Take a Chance (34 page)

Jeremy and Daisy came thundering down the stairs and with relief Jem started ushering them towards the garage.

“Jem!” Eben called as she started to follow the children.

She stopped and returned to the family room doorway.

“I’m sorry I stuffed up. I never meant to hurt you,” Eben said remorsefully from where he sat amongst the fallen blocks.

Jem nodded tightly and followed the children to the car. She’d have to return the car seats before going to work but she’d leave them in the garage and not go inside. She could handle anger but if he diffused that she would be left with pain. That was something she hadn’t worked out a way to deal with.

Cherie led Eben into the staffroom and indicated he should take a seat.

“I’m sorry to have to drag you back for another tutorial with Nate,” she apologised as she flicked on the switch to the kettle.

Eben straightened the tie that was strangling him.

“Don’t worry about it. We said we’d give personal support when needed for the next few weeks. Not all of us are computer literate.”

“
Duh
-boss computer literate? I doubt he could work an abacus,” Cherie snorted.

She pulled two coffee mugs from the cupboard.

“I don’t normally make others drinks but since I’m making one for myself I’ll make an exception. What would you like?”

“Do you have hot chocolate?”

Cherie rolled her eyes.

“Another one!
I suppose you’d like the little marshmallows on top too?”

“Only if you have them,” Eben replied easily.

“Of course I do. You probably know that Jem has it the same way,” Cherie replied as she spooned in the powder and milk.

“Who do you think converted me?”

Cherie smirked as she placed the frothy hot chocolate in front of him.

“You’ve got it bad,” she said as she sat in the chair adjacent to his.

“Yep,” Eben agreed. He took a sip of his drink.

Cherie put her drink on the table in front of her and looked at him seriously.

“I hope you are planning to look after her. She’s had a rough time of it and you’re the first guy she’s gone out with since I started here nearly three years ago.”

“My intentions are completely honourable if that is what you are asking,” Eben replied, unfazed.

“How honourable?” Cherie asked, not completely convinced.

Eben removed the ring box from his jacket pocket and opened it in front of Cherie. He still carried it on him, still hoping that the perfect moment to propose would arrive.

“Oh that’s beautiful!” Cherie exclaimed as she admired the half carat brilliant cut solitaire. “Is it an heirloom?”

“Yes. My Pop had it made for my Nana when he proposed to her. They had a long and happy marriage. Do you think Jem will like it?” he asked.

Eben already had Jess’s approval but wanted Cherie’s opinion seeing as she and Jem were close friends.

“I think she will love it,” Cherie told him sincerely.

He breathed out a sigh of relief just as Mark wandered into the room.

“What’s this?” he asked, moving to Cherie’s side of the table to get a better view of the ring.

“Are you proposing to her?” he asked in surprise.

“No, he’s got it for Jem,” Cherie told him. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Mark examined the ring from where he stood.

“Aren’t you doing very well financially?” he asked bluntly.

“What do you mean?” Eben asked, trying very hard to be polite
.

It is not good manners to thump the client
’s employees.

Mark gestured to the ring.

“The stone’s a bit on the small side isn’t it? Aren’t you supposed to spend six week’s salary on a ring? That one either says you’re poor or you’re cheap,” Mark informed him.

Mark scratched his head and leaned forward to look at the ring more closely.

“Actually it looks a bit on the old side. Did you raid your mother’s costume jewellery box?”

“Shut up Mark. You’re being incredibly rude and don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cherie snapped before Eben could respond. “Didn’t they teach you manners at that exclusive boys’ school you keep harping on about?”

While Cherie scolded Mark, Eben flipped the lid shut and slipped the box into his pocket feeling less certain about the ring. Maybe Jem wouldn’t share the sentiment behind it and would like one with a bigger stone or even prefer to choose her own.

“Anyway you just have sour grapes because Jem got the promotion you wanted,” Cherie continued.

“That promotion should be mine,” Mark told her as he poured himself a cup of coffee seeing as Cherie obviously wasn’t going to make it for him like she should. “Do you know the number of times I played golf with Nate and forced myself to lose to keep him happy?”

“Obviously enough for Nate to want to take you with him,” Cherie told him pertly. “Anyway it’s fitting since you like to be the loser and now get to live in a barn in Christchurch.”

