The Great Christmas Breakup (12 page)

And wait until he gets a load of those thighs
, the evil voice added.

Shut up
!

‘Scarlet, I work with a number of clients who have
successful
retail enterprises. Lolly mentioned that you
were doing
window dressing professionally now, and from what I can see, you are terrific at it.
’

‘I, um, well . . .’

Nice one, Scarlet. Completely professional.

Thankfully, Robert didn’t seem to notice I was slightly bonkers. ‘
Care to expand your client base? I can think of one particular client who is in desperate need of your services.’

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

In need of my services?

‘Are you there?’
The voice had dropped a tone – he didn’t sound so confident now.

‘Sorry, yes.’

‘Lolly says you’re experienced in all types of retail environments.’

What!
I di
dn’t even know what that meant.
‘Lolly is certainly vocal when it comes to
boasting about
the talents of her friends.’

I didn’t want to lie, but I didn’t want to lose the opportunity for work
either
, if that’s what it was.

Especially if
I had to make an emergency dash
back to the UK
to see Dad
.

‘
Do you have a portfolio of your work?’

What could
I say? I had
a portfolio of fashion work – for which I got a C before I dropped out to have J.

‘I don’t know where it is at present, to be honest.
With s
o much work
on at the moment
, I just go
from one job straight onto the next
.’

‘Perhaps I’d know some of the names?’

‘Um, er . . .’

Now what?

To add to the tension, t
he noises
in
the hallway were getting louder;
time was running out.

Delaying tactics were in order
.
If I spoke with him
in person, it might be easier to steer the conversation towards new jobs instead of old.

I’d never thought of window dressing as a career before, but it had to be admitted that
the afternoon at Lolly’s had been more satisfying than anything I had
ever
done, with the exception of having the kids, of course.

Said a lot for Carson, didn’t it?

The footsteps were almost upon me.

‘Robert, I would love to help, but this
really
isn’t a good time.’

‘Perhaps we could mee
t up
tomorrow afternoon? I can’t
do the morning as I’ll be upstate but this client is
eag
er to get moving
on the project so could we do it
tomorrow afternoon?
How about we mee
t at
LollyBliss
?
Lolly tells me they do a mean mocha at a nearby café.
My treat, naturally.
’

It would have to be.

And as for meeting up, how on earth c
ould I let him see me like this? I was about four of the person he once knew.

Then the nasty voice in my thick head brought me back to reality.
You’re married. This isn’t about you,
it
’s
about work.

‘Will the job take long?’ I asked,
one eye on the door,
trying to gauge whether the humiliation of displaying how I’d let myself go was worth it.

‘
No. It’s urgent. And it
pays well. Three st
ores, three windows, three thousand dollars
. That would have to include all the dressing materials, of course, but
I am sure it is still something to consider
, isn’t it?’

Three thousand dollars! That was half my year’s tak
ings working with the enigma that was Dan Phillit.

‘So, two tomorrow?’ Robert asked.

I was due at Flindes
tomorrow for an afternoon shift, beginning
precisely
at two. There was no way I could make
both
.

And if I asked for time off, Dan Phillit would sooner dance ar
ound naked in Saks
than give it to me.

Sod it
.

‘I’ll see you at Lolly’s at two,’
I said, throwing away
any chance
there may have conceivably been for
a
management position
with
Flindes
.

CHAPTER SIX

Monday, November 27

‘If in doubt, trust your instincts. But don’t act on them.

You may be right, but being right doesn’t mean you’ll get what you deserve.
’

Jocelyn Priestly.

CECILY 2 WAS SNORING
loudly and woke me.
Again.
I
turned the calendar over, smirked at the nonsense Ms Priestly offered for the day, and then
forced myself
to ready the kids for school
. I wondered what time Cecily 2
was supposed to begin her so-called ‘modeling’
job
.

Shuffling into the living room, I shook her.
‘Cecily 2! Wake up! You’ve got to go to work.’

In a trice she literally sat straight up as if a hundred volts
had just shot
through her and bashed
right
into my head.

‘Oww!’ I exclaimed, seeing stars.

And smelling booze.

‘She always wakes up like t
hat,’ Carson called
from the kitchen
. ‘I used to charge my mates
to see it when I was a kid.’

Poor
deluded Carson.

It wasn’t her sudden waking they were paying to see.

It was her tits.

Cecily 2 slept in the nude.

‘Always have, always will,’ she’d told me, when the kids had
first
complained of the horrific sight o
n a s
leepover at Cousin Howie’s place
.

