Take a Chance (35 page)

“It’s dandruff,” Mark denied.

“Since when does dandruff have legs?” Jem asked.

Mark’s fingers
paused mid scratch. He withdrew his hand and examined his fingernails. Judging by his expression Jem decided he must have found one trapped under them.

“Aaargh!
Get them off me,” Mark yelled.

The elevator reached their floor and Jem stepped off, surprised that the three professionally dressed people waiting for the lift didn’t get on as soon as the coast was clear. She turned around and saw Mark in the elevator chanting “N
o, no, no
” while he frantically clawed at his head and flicked his hands out.

Yeah, right. That will remove
head lice
, Jem thought disparagingly. She turned back to the people waiting.

“It might be better if you wait for the next lift,” she told them solemnly. “I think they need to up his meds again.”

Jem reached inside the elevator and held down the open door button.

“Put your cap back on and go to the pharmacy for treatment,” she said slowly to Mark for the benefit of her audience.

She released the button and stood back to join their audience. Mark stopped chanting and stared at her, a wild look in his eyes. He snatched the cap from his pocket and putting it on seemed to calm him, just as the doors shut.

“At least they managed to talk him out of his tin foil hat. His cap doesn’t attract nearly as much attention,” Jem confided before leaving the people waiting by the lift with their mouths gaping.

Back in her office Jem sat in her chair, dropped her bag under her desk and looked at the package in her hands. The decision to take the pregnancy test didn’t seem as clear cut as it did before she left.

If she was, it would change everything. Mark might well be able to get Nate to put pressure on Martha to take away her promotion. Eben might think she was like the others who wanted a free ride and having his baby would ensure that.

Maybe it’s better if I don’t know before I leave
, Jem thought.

She tapped the box against her hand then opened a desk drawer and dropped the box in.

I
f I
am
pregnant it’s a miracle and I want to keep my baby
, Jem thought unreservedly as she slid the drawer shut.

Eben tapped on Jem’s office door much later than he had hoped to. Cherie hadn’t been joking when she had made that comment about Nate and an abacus. He wondered how many hours someone must have spent to teach him how to work a cell phone.

“Come in,” Jem’s voice said with forced cheer through the closed door.

He pushed the door open, walked to the chair opposite her desk and dropped into it.

Jem looked up from what she was reading, saw him and glanced at her watch.

“Why are you still here?” she asked, surprised. “Lunch was hours ago.”

I had almost gotten over being mad with you but I’ve changed my mind,
Jem thought.
I have my future planned out and if you and your super sperm have got me pregnant it will be the best thing that has ever happened to me but it will ruin everything. And if I’m not pregnant I’m still mad, just because you have me wanting things I can’t have and I don’t even know which way is up anymore…

“Oh, that’s right, you were giving Nate another tutorial,” she said instead, recalling the reason for his visit to her work. “So has he got it yet?”

Eben grabbed the end of his tie and jerked it towards the ceiling then lolled his head to one side.

“I’ll take that to mean no,” Jem decided, biting back a smile.

Good. You deserve to suffer. I’ll have to ask Cherie to book you for another tutorial with him.

“It would be less painful to have a job bathing cats,” he said, straightening up and letting go of the tie.

Maybe I can get him to wash Drongo… file that for later.

“Cherie thought teaching a one legged chicken to tap dance a good analogy,” Jem offered.

“Actually I like that one better. How on earth did someone like him wind up in this business and better yet, make a profit doing it?” asked Eben as he undid his tie and stuffed it in his pocket.

“He was the money and Martha’s husband did all the work,” Jem told him.

“Surely he must have sabotaged the business being the way he is?” Eben asked as he undid the top buttons of his shirt and rubbed the front of his neck.

“From what I understand the company barely made ends meet until Martha took over when her husband died.”

“So how did it keep afloat until then?” Eben asked.

“Nate inherited a
lot
of money,” Jem responded dryly.

She closed the folder she had been reading from and placed it neatly on her desk.

“When do you feel confident Nate will be able to handle using the database?”

“How long is it until the Earth’s magnetic poles reverse?” Eben asked darkly.

Jem laughed.

The sound was something that gave him hope. Maybe it was time to confess what else he had been doing at her work.

