Take a Chance (33 page)

“So when? How?” Jem asked, waving her hands to take in the whole room.

“We’ve been working together since the beginning,” Jason told her.

Jem spun around. She’d forgotten he was in the room.

“I knew computer programming was a sort of hobby of his when I was dating his sister Ivy. Later I knew someone who was having difficulty getting someone to write a program for him so I suggested to Eben that we do it. We spent a bit of time together working on it and the job snowballed into more work.”

“So which one of you is the boss?” Jem asked then mentally smacked herself.

Why did that matter?

Thankfully Eben looked amused.

“We’re equal partners. I do most of the tricky technical stuff and Jase is the social wheeler and dealer with the contacts. A bit of our early work was fixing software bugs for a UK company which gave us a good name because they’d tell us their problem and we’d fix it overnight their time while they slept. It wound up leading to a lot of other work meaning late hours and weekends.”

That explained why he had left lots of parties early
, Jem thought.

All this time she thought he had been slipping off with his conquest
du jour
.

She hadn’t realised she had spoken the last thought aloud until Eben answered.

“Yeah, that happened a bit but then I discovered they liked money being spent on them more than they liked me.”

“You’re rich?” she exclaimed without thinking.

“On paper I look rather good,” Eben admitted. “But the reality is that Jase and I have invested most of our money back into the company to allow for expansion. It’s going to be a while before we will get that money back.”

“If you are doing so well then why have you gone out of your way to hide what you do from me?” Jem demanded, indicating the game of spider solitaire that was back on screen.

“It was habit at first,” Eben admitted. “I didn’t want to think you were like the others who saw me as an easy way to a life they’d like to become accustomed to. Then you were fun to rile because you were always telling me that I had a brain and should be spending time using that rather than my surfboard.”

Jem’s face flushed. Her impression of him had been so wrong. Then she became indignant.

“You went out of your way to mislead me,” she said. Then she realised something.

“You didn’t do this on your own,” she accused and pointed a finger at Jase. “He had to know. And Jess.
You bastard. You even had my own sister deceiving me!”

“I only asked them not to offer details about me. If you had asked direct questions about me they would have answered truthfully. But you never did,” Eben answered almost sadly.

“That’s because you were such a great actor I believed what I saw!” Jem shouted, ignoring the fact that Jase had stopped typing while pretending not to listen and was now very attentive to their conversation which was now an argument, at least on her side. She folded her arms across her chest again.

“You must have had such fun pulling the wool over my eyes.
Having this big secret that everyone was in on except Jemima.” Another thought occurred to her. “You were the one installing our new database at work and giving the tutorials weren’t you? That explains why Cherie and you were so chummy when I arrived that day. She had already met you and also knew you from stuff I’ve said about you over the years.”

“You talked with her about me?” Eben asked instead of explaining why he had maintained the deception. He was beginning to realise he had majorly stuffed up by Jem’s reaction.

Jem saw red.

“You also said something to Cherie didn’t you?” she demanded. “She definitely would’ve mentioned that you do more than sit on a
surfboard and crack open beers unless you asked her otherwise.”

Eben confirmed her suspicion with a single nod.

“But you love me anyway,” he said hopefully.

“Love you? I want to back my car over you!” Jem screeched.

She turned and fled from the room.

“That went well,” Jase commented as he returned to his keyboard. “I told…”

“Don’t say it,” Eben warned.

He rubbed his face with his hands. He had royally screwed up.

“What am I going to do?” he asked.

“Go after her and fix it,” Jase said.

“How?”

“Do
n’t look at me. I can’t even fix things with superglue. Go after her,” Jase repeated.

Eben opened their bedroom door to find Jem furiously packing her suitcase.

“Don’t go on my account,” he said quietly.

“Jess will be home tomorrow and Aunty Beryl will need this room if you and Jase plan to keep working at night,” Jem informed him coolly.

“That’s not until tomorrow. Besides you’ll want to say goodbye to Jeremy, Daisy and Aidan before you go.”

“That’s low. Using the children to get your way,” Jem replied with a sniff. “In that case one of us needs to sleep on the Murphy bed.”

