Unsuitable (5 page)

From
inside the house came an angry, “What”

“Reece
says you can’t be trusted.”

“Shut
up.”

He
stood up and yelled. “Reece says car in ten minutes.” He looked at Gin. “Coming?”

Neev
reached past him and stroked Gin’s ponytail and Gin nodded, twin magic at work.
He hustled them up the stairs and locked the door. Then it was out the front
door, car, cruise the beachfront looking for a park and then they all had an
ice cream before walking to the end of the beach where the kid’s play gym and
the volleyball courts were. They were early, which was the plan. He didn’t need
late as a strike against him, especially as Audrey had made this a test by
asking him to pick the meeting place.

Sky
was already playing a game, but she blew kisses. Polly was waiting. They
clasped hands while the girls climbed the sandstone retaining wall to watch the
game.

“Kiddy
fiddler,” Polly said while they were hand in hand, elbow to elbow.

Polly
went to pull away and Reece held him. “Shit. Don’t even joke about it.” He
didn’t feel so oversize with Polly, they were matched in height at least, but
like Sky, Polly thought he should be doing something else with his life. Unlike
Sky, Polly had a reason to be annoyed Reece choose child care over building
houses. It was Pollidore Home Building Services that he did labouring jobs for,
and Polly’s dream that together they’d take over from his dad.

He
jerked Polly a little closer and said, “Fuckwit,” low and hard in his ear. They
stood in the middle of the main promenade walkway, a tight spot of dark menace
in the sunshine, while skateboarders and kids on scooters, weekend dads with
prams and dog walkers moved around them, but Reece wasn’t letting Polly go till
the guy eyeballed him and he knew that joke was never being made again.

He
saw it; contrition, grudging acceptance, centre in Polly’s dark eyes. “All right,
Mary Poppins.”

He
relaxed his grip. “Watch where I put my umbrella.”

“More
worried about what’s in your carpetbag.” Polly pulled away. Etta was ogling
them. She couldn’t have had her face in her phone now? This was supposed to be
a good idea, a way for Audrey to connect with him as a responsible person with
a loving family and respectable friends. He had a feeling he’d buggered this.

Worst
case he could pretend he didn’t know them.

Polly
sat beside Etta on the sandstone wall. “Wazzup, homie?”

“Skive
off, old.”

Polly
scoffed, “Old.”

Reece
laughed and leaned against the wall next to Polly.

“Only
an old man would call me homie,” said Etta

“And
the skive off thing, what’s that about?” said Polly.

“Reece
has elephant ears and he doesn’t want me to swear even though he does. He’s
like Double Standard Dude. He should have a cape and tights.”

Reece
grunted and exchanged an eye-roll with Polly. Etta and Polly were like a game
of dodgeball. Until she turned sixteen Etta had idolised Polly, but sixteen was
a whole new bag of mess and now she was either in love with him or hated the
guy’s guts. At sixteen, life had handed him baby formula and nappy rash
ointment. Reece had no idea what was going on with Etta, but she thrived off
verbally smacking Polly every time she saw him. Polly rolled with it. Reece had
been glad to hand over parenting to Charlie where Etta was concerned.

“Since
when do you do what Reece says, homie?” said Polly.

“Hah,
this’ll be interesting.”

“Since
we’re on Double Standard Dude’s family and friend’s job interview.”

In
front of them the lead of a small white yappy dog got caught under the wheel of
a stroller. Reece went for the dog, while Polly lifted the stroller. They untangled
dog, owner, stroller, screaming babe and harassed mum and went back to their
places on the wall. Whole thing took less than a minute.

“Homie,
see that waxhead in the yellow trucker cap?” Polly tipped his chin towards the
kid. Reece had noticed him too. He was eyeballing Etta so hard, you could see
macular degeneration. “He bothering you?”

Etta
eyeballed the guy. She’d perfected the death stare. The surfer boy suddenly
found his feet fascinating. “Nope.”

Reece
smiled. Polly would do anything for any of the girls. An only child, he’d learned
how to bottle feed same time as Reece did, they’d played countless video games
while babysitting the girls together. After all the mad, bad things they’d done
together, it was only now there was strain in their friendship over Reece’s
decision not to join the business.

