Letting Go (2 page)

As she gulped down a couple of painkillers with a strong coffee, she considered how fortunate she was to have a 10

partner like Tony. On a day like this when she was feeling less than dynamic, she knew she could rely on him to fill in the gaps and help maintain her humor. As she locked her apartment and headed off to her lovingly restored old Mercedes in the garage, she remembered with a smile something Tony often said to her: “I’m telling you, mate, it’s your bloody looks that win us these clients, not our talent. That’s what matters in the end to these bastards. I’d be stuffed without you—Christ knows, I’ve got a face like a monkey’s arse!”

The business was called Adworks. Laura and Tony had previously worked together for many years on some important accounts in a large international agency. Laura felt relaxed and comfortable with him and he was one hell of an account director. She liked his infectious enthusiasm and energy. He was quick-witted and down to earth. He called a spade a “fuckin’ shovel.”

Laura had been a group-creative director when Tony approached her nearly three years ago with the idea of forming a partnership. Laura realized it was just the opportunity she’d been waiting for. She was thirty-six then and tired of working for other people. She knew she and Tony could work well together and that he would make a trustworthy partner. It had been very hard work for some time, but business now was good and the hours were more regular these days. They hired in freelance people to write copy and to help with ideas and layouts when necessary. The only permanent staff they required was an a assistant to help in many areas, including phone answering, typing, and looking after clients when they arrived for meetings. Unfortunately, a woman who’d been in this position since they started had left recently to travel overseas. She’d been 11

wonderful and their attempts to replace her had so far been unsuccessful. Being without an assistant during their current busy period was making life difficult. Their office was small, located in a modern office building in a fashionable inner suburb of Melbourne. Laura thought again as she climbed the one flight of stairs to Adworks that she really must make the time next week when things quieted down to find an assistant. She realized with irritation that she would have to, apart from many more important things, prepare the boardroom and organize coffee for this morning’s meeting. Tony never remembered those details.

She was totally surprised then, as she stepped through the doorway, to see a young woman, perhaps eighteen years old, sitting behind the reception desk. Her head was down and she was leafing through a magazine. Laura stopped in her tracks, wondering who on earth she could be, when a large pink balloon of bubble gum began to slowly protrude from the woman’s mouth. It reached an enormous size before bursting with a loud crack, and was then sucked in again to prepare for the next bubble. Laura cleared her throat and approached the desk.

The woman looked up and quickly, expertly tucked the gum in the back of her mouth as she smiled up at her. “Hi, you must be Laura. I’m Jodie.”

“Where did you spring from?” Laura asked dryly.

“Tony hired me. He’s a friend of my dad’s,” said Jodie brightly.

Laura felt a sudden rush of annoyance at the idea of Tony hiring anyone without consulting her. After mumbling to Jodie, “Oh did he now?” she headed to her office, via the small kitchen to grab a coffee.

12

She closed her door and sank down onto her chair. The last thing she wanted to deal with today was a new and rather unusual assistant, hired with-out her knowledge. She surveyed her desk. There was still some preparation to be done before eleven o’clock and she had little more than an hour. Untimely memories of last night’s breakup with Debbie flooded her mind and it was all she could do to stop herself dissolving in a flood of tears.

Within minutes, Tony burst into her office. “Thank Christ you’re here,” he said. “Where’ve you been?” He paused then and looked hard at her. “What happened to you? You look like shit!”

“Thanks a lot,” Laura said as she lit a cigarette then gulped down more strong coffee. “And who on earth is the bubble-gum baby out front?”

Tony sat down in the other chair beside Laura’s desk. Looking uncomfortable, he explained, “Well, I was talking to a mate of mine and I was saying how we needed an assistant, and…well, he said his daughter could do that with no problems. Apparently she’s had trouble getting a job. So I, well…you know…what could I say?”

Selecting the right staff was not one of Tony’s talents and it had been agreed that she would be the one to make those sorts of choices.

Laura snapped at him, “You could’ve told him you’d discuss it with your partner. And it’s no fucking wonder she’s had difficulty finding a job.”