Eben slid her suitcase to the floor and held her by her shoulders.

“Have I really made you that angry?” he asked.

Jem took a deep breath and breathed out slowly.

“What do you think?” she asked as calmly as she could.

“I think I did something which I now see was stupid and hope you forgive me,” he said.

“I just don’t get it. Why did you do that to me when everyone else knew the truth?” Jem asked, feeling pain over the deception.

“I just wanted you to love me the way I am without trying to change your perception of me.”

“Why would that matter?”

Eben drew them down onto the end of the bed, took her hand in his and rubbed it.

“When I first met you at Jase and Jess’s wedding I thought we clicked but then when we saw each other from then on you always had some uptight yuppie in tow. Even so, you were always friendly, encouraging me to make more of myself. You even offered me a twelve step programme to success,” he laughed.

Jem winced at the reminder of giving financial advice to someone who was doing far better than she was.

“I was an idiot,” she muttered.

“You cared,” Eben corrected, threading their fingers together.

“Of course I did. You’re a great guy and I thought
mistakenly
, you needed a sense of direction and something to aim for.”

“I thought you were trying to turn me into one of them and I wanted to show you that I am someone worth be
ing with even if I don’t wear suits and have a portfolio to discuss about at parties.”

He looked at her earnestly.

“I wanted to show you that being with someone could be comfortable and fun rather than some upwardly mobile merger. Not only that, I wanted to see if you could love me enough that your perception of my lifestyle wouldn’t matter.”

He dropped to one knee before her.

“Stop,” Jem implored. “Don’t say anything else.”

She looked at her hands which he refused to let go.

“You’ve given me a lot to think about. I need time,” she said quietly.

Eben finally released her hand but instead of standing up as she expected he leaned forward and planted on her lips the softest, most tender kiss she had ever received.

Then he finally drew back and she felt as though she could start breathing again.

“I just wanted to give you something else to think about,” he said softly with a wistful smile. Then he got up and left the room without looking back.

Jem sat on the end of the bed for several minutes after Eben had left the room with many emotions roiling around inside. She understood his reasons for the deception in the beginning but they’d known each other for years so surely he knew she wasn’t money orientated like the bimbos he seemed to attract.

Of course he knew you were different
, a caustic little voice in her head pointed out.
You were usually with some yuppie at a party when you saw him and then you became engaged to one. You were always telling him to make something of himself so why wouldn’t he think money was of extreme importance to you?

Far out Jem,
that voice added
. You’re turning into your mother.

I am not!
Jem thought in horror as she clenched her hands into fists on her thighs.

I ma
ke my own way and don’t expect to be carried by anyone else,
she mentally told that annoying voice.
And as far as dating yuppies go I can’t help being attracted to men who have similar goal orientated behaviour to me.

Aha…
that caustic voice responded.
Then why did you dump your date and spend the evening with Eben at Jess and Jason’s wedding? Too much champagne?

Possibly.
Although it was more to do with my date being a jerk.

Jem’s thoughts went back to her sister’s wedding and all the stress involved in the lead up. She had really felt for Jess.

Coco had refused to contribute to the expenses or even attend the wedding because she considered Jason beneath them socially. It just happened to be coincidental that she decided that after he had refused to allow her to pay for everything with several concessions including that Coco would choose the venue, invite a lot of people he’d never met and specify what the bride and groom wore.

Coco had
mistakenly thought that Jess would pull out of the wedding without her approval and had been put out that Jess hadn’t even tried to mollify her when she took Jase’s side.

Toka, Jess’s father had no money to spare because he and his brothers had
recently mortgaged the farm to clear scrub and plant more pine trees. Jem knew he had felt awful about not giving his daughter the wedding of her dreams. To make amends he had insisted upon paying for a belated honeymoon. They had only learned he had borrowed the money to do that when going through his financial documents after he had died.

Jason’s parents had only enough money to get by.
At the time his father had heart problems and had not been able to work for the months leading up to his operation and his mother had worked nights as a cleaner to pay the bills. Despite being told that they weren’t to pay for anything his parents had paid for the photographer and champagne for the toasts.

