by Harper Bliss
“The timing will always be bad,” Juliette had reassured Steph after the whole thing had gone down. “You need to take some time off now. Regroup. Come back strong.”
It had been Steph’s idea to deny the whole affair. She’d even drafted the press release they’d sent out on Dominique’s behalf, stating in clear terms that nothing had ever happened between them. After that, the breakdown was inevitable, even for someone like Steph. And now Juliette was picking up the pieces.
Véro ran through the list of potential client meetings she and Claire had to attend today. It seemed as though, after they handled the Dominique Laroche affair, every other politician wanted to enlist their expertise. As much as Dominique Laroche considered her career to be on the fritz, Juliette believed that a few months down the line, if they employed the right tactics, she’d be more popular than ever. Unfortunately, there was no room for Steph in that picture.
“I think I need a quadruple espresso, Véro.” Juliette usually thrived on pressure. The more clients she had to juggle, the more adrenalin pumped through her veins. But now she was engaged. She’d promised Nadia she’d work less. She’d promised herself to take her child wish seriously—and that clock kept on ticking. But as usual, as though nothing had really changed at all, work came first.
“I’m on it.” Véro tilted her head. “Anything else?”
“You and your husband should come to dinner at ours soon. I want you to meet Nadia.”
“Great. I’ll check your schedule.” Véro winked and turned to fetch the coffee. Little did she know who had come before her. Hiring Sybille had been Juliette’s responsibility, adding to the guilt of what that decision had put in motion. Juliette had no choice but to be there for Steph.
Juliette also realised that inviting Véro into their home was a way to placate Nadia, to show her that history would not repeat itself. Sweet, delicious, caring Nadia. Juliette looked at the ring on her finger, and couldn’t wait to add the second, even more important one.
Then she looked at the folder Dominique had deposited on her desk and studied Dominique’s new arch nemesis’s picture. Séverine Marechal had a distinct Aryan look about her, not something Juliette would usually go for—except that one time when it came to Claire—but, damn, that woman was hot. She guessed Dominique felt threatened in more ways than one. A hardliner like that, who had made her own name, instead of riding daddy’s coattails, with piercing blue eyes, would make anyone nervous in a competition. The MLR had never officially come forward with announcing Dominique as their nominee, but everyone knew it was a foregone conclusion. Until now. It was Juliette’s job to make her the front-runner again. A challenge that both excited and worried her, even more so now that there was another player in the game.
It was only ten in the morning, but already she knew that it would be a late one again. She scribbled some words on the notepad next to her keyboard. They read: Make clear to my fiancée that I haven’t forgotten about my promise to her. She underlined the words ‘my’ and ‘fiancée’ a few times. If things continued like this, they’d never get around to planning their wedding.
MARGOT
It was Margot’s day off, yet she couldn’t stay away from Saint-Vincent. Everything was in pieces and it was all her fault. She had to speak to Nadia, who was the only person Margot could confide in when it came to this.
She waited for Nadia in the hospital cafeteria and sighed with relief when her friend walked in. Nadia looked tired, though, and in need of some counselling herself.
“Hey stranger,” Nadia said. “You know this place can survive without you, no matter how fine a surgeon you are?”
“What can I say, Nadz? It’s in my blood. I need to be around people in need of healing to feel whole.”
“What’s up?” Nadia cut to the chase. Margot knew how busy she was.
“Have you, erm, seen or spoken to Claire recently?” Margot’s heart started hammering in her chest.
“I’ve barely seen or spoken to Juliette, let alone Claire. Things are a bit hectic at Barbier & Cyr at the moment. But surely you’ve been seeing her?”
“I have. I was just wondering if Juliette had said anything. I know how information tends to trickle through…” Margot sighed. She needed her day off to recuperate, but she wished she had some surgeries planned to keep her mind off Claire and their faltering relationship.
“Honestly, Jules and I barely speak these days. What with Steph being out of action.” Nadia readjusted her posture, leaning over the table. “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t want to talk. What’s really going on?”