He
checked the clock on the surf club wall. Audrey would be here soon. He ID-ed a
runaway skateboard on target to skittle a free-range toddler whose dad was one
of the face in a screen tribe. No sign of mum or the skater. He put a foot out
and stopped the board, an arm out and lifted the toddler clear of it. The
toddler was back on his feet and on his way without realising it wasn’t someone
he knew who’d scooped him up, and the dad never lifted his eyes.

“Catch,”
said Polly.

Reece
laughed. Maybe that was good omen. When he felt Sky’s arm around his waist and
turned to kiss her hello, he decided to believe Double Standard Dude might just
get away with it.

6:       Stalker

Les
looked through the gap between her oversized sunnies and her enormous hat. Audrey
had wanted backup for this, someone she could bounce opinions off and Les
volunteered when she was thinking park, beach, time with Mia, coffee. Now that
it was park, beach, Mia, coffee and surreptitiously ogling hot men, Les was
beyond enthusiastic.

Les
handed Mia a dried apricot from the Tupperware container in Audrey’s daypack. “What
I want to talk about is Audrey the stalker. I mean, who knew?”

“I’m
not stalking.”

At
a minimum, stalking required multiple locations. What she was doing from behind
a bank of trees watching Reece and his entourage was more like spying. She
hefted Mia on her hip; there was dried apricot dribble all over her shirt. Eventually
Mia would learn to chew with her mouth closed, but not today.

“Are
we not hiding so we can watch your prospective manny and his manny posse, which
is apparently full of junior Malibu Barbies?”

“He
doesn’t like the term manny and they’re his sisters. I asked him to set up a
meeting somewhere he’d take Mia. He said he might bring his family.”

Les
flapped a hand in the general direction of their target and Mia laughed, so she
did it again, just as funny. “Manny, nanny,” she hand flapped, Mia giggled,
“semantics, isn’t it, Mia the Marvellous?”

“Marvel
us,” Mia agreed.

“What
I really want to talk about is hubba hubba.” Les gestured towards Reece and his
gang.

“Hubba
hubba,” said Mia, then dribbled a string of saliva onto Audrey’s arm as she
laughed with a mouth full of chewed apricot.

“Did
you see that rescue action. Oh, I die. You have to hire him just for his hero moves
and the fact that he’s this big, gorgeous brute of a boy. I’d turn stalker for
him, I would,” said Les.

Audrey
shifted Mia to her other hip. “While you’re at it, did you note the
girlfriend?”

“Tall,
athletic, Asian, almost naked, has to be a model? Nope, didn’t notice her at
all. Did you note the best mate? The muscles, the tatts that faux Mohawk. I
think he might have one of those plug things in his ear and I’d like to lick
his tattoos.”

“Lick,”
said Mia, right in Audrey’s ear.

Les
handed Mia another apricot. “The masculine handclasp thingy, that’s so butch. I’m
having a hot flush and I’m too spring chook for that. I’d hire Reece for the
Faux Mo friend alone.”

Audrey
hitched Mia higher on her hip. “Want to go down?” She got an emphatic headshake
and an accidental hair pull. “How is you objectifying the prospective employee
helping?”

“That’s
what you say to me at work when we’re negotiating a contract and you don’t
think I’m being commercial enough. ‘That’s not helping, Les.’ This is the weekend.
I’m helping by being here as your independent observer, like the UN.”

Mia
squirmed. “Down.”

Audrey
let Mia slither down her body and she promptly sat and snatched up a discarded chocolate
bar wrapper. “No, Mia.”

“I
lick this. It’s good. Les says I can because I like it. Hubba hubba.”

She
bent and took the wrapper from Mia’s hand. “No. Dirty. Not yours.”

“Nooo.
Hubba hubba. Listen to me. I like chocolate better, and tattoos.”

How
did the little monkey know it was a chocolate wrapper? “Les is a bad
influence.”

Les
laughed and Mia giggled, slanting a look from Audrey to Les. “Um-ah.”

“I
like chocolate and tattoos too. I really do, Mia,” said Les.

“Lick
them?”

“Not
today. Mummy might get mad at me.”

“She
won’t. But we need new Cameron soon or she might cry.”

