Unravelled (21 page)

I dutifully look at Adam, he looks at me and we return our perplexed expressions to
Erin
.

“What about us?” Adam sounds a bit wary.

“Oh…”
Erin
wipes more tears and takes a sip of water. “You, Alex, you. Putting sugar in Adam’s coffee without a word being spoken, picking out your mushrooms for him and then picking out the olives from his salad. I thought you liked olives, Adam.”

“I do. She just likes them more.”

I pull a face at both of them.

“And then you, Adam. You cut the crusts off the toast before you put it in Alex’s plate. My god! You guys are worse than Uncle Bernie and Aunt Gertrude from my mother’s side. And yesterday I watched the two of you with the newspaper. It is like synchronised swimming! You hand each other sections without even looking up. You’re acting just like a couple.”

Adam and I respond so vehemently with denials that we solicit stares from the other tables.

“What’s wrong with knowing what another person wants and anticipating his needs?” The words that come out of my mouth sound very defensive.

“We’ve just learned to co-exist. Peacefully.” Adam adds. I nod my head in staunch agreement. It has not been easy living in peace with this man.

“Hah! As if the two of you could ever do that. Don’t think I didn’t overhear the argument about the toilet spray.”

Adam and I look at each other a bit embarrassed. We had a roaring disagreement about the toilet spray in the downstairs toilet yesterday. I want the peach spray and Adam insists on the ‘lily of the valley’ aerosol. My arguments of ozone damage and the resemblance to a public restroom at a Russian train station fell on deaf ears. I then sprayed a little of my choice to bring home a point. Well, to make a long story short, we landed up having a toilet spray fight and I had to take a second shower to get rid of the peach-lily-of-the-valley-Russian-train-station smell.

“But that was yesterday. We very seldom have disagreements like this. When we do, it is just…”

“… to let off some steam.” I nod enthusiastically to show
Erin
how sincerely I’m in agreement with Adam. But this just seems to trigger another attack of laughter. Adam and I sit elbow to elbow and sip our coffee waiting patiently for
Erin
to calm down.

“My god! You two are as blind as bricks! You even finish each other’s sentences.” He sighs dramatically. “This is too much for me. I need to go to the wash room.” We watch him walk away shaking his head, while little strangled giggles float away from him.

“We’re not...”

“Of course not!” I say decisively and get back to the business of eating.

We spend the rest of the day walking around the area and enjoying each other’s company. There are plenty of little shops selling a shocking amount of rubbish that they call art, and we have a good time looking for something that could actually, in our humble opinions, of course, be defined as a piece of art. I triumphantly lift a ceramic vase with crystals embedded on it and we decide that it would make a good gift for
Erin
’s secretary.

We do a lot more walking, have more coffee and toss a coin for the last piece of cheesecake in the coffee shop –
Erin
won. He has the good grace to not bring up the breakfast conversation again for which I’m grateful. These are things I really don’t want to think about. Ever.

I can see that
Erin
’s leg is not a hundred percent yet when he starts favouring it and that’s when we decide to head home. There are a few things he still has to pack and then he wants to hit the road before the weekenders return from their retreats.

“I’m so glad you came,” I say from the back seat of Adam’s car. I have my head between the two front seats and we’re chatting. “I meant to ask you earlier, but forgot. Do you know when Janey is coming back?”

“Oh! I forgot to tell you about that. She met this Mexican guy at the dig and they just hit it off. It was love at first sight. They are flying to
Las Vegas
next week to get married there and then go directly to the next dig in
Venezuela
. She said something about being there for at least another six months.”

“Oh.” I’m surprised. “Janey didn’t seem like the kind of person to get married. And especially not to get married to someone after such a short period of time.” I thought I knew her, but I obviously don’t.

“You think you’re surprised. Imagine the shock my family are dealing with at the moment. Firstly, they were very disapproving of her not attending Pam’s memorial service and now this. I’m sure you can imagine Katherine’s opinion on this.”

“Urgh. Can I ever. Well, if Janey thinks it is the right thing to do, then I wish her all the happiness she deserves.” I suppose this means that Blossom is to stay with me for a while longer and I honestly can’t say that I mind. Come to think of it, it would break my heart to give him back. The farting fiend has really crept into my heart.

As soon as we get home,
Erin
packs his things and prepares to leave. We’re standing outside by his car and I really don’t want to let him go. Just having his energy in my space for the last two days have given me a boost. He is very dear to me.

“Oh, I do miss you a lot.” I give
Erin
a long hug and wish I was back in the city, so we can see each other daily and keep closer track of each other’s lives. He’s such a good sounding board. I might not always agree with his advice or opinions on my life, but he always gets me thinking.

“You’ll be home soon, Al.” Blossom is standing with us at the car and he ruffles his ears. “Look after her for me, you horrible dog.”

“Don’t speak to him like that, mate. Alex will have your head for it. Ask me, I know.” The two men give each other manly handshakes and manly hugs, and
Erin
gets in his car. A tear forms behind my left eye and threatens to push its way past my eyeball and reveal the sentimental side I take great pains in concealing.

“If you cry, I will put my toilet spray back in the wash room.” The solitary tear evaporates immediately and I slowly turn bright eyes on his, shining with annoyance.

“I will not dignify that with a response,” is the only comeback I have at such short notice and I turn around to walk into the house, trying to exude a snootiness I do not feel. I really need to work on my responses – that one was really lame.

