The Numbers Game

by Frances Vidakovic

  Tabitha tried to remember all the information she had on them. All four had dark hair, dark eyes and were tall with a good build - that covered only about ninety nine per cent of the Brazilian population. As far as she knew, none went to university - they all worked menial physical jobs. What was it exactly? Carpenter? No, that required some brains. Plumber? No, ditto the same reason. Builder? Nup. Painter? Nup. It was something stranger.

  "That's right, they were plasterers!" Tabitha squealed, with delight. Of course, how could she have forgotten? Back then she had joked constantly that the only thing getting plastered was their heads. One had to give it to them though, they loved their whisky. They drank all night, every night and during the days compromised the quality of their work in exchange for recovery. That's another point she would have to make - they had worked together, for some company or contractors, but as a banded team nonetheless.

  Tabitha tapped in her query.

  Hello guys, I'm looking to contact some long lost friends who've had a very significant gift bequeathed to them. Their names are Dominique, Enrique, Fernando and Ramiro. All four are 28, worked as plasterers and lived in Fishery Point a few years back. Any info would be appreciated.

  There, that should do it. Hint at a gift, however lame, along with a puzzle, which needed to be solved, and people would be contributing to the Forum left, right and centre. Tabitha's prediction was right on the mark.

  Have you tried the local soccer club? At any age, a boy isn't Brazilian unless he is playing on a team. Have someone check into the history for you - came one proposal.

  They were plasterers? A lot of our boys do contract work for Michael Constructions. Why don't you give them a call – their number is…and so on.

  Tabitha was amazed at how many well-meaning suggestions came shooting her way. They spoke of high schools, yellow pages, and friend of a friend who might know more. But without a surname it all required further research, more time, and more effort.

  "Which I can do, if push comes to shove. But ideally I'd like the boys to come to me."

  Ultimately they did. When Tabitha put the same request out again that night, she had her answer almost immediately.

  Do you mean Ramiro de Soso? He manages a plastering company and all the other details fit. Still hangs out with his BBB boys at the local pool room and probably will until the day he dies.

  Yes, yes, yes it fit, Tabitha replied with relief. It had to be him; her gut told her this was her golden egg. After sending off a personal reply to the respondent, she emailed forth her home number as well, citing it was probably best to continue this conversation off the forum. There were already too many annoying queries re: this very significant gift. The girl was great too and called her back within ten minutes.

  "How exciting," the girl said, after introducing herself as Louisa from the forum, "it's so good to finally speak to someone live off the forum. My fingers get so tired doing it the other way."

  "Yeah me too," Tabitha agreed impatiently, saying anything to get her on side. "So where can I find these boys then?"

  "I have Ramiro's work number. That will probably be your best bet. He'll most likely die of shock when he hears from you. Does he have any idea you’re trying to contact him?"

  Louisa's voice was full of curiosity. Please tell me more, it was saying. I’ve shared with you, now you share with me. Tit for tat. That seemed fair enough. Especially seeing as Tabitha planned for this to be the chief domino setting off a chain reaction of events: Tabitha gets boys together, Serena sees all four, picks one and falls out of infatuation with Jasper, ends up reuniting with Markie and one Sunday afternoon invites Rick over who immediately falls in love with Tab. Yes, she had a lot to thank Louisa for.

  "No he doesn’t. Let's just say this present is one he and his friends are never ever going to forget."

  “Guess what, we’re gonna have a party,” Tabitha announced, plopping her pert bottom onto a stool.

  “A party? That’s nice. ”

  Serena picked up another two eggplant fritters and shoved them straight into her mouth. She wasn’t normally a big vegetable fan but today, what with being ravenous, she made an exception.

  “Damn a person would think you haven’t seen food in days, the way you’re eating.”

  Serena shrugged and kept stuffing her mouth full.

  “Maybe that’s because you haven’t,” Tabitha snapped. “Eaten, that is. “

  Serena looked up surprised. Hello? What was this? Tabitha’s comment was filled with snide tension and jealous innuendo, hardly an appropriate comeback for gluttony.

