Take a Chance (40 page)

Jem
was relieved to return to her office afterwards and used the lack of interruption to make considerable headway into the files piled up in her in-tray. By the end of the day she had almost completely caught up.

Despite checking her cell phone for messages repeatedly s
he hadn’t heard a thing from Eben. The sky was dark outside by the time she succumbed and left one for him to call her. She was wondering whether leaving a second message made her sound desperate when Cherie bounced into the room looking cheerful through several scratches on her face and neck.

“You’ll
never
guess what!” Cherie announced, taking the time to peer into the hallway for potential listeners before closing Jem’s office door.

“What?” Jem asked distractedly as she tapped her cell phone against her hand then raised it to her ear in the hope that her actions had jogged whatever bit that spat out messages to actually pass them onto her.

Celeste splayed her hands on Jem’s desk and leaned towards her.

“Celeste was
drugging Nate.”

“What?” Jem said automatically then her mind caught up with what Cherie had just said. “What??” she repeated.

“My brother’s sister-in… Hang on. I promised confidentiality but let it be known I have my sources,” Cherie confided enthusiastically. “Anyway I found out that the vitamin drink that Celeste had been foisting on Nate contained benzodiazepines, sildenafil; that’s Viagra to us lay people, as well as a few other things that I forget.”

“But Nate can’t take Viagra,” Jem commented
, aghast.

“But Celeste didn’t know that,” Cherie countered. “Or maybe she did and didn’t care. The speculation is that she was hoping for some action from Nate so she could pass her pregnancy off as his
baby. The powers that be think it was to force him into starting divorce proceedings against Mandy or at least be included prominently in his will.

“The other stuff she gave him in the tonic made him more open to her suggestions. They think she
varied the drugs in it and while he was under the influence persuaded him to leave Mandy for her. It also affected his memory somewhat which explains why Nate has been more forgetful than usual. The downside for Celeste was that the drugs and the shock of seeing her rough riding Troy gave him a heart attack and ruined everything.”

“Does Mandy know this?” Jem asked.

“Yes, she’s been with him since soon after he was admitted. I heard Martha talking with her on the phone and Mandy intends to take him back, after a suitable period of time spent grovelling and asking for her forgiveness, of course.”

“At least there’s sort of a happy ending there,” Jem murmured.

“Not completely for Interpol though. You know those accounts Celeste wanted Mark to change?”

Jem nodded.

“I found out from a couple of other sources that she had herself placed here with the sole purpose to launder money through Sachs Wall on behalf of her boyfriend Troy Wright aka Trent Garcia aka Tony Aristos and a few other names. It was disgustingly easy for her to do with the level of access Nate gave her and was something that wouldn’t be found until we had a full audit which could have been years away. That’s why she wouldn’t answer my questions about the accounts – she’d hoped that by leaving all the files in such a mess that she’d be long gone before we sorted everything out and found the discrepancies.”

“Only she got greedy and enjoyed having Nate spoil her and didn’t count on you being so efficient and organised,” Jem said in admiration.

Cherie fluffed a few curls off her shoulder with her hand then pretended to polish an apple on her chest.

“Well what can I say?” she asked with assumed modesty.

Jem laughed for a moment then grew serious.

“I’d be careful if I were you,” she warned. “Celeste may harbour a grudge.”

“I think I proved I can take her down,” Cherie said nonplussed. “That’ll teach her to mess with someone who has four older brothers.”

She sat on the edge of the desk then bounced up again in excitement.
“Oh and I nearly forgot my contribution. They hadn’t been able to get any of her fingerprints from Nate’s apartment. It seems as though after leaving us she took the time to go back there, pack all her stuff and wipe everything down. Luckily I was able to go one better. During our fight I got her blood on my blouse which is now police evidence. They now have her DNA thanks to my uppercut. How great is that?”

“So they can identify her if they have her, but how do they get her?” Jem asked.

Cherie shrugged.

“Do the police have any idea where Celeste and Troy are?” Jem asked. “Are they checking the airports?”

