Take a Chance (22 page)

Jem
found Cherie pacing in front of a concerned looking Evie by the serving table.

“I thought ordering for an extra ten people would more than cover any extras Mark invited. I knew he’d do this to me,” Cherie
muttered as she passed in front of Jem before turning to walk the other way. “Damn Mark for changing the subject every time I asked him how many people he’d invited and a slap on the hand with a wet bus ticket for me for not making him give me an answer. I could really give him a good...”

Jem interrupted Cherie’s rant by grabbing her arm and
telling her what she had done. Cherie whooshed out a big breath in relief.

“I
hope that will be enough to feed everyone so I won’t get raked over the coals for poor planning,” Cherie said grimly, carefully avoiding Martha’s blue gaze as their boss took a seat at the table nearest the marquee door. Unlike many others, their boss had noticed the addition of two full tables to the seating.

“
Most people have probably filled up on hors d’oeuvres beforehand and will think the mains are some sort of nouvelle cuisine so won’t mind the smaller portions,” Evie offered as encouragement.

They all crossed their fingers.

As the clients were getting the message to take a seat and the numbers of people standing thinned out, they realised they had forgotten to take into account one person who had the potential to make their lives difficult if things didn’t go her way.

“Fudge,” said Cherie. “W
hat about Celeste?”

They watched as Celeste made her way
between clients to Nate who was smartly dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and a tie in a shade of red to match Celeste’s dress. He was looking for his young girlfriend while standing beside a seated Martha at the table nearest the marquee door. His brown eyes lit up as Celeste approached and he swept back his freshly dyed comb over with a finger. When she stopped in front of him he lifted her hand and kissed her fingertips.

“I don’t want to break the news to her that because she isn’t a client we don’t have a seat fo
r her because she’ll spit nails,” Cherie grouched.

Nate looked around and it became apparent that unless Martha was prepared to give up her seat there wouldn’t be one for Celeste to use.
Considering Celeste hadn’t been invited and wouldn’t be able to push any other staff out of their seat seeing as they didn’t have one to take, Jem wondered how she would handle it.

Luckily
no one had to find out. Just as Nate gallantly offered Celeste his seat the younger dark haired man he’d been in conversation with to the other side of him pulled Celeste onto his lap and said something to both of them. As Nate took his seat it became clear that Celeste was going to stay on the potential client’s lap for the presentation. She seemed more than happy about that and Jem just wondered how Nate felt about it, considering it wasn’t him.

He didn’t seem to be bothered considering that he was busy drinking down a vile looking concoction that Celeste had started
giving him soon after she started working for him, insisting he finish a bottle of it daily to keep him youthful. Judging by his vagueness lately, Jem thought Celeste should ask for her money back.

She noticed Martha’s lips momentarily tighten and felt strangely comforted by the fact that Martha
saw through Celeste even if Nate was determined to find his new girlfriend faultless.

“Who’s she sitting on?” Cherie asked Jem quietly.

“From here I’d guess it was Troy Wright. He’s a start-up chartering luxury yachts in different ports and wants software to coordinate all the bookings,” Jem murmured.

Cherie pursed her lips, raised her eyebrows and nodded.

“Good choice,” she murmured back.

At the front of the marquee
Mark opened with a joke which went down well with everyone. He then stepped behind a podium set to one side of the screen and waited while the servers discreetly showed plates of what was on offer to the guests for them to make their selection before starting his presentation.

Did he bring that
podium in from his car when I wasn’t looking?

Jem nudged Cherie with her elbow
as Eben, Greg and Evie slipped out of the marquee.

“Does
he have his own podium?” Jem asked as Mark brought out a laser pointer to highlight a statement on the screen.

“You’r
e surprised?” said Cherie. “He wouldn’t possibly want to use a soap box.”

Jem sniggered then clapped a hand over her mouth.

No more wine tonight
.

They tentatively watched as the meals kept coming out and with relief saw the last person served.

“Come on,” Jem whispered as Nate took a forkful of burrito to Celeste’s pouting lips. “We have things to do.”

They slipped out of the
marquee and through the house to Jase’s home office. Inside the office Eben was stapling piles of printouts together which Evie and Greg were adding to information that had been prepared earlier.

“Only another two to do,” Eben told them.

“Great,” said Jem. “I’ll allocate them while Cherie watches the driveway.”

A few minutes later two cars pulled up outside and several people got out. Sam and
Crash who were waiting outside, drove the cars down the street to park them as instructed while Cherie ushered the people into the office. As they entered Jem gave each person stapled files.

“Brett, Angela!” she exclaimed as the last two people came through the door. “I didn’t expect you both to be in the country.”

“We’re here visiting the in-laws,” said Brett in his Australian accent. “Neither of us want the promotion as we’re happy in Sydney but couldn’t pass the opportunity to stick it to Mark.”