  “What’s the deal?” Serena asked, “You’re not pissed off at me by any chance?”

  It was always good to check in at times like this – because in the realm of unresolved issues little things quickly escalated to gigantic things.

  “Me? Pissed off?” Tabitha laughed, tucking into her dinner of tofu and veggies. She was still avoiding eye contact though. “Why would I be?”

  Tabitha paused here for effect, not giving anything away and this only made Serena more suspicious. It obviously had something to do with being jealous because Tabitha was acting like a love-jilted mate. The last time she reacted this way was when she drunkenly accused Serena of flirting with all the good-looking boys at a party. Jasper, of course! She’d been spending too much time with him lately thus making Tabitha feel rejected, unwanted etcetera. Serena resolved to insert some quality best friend time into later this week.

  “No reason,” Serena replied. “So what are your plans for the weekend?”

  Tabitha sighed and rolled her eyes unnecessarily.

  “Weren’t you just listening to me? I said I had a party to plan.”

  Damn, Serena did vaguely recall her mentioning a party of some sort. Her mind must have been elsewhere. Was she invited to one? If so, she’d have to check the invite and see whether partners were included. Jasper had mentioned visiting a planetarium this weekend but that could always wait till next week if something better popped up.

  “Hang on; did you say you’re planning a party? As in here, in this house.” Serena tapped the table with her pointer finger. This was the first she’d heard of it. Obviously she was suffering from delayed hearing.

  “Yep, next Sunday week.”

  It was only now that Serena noticed the haggard notebook by Tabitha’s dinner plate. Lots of colored paper had been shoved into its center and a fountain pen was connected to the cover. It was Tabitha’s special pen, the one Rick accidentally left in Serena’s car and which she saved for special occasions. Something had to be up, definitely.

  “So?” Serena smiled, while wiping eggplant juice off her plate with rye bread in an attempt to restrain herself. “Tell me more about it. What are we celebrating?”

  Behind the scenes a million other questions were running through her head. First and foremost being: can I please see what you have written in that bloody book?

  “Your new-found freedom, of course,” Tabitha replied. “Like duhhhh! In two weeks you’ve off to live in your own house and Lord knows I won’t see you anymore after that what with Jasper around. To think I used to feel tearing you away from Markie was like pulling out molars.”

  Oh so this was about Jasper and her possessive streak. That’s okay. Possessiveness was apparently a very normal reaction in best friends who didn’t have boyfriends. Sometimes Serena thought things would be totally different if Tabitha finally shagged a boy more than once in a row. No, let me rephrase that – she knew things would be different. Because at the moment it was like they were existing on opposing planes and living poles apart. Both twenty-eight but in the head, one of them was pre-teen and the other, well, Serena felt she acted at least twenty-one.

  “Thanks. I think having a party is a great idea. Who have you put on the guest list?”

  “Just the usual,” Tabitha said. She then proceeded to shoot out some names. Champagne, Violet, Becca, Norma-Jean, Ainslie….

  “But they’re all girls. W
hat guys did you invite?” Serena estimated that the boy-girl ratio had to be at least four-to-one. Tabitha, with her ongoing hunt for a partner, wouldn’t have it any other way.

  “That part’s a surprise. You see it’s a surprise party, only I had to tell you about it in case someone else whisked you away to Las Vegas.”

  “You mean Jasper? You’re allowed to say his name you know.”

  “That’s alright. Anyway, it starts at eight; the theme is sexual predators so make sure you’ve got on all your good stuff.”

  “Like what?”

  “Oh boots, leather, anything short, tight and sexy.”

  “You’re invited Jasper though… haven’t you?” Serena tried to imagine spending an evening without her knight in shining armor by her side. Nup, she couldn’t do it. Tabitha on the other hand looked as if she considered him a disposable object.