“I was told that Troy’s yacht
Sea Mistress
left port mid-afternoon. They have the coast guard out looking for them but think they’ve got away.”

A loud clap of thunder boomed nearly overhead which startled them both. A few seconds later rain pelted the window at a sharp angle.

They both turned to look out at the unforgiving night. The rain was so heavy that the lights from the buildings across the road were barely visible.

“Not a nice night to be out at sea,” Jem observed. “I hope they both get diabolically sea-sick.”

“I hope they give each other an embarrassing disease,” Cherie added, touching a large welt on her cheek that was still visible despite makeup.

Jem stood up and threw an arm over Cherie’s shoulders.

“This time next week those scratches will have disappeared but the police will always have Cherie’s DNA,” Jem reminded her friend.

“Yes, there is that,” Cherie said, feeling heartened.

Five days later Eben slipped through the door to Jem’s apartment building behind a family who had keyed open the security door. He had decided to give himself a day or two to summon up his courage before proposing again but had wound up on a plane to one of the outer islands of Fiji instead.

Maybe he should have told Jason where he was going but he knew his friend would feel obliged to return to fix a bizarre software bug that had cropped up at one of the sites. With Jess being so ill he couldn’t let Jason be torn between her and the job so had decided to take care of it without telling him.

Before leaving he had texted a message saying he’d be out of town for a
couple of days and only to be contacted in an emergency.

Shortly after he had got onto the boat to take him to the island he had discovered his c
ell phone had died and when he searched through his overnight bag realised he had left his charger at home. Not that it mattered as there was no cell phone coverage there. He resigned himself to sending Jem an email.

Upon reaching his destination he soon determined that
the entire trip had been unnecessary. The man claiming the bug in the software turned out to be so incompetent at using it that he could have given Nate a run for his money.

Eben wound up showing the man’s secretary how to operate everything instead. He learned from her that the incompetent user had taken over from the person Jase had given the tutorial to but had refused to read the manual.

Afterwards, amongst strong winds and dark menacing clouds that matched his mood he had stalked back to his room at the resort and followed up an earlier email to Cherie, clarifying a few details of a plan he’d concocted and had emailed her about before leaving for the airport. His part was the easiest and yet the hardest. He had to propose to Jem. Cherie had been happy to take care of everything else.

He had just sent the email when the powe
r in the resort went out making him finally look away from his computer screen. Outside, rain lashed the windows and palm trees nearly bent to the ground in gale force winds howling through ominous roiling clouds that stole most of the afternoon light. Through a tense evening and night he and other guests had helped staff to sandbag the rooms closest to the beach then everyone had gathered in the dining room to sit out the storm.

The following day power
had been eventually restored after repairs to the generator but there had been no way off the island as the resort boat had been damaged in the storm. Because someone had been casual about replacing batteries there had been no way to contact the mainland for assistance.

Without access to the internet
, Eben had spent the next three days sulking on the white sands of the resort beach. He had been regularly plied with drinks carrying cherries and little umbrellas in them but had been in too foul a mood to appreciate them as he tossed them back. When the other resort catamaran had finally turned up with new guests he had been the first in the queue to depart.

Now he was back and had driven straight from the airport to
Jem’s apartment without even taking time to shake the sand from his shoes.

The e
levator door opened and he saw two men about his age ahead, knocking on Jem’s door. They were both taller than Eben and both had sun-bleached blonde hair. They wore expensive looking clothes that seemed European in style but they were too obviously muscled to be attractive, Eben decided, not feeling at all inadequate.

Not even a little bit.

Who am I kidding?

The stranger
s looked like the yuppies Jem used to date. Yuppies on steroids.

Jem loves me the way I am
, he mentally affirmed, ignoring his goose bump covered legs appearing below his board shorts and his feet covered by sandy sneakers.

Even so, he stayed in the elevator and held down the door-open button. He was just be
ing considerate on the men’s behalf, Eben decided. After all, they would want to leave quickly when Jem turned them away.

Jem’s door opened.

