High Stakes (3 page)

‘It’s great.’

Pete handed him his present. It was wrapped even. ‘Hope you like this. But you don’t have to pretend, if you don’t.’ He laughed.

‘Gee, thanks. You didn’t have to, you know.’

‘It’s okay. I’m trying to impress your sister.’ Pete smiled.

Craig tore off the wrapping. ‘Vipers Nest, Part II!! Awesome! It’s just come out. You play too?’

‘Sometimes. I have a brother about your age.’

‘You want to try it later?’

‘Craig, we’re not going to be here that long. We’ve got work tomorrow.’

Craig shrugged, ‘No worries, sis. Just being polite to your date and all, you know.’

‘He’s not my…’

‘Kate, are you going to introduce us to your young man?’ Grandma asked.

I gave up. I made the introductions to Grandma and Gramps. Then Laura, looking cool and sexy in a tight white dress, and Troy, looking like the jock he was, in a tighter white tee shirt, arrived. I made the introductions again.

Laura was in true flirt mode. ‘I just love an English accent,’ she said. ‘What part of England are you from?’

‘London, actually.’

I rolled my eyes and left them to it. I figured Pete was big enough to look after himself, even with someone like my sister.

I went in the kitchen to help Mum with the salad. ‘I really like him, darling,’ she whispered.

‘Mum, how many times do I have to say it? He’s not my boyfriend! I hardly even know him. We are working on a project together. End of story.’

‘Then why did he come tonight, if he’s not interested in you?’

I said nothing but thought, yes, why did he come tonight? That’s what worried me. I’d been here fifteen minutes and already the night seemed too long.

8:15pm: Dinner. I decided, even though I loved my family (although the jury was out on Laura), they were a major embarrassment. They kept plying Pete with questions, which, I have to admit, he answered with a breezy politeness. I said as little as possible, stuck to Coke and kept glancing at my watch, wondering when we could go. We ate the steak, cut the cake and sang happy birthday to Craig. My mother insisted on these occasions and birthdays. Christmas, Australia Day and Easter were of course all celebrated and we were all expected to show up for duty. Usually, I accepted it with good grace, but tonight I wished I were elsewhere.

9:45pm: I was stacking the dishwasher and tidying up. Laura, slack ass, was supposed to be helping me but she was pretending to talk to Grandma. That girl would do anything to get out of work. Pete came in carrying glasses. ‘You don’t have to do that. You’re a guest.’

‘I don’t mind.’

‘Hey, I know your ulterior motive. You’re just escaping the third degree from Mum and Grandma.’

He laughed, but didn’t deny it.

‘I warned you. The Higgins family is anything but subtle.’

‘A bit like their daughter.’

‘This is true. You know where you stand with me.’

‘No doubt about that,’ he said. I didn’t like the serious look he gave me.

‘Well, we ought to go soon. Early start in the morning, you know.’

‘I’m ready when you are.’

I didn’t like the way he said that either.

10:33pm: Home at last.

‘You don’t have to walk me to the door you know.’ I said, as Pete started to get out of the car. ‘This isn’t a…’

‘I know, Kate. This isn’t a date. God, could you say it any more?’ He sounded a bit weary. I knew I should cut him some slack. He had behaved well all night. Why had he come at all? We hadn’t talked business or anything. I was too tired to work it out.

I got out of the car and let him follow me to the door of my flat, without further argument. If he wanted to play the damn English gent, I’d let him. He leaned against the building as I opened the door. He looked as tired as I felt.

‘Well, thanks for coming and for giving Craig a present and all,’ I said.

‘I enjoyed it.’

‘Liar.’ I said.

‘Yeah, but the trouble is, you always catch me out.’

‘Then how about trying the truth for a change?’

‘The truth? You wouldn’t believe it if I did.’ He bounced his fist lightly against my chin. ‘See you tomorrow, Kate.’

‘What time?’

‘Let’s make it nine. After all it is the weekend.’ He gave a wave and headed off towards his car.

I went inside and closed the door. Trying to undermine me with your charm, Arsehole? Don’t bother.

10:55pm: He’s up to something, I know it. I punched the pillow and closed my eyes.

Saturday

8:35am: Damn. I was meeting Pete at the office at 9:00 and I had slept in. So it looked like a takeaway coffee for breakfast as usual.

