Counting on Love

by R L Burgess

  Chapter Nineteen

  Zoe (One month later, Monday, a.m.)

  Zoe used the laser pointer to direct the room’s attention to the list of bullet points she was displaying on her slideshow. “As you can see here, we have five Key Performance Indicators. If we meet these KPIs, we will be well on our way to maximising coverage and delivery outcomes for the program. According to the Department of Education’s directive, we’re rolling out the program across the regions in this formation.” She flicked to the next slide. “In line with this, we now have a timeline for the inner South-East incursions, with fifty primary schools signed up to complete the program over the next term. Our first schools start their programs next week.”

  She paused, looking around the table at the group. The faces of her new team looked back at her expectantly, reflecting her enthusiasm and dedication to the project. She had been able to handpick them from the current staff pool and recruit a few new members to the team as well. Evie and Graeme sat at the head of the table, each taking notes.

  “Now that each of us has our timetable of schools, and the finalised program map, we’re ready to go. Any questions?” Zoe asked, completing the slide show.

  “None from me,” Graeme said. “I’m impressed. You guys have moved this along with superhuman effort. I’ll admit I didn’t expect to see anything get off the ground before the end of the year.”

  Zoe acknowledged the compliment with a nod. She had been working around the clock to get the new program up and running as quickly as possible, driving herself harder than she ever had before. Every spare moment on weekends and evenings had been dedicated to the work, leaving little space in her mind for thinking about anything else. Or anyone. Her friends were starting to complain, calling her out on her new and boring “all work, no play” attitude, but she had promised them it was just until she got the new program up and running. In truth, tired as she was, it suited her to lose herself in this work. At night when she finally tumbled into bed she dreamed of Alice Springs, of tantalising kisses, of Reyna’s touch on her burning skin, waking in a tangle of sheets with her pulse jumping wildly. But during the day there was thankfully little room in her brain for thoughts of Reyna. “No time like the present,” she replied.

  “Yes,” Evie agreed. “The fact that we’ll have data before Christmas is actually quite astonishing. This goes way beyond our expectations. Congratulations to you all.”

  “The team has worked exceptionally hard,” Zoe said, knowing her team, anxious to impress her, had probably been working much harder than they would have expected to. A mixture of wry smiles and nods came back at her from around the room. “But now that we have our material and a schedule, we can all take a breath and focus on the fun part—educating the kids.” Not that she intended to take a breath. She had signed up to do some of the school incursions, but she would also be building the next term’s schedule and gathering the data for review and assessment as they went along. She had plenty to fill her plate.

  “Right,” Graeme said with a grin, snapping his notebook shut. “Go team!”

  “You can’t hide from us forever you know,” Mel said, sounding hurt on the phone. “You haven’t even seen my new haircut. I look amazing and my best friend doesn’t even know it.”

  Zoe laughed. “I’m sorry, I just really want to finish this work tonight before the first incursions roll out. It would be good for the team to have this info before they head out in the morning.”

  “Good or essential?”

  “Well, you know, I think it would be helpful.”

  “In other words, you’ve become a work-obsessed recluse and we should just give up hope of ever seeing you again.”

  “No,” Zoe protested. “It’s not like that. We’ll get together soon, I promise. Just let me get this off the ground first, okay?”

  “It’s just dinner. One hour at La Travoletta. You need to eat.”

  “Actually, I’ve got some leftovers that I should finish. Next week, I swear.”

  She rang off, feeling guilty for avoiding her friends. She checked her watch. Six p.m. If she skipped dinner, she could go for a quick run instead and then get back to work. The team didn’t really need another email from her, but she hoped they would find it helpful and it would keep her busy for the evening. With a sudden flash of understanding she realised this was probably what it was like for Reyna, only a hundred times more involved given the size of Azoulay House. Nights filled with work, weekends spent compiling data and answering emails in preparation for the week to come. It was a strangely comforting thought.

  As she stepped out of the shower an hour later, she was surprised to hear her doorbell chime. Perhaps it was one of her neighbours, she thought, quickly throwing on a tracksuit. They didn’t often drop over but occasionally they popped in to give each other news of happenings in the building.