Mark dropped the kettle and lunged towards her. Eben just had enough time to get between them. He had a challenge holding Mark back.

“What do you intend to do when you get hold of her?” Eben enquired, trying not to show how much effort it was taking to keep Mark away from Cherie.

“I’ll just maim her a little,” Mark grunted. “She’s got it coming for turning Martha against me.”

“You did that on your own,” Cherie huffed from the safety of the other side of the table.

“I deserve Hong Kong and not Christchurch where I’ll be Nate’s dogsbody,” Mark snarled.

He tried to lunge in the other direction but Cherie squealed and threw herself behind Eben for safety.

“Look on the bright side. At least you’ll know any woman you have sex with will say the earth moved for her – even if it is only due to the aftershocks,” Cherie added cheekily behind the safety of Eben’s shoulder.

Mark tried to grope for Cherie around Eben’s arm but Cherie moved back out of the way.

“Ahem. Am I interrupting anything?”

At the sound of Nate’s voice they all suddenly stilled.

“No, of course not,” Mark said with a forced smile, straightening up.

He stepped back to the bench and rapidly stirred his coffee.

“I think I’ll finish my drink at my desk,” Cherie said and scooped up her mug and disappeared out the door before anything else could be said.

Nate smiled at Eben who found he needed to straighten his tie again while Mark made a show of picking up his coffee and sitting at the table with it.

“There you are. I have a few questions for you from our last session,” Nate said as he indicated for Eben to accompany him back to his office. “Now when you do something and you are told to hit “any key to continue” what do they mean? I can’t find the “any key” button.”

Cherie glanced past the partially open door to see Jem’s head resting on her desk.

“Are you all right?” she asked as she walked in and closed the door behind her.

Jem groggily raised her head and the document she had been working on partially lifted with her face until its weight made it drop back to the desk. She rubbed her eyes.

“I just feel a little run down and tired. I think I have been overdoing it for too long,” Jem murmured.

“That could be one reason,” Cherie agreed as she eyed her friend closely. “But I think you are pregnant.”

“Pregnant? You’ve got to be kidding,” Jem said.

“I’m perfectly serious,” Cherie assured her.  “I’m from a big family and have enough relatives happily breeding around me to recognise a pregnant woman when I see one.”

“Well you’re wrong this time,” Jem scoffed. “I’ve just got one of those bugs. You know, you’re stressed out and when it’s over
then
you get sick. That’s all. Anyway I can’t get pregnant.”

“Says who?” demanded Cherie as she placed the carryout lunch bag on Jem’s desk.

“A year of trying with my fiancé Alan and getting nowhere.”

“
You were engaged? Imagine aiming to get pregnant before the wedding. People usually try for the other way around,” Cherie mused.

Jem tried to hide a grimace. Alan had talked her into the idea by telling her how keen he was to start a family. She had readily gone along with it because she was feeling a little left behind seeing her younger sister happily married with a son and daughter while she was still marking time in her job. The fact it would horrify Coco
had been an added perk.

While they were working on that project she soon learned that Alan expected her to give up her job the moment a pregnancy was confirmed. She explained that to Cherie.

“That rat bastard!” Cherie gasped in mock horror then paused. “Is he still single and do you have his phone number?”

Jem had to smile at Cherie’s reaction. It was no secret that Cherie’s goal in life was to be an at home wife and mother. The fact that she was bright and could have a great career had no bearing on it. Cherie’s biggest goal for her career was that it would bring her into contact with Mr Right.

“Trust me, you do not want it,” Jem said.

Alan had wanted to be the master of his household and with the distance of time Jem now saw that he had felt threatened by her earning power which with her sales bonuses was more than his
. He had compensated by becoming increasingly domineering. When it came to their fight over her leaving her job to be with Toka she realised that until that point she had unconsciously started to clear every move she made with him first. In her mind that made her no better than Coco, someone she was determined not to emulate.

Alan’s
reaction to her quiting her job to be with Toka
without his permission
had brought to mind one of Coco’s husbands laying down the law during one of their arguments over her spending.

What was the saying he had quoted?

He who has the gold makes the rules.