“Here you go.” Adam hands me the hot chocolate and settles next to me on the couch. We’re listening to music and reading in the living room. I’m reading a book about ancient civilisations and am surprised at how much I am enjoying this. Not only is it informative and I enjoy learning about the way people lived in those days, but when I mention my current reading material, people also nod with a new-found respect for my intellect which makes me feel ever so intelligent. For a few moments I then allow myself to wallow in my perceived intellect which conveys dark-wooded libraries, professors and muted voices. And then reality’s curled index finger comes up and hits me on the tip of my nose and says, “Made you look!”

Adam reaches for the remote control and changes to another CD. Listening to music together has proved to test my negotiation skills to its limits. We have diverse tastes and I insist on listening to music that befits my mood, whereas Adam is of the opinion that we should listen to music to create our moods. Tonight we settled the dispute in record time – only twenty minutes – and are now listening to jazz. We always seem to settle on that since our tastes in this genre agrees more than in any other genre. I sigh with contentment and lose myself in my book.

“Alex?”

I finish my sentence and look up at Adam. “Hmm?”

“Look at us.”

“Yes, what?”

“No, I mean really. Look at us.”

I sigh with the interruption, put my book down and focus on us. With a hot-cold feeling spreading though me, I realise that
Erin
was right this morning. We are doing the couple thing. Adam is sitting at the end of the couch and I’m stretched out on the length of the couch with my head on his lap. When did I do that? His right arm is on the armrest and he’s holding his book at an arm’s length. His left hand rests on my stomach and I am playing with the cuff of his sleeve. I look back up and him and give him a resigned smile.

“We really are as bad as
Erin
said.”

“Seems like it.” He puts down his book, turns his left hand over and catches my hand in his. “Alex…”

“Adam, please don’t.” I close my eyes for a moment and try to calm down. I have a war of feelings in me. On the one side I have the howling wolf with his tongue lolling and my stomach turns with delighted anticipation. That all relates to the physical attraction. On the other side the emotional attraction also makes my stomach turn, but with the kind of terror associated with police stations, biblical anecdotes and support therapists.

“Don’t what?”

“Just don’t.” I try to sit up, but Adam holds me in position with his hand on my stomach.

“Don’t run away.” He looks down at me. He has a little double chin when he looks down at this angle and I try my best to not look up his nostrils. “You can’t deny that there is something between us. It’s been there since the first day.”

“You mean the day you left me on the side of the road with Al?” I lift my eyebrow hoping to give him the you-must-be-joking look I’ve been practising in the mirror. “Yea, sheer magic.”

“For once be serious, Alex. You know what I’m talking about.” His intense look makes me want to wriggle with discomfort, but I remain stoically still on his lap. Not a position of power, let me tell you that. He examines my face a little longer as I’m struggling to slow my heartbeat down from a drum roll to a mild patter.

“The day will come.” His soft seductive words hit my heart full force and the drum roll is going for the finishing line. His hand lifts from my stomach and I raise myself, with as much dignity as I can muster with a pulse that would make a metronome malfunction, into a sitting position.

On the other side of the couch.

“Stop threatening me with wicked pleasures and bring me more hot chocolate.” Please, oh please, let this diversion work. Adam looks at me for a long time and I’m now praying to every god of every religion I’ve ever heard of to make him go for it.

“The big or the small cup?”

“The small cup will be enough, thank you.” I am a believer. There is a god! Adam gets up and walks around the back of the couch to the door. He stops behind me, bends down and speaks so close to my ear, his breath makes my hair move.

“We will talk about this.”

Bollocks!

Chapter 18

“Ms Fields, if I can see you in my office, please.” Adam is standing at the door of my office looking decidedly sexy and disturbingly cantankerous. This vision could also be an illusion created by my extreme state of exhaustion. It’s Friday and there’s only seven full days left before the opening of the festival, and I’ve spent the last few days in this little cubicle of mine, going home only to catch a few hours sleep and put on fresh clothes.

I didn’t make it home last night. My clothes are wrinkled and I feel like the second week of a garbage strike. I look with envy at how fresh Adam looks. He has the look of a rested, showered, clean clothed man. It is going to take three weeks of intense dermatological care to make my face lose the ten years the last week added to it. I give Adam a facial expression best described as a grimace, and nod.

“Give me ten minutes.”

“No. I want to see you in my office now.” His tone has quite an effect in my office. Ray lifts his head and looks at Adam in surprise, I lift my eyebrow – it is the only thing I have energy to lift at such short notice – and narrow my eyes.

“Excuse me?”

“I would like for you to walk with me to my office right now. Please.” The last word had no effect whatsoever to soften the non-negotiability of his demand. I just don’t have the energy to fight him today, so I lift my wrinkled self out of my chair and throw a glance, filled with consternation, over my shoulder at Ray. What now?

My working marathon has paid off and I dare say that everything is more or less in place. I stayed in the office last night for that exact purpose. I wanted to finish up all the emails, contracts and paperwork this week so that I can spend as much time as possible at the dairy next week. I want to keep an eye on the finishing touches to the buildings. For today, there are only a few loose ends still to be tied up.

I’m so busy trying to remember the name of the contact person for the set-up crew, that I don’t realise we are making the trip to the elevator in total silence. He is walking with his usual upright confidence and I’m dragging my heeled feet behind him. Only when we enter the elevator do I realise that we haven’t said a word to each other.

I also remember now that Adam called me Ms Fields. Why? I’m beginning to feel uncomfortable. But…What is that contact person’s name? Something with a G… George, G… G… James, Ja…Jo…