Since Jess and Jason both had large student loans and had been flatting for years they didn’t want the traditional gifts guests usually gave. Instead they found a beautiful compromise to keep costs to a minimum.

The wedding ceremony had been performed by Jase’s Uncle Ted who was a registered celebrant. Their vows were exchanged on a golden beach where only a slight breeze kept everyone from getting too hot under the summer sun. Jess wore the tea length, pale pink ball gown Coco had bought for her first University ball. Jem had worn an ice blue one her mother had paid for in her role of bridesmaid as they both knew it would irk Coco if she ever found out. 

T
heir bouquets were origami roses made by a friend in shades of pink and white and were so well done you thought the roses were real until you touched them. They also had smaller origami roses threaded through their hair.

Jason and Eben wore black jeans, their concession to the occasion being their white poet shirts. The whole bridal party wore bare feet.

Afterwards, everyone sat on picnic blankets and feasted on the large variety of food the guests supplied. When the sun went down they built a bonfire and a DJ friend supplied the music.

By then Jem’s date had long since gone. Her opinion of him changed from discerning to pretentious
when he repeatedly belittled what he called a “low class event”. His not so subtle veiled comments as to the reason for the wedding usually finished with him looking at Jess’s waist line. Jem told him to leave during the picnic after he snidely suggested she was risking salmonella by eating Aunty Beryl’s fried chicken.

Jem never even missed him. Instead Eben
had plonked himself beside her and entertained her with his banter. Then they had spent most of the evening almost exclusively together talking and dancing. But that’s where it ended.

Eben
had left the following day to return to student life at Otago University at the other end of the country. Because of the distance and lack of funds he only returned after exams at the end of the year.

It had never occurred to her that he was attending university as he had seemed so much more mature than a lot of the guys she had dated. When she hadn’t heard from him after the wedding she just assumed she had read more into that night than he had.

By the time he returned Jem was dating someone else and the only times she ran into him was at the odd party.

Two years later Jess had Jeremy.  To make up for Coco’s lack of interest
, Jem had visited as often as she could. By then Eben always seemed to be already there when she called in to see her new nephew.

The house Jess and Jase had been renting was so small that Jase had set his computers up in the lou
nge. Looking back, Jem reflected that Jase and Eben had usually been using them when she arrived. Soon afterwards they often left to go surfing. She had thought they had been playing games and were being considerate by giving her time with her sister and nephew. She now realised they left because she and her sister couldn’t chat together without distracting them from their work.  

At the time Jason was still working at his day job too so it must have been a nuisance for them to stop everything every time she turned up. It also explained the reason for their early departure from parties as they had to do the work they hadn’t been able to do during the day. All this time she thought
it was mostly because Jason and Jess didn’t want to be out too late with a baby and that Eben had found an easy score.

Jem inwardly cringed at that thought. Okay, now she knew he had been working into the night with Jason. No wonder Eben ate so many meals with them. It would have saved time to do that rather than go out and get something then return.

If she had paid attention she would have realised he wasn’t mooching. Quite the opposite. He and Jason were using all their free hours working together to ensure their own business did well enough to support them away from their regular day jobs.

So of course she had the audacity to encourage Eben to set goals for himself. The real wonder was why Eben had decided to amuse himself by letting her think the worst of him.

“Great, I needed to remind myself of that,” she muttered.

Jem tiredly rubbed her eyes. She really needed to sleep.

Perhaps I will have a better grasp of everything in the morning
, she thought as she started preparing for bed.

Eben slipped into the darkened bedroom a couple of hours later. There was a lot more work to be done but Jason had offered to keep working as long as he could if Eben took care of the children in the morning so Jason could sleep in.

As far as Eben was concerned that took care of several problems he had been facing. He could give up trying to concentrate on what he was supposed to be doing instead of running through further apologies in his head. In addition he couldn’t be expected to use the Murphy bed while Jason was still working in the office and by getting up when Jem did he might be able to persuade her to stay.

He quickly showered and slid into bed beside her. As soon as he stopped moving Jem snuggled up against him. Eben hugged her to him, cherishing the feel of her against him. Before long he fell asleep.