The most outstanding thing about Jodie, apart from her expertise at blowing bubbles, was her spiky green-tipped hair. She wore very dark lipstick, almost black, with heavy black eyeliner, exaggerating a ghostly pale face. Laura had glimpsed black leggings under a tight, short red sleeveless 13

stretch dress which matched her red platform shoes. Tony looked sheepish and mumbled, “Yeah, well, I didn’t know she looked like that, did I?” Laura just stared at him.

“Can’t we just give her a few days? If she’s hopeless, we’ll get rid of her, okay?”

“Yes, and it’ll be my job to fire her, I suppose!” She glanced away from him quickly but knew he would have seen the tears that had sprung to her eyes.

“Do you want to talk about what’s wrong, mate?” he asked gently.

She concentrated on her hand as she twisted the gold ring around her finger, trying to maintain her composure.

“Debbie and I have separated, and I’m a bit of a mess today. I’ll be fine once I’ve got this work done for the meeting.”

“Oh shit, mate, I’m sorry.” He stood, looking helpless.

“Aah…right. Well, I’ll leave you to it…” He turned to leave.

“Oh by the way, have you got the finished artwork back from the typesetters yet?”

Laura remembered with a jolt that it should have been here first thing. She should have checked on it as soon as she arrived. “God, no. It’s not here yet.”

“No worries, mate, I’ll chase it up,” Tony said as he closed the door. Laura mentally kicked herself for not being more meticulous. She was usually very organized, but lately her worries about Debbie had often disrupted her concentration.

Within forty-five minutes, Laura had everything ready. She’d found ten minutes to put on her make-up and perfume, and she felt like she was back in control. She rang Jodie and asked her to organize coffee for the presentation and to expect Mr. Giraldi from Pasta Masta Foods. “Tony will show you how to set everything up,” she added, smiling 14

to herself. Then there was a knock at her door. Thank God, Kate’s here with the artwork, she thought.

Kate Merlo was a commercial artist who worked for a small typesetting, company which serviced the advertising business. She was employed as a typesetter but was often called upon to create whole layouts. Laura had a great deal of regard for Kate’s work. She was talented, and Laura always asked for her personally on all Adwork’s jobs. It didn’t hurt either that she was a dyke and very attractive at that. Laura liked Kate and considered her efficient and friendly. Her interest ended there.

It was an entirely different situation for Kate. Her eyes had locked onto Laura the first time they’d met a year ago, and Kate thought she was absolutely gorgeous. She loved working with Laura and always looked forward to her jobs with Adworks. Her attraction to Laura had increased over time, to the point where she thought about her and fantasized about her constantly. But she lacked the confidence to do anything about it. She also doubted that Laura, whom she considered a sophisticated woman in her thirties, would be at all interested in a twenty-three-year-old.

“Hi Kate,” said Laura with her dazzling smile, as she opened the door. “I’m running a bit behind this morning, so we’ll have to check through everything quickly. I’m sure it’ll be perfect, though, as usual.”

She motioned Kate to sit at the desk while they checked the layouts. She stood and leaned close to Kate as Kate pointed out certain details to her. Laura was clearly oblivious to the effect she was having on Kate. Kate was finding it hard to concentrate with her face inches from Laura’s 15

breasts. Breathing in the perfume, listening to her voice purring just above her head and watching her manicured hand pointing to things on the page, more than once Kate hesitated when her mouth went dry, and she ached to touch Laura. She kept drifting off and imagining herself kissing the sexy mouth that was so tantalizingly close. All too soon, Laura was saying, “The work’s terrific, Kate, just what I wanted. Thanks again for your input. Those ideas of yours have really made a difference. A great job as usual. I owe you a lunch.”

God, let her mean that, thought Kate as Laura opened the door.

Kate paused in the doorway. She combed her long dark hair back from her face with her fingers; a habit Laura liked. She was smiling, clearly pleased that the job had worked out well. Her brown eyes gazed into Laura’s with a directness that Laura always found rather disarming.

“Good luck with the presentation,” said Kate as she left. At eleven o’clock, Tony poked his head around her door.

“Giraldi’s here. I’ll start with all the numbers stuff as usual. You come in for your bit in about fifteen minutes, okay?”

Laura nodded. “Good luck, Tony.”