Eben held his breath until Jem squealed and threw herself into one of the men’s arms. The man gave her what Eben considered an unnecessary kiss on the lips before passing Jem to the other man who spun around with her until she hit his shoulder. He let her down and they disappeared laughing into her apartment. Her door closed.

She knew those
behemoths?

Maybe they were Jehovah’s witnesses.

Maybe she’d been looking after
their cat.

Maybe they were
gay.
He could only hope.

Maybe I’ll find out if I knock on her door.

Eben surged out of the lift and headed to Jem’s apartment. He lifted his hand to rap on the door when he heard Jem’s voice on the other side.

You both look very take charge in those clothes but I
feel you’ll be more comfortable out of them.

The me
n laughed.

Eben dropped his hand and
told himself that her comment was a friendly tease and not at all suggestive. He looked down and all he noticed was his scruffy board shorts, worn sneakers and a faded cigarette burn half showing from under the wristband of his watch. For the first time in years he felt his appearance mattered. Although he had never felt the need to impress others, Jem obviously knew these men well and he didn’t want to embarrass her by looking something like the tide had washed up in front of her guests.

As much as he wanted to claim Jem in front of them
he wasn’t completely certain of her reaction to his sudden appearance especially when he hadn’t contacted her during the past five days. Giving her a few days to miss him so he could surprise her and propose again had seemed like a good idea at the time but now he wasn’t so sure.

U
nless he wanted an audience it looked like he would have to wait. Cursing himself for not getting here five minutes earlier Eben slunk back to the lift and stabbed buttons until the doors mercifully closed behind him.

Jem studiously willed herself not to check for messages on her cell phone which lay within reach on her lounge coffee table. Instead she grabbed the roll of parcel tape sitting beside it and sealed the box of albums and ornaments she had just packed.

She had arranged to rent out her apartment
furnished while she was out of the country but didn’t like the idea of strangers handling her personal effects so she was boxing them up to leave in Jess and Jase’s garage.

Her stomach lurched and she found herself reaching for the glass of ginger ale sitting on a coaster towards a corner of the table.
Whoever had termed this morning sickness only had the half of it.

Taking a sip she was unsurprised to find
it flat and warm as it had been sitting there for over two hours while she sifted through her belongings to select what to store and what to throw away. Jem closed her eyes and forced herself to continue taking small sips until the wave of nausea passed.

What am I doing?

She rubbed her fingertips against her forehead. This pregnancy thing was slowing her down already and the baby wasn’t even a visible bump yet. What was it going to be like after the baby was born? Was she kidding herself that she would be able to manage everything on her own?

Jem was also beginning to feel increasingly unsure about her relationship with Eben. Despite the ring on her finger and his declaration
, she hadn’t heard a word from him since he left the hotel foyer with his ear attached to his cell phone several days ago.

Had he changed his mind about marriage and was using the time to think of a way to break it to her?

She had left so many messages on his cell phone without getting a response that she was now a little concerned he might think she was needy and was trying to avoid her. She was also angry with herself for feeling needy.

Jem stood up with the help of the coffee table and stamped out the feeling of pins and needles in her right
leg. To help the tingle go away she used her foot to nudge the box towards several others sitting beside the front door where they were stacked waiting to be taken to Jess and Jase’s home.

Tomorrow morning she would drop them off. Since s
he was lending them her car to use while she was out of the country Jase would take her to the airport after lunch for her flight. She felt pleased with the arrangement because she would be able to get to spend her remaining time with Jess and the kids before she left.

At least
her sister was now home. Jem didn’t think she could have left the country while her sister was still in hospital. Thankfully Jess was gradually improving and spent her days alternating between her bed and the family room sofa under Aunty Beryl’s watchful eye.

Jem had waited for a couple of days for her sister to settle into a routine before taking Jess
to task over not telling her about Eben’s and Jase’s business partnership.

After pointing out
that Jess had never said anything about the purpose for Eben being around them so much Jess had raised an eyebrow and replied “You never asked so I thought you knew. What did you think he was doing here?”