“Yeah, he has it coming,” added Angela.

O-kay. Maybe this should have been done a lot sooner,
thought Jem as she redistributed a few of the files so that everyone had a similar number.

When everyone had perched themselves on desks
and chairs and made themselves comfortable, Jem began her spiel.

“In front of you is information
from our new software program about the companies represented this evening. Because we are supposed to know everyone here tonight no one is wearing a name tag so the printouts carry photos of the decision makers in the companies for you to identify by sight. If you look under each photo there is a brief bio about that person which may help you decide how to pitch the sale.”

“Eben
has downloaded the presentation from Mark’s work computer and a summary of it is on the last page so you know how this is being pitched.”

When the newcomers looked around
, Eben held his hand up for a moment so they could identify him.

Jem looked at the clock on the office wall.

“I estimate we only have about twenty minutes before we have to be out there so everyone start reading.”

Cherie ducked out and brought back a tray of savouries. She passed them around and people munched as they read. For the next several minutes only the sound of pages being turned disturbed the silence as everyone present read the information they had been given.

“Are any of these more likely sales than others?” Angela asked as she tapped her files with a manicured fingernail.

“Good point,” said Jem. She looked through the list of people in attendance and gave the names of three companies.

“Who has those?” she asked.

“I have two of them,” said Rod.

“Well, these will be the difficult ones,” said Jem.

“I swap one with you,” said Brett. He showed the company information he had been given to Jem. “Which do you think will be the easiest sale?”

Without hesitation Jem pointed to the company with Garth Smith’s name at the top.

Brett exchanged files with Rod.

“I like a challenge,” he said with a wink at Jem.

Beside him Angela laughed.

When everyone had finished and put down their files Jem said “Come with me” and held a finger to her lips to indicate they should be quiet.

When they got to the
marquee they decided to have the newcomers wait out of sight while Greg and Evie took up strategic positions near their clients. While they waited, servers bustled to and fro, removing dessert plates and replacing them with cups of coffee or glasses of something stronger.

Cherie and Jem stood at the back of the room to identify people from the files then went
outside to tell the others the best places to wait to approach their targeted clients.

Before long Mark started his final remarks and the rest of the salespeople took up position.

He immediately noticed their presence and momentarily stiffened but being the professional he was, he carried on.

When he finished, there were a few questions. Mark gestured to his fellow employees at the back of the room.

“My sales team will answer your questions,” he said and stepped down from the podium.

My sales team?

He wasn’t wasting any time considering himself above the rest of them, Jem thought.

Mark headed towards
Garth Smith knowing he’d be the most lucrative client present but Rod bet him to them. Knowing he couldn’t neatly interrupt and take over, he looked for the next client on his mental list and found her talking with Angela. The next one was talking with Evie and the one after that with Greg.

He stopped in front of Jem who was
annotating a brochure between answering queries as she walked around the room in her stockinged feet.

“This is war,”
Mark told her before pushing past.

Then he stopped and drew in a breath. He was in a search for his next best sale, hell, any sale. He could not leave tonight until he had shown up the others.

He spied the first client not attached to a sales rep. Damn. It was Aston. He knew it wouldn’t be a hard sale but it would be a lengthy one as Miles Aston liked to talk. And talk.

Resigned, Mark walked towards him.

Almost two hours had passed by the time Jem returned to the kitchen after seeing off Evie and Greg and the rest of the invited sales reps.
The catering company had long since cleaned up after themselves and left, more than happy with the bonus that Martha had personally given them.

Jem opened the fridge and withdrew her coveted slice of double chocolate cheesecake. Luckily a lot of people had filled up on hors d’oeuvres as they had hoped so there had been more than enough
dessert to go around. She tugged open the cutlery drawer and withdrew a teaspoon to eat the cheesecake in the mistaken belief she would make it last longer that way.

Plonking herself on the barstool beside
Cherie, Jem took a mouthful of cheesecake and watched her friend make final annotations to her notes.

“So how did we do?” Martha asked with interest,
coming up behind them, a nearly finished glass of sparkling apple juice in her hand.

“We have eleven unconditional sales, five further sales requiring a few tweaks and another
eight who are ready to haggle details. Only a handful escaped without committing themselves further,” Cherie reported.

Jem looked away so Martha wouldn’t see her smirk. One of the ones that had got away Mark had tried for. He would have done better if he hadn’t been stuck with Miles Aston for so long beforehand.

Jem wished that she could have seen Mark’s face when he tried to clinch the sale only to be told by Miles that Evie had already closed the sale before the presentation. It served him right for trying to take all the clients for himself.