  “Don’t you worry about Jasper,” Tabitha insisted, waving the thought of him away. “He and everyone else knows the party is a secret so I’d like you to keep it to yourself. Just concentrate on coming up with a realistic “gosh I’m so surprised” face.”

  Mmm, a planned surprise face…

  “Why do I think it actually won’t take much effort, Tab?” Serena groaned.

  Tell me why…

  Chapter 15

  Just between you and me, Serena sort of slept with Jasper last night.

  Ordinarily this was the sort of thing a girl rushed to tell her best friend but not when the aforementioned best friend was behaving like a sulky mad-hatter. No, Tabitha would probably have a mental breakdown upon hearing the news.

  The sex had caught Serena off guard. She wasn’t expecting it thus the appearance of her worn purple panties with a mismatched hot pink bra. Luckily purple and pink still fell into the category of sexy without trying but if she could turn back the hands of time Serena would have substituted them with lingerie of the black variety. Oh and thrown in a blow-dry and fresh wax while she was at it too.

  Jasper took her out on the pretence of visiting the planetarium. Actually they did visit a planetarium – a space-domey type structure that looked remarkably like the one out of a South Park episode, only without the spellbinding scientist. As they lay back into the soft reclining lavender chairs, Serena remembered thinking “How many planets are there again?” Honestly, not that she was dense or anything, but just being there, side by side with Jasper, made her mind go totally blank.

  Given that she had never given astronomy much thought the whole slideshow, which simulated them being in a spacecraft, flying through space, was totally fascinating. She re-learnt things like the fact that Mars takes a staggering 687 years to orbit the Sun and how Pluto has a satellite called Charon (which some actually considered to be the tenth planet) which joined it in orbit, acting like a binary pair. Other interesting tidbits included: Venus actually rotated clockwise every 243 days (all the other planets rotate anti-clockwise), Neptune’s surface temperature was -230 degrees Celsius and Uranus was four times the size of Earth with four rings (yep not only Saturn had them).

  By the time Serena left the planetarium, her eyes were as big as saucers and filled with wonder.

  “How do they know all that?” she asked Jasper, “I mean, how do they know Neptune has an internal heat source and that Jupiter is 90% hydrogen and 10% helium?”

  “Research,” Jasper shrugged, “that’s why we have NASA.”

  “Yes but…” Serena let the next question fall into the abyss. She was already thinking about where she could buy some good quality binoculars. Apparently they didn’t need to be too expensive to work. She would use them every night, to see whether these supposedly easy to locate planets and star clusters were in fact easy to find. At the moment she couldn’t even pick out the Milky Way with her naked eye.

  “How about we go away next weekend?” Jasper said, as they made their way back to the car. “Somewhere wide and open-spaced, so we can take in the falling stars at night.”

  “Yes!” Serena squealed, nodding. Talk about great minds thinking alike. A weekend away fit perfectly in her plans to appreciate and enjoy the universe on a greater scale. They could wake up early and see the sunrise, trek through the rainforest, maybe even find a nest with a chick about to break out of its egg. Oh and she’d need to buy a good quality digital camera for that as well. Maybe even see if they have any short photography courses nearby. Serena had always loved the idea of having a professional portfolio of bright and interesting pictures.

  “We could go to Yosemite National Park. I’ve always wanted to go there.”

  Jasper nodded his head back. “Yosemite it is then. If you can take Friday off, we’ll make it a long weekend.”

  “No,” Serena frowned sadly. “My work and time off do not fit in the same sentence. Unless…” She feigned a half-hearted cough. “There is a bug going around the studio. It would be a shame if I caught it off someone.”

  “Yes it would be a shame,” Jasper smiled deviously. “But if not, don’t worry, there’s always the lovesickness excuse to fall back on.”