Geared up for an argument,
Jem’s self-righteousness deflated upon realising she hadn’t been singled out for everyone’s amusement and that all her mental stewing had been for nothing. She couldn’t tell Jess that she had always thought Eben had been bludging from them between women and surfing.

Instead she asked why the partnership hadn’t been overtly obvious.
Jess grudgingly told her that years ago Eben had requested no information about his involvement in the business be shared with others after he discovered that several ex-friends of hers had made bets amongst themselves to see how much they could coax him to spend on them. Jess didn’t elaborate as to how they went about it but Jem got the idea.

That explained why he liked to present himself as someone unconcerned
about getting ahead in life. Even so, thinking of the number of times she had tried to suggest goals for him to give him a purpose still embarrassed her.

Jem’s
flushed face was hard to miss and Jess, with the aggravation expected from a younger sister, needled her until she wound up confiding most of the things that had happened since Jess’s accident. Specific information about the time they spent alone was not shared. Jess however was good at connecting the dots and was thrilled to learn Jem returned Eben’s feelings.

She was even more excited to learn that she would soon be an aunt and threatened to treble Jem’s luggage by passing on things she thought Jem would be able to use.

After the excitement died down Jess found herself assuring Jem that she was sure Eben still felt the same way even though she had no idea where he was. The most information Jase had been able to give when he joined them for lunch was that Eben had been planning to be out of town for a few days.

Not liking f
eeling unsettled as to how things had been left between them, Jem grudgingly spent the remainder of her time out of work hours packing for her relocation.

Someone knocked at the door and Jem rushed to answer it.

Could it be Eben after all these days?

Another few knocks landed on her front door. Jem hastened to unlock the deadbolt. Eben was cutting it fine as her flight left the following afternoon and they had a lot to discuss. She whipped the door open.

The men standing on the other side wasn’t who she had hoped for but she was ecstatic to see them all the same. She cried out in delight and leaped into the closest one’s arms to give him a kiss only to have him pass her to the other man who lifted her up and spun her around.

Eben let himself through the back door of Jase and Jess’s home. He had thought about going back to his parent’s home but had decided not to, fearing his mother would want an update on his future fiancé
e.

He didn’t have his own place which had probably contributed to Jem’s misconceptions but there were reasons. After using his income from the business to repay his parent’s mo
rtgage then insisting upon helping with his sisters’ student loans it had taken a while to save enough to put together a sizeable deposit for his own house. Instead of spending it on that as he had initially intended, he had reinvested the money in the company and currently alternated between living with his parents and Jase and Jess. How sad was that?

Although it had been a pretty good way to get rid of women who wanted to go home with him, he reflected. A cup of tea with Mum in the kitchen and Dad wandering around in his boxers and a singlet during the summer usually had them going home soon afterwards. He grinned, recollecting a few incidents.

The truth was after meeting Jem he found himself uninterested in other women. She had always gone out of her way to look for opportunities for him and was so earnest in doing so that he couldn’t stay mad that she couldn’t accept him the way he was.

In the beginning he had tried to flaunt other women in front of her but she had usually been with a yuppie and hadn’t noticed. Then when he and Jase started making a lot of money, his sisters’ friends had told others who started throwing themselves at him.

Then of course there was that bet amongst Jess’s friends at the time that he’d rather forget. He had been cured of meaningless hook-ups after overhearing a pair of them bet they’d outdo a pair of diamond earrings he’d bought on a whim for one of their friends the week before. When asked how many nights the other thought it would take to do better, her friend had giggled and responded “Since she’s finished with him it shouldn’t take more than a weekend but I’m going to keep going until I get a necklace and bracelet to match.”

With the
realisation that he was wasting money on women who couldn’t care less about him Eben felt angry, embarrassed and hurt. Unable to help himself, he had moved purposely up to the women, making them wonder whether he had overheard their conversation. They had given each other a nervous glance but smiled at him.

“Your friend’s earrings are cubic zirconia,” he had lied charmingly
, making their smiles falter “but you two have potential for better.”