Mark carried a box to the kitchen and dumped it on the floor, his face like thunder.
After his strategic plan had collapsed before his eyes with the arrival of the other sales reps, he had only made two sales and they weren’t the most lucrative ones. He had never worked so hard in his life for so little.

“Where do you want this?” he asked with forced politeness.

Eben walked past him carrying a bigger box.

“Fol
low me. You can help me put them in the garage.”

Mark scowled but grabbed the box and followed Eben down the hallway.

Yes, this evening was turning out to be pretty good despite the beginning. With the whole sales force present they had their best ever uptake. Mark had tried to leave earlier with Nate on the grounds of discussing the evening at their usual watering hole but found his car was tightly parallel parked between two others that Sam and Crash had insisted weren’t there earlier.

Celeste had drunk more than usual and was very happy so Nate was more interested in getting home and taking advantage of her good mood than in going to the pub. Because Mark couldn’t go anywhere he had reluctantly returned to the house. With Martha still there he had to make himself look good by being useful so was stuck having to help clean up.

Martha finished the apple juice in her glass and set it on the bench.

“This evening has been an eye-opener in more regards than one,” she said as Mark came back into the room. “You have all obviously put a lot of work into this evening.”

“It was a team effort,” Mark told her. “We wanted the best result we could get for Sachs Wall.”

Behind him Cherie rolled her eyes.

“Well for your efforts I hope everyone has plans to rest tomorrow and we’ll see you all on Monday,” Martha said.

“My sister is still in hospital so I’ll still need to be here until my brother-in-law returns,” Jem reminded her.

Martha patted Jem’s hand.

“Of course.
I don’t expect to see you back until you are ready. In fact I’m very impressed that you made the time to assist getting all this done with the extra commitments you’ve have on your plate.”

“I had help,” Jem said as she walked Martha to the door.

Not wanting to miss an opportunity to ingratiate himself, Mark followed.

“How is your sister doing?” Martha asked as she shrugged on her coat.

“She’s still in a lot of pain but is improving. The doctors plan to move her from ICU to a ward in a day or two if she keeps doing well.”

“I bet she can recover easier knowing that her children are being well taken care of,” Martha said.

“I hope so,” said Jem.

“Can I bring your car to the door so you don’t have to be in the cold any longer than necessary?” Mark asked.

“That’s thoughtful of you,” said Martha. “Now, where are my keys?”

They looked on the sideboard near the door where Sam and Crash had laid out the few remaining key rings.
Cherie had earlier given them a big tip for their help and they had left shortly after seeing off the last of the clients.

Martha’s distinctive BMW key ring was missing.

“Oh, silly me!” she said. “I forgot. My car’s getting serviced and a few things had to be sorted out so I got a courtesy car from the garage.”

Martha handed a key ring with a blue tag on it to Mark.

“I’m afraid I’ve forgotten what it looks like but if you walk down the road and press the button, the car should beep at you.”

Mark took the key ring, pocketed his own one, smiled and set off down the driveway. Cherie and Eben, the only people left, came to the door to watch.

“I’m going to go too but I have to see this first,” Cherie said as she picked the last key ring off the table.

They watched as Mark raised his hand and pressed the key ring button as he passed cars on the way down the hill. As he came to his car he pressed the button again and the car parked in front of his flashed its headlights and beeped.

His movements were jerky as he opened the door and got in. The car was revved before he did a u-turn and came up the driveway towards the house.

“Whose car is parked behind Mark’s?” Jem wondered aloud.

“I think it belongs to Sam’s parents,” said Eben from behind her as he placed his hands on her shoulders.

“Funny they should park it on the street,”
mused Jem.

Beside her Cherie laughed. “He looks mad.”

They waited while Mark turned the car at the top of the driveway so that Martha could drive straight off.

“Thank you all again for your hard work,” Martha said again as she walked over to the car as Mark climbed out of the driver’s seat.

“Sorry about that. Tonight’s drinks must have made me forgetful,” she said as she slipped behind the steering wheel.

But she only d
rank sparkling apple juice all night
, thought Jem.

Martha waved and drove off, leaving Mark standing scowling at them from the other side of the driveway.

“You sabotaged me!” Mark barked at them, his breath a foggy cloud in the cold night air.

“What do you mean? I tried to stop you eating the cat vomit,” Jem yelled back, oblivious to her voice carrying in the night.

Mark threw her a look of pure venom then stalked back down the driveway towards his car while Cherie erupted into laughter beside her.

“He can’t do anything to either of you, can he?” Eben asked as they waved goodbye to a giggling Cherie and closed the front door once she had started her car.

“He can be obnoxious at work but that’s about it,” Jem said as she turned under Eben’s hands and gave him a hug.

“Thanks for everything,” she said.

“So you didn’t mind the thing I arranged for Mark’s car?” Eben asked.