That
was telling. Audrey tucked the wrapper and the Tupperware in her bag. She put
her foot on the edge of the kick-plate of Mia’s three-wheel scooter and flicked
it upright. Reece kept looking towards the clock on the surf club wall. Five minutes
and they’d be late.

“Well
girls, what do you think about Reece bringing his entourage? Good call, bad
call?”

“Too
bad,” said Mia with a shrug that knocked the strap of her fairy dress off her
shoulder. She righted it with a dramatic sigh.

“Faux
Mohawk, earplug, tattoos. What’s not to like?” said Les.

Mia
stood on the scooter. “I like to lick too, especially chocolate.”

Les
pushed her sunglasses up her nose. “He’s being transparent about his life and
what you can expect. Have any of the other candidates been so forthcoming?”

She
had a point. The other candidates could be members of secret satanic cults or
scrapbooking nuts in their spare time for all she knew. But did it matter? There
was a line between being an employer and a friend and it was best not to cross
it, especially when the employee was in your own home and so hubba hubba. But
how did knowing Reece had an ultra-hot girlfriend make any difference to his
job application? It shouldn’t. It wasn’t relevant.

“If
you know he’s going home to that every night you won’t have to worry about any
rogue attractions,” said Les.

“Rogue
attractions? You mean like the one between you and Faux Mo.” Yes, blast it, she
was attracted to Reece. You’d have to be in a coma not to be.

Les
sighed. “Faux Mo is merely a dream, not a commercial reality. We both know
birds would fall out of the sky dead if a stone cold fox like him even looked
at me. He’d have to trip over me to notice me.”

Audrey
went to protest, to deny Les her defence mechanism, but Mia rode into her shin.
“Who’s fo mo?”

“Ow.
That’s my leg. No one.”

“Sorry
leg. I want to ride now.”

Audrey
put a hand to Mia’s head. “We’re going to see Reece.” She looked at Les. Smart,
funny, loyal, a wonderful colleague, and a great friend, but so beaten by the
dating game, so tired of being compared to girls with fashionable figures and
symmetrical faces, she’d given up and was resigned to being alone as a better
option than the constant humiliation of not being chosen. She was right, Faux
Mo wouldn’t notice her. But as far as Audrey was concerned, it was Les who was
out of his league.

Les
took hold of the handles of Mia’s scooter. “Who do you want as new Cameron?”

Audrey
watched Reece listening to his girlfriend. There was lots of wild gesticulation
on her part while he played sponge, soaking it all up. “Mia’s a little young to
make that decision, don’t you think?”

Mia
looked from Les to Audrey. “I’n a big girl.”

“All
right big girl, who do you want?” said Les.

“Reece.”

“That
was definite, Aud, and it gets around your hiring bias.”

“My
hiring bias? You mean I naturally want to hire someone most like me.” Or in
this case anyone who wasn’t Reece. And if that was true they should go now, she
could text him an excuse. It’s not like he’d be left hanging around on his own.

“Yep.
We can’t help it. It’s one of those things. We want to hire people we’re most
comfortable with, so it’s no surprise those people are the most like us. Which
is why you’re the only female project leader and all the others are men not
dissimilar to Chris. He hired in his own image.”

And
there was that. Not to consider Reece as a serious candidate was playing to the
subtle system that stopped more women becoming scientists, engineers, and
computer programmers, CEOs and board members. But to hire him wasn’t without
complications.

“All
the more reason I should hire a woman. Too many jobs for the boys.”

“I
thought you were above that. What happened to the best candidate wins?”

That
was a fiction and every woman who’d ever chased a dream job, or compared her
salary to a male colleague’s knew it. “Mia, what about Jessie? She made you a
cupcake with sprinkles.”

Headshake.
“No.”

Maybe
Reece, with his eleven interviews, knew it too. “I’m so conflicted. Mia, what
about Lee or Bethany? Bethany was nice.”

“No,”
Mia said agreeably.

“Lee
could be new Cameron.”

“No.”

Audrey
sighed. “Reece is the most qualified candidate. Big girl here thought he was
all The Wiggles rolled in one and I like him, but I never envisaged hiring a
male nanny. Having Cameron see me in a dressing gown is one thing but—”

“This
does call for a new dressing gown.” Less shimmered her shoulders. “Something
with slink.”