The fact that Nadia didn’t know led Margot to believe that Claire was not even talking to her best friend about their problems. Did everyone really believe they were doing well? That they’d just picked up where they’d left things before Inez had entered the scene? Claire and Juliette shared the tiniest details of their lives, and this was not a tiny issue by a long stretch.
“It started off as nothing I was too worried about. Just some readjustments in the bedroom. Being a bit more… vanilla than I’m used to at Claire’s request.” Margot was not the blushing type, but talk like this made her skin flush nonetheless. “But now, a few weeks later, it seems as though any chemistry we ever had—and we had loads—has fizzled out. She doesn’t trust me. There’s this huge gap between us. A black hole in our communication. Basically, it’s not working out. At all.”
Nadia sat pondering this information in silence for a few seconds. “You can’t expect miracles,” she finally said.
“I don’t, but I do expect more than what we have now.” Margot hesitated to continue, but she had come here for a reason, so she might as well get it all off her chest. “Last night, she was talking about getting even.”
Nadia quirked up her eyebrows. “What does that mean?”
“It means my girlfriend, in all seriousness, offered the idea that, to get over the fact that I slept with Inez, she should sleep with someone else as well, to level the playing field.” Saying the words out loud made Margot realise, once again, how ridiculous the whole thing was.
“Jesus.” Nadia shook her head. “She’s just acting out because she’s hurt. She won’t do it.”
“Maybe not, but that’s hardly the point.” Margot sagged against the backrest of her chair. “That moment in your guest room, when she said ‘love won’ to me. It seems like light years ago. It’s clear as day that in our case, love did not win.”
“I’m so sorry,” Nadia said, finding Margot’s arm and cupping her palm over it. “Would it help if we all got together? Spent some time outside of our crazy busy lives this weekend?”
The same dread that had been spreading in her chest for days took hold of Margot again. The fear of something inevitable. “Nadz, I don’t know what to do anymore. Sometimes, she looks at me with a glare that cuts right through me. An icy, cold stare that hurts me so much. I can’t take it for much longer. I don’t want to be with someone who clearly doesn’t want to be with me. It takes too much of a toll.”
“Are you saying you want to break up with her?”
Again, Margot thought, adding the word in her head that Nadia was probably too sensitive to say. She expelled a long sigh. “I’ve been hurt before as well. I know what it can do to you and sometimes people can’t bounce back. I understand that. I think this is the case with Claire, but she can’t admit it. She’s still too wrapped up in this blame game. And it’s true: she did absolutely nothing wrong. All she did was fall in love with me, at great cost. But now, it feels as though she wants to punish me for it. I’m not one to stay down and take the beating. I’ve taken enough.”
“I honestly had no idea this was going on between the two of you.” Nadia squeezed Margot’s arm a little tighter. “Jules hasn’t breathed a word about this.”
“Maybe she doesn’t know either. I don’t know. I have no idea what goes on in Claire’s head anymore.” Margot chose her words carefully. “I’m not cut out for this sort of psychological
warfare, Nadz. I know it’s my fault, but I’m done being punished for it.”
“Have you tried… alternative forms of punishment?” Nadia all but shot her a wink. Margot suspected she didn’t know what else to say. “I mean, just before we got engaged Juliette had a fit about my night with the neurosurgeon. I set her straight right away. And she loved every minute of it.”
Margot couldn’t help but chuckle. She’d gathered she and Nadia had similar proclivities in the bedroom, but they’d never really addressed them so openly before. “It’s hardly the same for us.” The instant of relief soon abandoned her. “The circumstances are very different.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t joke about something like that. Not when you’re telling me this.” Nadia let her hand slip off Margot’s arm. “I can’t tell you what to do, Margot. You’re the only one who knows what goes on in your heart.”
