Unsuitable (8 page)

“But
don’t expect me not to be angry, and if I don’t get promoted this round, I’ll
take you up on your offer. I’ll come and tell you how unhappy I am.”

He
gave one sharp nod and gestured to the open doorway, allowing her the courtesy
to leave the room before him, too smart to run from the fight. “I’d expect
nothing less.”

She
swept past him on a witch’s broom of incantations and barely contained rage,
and uttered the words he didn’t expect, “Right before I quit.”

“I
beg your pardon.”

She
flashed him a quick smile, an all is forgiven, an everything is back to normal
programming look. “I said, otherwise I’d be a silly nit.”

They
both knew that’s not what she said. But she didn’t give him time to call her on
it. She left him holding the door and went down the empty corridor to the lift
well. Once out of sight she leant against the wall because her knees had turned
into hunks of soft, squishy caramel. She’d more or less threatened the company
COO with her resignation if she didn’t get a promotion. That would be why it
was difficult to breathe and she felt like throwing up.

She
had a huge mortgage, most of her salary went on it and Mia’s care. She not only
loved her job; despite the issue of seniority, she needed it, and other
companies in the industry had an even worse record for employing women in
leadership roles.

If
she was lucky, she wouldn’t run into Chris for another month and by then
something more critical would’ve claimed his attention. She tested her knees,
the caramel was less gummy. She was a very small cog in the wheel of Chris’
world, and if she kept her head on straight and delivered on her performance
measures, he’d have no need to notice her again.

She
put her hand to her lips. Except for whatever it was her mouth was doing that
he thought was significant enough to pull her aside for. Maybe it was the lack
of colour that got his attention. She’d been in a state leaving the house this
morning, more uptight than Mia, and she’d left her makeup purse on the hall
table. No touch ups almost led to a career dust up.

She
looked at her watch. Four hours and fifteen minutes. And not a minute longer. She
took the fire stairs down two flights to her office. The very first thing she
was doing was calling home to check on Mia, and then she was going to convince
herself not to panic about the possibility Chris was already lodging a
complaint about her with HR.

But
plans can change. The very first thing she was doing was booting Les out of her
office. Les had taken up residency. “Can we do this later?”

“That
bad?”

“Um.
Possibly. I need to call home.” And it would be best to keep what happened to
herself.

Les
stood. “About that. I may have opened something on your desktop while I used
your phone to check my messages.”

Les
went one way around the desk, Audrey went the other. “What do you mean?”

“A
mysterious live portal into another world which looked remarkably like your lounge
room.”

She
plonked down behind her desk and scanned her screen. The nanny cam was running.
“What are you doing opening things on my desktop?”

“What
are you doing with non-standard software applications, and how do I get one?”

“Go
back to your own office.”

“Yours
has a nicer aspect of the car park. Tell me about the camera thing first.”

Audrey
rocked back in her chair and considered Les. “All right, but you tell me about
two weeks ago, Saturday night. A certain invitation by a certain lust inducing
tattooed builder.” She brushed her hand over her head to indicate his
hairstyle.

Les
rolled her eyes. “I told you. He was nice to me. Invited me out. But of course
I didn’t go. I mean, why would I? He didn’t actually mean it.”

“You’re
lying.”

“You’re
spying.” Les put her hands on her hips. “You have non-standard apps on your
desktop.”

“Are
you going to dob on me?”

“I
didn’t go. Why would I go? He was only messing with me. That’s what a man who
looks like Polly does with a woman who looks like me.”

Audrey
lifted a hand and pointed to the corridor. “Out.”

Les
sighed with great fanfare. “Okay, I went. I put proper going out on a Saturday
night clothes on. I put makeup on. I did my hair. I looked awesome. I went to
the pub and he was surrounded by all these glamazon women. He looked right at
me and didn’t register I wasn’t a doorknob.”