“Jem, I want,” said Eben.

“I was wondering,” Jem said simultaneously.

They both stopped speaking and smiled at each other.

“You go first,” Eben offered.

“Ah, this is just something that came to mind,” Jem said, and fiddled with the pen on her desk.

“What is it?” asked Eben.

Why does she seem so nervous?

“Would you like to have your own kids one day?”

I would love to but I know you can’t have them. If I had to make a choice, I choose you
, thought Eben.

“I’m happy to be an uncle and give my nieces and nephews back when I’ve had enough. I don’t want children of my own,” he lied. “Why do you ask?”

“Oh,” Jem said weakly and waved her hand, knocking the file to the floor. “No particular reason.”

There was an awkward silence while Jem fumbled under her desk for the
file all the while thinking she wouldn’t take the pregnancy test until after she left the country. There was no point in ruining the time they had left.

“You know, Martha picks up things very quickly,” Eben commented to change the subject.

“Yes,” Jem agreed as she carefully placed her file on top of her desk. “Without her this company would have gone under when her husband passed away.”

“That’s why I decided to show her the new software features before collecting you yesterday for our date,” Eben said.

“What new features?” Jem asked.

“I’m glad you asked. I integrated our staff task application into the program.”

“What does that do?” Jem asked as she leaned forward in her chair to better listen.

“It does several things to track staff output. For example you can type in a staff member’s name and see what they had been working on, at what time, for ho
w long and what changes they have made to the data.”

Eben smiled at Jem and she sensed he was getting to the good bit.

“Martha was so fascinated by this she called up yours and Mark’s names to compare outputs. She was very interested to see that you had been doing long hours at night and had produced documents that Mark had presented as being his own despite the software showing he had only opened them long enough to read and had made no alterations.”

Jem felt a surge of triumph inside. Mark hadn’t gotten away with taking credit for her work after all.

“But that isn’t all,” said Eben. “As long as you’re logged onto our software it keeps track of what else you’re doing on the computer during work hours. Although we can’t back track and see what people were doing before our software was installed Martha has found it very telling of people’s efforts in the short time since.”

“In what way?”
Jem asked, interested in what he had to say despite herself.

“She found that Mark logs on fewer hours than anyone else in the company,” Eben began.

“That’s not news,” Jem replied. “He’s forever off to play golf or have meetings with Nate.”

“Then you also know he spends quite a lot of his work hours perusing websites with addresses such as
big and bouncy dot com
?” Eben asked and grinned.

“Really?”
Jem exclaimed and shot up in her seat in surprise. She grinned back at him.

Eben glanced to the doorway then leaned forward in his seat towards her.

“That’s not all I found out,” he said in a low voice.

“I don’t know what you could possibly tell me that could top what you’ve just said,” Jem replied in a voice just above a whisper.

“You haven’t spoken with Cherie today?”

“Nothing much more than hello, goodbye,” Jem said.
Talking about stuff other than work doesn’t count.
“I’ve been too busy trying to catch up with things. Martha wound up having to go out so I worked through my lunch break.”

Eben glanced at her in-tray which was about half the depth of what it had been the day before. She had been busy.

“Have you eaten today?”

“Cherie delivered me something to eat on her way out with Martha,” Jem hedged. She hadn’t eaten anything other than the chocolate bar in her drawer in the hope he would turn up for lunch. In the meanwhile she had gotten too involved with what she was doing to notice the time passing. “But what are you going to tell me?”

Nate walked past the door then leaned back into the doorway.

“There you are! I was hoping you hadn’t left,” he said to Eben as he moved into the room. “There seems to be something wrong with my password. When I got it wrong a few times a box with HINT popped up. I’ve typed that in with capitals and lower case but it still won’t let me in. Seeing as you’re still here would you come and sort it out?”

“Certainly,” Eben said, trying to keep a straight face.

He avoided eye contact with Jem knowing they would set each other off. Eben got out of his seat and followed the older man. Before going through the door he turned back to Jem.

“Are you going to be here for a while? We need to talk,” he said.

Jem nodded and he disappeared to follow Nate.

That sounds ominous
, she thought.
I wonder what about?