Next, there was a knock
on the door.
It was only early, and already I was exhausted by the day.

Hammertro
stood in the hallway, looking inside expectantly.

‘Come in,’ I said, waving him towards the living roo
m and the object of his affections.
‘The more the merrier.’

‘Now
that you’ve got that thing repaired
, I can’t just walk in,’ he complained, re-fixing his coordinates on Cecily
2’s breasts, which were almost completely visible
beneath the thin sheet
covering her. ‘Mo
rning hotstuff, fancy doing somethin’
in town again?
’

The suggestion was full of innuendo and
Cecily 2 giggled. It sounded like a horse farting.

‘She can’t, Hammertro, she is working
today
.’

It crossed my mind that if Cecily 2
lost the
nonsense
job
she’d
come for
, she’d
have to leave. So far, so good.

B
ut in order to be exonerated from any guilt in relati
on to said
miraculous
event, I
had to
at least
try to get the stupid cow to go to work.

Hammertro licked his lips.
‘Where’s this job then, sweet
cheeks? Maybe I
’ll check it
out?’

‘Down the road in a basement,’ Cecily yelled.
‘
They’ve turned it into some dungeon. I’m gonna be the mistress in a movie, apparently.’

‘It’s all making sense to me now,’ I whispered to Carson, who grinned, obviously thinking the same thing.

You didn’t need to be a stunner to be a mistress, you
just
needed to be a scary bitch.

Ente
r
Cecily 2 Teeson.

My neighbor, however, remained impressed.
‘Mistress, hah? Sounds se
eee
xy.’

‘How’s Un
cle Rufus?’ Jessie piped up. My daughter’s bright pink
glasses were slightly askew and there were worry lines on her forehead from her
ferocious
frown.
It was a reminder of my own youthful discovery of betrayal
,
and m
y heart skipped at the memories of
that woman and my dad – of knowing the truth about him.

I leaned over and kissed Jessie. ‘It’s all fine,’ I told her. ‘Now, eat your breakfast.’

Plonking her spoon unenthusiastically into her bowl, Jessie sighed.

The
poor
kid deserved better than con-flakes for breakfast,
didn’t she? A whole cupboard full of proper food
would be the first thing I’d buy
if Robert managed to get me that
window dressing job.

C
ecily 2 didn’t comprehend
the implication
of the question
about her husband
and answered matter-of-factly:
‘
He w
ent off with Howie to some place with lots of trees.’

‘A park?’
said Jessie.

‘A forest?’ said J.

‘Yeah,
’ Cecily 2 said to both of them. ‘C
ampin’, I think.’

‘I’d like to put you in my tent,’ Hammertro told her. ‘My pants
’
tent.’

J laughed and immediately relayed the faux-rapper’s latest missiv
e to all his mates via
his mobile
Facebook
app
, tapping with one hand as he shoveled con-flakes with the other.

‘Hammertro, the children!’

‘Where?’ He and Cecily 2 looked around.

‘Jessie and J.’

His striking
face broke into a huge grin
and
Hammertro punched my arm playfully. It hurt.

‘
Come on, Mrs T.
, they ain’t no children. They
are
twelve and fourteen. I was doing it with forty-year-old nightclub hookers at fourteen.’

‘Really?’
Both my husband’s and son’s eyes were wide
with astonishment
.

Jessie’s hands were over her ears.

I didn’t blame her. 

‘Can you tell me
–‘ J started to say, but I cut him off by asking if he
wanted some of the day old milk that
he’
d picked up
the night before.
Because i
f J asked which nightclub
forty-year-olds with no sense of decency or legality hung out
at
, I vowed to ground him for eternity.

Sensing he was on thin ice, m
y s
on took his dismal plate of breakfast
with
added milk
and
hurried back to his room.

‘So, leave off work and come play with me?’ Hammertro wasn’t giving up.

Carson told Cecily 2 that whilst the subject matter of her employment might be fruity, the organization was probably professional. In which case, she had less than an hour to get dressed and present herself at the ‘studio’.

‘You don’t g
et modeling, do you big brother
? T
hey give you the clothes and do your hair.
Once I’ve washed my teeth, I’m ready.’

Surely she wasn’t planning on sashaying down the street naked?

‘I could go naked,’ she confirmed, winking at Hammertro.

‘Oh yeah!’ he agreed.

Checking my watch
,
I decided that I was over Carson’s
dysfunctional sister.

I’d
make sure
the kids
got to school then
head in to
LollyBliss
.

Let Cecily 2 lose the only form
of suitable employment that had
come her way in a lifetime.