  Then they could come back just in time for Tabitha’s party on Sunday night. It couldn’t have been more perfectly planned…

  At this stage, Serena had no intention of sleeping with Jasper but the whole notion of going away threw the imminent possibility in her face. Oh my gosh, next weekend, they would be sharing a room, a bed together… So far he’d only seen her at her very best, now he’d have to witness the very worst. Even though Serena was used to the lounging around sans makeup around Markie, she didn’t feel that same level of comfortability around Jasper yet. It was as if around him she still felt a need to impress.

  Looking at Jasper after this was awkward. All Serena could do was try and remember what he was like in bed. He was good, she thought and his appendage was of decent proportions too. Not that Serena could be sure about any of that – in those days, she never really got a very good look at it. The boys would just stick it inside and pull it out when it was limp.

  “What’s up?”

  “Nothing,” Serena replied, going even redder in the face.

  “It’s just that you were looking at me funny.”

  “Was I? Sorry, I didn’t mean to...”

  “Hang on,” Jasper continued, slapping her leg. “It was as if, as if you were trying to imagine me naked!”

  Oh bloody hell now Serena was really embarrassed. Her tongue stayed frozen to the roof of her mouth and she willed for it to unstick as Jasper sniggered away. Of course her silence only made the truth in his comment more obvious.

  “I’m right, aren’t I?”

  “Maybe.” Serena didn’t see the point in denying it. The bad part was already over.

  “Would it help if I stripped for you right now, would that satisfy your curiosity?”

  “That’s not necessary,” Serena blushed.

  “Really, because I don’t mind. We can go back to my place and I’ll whip it all off and do a parade. That way you don’t have to worry about any surprises next weekend.”

  “What makes you think I’ll be having sex with you next weekend?”

  “Did I mention anything about sex? I just thought since we’d be sharing a room, there’s the small risk one might walk in on the other in the shower.”

  “Fine, let’s go then,” Serena said, throwing the embarrassment ball back into his court, “On the condition that I don’t have to take off my kit as well.”

  Jasper dropped his mouth in mock horror and then pinched her on the cheek. “It’s a done deal,” he replied, “Remember, when you’re with me you never have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

  So that was how they came to be in Jasper’s small apartment (with the sexy friend of his absent), one person fully dressed, the other in the buff. For a moment there Serena wanted to ask Jasper whether she could bottle up his aplomb. Not many people felt totally confident stripping down for the purpose of scrutiny. She sure couldn’t, even though her body hovered on the better
side. Maybe it was a female thing - deep down, women were never totally satisfied with what they had. For example the vast majority of women aspired to have big breasts but rather than being grateful, Serena worried hers sagged. Others fretted over imaginary big bums, too wide thighs or a million other “obvious” imperfections. Nup, given a choice, she’d go for a root canal over running around naked any day.

  It helped though if someone else has stripped off her kit first. Serena stared at Jasper as he went about the house naked, as if fully clothed.

  “Chamomile tea, three sugars?”

  Serena nodded her head again. She still hadn’t gotten over the way Jasper’s body looked. Back in university, she was sure it was just average. Indeed it was one of the reasons that contributed to her eventual recovery - the heartbreaker has a girlish slim waist and less bum than her, let’s face it, it was never gonna last. But something had happened to Jasper’s body in the interim - a gym membership maybe? His old slim torso was now displaying a definite six-pack and his arms though lean were strong and muscular. And his small bum didn’t look nearly so bad when it was rock hard. In comparison to Markie who was a tall, wrestler-like creature, Jasper looked as if he suited the petite Serena.

  “Don’t you worry that one day your teeth will drop out?” he asked her, passing her the mug.

  “Nope, I need sugar just like the roses need the rain. It’s give me my daily rush.”

  “Oh.” Jasper sat beside her and his penis flopped onto his leg. Up till now Serena had managed to avoid looking at it directly, a big feat given that she had drunk up every other inch of his body. From what she could tell, it looked much, much bigger than Markie’s. “Shame you haven’t been getting that rush from other parts of your life,” he said, taking her by the hand. From then the countdown began. Serena couldn’t see herself lasting much longer. The room was hot, so hot it only seemed logical she remove her clothes as well.