Jem woke seconds before the alarm clock was due to turn the radio on. She resisted the weight against her chest to reach forward and switch it off just before the time changed. Looking down she saw a dark haired forearm resting under her breasts. Unsurprised, she sighed and was glad she had switched the alarm clock to her side of the bed the night before.

She carefully prised the arm away from her and inched her way to the edge of the bed. The arm came towards her again so she moved and slid the pillow in her place. Appeased, Eben hugged the pillow to his chest.

Jem quietly got dressed and finished packing her suitcase. When she finished she left the room, closing the door behind her softly.

She intended to drop the older two off on the way to work and leave Aidan with Jason but that plan fell through a short while later.

The shrill beeping of the smoke detector got on
her nerves as she unplugged the toaster in an attempt to stop the smoke pouring out of it. Jem’s hope that Eben would sleep through the racket was proved futile when he appeared in a t-shirt and boxers and stabbed the alarm button on the ceiling in the family room into silence.

The children removed their hands from their ears and continued eating breakfast
without comment. Jem took the silence to mean they knew something about what had caused the toaster to produce smoke worthy of White Island.

Eben appeared beside her and held out his hand. Jem slapped the cutlery knife she had been using to prise the foreign object out of the toaster onto his palm.

“It’s all yours. Don’t electrocute yourself,” she warned him.

“I’m glad you still care,” Eben murmured as he turned the toaster upside down and began to shake it.

“I don’t want to go to the bother of phoning 111,” Jem corrected.

Crumbs started bouncing over the bench with Eben’s efforts.

“How about you do that over the sink?” she grumbled. “You’re making a mess here.”

Eben dutifully carried the toaster to the sink and after a few vigorous shakes something partially charred fell out and hissed on the sink’s wet surface. He looked closer at it.

“What is it?” Jem asked as she shook the dishcloth out she had used to wipe up the crumbs.

“It’s Daisy’s fairy
eraser,” Eben said as he picked it up with thumb and forefinger. The front of the fairy was fine but her wings were now blackened stubs.

“I told you kids not to throw bits from Daisy’s pencil case around!” Jem scolded while the children watched interestedly from where they sat at the breakfast bar.

“So that’s where it landed,” said Jeremy and shrugged. He returned to finishing off his Weetbix.

Jem was about to growl something else but stopped herself. After she dropped the children off this morning she would return to her old life and they would become their parents’ problem. Strangely enough, instead of feeling relieved she felt a bit empty inside.

“Just stick to throwing balls around
outside
,” she stressed instead.

“Okay,” they dutifully chorused.

Daisy put down her spoon.

“Can I put one of Jeremy’s rubbers in the toaster?” she asked.

“No,” said Jem and Eben.

“I
never
get to make the toaster smoke,” Daisy complained.

“And we’re thankful for it,” Jem told her as she collected Daisy’s empty bowl and spoon to put in the dishwasher.

A little while later Jem called Jeremy and Daisy to the car while Eben and Aidan built block towers in the family room.

“Are you coming to the office today?” she asked Eben while she waited for Jeremy and Daisy to finish brushing their teeth.

“I’m booked in to see Nate later,” Eben said, adding a block to Aidan’s tower.

Jem
pressed her lips together briefly.

“I can give you a lift there if you want,” she offered.

See? I can be mature about this despite wanting to smack a stiletto heel into your forehead
, she silently congratulated herself.

“I’d like to go with you but I promised Jase I’d stay and look after Aidan until he wakes up. Maybe we can have lunch afterwards,” Eben said,
watching her while he used one hand to straighten the uppermost blocks as Aidan kept stacking them higher.

I’d rather Daisy did my makeup again
than have lunch with you, you deceiving bucket of zoo doo.

“I think you underestimate how much help Nate needs with the computer,” Jem said instead. “At any rate Martha mentioned wanting to have a work lunch to go over several things from our last meeting.”

“Maybe I can duck into your office to see if you’re free for lunch before I go,” Eben suggested.

I’d prefer you made yourself into a human judder bar on Queen Street.

“Okay,” Jem said noncommittally, wondering what was taking the kids so long to finish getting ready just as the blocks crashed to the floor. She couldn’t take much more mature conversation and was verging on a relapse where she said what she thought.