  “Who is it?” she called before she unchained the door. Was that whispering she could hear?

  “Delivery,” a low, gravelly voice called from the other side of the door.

  “Of what?” she rejoined, feeling suspicious.

  “Ummmm, pizza!” Mel’s voice replied. “Open the door Zoe. The food’s getting cold.”

  She threw open the door to find her friends squeezed together on her landing holding three steaming boxes of pizza and as many bottles of wine.

  “Wha—”

  “This is an intervention,” Mel said, impervious to her protests as she pushed past Zoe into the apartment.

  “Yeah,” said Enid, balancing the pizza boxes in her arms, following behind Zoe. “Now let’s eat. I’m starving.”

  “Sorry,” Chiara mouthed as she scooted in behind Enid.

  “At least we have wine,” Travis added.

  Zoe followed them to her kitchen and watched as they bustled around with plates and glasses, dumping the pizza boxes onto her coffee table and settling onto her couch. She was torn between frustration that her plans for the evening had been derailed and an overwhelming desire to burst into tears at the sight of her friends.

  Giving up, she grabbed a plate and pulled up an oversized floor cushion.

  “Thanks, you guys,” she said as Travis slid a piece of pizza onto her plate and Enid handed her a glass of wine.

  “We couldn’t leave you to rot away in this hellhole,” Mel said, wiping her hands on a napkin. “Enough is enough.”

  “It’s hardly a hellhole and I wouldn’t say I’m exactly rotting away.”

  “Near enough,” Enid mumbled, fighting with a string of cheese that stretched between her mouth and her pizza. “You haven’t been out in forever. Yikes, so stringy!”

  “So, what’s the deal Zoe,” Travis asked. “Why are you hiding out?”

  “I’m not. I’m just working. You know how it is. New job, lots of responsibilities. I really want to do well.”

  “Yeah, but there’s working and then there’s working,” Travis insisted. “You seem to have taken working to a whole new level. You even missed the beach relay comps. We’ve done that as a team for five years straight!”

  “I know. I’m sorry you guys. I just couldn’t face it.”

  “Hey, we’ve found you a perfect match,” Enid chirped. “So you’re going to need to make some time in this ridiculous schedule to go on a date.”

  “No,” Zoe shook her head vehemently. “Absolutely not. I’m done with dating.”

  “What do you mean done? You can’t be done.” Enid raised her eyebrows incredulously. “You’re still vaguely young. You might live for another fifty years. You can’t be done now!”

  “Fifty? I hope I’ve got more time left than that. But whatever, I am done.”

  “Zoe. There is life after Reyna, you know?”

  “Thank you, Enid,” Zoe replied stiffly. “This has nothing to do with Reyna.” Even saying her name out loud left a sting in her mouth. She knew there was a reason she had been hiding away.

  “Okay, okay, don’t get your knickers in a knot.”

  “
Hey,” Chiara interrupted. “Regardless of all that stuff, we need to spend some time together. We’ve hardly seen each other for months now. What with you, and Mel…” She trailed off.

  Zoe looked sharply at Mel, taking in her new spiky black hair for the first time. She had gone from Madonna to Mel & Kim. “What do you mean. Where have you been, Mel?”

  “If you’d been around in the last month, you’d have noticed that Mel’s hardly been around as well,” Enid said. “It’s as if you both disappeared off the face of the earth.”

  Mel suddenly jumped up from the couch. “Just grabbing some more napkins,” she called, disappearing into the kitchen.

  “You can’t run away from us in here, Mel,” Enid called. “We can still see you. Zoe’s apartment is way too tiny to hide.”

  “Oi!” Zoe protested. “But yes, come back here, Mel, and explain.”

  Mel stuck her head around the kitchen wall. “Fine.” She returned to the couch with a handful of napkins.

  “So?” Zoe prodded.

  “First tell us why you’re never going to date again.”