Oh
no
.
Audrey grimaced. Why had she pushed this with Les if not to use her to work out
her aggression after the encounter with Chris, and that was evil. “You were
basically wearing a tent when he saw you, what did you expect?” She winched
inwardly because she was still feeling antsy and Les was too convenient a punching
bag.

“I
expect to have a nice time when I stay home with a movie and corn chips. I
expect men like Polly to look through me, or around me, or over my head. Bad
enough it happens at work, it’s guaranteed to happen socially. I don’t expect to
be remembered, and I don’t know why I thought breaking that habit was a good
idea.” Les looked at her shoes. “I felt like an idiot. I saw Reece and Sky but
they didn’t see me and Faux Mo was having a wonderful time. Should’ve seen his
take on Bon Jovi. I was the one living on a prayer, Aud. Now tell me why you
have vision of your own lounge room on your desktop.”

It
was the least she could do. She beckoned Les around the desk. “It’s a nanny cam
program. I had Lin from IT install it for me, so it’s not exactly authorised as
standard build, but he owed me one.”

Les
peered at Audrey’s empty lounge room displayed on the screen. “You are spying. I
knew it. You’re a stalking, spying, distrustful mother fusser.”

“You
make that sound like a bad thing.” It was hard not to laugh, but that would
only encourage Les.

“Are
you going to tell?”

“If
I do that, then it’s not spying, it’s a performance piece.”

Les
frowned. “I guess I can get with that. So long as I can watch.”

“Don’t
you have any work to do? Besides, there’s nothing to see.”

Les
perched on the desk. “In this room, go to the kitchen.”

It
wasn’t a phone call, but if Mia was in the kitchen in range of the camera
hidden in the smoke alarm, it would be the next best thing. Audrey clicked the
nanny cam program and they caught a quick glimpse of Mia running across the screen.
Audrey toggled the menu and there was Mia in the lounge room in front of the
TV. She fumbled for the sound and they heard Mia say. “Wiggle time.” She was
already dancing. It was one of her most favourite things. She had Wiggle time
before lunch most days with Cameron.

“Oh
so sweet,” Les said, and then she said, “that’s very sweet too,” when Reece
walked onto the screen.

He
bent in front of the TV to start the video. They got arm with bulging bicep and
a close up on his jaw and throat as he loomed too close to the hidden camera. He
wore a blue t-shirt and faded blue jeans. He wore socks and so did Mia. Mia
moved from foot to foot, fluffing the skirt on her fairy dress. She was excited
and Audrey felt an immediate pang of relief. Mia wasn’t missing Cameron and
she’d survived half a day with Reece. Four and a bit hours in, and she felt
vindicated she’d done the right thing hiring him.

“Are
we going to dance?” Reece said.

“Yes.
Do the propeller,” Mia answered.

“Is
that like crumping?” said Les, as the music started, a simple regular up-tempo beat,
soft rock and roll toddler style.

Mia’s
hips moved as if she had a hoola hoop. Her arms were out and she waved her
hands. Audrey was transfixed. She knew about this, but she’d never seen it. It
wasn’t part of her routine on the weekends.

Les
clapped. “Shake it, Mia.”

And
then Reece moved in front of the camera again. They said, “Oh my God,” together
as he did the propeller too, a looser, more artful, hip shifting, knee shaking,
rhythmic version. Good Lord, the man could move. He rocked side to side, arms
held out elbows rotating propeller style, big gorgeous smile on his face. He
was utterly in the moment.

“Oh
my God,” she repeated. Her mouth was dry. Her new nanny was impossibly sexy
doing a stupid kid’s dance. Not that he was playing it that way. He danced like
a man who thought his only company was a delighted three year old in a fairy outfit.
He danced with no self-consciousness and total joy, and he laughed and so did
Mia, the two of them hip shaking, elbow twisting, and hand waving along with
The Wiggles. Reece even did the, oh yeahs, in the right place.

“I
think I drooled on your desk,” said Les.

