “I couldn’t possibly let you eat this. It fell on the floor,” Jem said desperately.

  “I’m sure it’ll be okay – I’ll take a bit from the top which should be fine,” said Sabrina as she leaned forward to reach the pate.

  Jem twisted away so the pate remained out of reach then watched in horror as Mark put his cracker in his mouth and chewed.

  Inspiration hit Jem.

  “It was made by Drongo,” she said meaningfully as Mark swallowed.

  Mark, fast on the uptake, recalled Drongo’s problem during his earlier visit and was suddenly aware of the significance. His face paled as he realised what he had just eaten.

  “I think you need to sit down,” Jem said.

  Sabrina, seeing the change in Mark’s expression, dropped her cracker back on the tray and ushered him to a seat. Jem took the opportunity to race to the kitchen and dump the “pate” in the bin. Then she cleaned away the evidence and picked up a bottle of wine to take to Mark. Feeling generous, she was prepared to let him have the whole lot.

  When she returned Eben was already topping up Mark’s wine glass. They made eye contact from across the room and he tilted his head towards Mark, who had determinedly recovered and was now talking earnestly to Sabrina. Eben grinned.

  So he knew what had happened. Jem grinned back.

  A few minutes later she tried not to be irked when she saw Celeste, Nate’s girlfriend corner Eben and flirt with him. Celeste was a few years younger than Jem and her gym toned body looked dainty beside his. She had watchful dark brown eyes, enhanced red hair and she wore enough jewellery to significantly add to her body weight.

  It had only been several weeks since Nate had left his second wife, Mandy for Celeste. Jem still couldn’t believe Nate had chosen to be with a barracuda like Celeste over someone as lovely as Mandy. He had even indulgently let Celeste quit without notice after she talked him into having Cherie take over her workload so she could practise being a kept woman.

  Upon receiving Celeste’s workload, Cherie had quickly learned that her extra duties from Nate consisted of a few hours of frantic stress amongst weeks of minor paperwork. With Nate’s long absences from the office there usually wasn’t too much extra to do apart from exceptions like this evening and Cherie now knew how Celeste had filled her day. With Duh-boss.

  She had also discovered that secretarial work was not Celeste’s strong point despite the number of free hours she’d had to do it and was still trying to organise the mess of files Celeste had left behind amongst doing her regular work.

  Aside from her useless ability as a secretary, Cherie and Jem’s animosity towards Celeste was also due to the effect she had had on Nate’s relationship with his estranged wife and children. Mandy was a good friend of Martha’s and from comments slipped they had learned that Mandy was now considering Nate’s behaviour as a way of acting out a belated mid-life crisis and that she would be willing to take him back under her terms once he got it out of his system. However she wasn’t happy that Nate now seldom saw any of his five children, the youngest of which was in his last year of high school because Celeste didn’t get on with them.

  Nate seemed determinedly oblivious to this because he was too busy doting on Celeste who, despite having him walk out of a marriage for her, seemed to be on the prowl to trade-up. Jem suspected that was the reason behind her insistence to attend tonight.

  Tonight Celeste was wearing a red halter neck cocktail dress with a plunging neckline. Her dress wasn’t suitable for the season so she had added a wrap, only it was now draped across her elbows and behind her back rather than covering her shoulders. She hadn’t been here long enough to be that warm so the display of bare skin could only be for the purpose of attracting male attention.

  You could use her nipples as coat hooks, Jem thought caustically as she headed toward them to save Eben whether he wanted to be or not.

  “Excuse me,” she said to Celeste with a phony smile. “I need Eben’s help in the kitchen.”

  “I think I’ll follow you,” said Celeste airily, waving her now empty wine glass. “I could always do with a top up.”

  Celeste followed Jem and Eben to the breakfast bar in the family room where they came across Aidan sampling from a platter the wait staff were about to take out to the marquee. Sonia had obviously just bathed him as he was wearing his favourite Buzz Lightyear pyjamas and his hair was damp against his head with a cowlick sticking up at the front. Jem watched him suck dip off a stick of celery then
replace the sucked celery on the plate.

  She quickly scooped up the sampled celery, stuck it in her mouth and chewed quickly, hoping that Celeste hadn’t noticed what Aidan had been doing.

  “Oh aren’t you adorable?” Celeste cooed to Aidan as she stopped in front of him.

  Adorable? Maybe. Before you realised he had a gremlin stuck inside him, Jem thought as she dropped the empty wine bottle she had been absently carrying onto the kitchen bench.

  Celeste picked up Aidan and hugged him to her chest.

  “You are so cute!” she exclaimed.

  Aidan leaned back in the stranger’s arms and suddenly noticed her cleavage. He put his finger in the bottom of the V of the neckline and leaned forward to look down it.

  “I see your belly button,” he said.

  I hope she’s wearing underwear or he’s going to mention what else he can see.

  Someone snorted behind her. She turned around to see that Martha and Nate had joined Eben. Judging by the amused looks on nearby client’s faces passing by to use the bathroom they had also heard Aidan’s comment.

  This evening keeps getting better, Jem thought.

  Yet another distraction was required.

  “Bedtime!” she gaily announced and sped down the length of the breakfast bar to take Aidan from Celeste. With her hands free, Celeste took the opportunity to peek down her cleavage and reddened when she looked up.

  So Celeste is going commando, thought Jem as she dropped Aidan into Sonia’s waiting arms. That’s more information than I needed.

  Beside her, Eben placed his hands on the breakfast bar and leaned in Celeste’s direction. He’d obviously figured it out too. Jem leaned forward and casually put one of her elbows on his hand and pressed down. Eben dragged his hand from under her elbow and looked at her.

  “Oops,” said Jem.

  “How about a story?” Sonia asked Aidan, as she shifted him to her hip.

  “Five stories,” Aidan said.

  “How about a story for every year old you are?” suggested Eben.

  “Okay,” said Aidan.