“It’s just that”—saying what she was about to say hurt the most—“most of the time, she makes me feel she’d be much better off without me. I’ve all but exhausted my patience. I can grovel for a while, admit to my mistake, and try to make up for it, but I can’t be down on my knees forever. It’s not how I want it to be between us.”
“I can ask Juliette,” Nadia offered. “If I ever get to talk to her for more than five minutes, that is.”
“Is she still keen on having 2.4 babies?” Margot didn’t mind a change of subject—some breathing room. Talking to Nadia, voicing her fears, felt more like finding courage than just confiding in a friend.
“Who knows?” Nadia shrugged. “We’d have to actually get married first. I love that woman to bits, but I’ll be damned if I take the whole organisation of it upon myself. I simply refuse. I know the whole Laroche business was unexpected, and I’m being very understanding about it, but I’m about to reach my limit as well.” Nadia drummed her fingertips on the formica table. “It’s always going to be something, isn’t it? There will always be some important client that comes before me… and a baby.” She held up her hands. “I haven’t given her an ultimatum yet. Mostly because I’d really like her to come to the conclusion herself. Just this once.”
It was different for Margot and Claire. Margot’s schedule was highly irregular and, seeing as they barely talked at all, work was very low on their list of conversational topics. Margot knew Claire worked long hours, but so did she, and it didn’t bother her. If only that was the worst of their problems. “Is Steph still out?”
“More like out and about.” Nadia rolled her eyes. “It’s true what you say, Margot. That night Juliette asked me to marry her, when everyone was so happy, if only for a few hours, it seems like forever ago.”
“We can’t just sit back and let everything fall to pieces again.” Margot wanted to slam her fist onto the table. She was tired of being pushed into this passive role. It didn’t suit her. “What do you say, Nadz? Let’s reconvene after the weekend and, meanwhile, try to talk some sense into our women?”
“Yeah?” Nadia tipped her head to the side. “Minutes ago you were hinting at breaking up with Claire.”
“I know.” Margot nodded determinedly. “But if I could just find a way to make her snap out of it.”
“Deal.” Nadia held out her hand for Margot to shake. “I mean, really, what would they be without us?”
Claire would be happier perhaps, Margot thought, but she wasn’t so sure. She also wasn’t sure about how to go about this. Any mention of leaving her again would set Claire off in a heartbeat, she knew that much. They didn’t teach you how to deal with these kinds of matters of the heart in medical school.
Margot clasped Nadia’s hand in hers. “Thanks for the talk.”
“Hope it helped.” Nadia gave her palm a quick squeeze. “And please don’t forget that, underneath all the hurt, she does love you.”
“Yeah,” was all Margot could say.
STEPH
“I have nothing to say to her.” Steph looked longingly at the door Véro had just walked out of. “So why would I talk to her?”
“Don’t…” Juliette shook her head, but she probably knew Steph was just messing with her. She wasn’t interested in her boss’s assistant. She’d learned her lesson well. Business and pleasure didn’t mix. “I promised her you’d take one call.”
“That wasn’t your promise to make.” Steph slapped the armrests of her chair with vigorous force. “I’m ready to come back to work, Jules. I’ve had enough of sulking at home.”
“That’s great, but you must realise that when you come back, you will see Dominique.” A knock on the door startled Steph. For an instant, she feared that Juliette had set her up already, and arranged for Dominique to drop by.
“Sorry I’m late.” Claire rushed in and crashed down in the chair next to Steph’s. “Welcome back, Steph.” Claire looked like death warmed up. Black circles under her eyes. Her skin a grey, ashen colour. And was her blouse unironed?
“Not one minute too soon, I see. What’s going on here?” She eyed Claire suspiciously.
“Rough night. Don’t worry, I’m not seeing any clients today. Just keeping my head down and catching up on a million e-mails.”
“Very well.” Steph let herself be brushed off for now, but she’d get to the bottom of what was bothering Claire soon enough. “Catch me up then, Bosses.”