Jem was silent for a moment.

“I’ve had too much to drink tonight and I can’t think clearly. What did you do?”

“While you were all busy after the presentation I visited next door then had Crash and Sam help me rearrange the cars so Mark couldn’t go anywhere.”

“But you couldn’t know that Martha would hang around until the end of the night,” Jem said.

“After I spoke with her I did,” said Eben.

“What did you say to have her agree to that?”

“I told her how I wasn’t happy that Mark had dumped the whole event on you and Cherie
and made sure he was unavailable to help out with the preparation. Then I bet her that he would try to leave as soon as the guests did to get out of cleaning up but if I was wrong I’d do her a favour.”

“What did she say to that?”

“She was intrigued,” Eben said as he led Jem to their bedroom and pushed her down onto the end of the bed.

Jem flopped back on the bed with a smile on her face. Eben shed his jacket and swept his hands up her thighs intending to remove her pantyhose. Instead he met bare skin.

“What have we here?” he murmured, changing the subject to one of more interest to him.

“Lace top stay ups,” Jem said.

“I have to see these,” Eben told her and pulled her arms free of her shrug instead.

“Do you want to put the shoes back on?” he asked her, thinking of the sight of her long legs in the heels.

“No,” said Jem. “I’d just have to take them off again.”

“True,” said Eben as he pulled her to a sitting position to better facilitate removing her dress.

He tugged the hem upwards and Jem cooperated by lifting up so he could tug the dress past her waist. She then raised her arms so that Eben could draw the dress over her head. He flung the dress over one shoulder, leaving Jem sitting on the bed wearing her black lacy bra and matching bikini cut brief.

“Very nice,” he said and drew his mouth down to a lace topped thigh.

“Eben, come here,” Jem said.

Eben allowed his face to be brought up as far as her underwear.

“I’m happy where I am,” he murmured against the black lace.

Jem felt his warm breath through her underwear and trembled in anticipation.

“I’m happy where you are too,” she said back to him “but you have too many clothes on.”

She
pushed against his shoulders then sat up and removed his cuff links while he undid his belt. Then she stood and undid the buttons on his shirt.

Eben pushed her back on the bed and quickly stripped off
the rest of his clothes while Jem pulled back the bed cover and slid between the sheets. He slid in behind her and hugged her to him.

“Now where were we?” he asked.

“Can’t remember,” Jem said playfully as she traced the whorl of his ear with her fingertip.

“This might require an undercover investigation,” said Eben as he lifted the covers and admired her
black lacy bra and briefs again. Then he frowned. “You have too many clothes on but don’t worry, I can help with that.”

He burrowed under the covers head first.

“Eben! You’ll suffocate!” Jem exclaimed even as she felt her underwear being drawn down her legs.

“But I’ll die a happy man,” came his muffled response.

Not long afterward Jem thought she was the one who had died. Eben’s head poked up above the covers moments later.

“Oh no!”
Eben mock exclaimed when he saw her closed eyes and smiling face. “I’ve killed another one.”

He ignored the punch on his arm she gave him.

“Lucky for you I know how to give the kiss of life,” he said as he stretched out over her, all his interesting bits aligning with hers.

This ought to be good
, Jem thought.

Eben made sure it more than was.

The next morning Jem awoke to the sound of Jeremy and Daisy fighting outside the bedroom door. She drowsily looked at the clock and saw that it was only a few minutes past seven. It was the first morning since she had been here that she didn’t have to be up for anything.

Why can’t they get up this early without help on a school day?

She looked over at Eben and saw that he was still sound asleep.

Poor baby.
I really wore him out.

She smiled, recalling exactly how she had managed that.

In the other room Daisy shrieked and Eben stirred beside her. Reluctantly Jem pushed herself out of bed and slipped her dressing gown on. Catching sight of herself in the mirror she finger brushed her new fringe to cover the patchy blue eyelids showing through the makeup she hadn’t quite got around to removing last night. Leaving the room she quietly closed the bedroom door behind her.

“What’s going on?” she demanded in a low voice.

“Jeremy won’t let me have a turn on the computer,” Daisy complained.

“Have either of you had breakfast or brushed your teeth?” Jem asked.

Jeremy nodded.

“Show me your teeth,” said Jem.

“Uh, I forgot,” said Jeremy. “I’ll do it now.”

“I can’t make breakfast by myself,” Daisy complained.

Jem made Daisy’s breakfast and set up a bowl and spoon on the breakfast bar for when Aidan got up. She considered pouring out cereal and setting aside a small jug of milk to pour over it but could see too many things going wrong.

She set the oven timer for half an hour and when Jeremy returned told them that when it went off it was Daisy’s turn on the computer. She asked them to be quiet because they’d had a late night and wanted to sleep in.