The women’s smiles
reappeared and one surreptitiously tried to nudge the other out of the way.

“I’m sure
either of you could earn a matching set of jewellery by the end of the weekend,” he told the women and paused while they beamed at him. “But then I suppose it depends upon the going rates on K’ Road.”

He then stalked off and it wasn’t until he
had almost reached his car that he heard the women’s outraged shrieks behind him indicating what he had said had sunk in.

From then on he focussed on his
heavy workload and became more interested in getting the job done than nights of meaningless sex. He might have flirted with different women at parties Jem attended, in the childish hope that she would realise what she was missing out on but she had attributed his behaviour to his perceived lifestyle which disappointed him, especially since he left the parties early, alone, to work.

He heeled off his sneakers at the kitchen door and emptied the sand out in the garden by the back steps. It was a lot colder here than Fiji and he needed a shower to warm him up.

Aunty Beryl was finishing up the dishes when he entered the kitchen and after a warm greeting and finding out that Jess and the children were asleep he decided to clean himself up before catching up with Jase.

Afterwards, warm from the shower, he made himself a mug of hot chocolate
on the way to the home office where Jase looked relieved to see him. After explaining his absence Jase thanked him for preventing him the angst of a wasted journey while Jess was recovering then berated him for making Jem worry.

Pulling his newly charged cell phone out of his pocket, Eben turned it on and scrolled through the messages. Over three quarters of them were from her.

“Is the baby okay?” he asked Jase, thinking of the reason she might have made so many calls.

Jase shrugged
. “As far as I know Jem and the baby are fine.” He turned towards his computer screen. “Coco’s had a lot to say to Jess about her and you.”

“What sort of things?” Eben asked warily. Just because he didn’t like Coco didn’t mean he didn’t care enough to keep on her good side.

“Dunno,” Jase said, grinning. His smile belied his words. “Jess seems to think we have a problem with the phone batteries. Every time Coco gets into a rant the phone seems to die.”

Eben smiled in return. He couldn’t see a problem.

“What are you doing here anyway?” Jase asked. “I thought your first stop would be with Jem.”

Eben explained to
Jase about the men at Jem’s apartment and asked him if he knew who they were. Jase couldn’t think of anyone meeting their description and suggested they ask Jess but added that they had to wait until morning because she was already asleep for the night.

Eben reluctantly agreed. If he didn’t he would be no better than Coco. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to sleep until he had answers he settled down at his usual computer and started to work.

The following morning Jem walked into the kitchen to find a tall, blonde man with clearly defined muscles wearing only a towel low on his hips leaning against the bench. She reached up to tousle his hair as she passed by.

“I still can’t believe you dyed away that magnificent red hair of yours,” she said. “Millions of women would kill to have your natural colour.”

“I’m not a woman,” he grunted.

Mornings are obviously still not your best time of day
, Jem thought.

“That’s rather obvious,” she said blandly and reached out to open a cabinet.

His hand stopped hers.

“What would you like for breakfast? Take a seat and I’ll bring it to you.”

“You cook now?” Jem asked, bemused and walked around the kitchen island to the dining table.

“What’ll it be?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye. “Weetbix,
honey puffs, toast?”

“You can do all that?” Jem asked acting impressed.

“I’ve learned how to pour milk with the best of them,” he admitted.

“Then may I please have two pieces of marmite toast cut into big triangles with a mug of hot chocolate.”

The man paused.

“Hot chocolate might be a bit beyond me,” he admitted.

Jem rolled her eyes as she took a seat.

“I’ll have apple juice then. And remind me to introduce you to Cherie. Her hot chocolate is divine.”

“What’s with the big triangles?” he asked as he dropped pieces of bread into the toaster.

Jem looked at him blankly.

“The toast?” he prompted.

“Oh. Jess’s kids are very particular about their toast and Eben and I made a game out of it.”

“Eben again,” he muttered. “Am I going to have to beat him up for knocking you up?”

“Only as a last resort,” Jem murmured and pulled out the chair adjacent to her for him while she waited.