“Are you sure?” Juliette asked. She didn’t look too well-slept either. Steph knew Juliette had taken over most of her work. Another reason for her to come back. She couldn’t leave her friends hanging any longer.
“As far as I’m concerned, Dominique Laroche never happened. It’s in the past. Buried. I’ve moved on.” Steph didn’t just say this to convince her bosses and herself, she believed every word she uttered. She had no choice. “I did what I had to do.”
“Seriously?” Claire shook her head.
“I don’t want to talk about it. I’m here to work.” It was, of course, rather unfortunate that the whole Le Matin saga had happened just after Claire and Juliette had offered her a promotion. “Not to look back.” Steph wasn’t lying when she said she was sick of staying at home. She could have taken a holiday, gone abroad, but was afraid of how that would have made her feel after the glorious week she had spent with Dominique in Juan-les-Pins. She’d helped Barbier & Cyr strategise at first, then had taken three weeks off to re-immerse herself in the world of anonymous, meaningless sex. What else was she going to do? Find a wife?
“Music to my ears, Stéphanie. I’ve been buried in work,” Juliette said.
“I can only imagine. I’m sorry.” Steph knew of how much value she was to this company, which was why she wasn’t afraid to ask the question. “Does the offer for promotion still stand?”
She watched Claire and Juliette exchange a quick glance. Perhaps she had overplayed her hand.
“Depends,” Claire said. “How many politicians have you slept with in the past three weeks?”
“I have no idea. I didn’t exactly inquire about their profession before I stripped them of their clothes. But no instantly recognisable faces, I promise.” Steph painted on a cheeky smile. She was adamant to show that what had happened had not broken her spirit.
“Maybe we should send you to seduce Séverine Marechal,” Juliette said. “Get that taken care of.”
“Who?” Steph asked.
“Nothing. Nobody. Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” Juliette waved it off. “Let’s move on.”
“No, I’m intrigued. I’m also not opposed to some promotion canapé. The day my face appeared on the front page of Le Matin, I decided that, along with my dignity, I may as well throw all the morals I had left out of the window, too.”
“Jesus, Steph. Can you be more dramatic?” Claire turned to face her. She extended her hand, probably to give her a supportive tap on the knee, but changed her mind mid-air. “We’re here for you if you need to talk, yeah?”
“I don’t need to talk. I just want to work and get on with my life.” She looked at Juliette. “Tell me
about this Marechal. Who is she?”
“She’s not for you to worry about,” Juliette insisted.
“You don’t need to walk on egg shells around me. I can take it. I’m a tough girl. If I’m coming back to work, I’m back all the way. I have to know what goes on here, and not just on a need-to-know basis.”
Juliette sighed, then pushed a folder over her desk into Steph’s direction. “She’s Dominique’s new rival in the MLR.”
Steph whistled through her teeth. “Damn.” She caught Juliette’s eyes. “Is she behind the leak?” She leafed through the folder and quickly scanned some pages containing background information on Marechal.
“Dominique is convinced she’s not. But she is after her crown now that Dominique has been discredited.” Juliette had a strange, amused look on her face.
“I tend to agree with her. If Sybille was ever in cahoots with someone, say, dropped here to spy on our PR plans for Laroche, why would she have brought that first picture of you exiting Dominique’s building to us and not to whoever she was working for?” Claire asked.
“To display her loyalty and gauge your reaction,” Steph was quick to say. She was starting to get a headache already. Saying that she was ready to come back to work and deal with this had been so much easier than being dropped right back in the middle of things. “But I really can’t be sure. All I know is that Sybille is not stupid and very calculating. Although I have no idea why”—she looked Juliette straight in the eyes—“she would go after you, Jules. Unless she really did have a soft spot for you.”
Juliette brought a hand to her chest. “Is that really so hard to believe?”
“Of course not,” Claire said, “but that’s beside the point. Anyway, Sybille is safely stashed away at Johnson PR. She wouldn’t have taken that job if she were working for the MLR.”