9:10am: The building felt strange on the weekend, empty, creepy. Security was there, of course. People sometimes went in on the weekend to catch up, Shelley especially, and they were used to us checking in on the odd Saturday.

9:16am Pete was there already, of course. And surprisingly, so was Mike Carmichael.

‘What are you doing here, Carmichael?’

His red head bobbed over the top of his computer. ‘Working, like you. Got a few things to catch up on. But I won’t be here long. I won’t spoil your date with Pete.’

‘Shut up before I tip this coffee on you.’

‘I wouldn’t waste a perfectly good coffee on him,’ Pete strolled over towards us. ‘Not when I’ve got a couple of Danishes to go with it.’ He dangled a paper bag from a local bakery in front of me.

I took a deep breath and suddenly felt hungry.

‘Don’t suppose you would have a third one there?’ Mike asked hopefully.

‘Love your optimism, Carmichael.’ Pete laughed. ‘Come on Kate, we may as well use the conference room where we can spread out stuff.’

‘You better actually do some work in there. I’ll be checking up on you two.’ He called as we walked away.

‘Get a life, Carmichael,’ Pete said as he opened the door to the conference room.

He’d already set up with his laptop and the paperwork he’d accumulated. I slung my laptop case across from him and set down my coffee.

He passed me a Danish and sat down, spreading his long, jean-clad legs out in front of him. He looked at me. ‘You know, I had a good time last night. Your family is nice, welcoming.’

I sat down and took a bite of pastry. ‘That’s because they don’t know you.’

‘Yet.’

I raised my eyebrows. ‘This project is only going to take the weekend. After that one of us is going to be the other one’s boss. Have you forgotten that?’

‘I’ll be a very nice boss.’

I threw the empty bag at him, ‘Dream on. And one thing more’

‘What?’

‘Have you forgotten that I don’t like you?’

‘Well, I’ve made progress. Yesterday you hated my guts.’

‘Whatever, Forest. Let’s just get on with it.’

12:03pm: We finally had a workable document and now it only needed fine-tuning. Pete had been less difficult to work with than I thought, and because we were covering different aspects of the policy, we only had one or two arguments.

‘A couple of hours and it should be done,’ I said, stretching.

‘Lunch?’

‘Or we could just push on and finish it.’

‘You haven’t forgotten we’ll still have one more thing to do.’

‘What?’

‘We have to fill out each other’s form. I have a feeling that’s what Shelley will take the most notice of. What are we actually going to say about each other?’

‘I forgot about that.’ I had too. For a while it had almost slipped my mind that Pete was the enemy, the stumbling block to me furthering my career.

‘I have a suggestion. Why don’t we just do our own forms? How the hell will Shelley know? Then we’ll just read each other’s so we know what’s in it.’

I looked at him calculatingly. If he was on the level about this, it could be a good idea. We could be honest about ourselves, but not too honest and because we’d be reading each other’s form, the temptation to jazz up our good points would be levelled out.

‘Okay, fine with me. Naturally we won’t tell Shelley.’

‘What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. This was a bitch of a thing for her to do anyway.’

I looked at him in surprise, ‘Wow, bad language and criticism of the boss. Never thought I’d hear that from you.’

‘Live and learn,’ he said and smiled. ‘Why don’t we grab a sandwich, finish this off and go home. We can work on our forms and email them to each other tomorrow.’

‘You know what? I never thought I’d say this, but for once I absolutely agree with you.’

‘Still dislike me?’

‘You bet.’

‘Just thought I’d check. The universe is stable. By the way, Carmichael just left. Said to say good-bye. I think he likes you.’

‘Be still my beating heart.’ I fluttered my eyelashes for effect.

‘Yeah, right.’ He smiled as if he were pleased about something.

3:17pm: Press print. Finished. Hallelujah. Two copies, two forms. One for me, one for him. ‘God, my brain feels numb.’

‘I never want to see the words Professional Development again after this weekend. But we did good.’ Pete gathered his papers and closed his laptop.

‘Yeah, not bad, Forest. Just those forms to do. Sure you don’t want me to help you fill out the bit about your weaknesses? I’ve got a list.’

‘Cheeky as always, Higgins. Much as I’ll miss your repartee I think I can manage.’

‘My whatee? Jeez, Pete, speak English.’

‘I thought I was. I keep forgetting Australians have a different approach to the Queen’s English.’