Jem had
seen a future with Alan where she was financially dependent on him and instead of the partnership she had envisaged he was demanding a submissive wife who could only do what he permitted. Upon realising that she had broken the engagement.

In hindsight it was
for the best that things had worked out the way they did but at the time, the breaking of her engagement and Toka’s death followed by learning that Alan hadn’t wasted any time marrying his new pregnant fiancée had hit her while she was down. When Martha had offered her the new job Jem had been more than happy to be buried in work to take her mind off her situation.

Cherie had started at the company just
after Jem returned. Although she knew Jem’s stepfather had recently died she hadn’t known anyone well enough at the time to learn the whole story. Later, the engagement was something Jem just wanted to forget about so she had never disclosed the details for the break up. Since Alan had never come to any of her work functions and as a rep she had spent most of the time out of the office their break-up had gone largely unnoticed by her co-workers.

After explaining all this to Cherie her friend consoled her with a big hug.

“How would you stop a husband dominating you?” Jem asked, her question muffled in Cherie’s shoulder.

“My brother
s would sort him out if I was unhappy,” Cherie assured her with a pat on the back before stepping back.

Jem mused over this information. Cherie had four older brothers. She knew that the oldest was a Hollywood stuntman, the next was in the SAS, the third a sky diving instructor when he wasn’t out hunting and living off the land
and the fourth was a high school music teacher.

Yep, Cherie’s brothers could be an intimidating lot if they chose to be. She’d
met the youngest and it took guts to keep teenagers in line. Having a ready source of piano wire probably helped.

Cherie gave her a playful nudge.

“At least you were both wrong about you being able to get pregnant.”

“I
can’t
get pregnant,” Jem repeated firmly.

“For someone so bright you can say some silly things,” Cherie replied unfazed. “Let’s look at the facts. Has this supposed sterility of yours been confirmed by a doctor?”

“No,” Jem said reluctantly.

“Point in my favour,” Cherie said. “Now with the way you’ve been happier than I’ve ever seen you, I assume you’ve been getting yourself some.”

Jem crossed her arms across her chest.

“I refuse to answer that.”

“So you’ll plead the fifth to that one.”

“It’s
not even been a month since we got together,” Jem said reluctantly. “It’s far too soon.”

Cherie rolled her eyes.

“Think of all those teenagers who swore they only had unprotected sex once and are now called Mummy and Daddy.”

Jem glared at her.

“That leaves us with how late your period is,” Cherie told her, unperturbed.

“It’s not…” Jem automatically protested then blanched when she quickly calculated dates. “Okay, I’m a few days late but that’s probably due to stress. I’m sure it’ll come any time now.”

“How about you get a pregnancy test now and then you’ll know for sure in a matter of minutes. You can thank me by naming your baby after me if it is a girl.”

“And if it’s a boy?” Jem asked
, just to play along.

“Name him Thor,” Cherie said after a few moments consideration.
“I have a thing for Chris Hemsworth.”

Jem rolled her eyes.

“I’ll come with you to buy the pregnancy test,” Cherie offered then Jem’s watch caught her eye when Jem unfolded her arms.

“Oh damn it, I can’t. Martha needs me in a meeting as of a couple of minutes ago,” Cherie said apologetically as she raced for the door.

Slipping out, she stuck her head back in briefly.

“When the test comes back positive I’ll pretend Eben knew before I did,” she said before closing the door behind her.

Jem’s gaze remained fixed on the door for a few moments after Cherie left.

Drat. With everything going on I forgot to ask her what Eben had said to her about keeping me in the dark about him being gainfully employed.

She looked at the opened files on her desk and the bigger stack in her in-tray. Jem picked up her pen to start annotating the file in front of her then put the pen down.

I
can’t
be pregnant.

Aside from the physical impossibility which Cherie had now shed doubt on, she had her new job to look forward to. She just couldn’t see how she could manage being a new mother along with the demands of the new job.

You’re worrying over nothing.

Jem tried to distract herself by opening the lunch bag Cherie had delivered. She
unwrapped the sandwich and the smell of curried egg hit her. She turned away before she started gagging.

When she could breathe a little easier she sat up and held her breath until she had rewrapped the sandwich and dropped it in the bin.

I
could
be a little bit pregnant.

Jem chewed her lip in indecision. Should she take the test?