“By the way,” Tony added, “I can’t take him to lunch today. I’ve had a call from Lachlan about an urgent campaign. I’ve got to go and see him straight after this meeting. Sorry.”

“You can’t do this to me, Tony. I don’t think I can cope with him on my own today,” Laura pleaded.

Tony shrugged helplessly. “Sorry, mate, it can’t be helped. You’ll be all right,” he said with a grin as he headed off to the meeting.

Giraldi was a difficult client, but the presentation was a success. With the combination of Laura’s clever press ideas 16

and Tony’s creative accounting and fast talking, the account was won. Afterwards, they gave each other a victory hug in Laura’s office before she grabbed her wallet and keys and left to take the client to lunch. She hoped that she could cope with lunch as well as she had coped until now This client was an egotistical, boring man who flirted outrageously with every woman he came in contact with, and Laura just wasn’t in the mood to have a fat, sixty-year-old man staring at her cleavage for the next two hours. She didn’t get back until four-thirty. Mario Giraldi had continuously ordered more wine and raved on endlessly about how he’d brilliantly built up his successful business from nothing. She’d limited her drinking as much as she could without offending him but had consumed enough to make her feel rather light-headed.

She heard a familiar
snap
as she entered their foyer and was met by Jodie, chewing madly as she handed Laura her phone messages.

“Thanks, Jodie.” I ought to do something about that girl, she thought as she headed back to her office. Tony was waiting for her with a bottle of champagne.

“We’re bloody geniuses, mate!” said Tony as he poured the champagne. “You were great in that meeting, especially as you felt pretty shithouse this morning.” He handed her a glass.

“Thanks,” Laura said with a grin. “You know what it’s like once you get started, you go onto auto-pilot. It’s just another performance.”

After they’d re-lived every glorious moment of the presentation and every amusing detail of the lunch, Tony 17

left to go home. Laura then phoned her close friend, Jude, who had left a message for her.

Jude worked in an office in the city and was still at work.

“I heard about what happened with Debbie,” she said. “Her friends have spread it around like wild fire. How are you feeling, darl?”

As the day had progressed, the situation with Debbie had been pushed to the back of Laura’s mind. Now, just hearing Jude’s warm caring voice made Laura’s eyes suddenly well with tears. “God, Jude, I don’t know exactly how I feel at the moment. I think I’m still in shock. I thought I was well prepared for a confrontation, and ready for it all to end, but I still find what she told me hard to believe. Thanks for ringing me. I was going to call you tonight. I haven’t had a chance today.”

“Poor baby,” said Jude sympathetically. “Let me take you to dinner tonight.

They agreed to meet in an hour, at a popular lesbianowned bar and café called The Three Sisters.

18

Chapter Three

Laura arrived at Sisters, as the café was a affectionately known, feeling unexpectedly relaxed. Perhaps it was the effect of the alcohol she had consumed that day, but already she was developing a desire to shrug off the past. She wanted to enjoy herself tonight with Jude. Tony’s champagne and their success today had brightened her mood.

A number of women were already seated at the tables in the front, where simple but good quality meals were served. Laura made her way past the tables to the bar area at the back. She felt the women’s stares and thought they were looking at her because of her business suit. She certainly did stand out among all the checked shirts and jeans. Jude was already seated at the bar, waiting for her. A few years older than Laura, in her early forties, Jude was 19

a vivacious character with mischievous bright blue eyes. Her brown hair was slightly peppered with gray and she’d become a little chubby over recent years. She had many friends, although Laura knew, since she’d been single for a long time, she harbored a certain loneliness.

She got up to meet Laura, and they embraced warmly.

“Here, darl, drink this, you’ll feel better,” said Jude, handing Laura a dry martini she had already ordered.

Laura laughed as she accepted the glass. “Thanks, but I really don’t need this, I’ve been drinking all day, not to mention last night.”

“Well, let’s take our drinks down to a table and order something to eat so you don’t fall over.”

Jude and Laura had been through a lot together. They met fourteen years ago when Jude’s lover at the time had worked with Laura. Laura and Alexandra had only been together for a year. The four of them became friends and it was a great shock to them all when, a year or so later, Jude’s partner suddenly left her for another woman and moved to Sydney. Laura and Alex were a great support for Jude, and over time they became very close.