  She sighed deeply. “What can I say? You all know what’s going on for me. I broke my dysfunctional heart over a woman who barely knew I existed, and now I have to hide away and lick my wounds for the rest of my life. Case closed. There’s no mystery here. But where have you been?”

  “Okay, okay,” Mel held up her hands. “I’ve been seeing someone.”

  “Why the big secret?” Zoe asked.

  “I wasn’t sure you’d be pleased.”

  “Why? Who is it?”

  “Her name is Sasha.”

  “Sasha?” Zoe wrinkled her brow in confusion. The name was familiar.

  “When do we get to meet her?” Chiara asked.

  “Tell us about her,” Travis added. “What does she do? How did you meet her?”

  “I, uh, well,” Mel stuttered, unusually tongue-tied. “She works with computers. We met—”

  “At work!” Zoe said, understanding suddenly dawning on her. “It’s Sasha from IT! You’re dating someone from the IT department! Mel, how could you?”

  “She’s not like the rest of them,” Mel said quickly. “She’s smart and really funny and sweet. She’s actually been really helpful at work too.”

  “Well she could have tried to be some of those things when I was working there.”

  “Shut up, Zoe. She’s actually really great.”

  “Sorry,” Zoe said, realising she sounded mean. “If you like her, that’s all there is to it.”

  “I do. She’s pretty great.” Mel’s face broke into a shy smile. “I think this might actually be something.”

  “Wow.” It was a bit of a shift to get her head around the idea that Mel was dating someone from the department that they had always professed to loathe, but if Mel was happy, that was all that counted. Realisation suddenly dawned on Zoe. “Wait, is that why you were so cagey a few months ago when I asked you if you were seeing someone at work?”

  “Yeah.” Mel looked sheepish.

  “But why didn’t you just say?”

  “I dunno. It took us a bit to get our shit together. I wasn’t sure if it was going to work. I kind of slept with her on a whim after we both worked late one night and ended up going for a drink, but I felt a bit weird about it. Luckily she was persistent, in a good way.”

  Mel grinned again and Zoe said, “Ew,” before she could stop herself. “Sorry. Just getting used to the idea, that’s all.”

  “No worries. I know you’re going to love her when you get to know her. She really is loads of fun. In fact, I was hoping we could all get together this weekend.”

  “I don’t think I can,” Zoe said reflexively, but Mel cut her off.

  “Please. This is really important to me.” Mel’s eyes were surprisingly serious.

  It was impossible to refuse. “Fine.”

  “Great. Everybody in then? Dinner at La Travoletta on Saturday, seven p.m. Sharp.”

  “You’re the one who’s usually late, Mel,” Travis said with a grin.

  La Travoletta’s was crowded, even for a Saturday night. In recognition of their group’s long-standing patronage, the restaurant had reserved a table for them in a secluded alcove that sheltered them from most of the noise.

  “Ever been here before?” Travis asked a nervous-looking Sasha who looked strange to Zoe in her crisp jeans and faded denim shirt. Zoe had been used to seeing her at work in a pair of neat black trousers and an Azoulay House-branded polo shirt. Casual Sasha was a bit disconcerting.

  “Nope,” Sasha answered with a shy smile. “It’s my first time.” Zoe couldn’t believe the difference. So far Sasha had been open and engaging, had shook Zoe’s hand politely and asked her how her new position was going. It was a whole different side of the standoffish, unhelpful IT girl Zoe had previously avoided like the plague.

  “You’ll love it here,” Travis said. “The pizza is so good it’s practically an institution.”

  A waiter approached their table, and then seeing the familiar group, called out a hearty greeting. “Ciao, friends. Same as usual?”

  “Hi Rocco,” Mel said. “We have one more tonight. Can you bring us an extra pizza?”

  “Sure thing. Coming right up, ladies.”

  Sasha’s eyebrows rose, looking pointedly at Travis. “Ladies?”

  “It’s cool,” Mel reassured her. “Our running team’s name back at uni was The Girls. It kind of stuck. We always reserve our table under that name so they’re in on the joke. Trav doesn’t mind.”