“And
that’s one of the reasons I’m conflicted. That I’m thinking about new sleepwear.
But then, hot girlfriend, so what does it matter if he sees me in tea-stained terry
towelling?”

“I
want to ride now.”

Les
took her hands off Mia’s scooter. “Really terry towelling?”

“Fleece,
but most of my sleepwear has unfortunate stains. It’s not like anyone but Mia
sees them.”

“And
that’s too much information even for me. Aud, if it bothers you to hire Reece,
don’t. No point torturing yourself over it.”

True.
If only Mia hadn’t taken so easily to Reece and the idea of a male presence in
her life more constant than Joe didn’t appeal. If the idea of giving talent and
qualifications over gender their due wasn’t important to her.

“Let’s
go, then. Get this over with.” Maybe Mia would react differently this time and
decide things for them. Audrey had never hoped for an unreasonable toddler
tantrum before but now was the time for Mia to go crazy.

The
three of them moved across the park. Mia on her scooter. Reece saw them coming.
Hopefully he hadn’t seen them playing peekaboo. Hopefully he couldn’t see the
ambivalence in her expression. He detached himself from his entourage at the
same time as Mia dumped her scooter and made straight for the playground network
of tunnels, ramps and bridges. Audrey scooped her up and copped an elbow in the
ribs. There were a lot of other kids using the facility, most of them bigger
than Mia. When she looked up, Reece was there with his youngest sister.

He
smiled. “Hi, Audrey.” He ducked so he was level with Mia. “Hello, Mia.” Mia
slammed her face into Audrey’s neck. “This is my sister, Pippa.”

Audrey
eased Mia to her feet and she buried her face in Audrey’s hip. Pippa put her
hand out to shake, she took it. “Everyone calls me Flip.”

“Hello,
Flip. This is Mia and my friend, Leslie.”

Reece
held his hand out to Les and she took it and murmured her hello, call me Les. She
might as well have had her head in Audrey’s other hip. She might as well have
said call me Less. She’d reverted to type. Reece pointed over his shoulder. “My
sisters, Etta, Neeva and Ginnette. My girlfriend, Sky, and my best mate Marcus.”

“Everyone
calls him Polly,” said Flip.

Reece
went to his haunches. “Hello, Mia. Did you forget me?”

Mia
shook her head, but she wouldn’t look at Reece, except for sneaky little
glances. Monkey wasn’t scared of him, she was making this a game. And he knew it.

“Oh
no, Mia doesn’t remember me. It’s young for treat ‘em mean keep ‘em keen, but I
gotta respect that.” Mia giggled. “How will I make Mia smile?” Mia turned her
face away from Reece, but it was all teeth and shiny eyes. Audrey could feel the
tremble of Mia’s excitement against her leg. She didn’t react like this with
any of the other applicants. At this rate there was a new dressing gown in Audrey’s
future.

Reece
sighed, elaborate and theatrical, and that was all it took for Mia to launch
herself at him. He laughed and let her push him over so he sat on his backside
on the grass, his long, strong legs sprawled in front of him, and Mia giggled
in a wet her pants way. Reece did have that effect on you. He looked up at
Audrey, a whole lot of what else do I have to do to get this job in his green eyes.
As a negotiation tactic, it was impressive.

“I’ve
spoken to Nina Flannery and Karla Ramsey. Both families gave you great
references.”

Reece
rocked into his hand and flipped over to his feet, his broad back and taut butt
to them momentarily. Les whimpered and covered with a fake sneeze. Mia clapped
like he’d performed a circus trick. This was so unfair. Why couldn’t he be a
studious clown type or a nerdy neat freak? He was this charismatic gentle giant
and that was too bad.

“I
know you wanted to talk to Flip,” he said.

Flip
nodded. She glanced at Reece and took a deep breath. “Do you want me to tell
you while he’s listening?”

Audrey
laughed. Mia reached for Reece’s hand and was content to simply watch the other
kids on the play equipment.

He
groaned. “There’s no way this is not going to be embarrassing.”

Flip
scowled at Reece. “I’m not going to embarrass you. I won’t.” She faced Audrey. “We
want Reece to get the job so that we can toss for his bedroom.”

Reece
closed his eyes and put a hand to his forehead. “Flip.”