She looked at the still overflowing in-tray, sighed, opened up the folder on her desk and continued to read.

Cherie bounced into Jem’s office at the end of the day and placed her hands on the edge of the desk.

“So?” she prompted.

“I’ve finished these for you,” Jem told her and tried to pass her the files sitting in her out-tray.

Cherie didn’t take them.

“Not that,” she complained. “Did you pass the test?”

“What test?” Jem asked blankly.

“The one with the little blue lines,” Cherie prompted.

Jem scrunched up her forehead then realised what Cherie was on about.

“No,” she said quickly. “I thought it best not to take that test. If its positive Mark already has plans to try and oust me from my promotion and Eben will think I am trying to trap him.”

Cherie looked at her sympathetically.

“Denial doesn’t work well in the long term,” she said.

“It just has to work until I’m in Hong Kong,” Jem replied flippantly.

“Come on! I really want to know,” Cherie encouraged.

“I’m not doing it to satisfy your curiosity,” Jem said.

“Then do it to satisfy your own. I’m just here as an impartial observer,” Cherie said as she sat on the corner of Jem’s desk.

“Go away. I have work to do,” Jem politely told her friend.

Cherie’s response was to start kicking her feet against the side of the desk.

Jem decided to ignore her presence and carry on working. She gave up trying to concentrate on her work a few minutes later.

“That’s a little annoying,” she said.

“Is it? I hadn’t realised,” Cherie said innocently. “I’ll have to try harder.”

She began to hum.

“All right! I’ll do it!” Jem said and opened the desk drawer and snatched out the pregnancy test.

She tore off the cellophane wrapper and ripped open the box to remove the package insert which she flattened out on her desk. After skimming the instructions she stalked off to the women’s toilets with the test discretely tucked in her hand, leaving Cherie who was
finally
sitting quietly on her perch.

When Jem returned, she found Cherie still waiting on the edge of the desk. She dropped the test on a folder out of Cherie’s reach and sat down. Cherie lay flat on the desk and with her fingertips reached the folder and drew it towards her. After sitting up she uncapped the test to look at the result.

“It’s negative,” Cherie announced in surprise.

Jem sat with her elbows on the desk, head in her hands.

“The test takes ten minutes,” she informed Cherie.

“Why didn’t you get one that only takes a minute?”

“I didn’t realise there was any particular urgency,” Jem said and looked at her watch.

“Is it time yet?” Cherie asked.

“No,” said Jem and opened the folder and pretended to read the contents. She was decidedly more anxious than she let on.

“Is it time yet?” Cherie asked.

“No,” said Jem without looking up.

“How can you tell? You didn’t even look at your watch,” Cherie complained.

“Because it’s only been about thirty seconds since you last asked,” Jem said.

“This waiting is making me nervous,” said Cherie.

She got off the desk and started pacing the floor.

“Next time get one of those one minute tests. I can’t stand the suspense.”

“There won’t be a next time,” Jem promised.

“Is it time yet?”

Jem glanced at her watch.
Thirty seconds to go. Close enough.

She nodded and closed her eyes while Cherie looked at the test.

“Oh,” said Cherie.

Jem opened her eyes.

“What does it say?” she asked.

“Seeing as you were happy to wait I’ll tell you after you’re in Hong Kong,” Cherie said cheekily.

“Cherie!”

“Okay, okay. You have two blue lines,” Cherie said.

“I’m pregnant?” Jem said in disbelief and looked down at her flattish stomach.

She patted it gently in wonder.

“I’m going to be a mother,” she said, amazed.

Not one to beat around the bush, Cherie gave her
only a moment to absorb the news.

“So when are you going to tell Eben?” she asked.

“I can’t,” Jem said. “He was here earlier and when I brought up the topic generally he said he doesn’t want children. He’s going to think I did this deliberately to ensure I get money out of him.”

“What a load of nonsense!” Cherie exclaimed. “Why would he think that?”

“He’s had ex-girlfriends who wanted him for his money. It was enough for him to cultivate a beach bum image to weed out prospective girlfriends looking to be kept. You should know,” Jem said bitterly “because he asked you to keep quiet about what he was doing here so I wouldn’t find out he was doing well for himself.”