  “Right.” Sasha gave another smile, this one with a nervous showing of teeth.

  Enid poured out a round of drinks and they peppered Sasha with questions while they waited for their food.

  “Enough, enough,” Mel finally cried. “Poor Sasha. You’d think it was the first time you lot had ever met another human being. Oh thank god, the food’s here.”

  Two waiters approached with their food, expertly shuffling around the drinks and cutlery to make room on the table. Sasha looked on in amusement as Mel took a piece of pizza and began to heap pasta on top of it.

  “I’ve seen her do this before,” Sasha said to Zoe. “It’s the strangest form of carb loading I’ve ever seen.”

  “Too right,” Zoe agreed. “Grosses me out.”

  “Hey, what’s not to like?” Mel protested. “Pizza, good. Pasta, good. Pizza topped with pasta, double good.”

  “The restaurant actually made her a pasta pizza for her last birthday,” Chiara told Sasha. “It looked hideous but she loved it.”

  “Yes I did, and I’m still waiting for them to put it on the menu. I keep telling them it’ll be a total hit.”

  “So Sasha,” Enid said, ignoring Mel’s furious look. “How long have you worked at Azoulay House?”

  “I’ve been onboard since the early days,” Sasha replied, using her knife and fork to cut up her pizza, which amused Zoe who was using her hands to funnel a slice of Margherita into her mouth. “Reyna needed a secure platform for her web presence in order to facilitate an intranet to transfer sensitive client data. A small team of us came on line not long after she started the firm.”

  “Sounds complicated,” Enid said. “And you’ve been there ever since?”

  “Yeah, almost seven years now. It’ll be strange when the new structure kicks in. Reyna’s always been such a hands-on boss.”

  Zoe paused, her pizza slice halfway to her mouth. “What new structure?”

  Mel, eyes wide, shot Sasha a quick headshake but while Zoe noticed, Sasha did not appear to.

  “Oh, didn’t Mel tell you?” Sasha went on. “Reyna has decided to restructure the firm. She’s going to bring on a General Manager and take a step back from the day-to-day running of the business. She’s also looking for a board of directors. It will mean a big change to the way the business runs. She won’t be nearly so involved in the intricacies, which is probably good. She has way too much on her plate.”

  “How do you
know this?” Zoe asked, catching a frown from Mel. “Sorry, just wondering,” she added.

  “I run the IT structure. She’s had me add in functionality for a General Manager and the board. I think she’s looking to get it all happening ASAP.”

  “So, Reyna will have less to do?”

  “Oh, far less. I don’t really know the ins and outs of what she’s going to do in terms of her own position, but yeah, she might actually get her weekends back, poor lady. She’s been working round the clock for at least the last seven years.”

  “You wouldn’t catch me working like that. I’m all about the holidays and the weekends. Speaking of, who’s up for a kayaking-camping adventure this summer?” Mel said, with an obvious attempt to shift the conversation away from Reyna and Azoulay House. “We haven’t done one in ages. We could make our way around the peninsula?”

  Zoe’s mind raced, tuning out as the group discussed the logistics of such a trip, nodding and smiling along with the rest, but thinking of Reyna. Why had she suddenly decided to free up her schedule? Zoe felt a burning bitterness which she tried to push away. Reyna hadn’t been willing to do that for her. What could have happened now to make her suddenly change her tune?

  Chapter Twenty

  Reyna (Thursday, p.m.)

  Reyna looked at her watch. With a start she realised it was almost three. If she didn’t leave now, she’d be late to pick up Holden from school. She switched off her laptop and stowed it in her briefcase, scooping her notebook and mobile phone into her handbag.

  “Nikki,” she said, popping her head around her assistant’s door. “I’m heading out. I’ll be online later tonight to finalise the Sydney briefs, so can you make sure they’re collated before they go in the folder?”

  “Sure,” her assistant replied with the bright smile she reserved for any request from Reyna. Reyna had seen her responding to other people’s enquiries with a much less enthusiastic demeanour. “Are you in the office tomorrow?”