They
got to the part of the song where the lyrics talked about the plane going up,
up, up, then down, down, down, and Reece and Mia stood side by side, the huge
man and the tiny fairy girl partnering perfectly. This was death by adorable. It
made Audrey’s throat go tight.

“What
are you two doing?”

She
looked up to see her team assistant, Claire in the doorway. “Nothing. I thought
you’d be gone longer.” She moved to shut the nanny cam down, but Les blocked
her hand.

On
screen Mia and Reece were making statues, holding poses. Reece stood on one
leg, arms in a circle above his head in a reasonable attempt at a ballet
dancer, while Mia was a tree, or a possum or maybe a star, it was hard to tell.
Didn’t matter, she was delightful.

“I
don’t need root canal after all,” said Claire, as the song ended. “Are you
watching The Wiggles?”

Mia
said, “Again, again,” and there was no further question about whether she was
comfortable being with Reece. He started the song over, and by that time Claire
was leaning over Audrey’s shoulder.

“Is
that the new nanny? You did not say he was man candy. Holy moley. You have that
come to your house every day.”

“He’s
taken,” said Les.

“You
wouldn’t anyway,” said Claire, but she didn’t sound convinced, she prodded
Audrey in the arm. “Would you?”

“No.
Goodness me. He’s the nanny.”

“You
have a male nanny?”

Audrey
threw her hands up, as Marina walked in. She glared at her star project leader
and went for the nanny cam menu again, but Les snatched the mouse, and Claire
said, “We want to see this.”

The
four of them watched while Reece worked up a sweat doing the propeller, and by
the time he got to the up, up, up part, stretching his hands to the ceiling so
that his t-shirt slurped against every muscle in his torso and gapped at the
waist of his jeans, Sue had joined them. When he did his ballerina pose there
was a chorus of awww, and if Audrey’s own reaction was anything to go by, a
whole lot of highly inappropriate female body part clenching.

She
punched a finger on the monitor power and the picture disappeared to the tune
of noooo.

“Does
that happen every day at this time?” said Sue. She was the only other female
project manager, hired after Audrey.

“I’ll
calendarise it,” said Claire.

“Make
sure we’re all sent a reminder,” said Marina.

“We
need a bigger screen, and popcorn,” said Les.

Audrey
stood. “Out. All of you.” Marina and Claire both backed out. Les hovered.

It
had never been a secret Audrey had a nanny for Mia, but she was uncomfortable
with what just happened. It was one thing for her to spy on Reece and share
that with Les, who she trusted implicitly, but half the office would know about
this before the day was out, and that was a true violation of Reece’s privacy. Not
that he’d ever know his propeller caused the kind of excitement in the office attributable
to a teen pop star, but still, it had gotten out of hand.

“A
male nanny,” said Sue. She frowned. Her kids were in high school. She’d had a
nanny for her youngest. “Couldn’t you get a woman?”

It
was none of her business, but she’d stayed behind to make a point. “He was the
best candidate.”

“Brave
of you.”

“He
has terrific qualifications, sterling references. His rapport with Mia was
instant. You just saw that. I’d have been an idiot not to hire him. I hired him
instead of female candidates.”

Sue’s
eyes flared. “But having a strange man in your house, and alone with Mia all
day.” She shook her head. “It would’ve worried me sick. What will you do for
the nights you’re travelling?”

Les’
handset chimed. She backed out of the room, making the kind of face behind
Sue’s back that you might make if you had an urgent need to vomit.

“What
are saying?” The unspoken implication was that Reece wasn’t a good choice, and
worse, that Mia wasn’t safe with him.

“Oh,
nothing. I’m sure it will be fine. And you’ve got the nanny cam. That’s some
security.” Translation: I can’t believe you’ve just compromised the welfare of
your child.

Audrey’d
had enough of unspoken implications for one day. Enough of gender
discrimination for a lifetime.