‘You want to watch that head of yours when you go out the door. It might not fit. But thank you for that. I needed reminding about what I hated about you.’

‘Well, it’s been fun for me too. ‘He glanced at his watch. ‘I have to go, just got time to make my train. Later, Kate.’ A wave of the hand and he was out the door.

I sat for a moment. It was over and it hadn’t been quite as bad as I feared. The worst part would be when Shelley handed down her decision.

7:25pm: Soaking in my bath, free from guilt now my form was finished. I hated these introspective things. I was more of an action and results girl. Still, I had tried to be honest, especially knowing that Pete was reading it. I shimmied down in the bath letting the warm sudsy water cover me.

7:45pm: I put on an old tee shirt and a pair of pyjama bottoms and towelled my hair dry for a few minutes. It was still a bit damp and would start to curl when it dried, but I couldn’t care less. That was one of the joys of a Saturday night home alone. I could be a slob. I piled a plate with cheese and crackers, poured a glass of wine and settled on the sofa. I should be feeling great, I thought. Why this sudden flat feeling? I had thought Pete would suggest a drink or something to celebrate finishing the project. There had been the odd moment or two when I hadn’t completely disliked him and we had worked well together. Not that I wanted to spend more time with him. But it kind of bugged me that he obviously felt the same way. I nearly laughed out loud at myself. Reality check, your nickname for him is ‘Arsehole’.

8:09pm: The doorbell rang. Pete was standing there with a bottle of champagne in one hand and a pizza balanced on the other.

‘I decided I needed help filling in my form after all.’

I cocked my head on one side, ‘Ever hear of the telephone?’

‘Yeah, but I also needed someone to help me eat this.’ He nodded at the pizza. ‘You going to invite me in or what?’

‘Do I have a choice?’

‘Did I mention this was reef and beef?’

I opened the door wider. ‘You certainly know one of my weaknesses. Come in.’

8:21pm: It was weird seeing Pete in my one armchair drinking bubbly and eating pizza. Unlike me, he was dressed nicely in cream shorts and a denim shirt. I had fleetingly debated changing, but I didn’t want to give the impression that his unannounced arrival should jolt me out of slob-mode in my own home. I ignored the fluttery butterfly feeling inside me. I resolutely put it down to hunger and not the male (who I had to admit was not exactly ugly) sitting across from me.

‘So, don’t you have a girlfriend or something to help you eat this?’ was the stupid question I asked before I could stop myself.

‘Who has the time? Besides, I’ve only been over here a year, and I actually haven’t met that many people. What about you?’

‘I should have thought the answer to that was obvious last night with the way Mum and Grandma pounced on you and gave you the third degree. No one for a while. I’m more of a career girl. The guy I — sort of — went out with a couple years ago didn’t get that.’

‘Sounds a bit of a Neanderthal, if you don’t mind my saying.’

‘Don’t mind at all – it’s more polite than what I called him.’

‘I thought you reserved those sorts of names for me.’

‘Nah, I’m very generous with my insults.’ I looked at him. ‘I can overdo it sometimes. This was nice of you.’ I pointed at the pizza box.

‘I have an ulterior motive.’

‘I should’ve guessed.’ I wasn’t surprised but…I think my heart skipped a beat. Jeez, what was wrong with me tonight? I tried to assume my usual tone with him. ‘What is it? Spill, Forest.’

He put his glass down and did that crooked thing with his mouth that passed for a smile. ‘Well, you certainly gave me a list of my faults. But what about my good points? I could do with a bit of help there.’

‘And you’re asking me, your number one fan – not.’

‘At least you’ll be honest.’

‘What if I can’t think of any?’

‘Try — you’d have to put something down if you were filling out the form for me.’

‘Okay, let me concentrate. This will take some hard thinking.’ I closed my eyes and furrowed my brow for effect. ‘Right,’ I opened my eyes and looked at him in his clean, pressed clothes. ‘You’re very neat.’

‘That’s it? Sounds almost a fault the way you say it.’

‘Hmmm. You buy nice food.’

‘A little better – you could have added generous and thoughtful.’

‘Let’s not get carried away here. I suppose I could say you are usually polite, except when you’re insulting me.’

‘I never have!’

‘Yes, in a sneaky way you have, but that’s on the other list. And you have a sort of nice smile.’

‘Now we’re getting somewhere. What else?’