Either way it’s better to know.

Decision made, Jem got up from her desk and grabbed her shoulder bag, forgetting she had dropped her purse into her desk drawer after buying chocolate for a school fundraiser from Greg’s daughter.

In the closest pharmacy to her work Jem browsed the aisles, looking for pregnancy tests. Finding them, she hadn’t realised there would be several brands to choose from so started reading the backs of the boxes to determine whether one would be more suitable than another.

Seeing a man in a baseball cap in her peripheral vision walking down the aisle towards her Jem quickly put the test back and grabbed for something more innocuous. He
didn’t even seem to notice her as without browsing he selected the test she had been holding and moved quickly past. She was too busy being mortified by the large pack of
super-thin for the ultimate ride
condoms she had picked up instead to notice.

She replaced it back on the shelf, disgusted with
herself.

You’re a grown woman, not a teenager. It is perfectly respectable for you to buy a pregnancy test if you want, or condoms for that matter.

Just wanting to get out of the pharmacy she selected a pregnancy test brand she had heard of and headed for the counter.

As the pharmacy assistant rang up the sale Jem hunted for her purse.
And hunted. She upended her shoulder bag on the counter and was half way through shovelling things back in when she remembered that her purse was in her desk drawer.

“I’m sorry, I left my purse at work,” Jem apologised hurriedly as she finished returning the contents to her bag. “Could you put my purchase to one side while I go back and get my money?”

Without waiting for a response she turned around and crashed into the man behind her. He dropped the item he was holding and she hastened to pick up the box for him.

“I’m so sorry,” she began then stopped when she saw she had crashed into Mark who was wearing his favourite baseball cap.

He must have been the one to walk past me in the aisle. Great.

He seemed a little embarrassed to be seen by her and she absently read the label of the box
and her eyes widened as she handed it back to him.

Pregnancy test
?
As far as she knew he wasn’t in a relationship with anyone.

“
It’s a long story,” he said stiffly upon noticing she realised what the product was. “Why didn’t you buy what you came for?”

“I left my purse at work,” Jem admitted.

“How about I buy it to save you a return trip?” he offered and indicated to the pharmacy assistant that he was paying for both items.

“Why would you want to do that?” Jem asked a little suspiciously as the pharmacy assistant rang up the sale and accepted Mark’s card.

“Let’s just say it might make you more inclined not to pass on to others what you saw,” Mark answered then entered his pin number into the eftpos terminal.

“I hope you
both get the result you want,” the pharmacy assistant said as she handed the individually wrapped boxes back.

I don’t know what
result I want
, Jem admitted silently as she nodded politely in response and waited for Mark to receive his receipt.

“I’ll give you the money when we get back,” Jem promised as they left the pharmacy.

“It’s on me,” Mark said generously.

“Why are you being so nice to me when I got the promotion you wanted?” Jem asked to break the silence as they crossed the road to the block where their office was.

Mark pointed at the paper bag she was clutching.

“If that test is positive then I get your job by default,” he told her.

“How do you figure that?” Jem asked as they headed through the automatic doors to the lobby.

“You’re going to want maternity leave. I can’t see that going down well considering the job you’ve been hired to do. It’s a key position and Martha and Nate won’t take kindly to you taking time off for an unquantified period of time while everything is being established.”

“You are being presumptive even if I was pregnant, which I’m not” Jem argued as she stabbed the button by the lift doors.

Mark raised an eyebrow.

“Really? Then why the test? Why don’t you just be professional about this? Just accept the best man has won.”

“The best
wo
man did win,” Jem asserted as she walked into the lift with Mark close behind her.

“If you are going to be difficult about this and not turn down the promotion I’ll have to mention this to Nate,” Mark threatened, indicating the paper bag she held tightly in her hands.

He took his cap off, stuck it in his back pocket and scratched his head. Watching him, Jem was reminded of Daisy wearing the cap.

“Louse!” she exclaimed.

“No need to stoop to name calling,” Mark growled.

Jem paused to figure out what he was on about then smiled to herself. The name fitted him on more than one level. The second level was obviously his head.

“I’m just calling it as I see it,” she replied loftily. “You do appear to be carrying a whole family of them on your head. Haven’t you figured out why you’re scratching your head so much?”