Unsuitable (9 page)

“And
you can always keep looking.” Addendum: you’re a bad mother if you don’t act to
fix this.”

Audrey
stood. Everyone on the team assumed she and Sue would be friends because they
were women. It didn’t work that way and was time for Sue to mind her own
business. “I’m excited about having Reece look after Mia. I’m sorry you feel
that’s a mistake.”

“I
didn’t say it was a mistake. But I do think it’s taking an unnecessary risk.”

“Which
is exactly why neither of us have been promoted. We’re an unnecessary risk.”

They
stared at each other. This was getting close to being an argument and while
they’d never been friends as such, they’d never gone toe to toe before.

Sue
shook her head. “You’re missing the point.”

“Am
I?” Not likely.

“This
is your own child we’re talking about. And you’re trusting a man who dances
like a Chippendale stripper to look after her.”

It
was Audrey’s turn to look shocked. “Why don’t you go the extra mile while you’re
at it? You think I hired him to have something on the side.”

“I
didn’t say that, Aud.”

“He’s
in my home, not my bed. He has a contract. I pay him a salary. He’s my
employee. And I’m—” She shook her head. How had they gotten to this? What she
did in her private life was no one’s business. If she wanted to screw the nanny
in every room of the house and twice on Sunday in the bathroom, that was
between her and Reece. Except it would be a worse idea than threatening your
company COO.

Sue
frowned. “Say it.”

“I’m
upset you’d even think that about me. That I’d whore myself out to the nanny.”

“I
don’t think that, Audrey. I was out of line with the Chippendale crack. But I
thought you’d laugh. I didn’t think you’d take it this way.”

Audrey
leaned on her desk and closed her eyes. It was only Monday lunchtime, and
already she’d turned a difference of opinion with Sue into an argument, put
herself in Chris’ sights, compromised Reece’s integrity, and betrayed her own
insecurities about hiring him.

It
was going to be a long week.

9:       Magnetic

Audrey
looked trashed, but in a no fresh air, dry-eyed, too much bad coffee and too
long sitting way. Reece thought she needed a stretch, a dozen lung busting breaths,
a good feed, a drink, a massage and a dozen hours of quality sleep. As it was
she’d have to bath Mia, get her to bed, endure through story time and feed herself
before she could relax.

It
wasn’t Reece’s job to cook for Audrey at night, but he’d made a meat sauce for
Mia’s spaghetti dinner, though he knew from Cameron’s briefing notes she’d only
eat the noodles and play with the rest, but he thought Audrey might make use of
what Mia didn’t for her own dinner. He’d also shifted a bottle of white wine
from her wine rack to the fridge, and there was an extra baguette from lunch,
along with a mini apple pie he’d bought at the fresh food markets near Mia’s
kindy gym. He’d worried he might’ve overstepped the mark with the pie, but
looking at Audrey’s pale face, the droop of her shoulders, he was glad he’d
chosen to close out the first week by making it easier for her.

“Hi,”
he said, as Audrey entered the kitchen, dumping her laptop bag on the table and
swooping to kiss Mia. He looked away, while they talked. He was so lame. Five
days on the job without Cameron and still unsure how to relate to Audrey. He
felt too big and too lumbering around her. She was so fine and so well
organised; she made him feel even younger than he was by comparison.

“Red
jelly is better,” Mia said. She’d eaten more jelly than spaghetti, but some of
the meat sauce made it into her mouth, as well as onto the front of her top and
the table.

“It’s
my favourite too,” Audrey said. She straightened up and smiled at him. “We made
it through our first week together.” She rolled her head, putting her hand to
the back of her neck and closing her eyes momentarily. It sounded as though she
hadn’t been sure.

“Tough
week?” He coughed. “I mean, not me. You had a tough week, I mean, did you? My
week was good.” Good for learning to gibber.
Shit
. Way to prove
competence, genius.

Audrey
kindly let the incoherence pass through to the keeper. “Feels like the week had
more than five days.”

“I
won’t dispute that if you want to pay me for more than five.” Reece scratched
his cheek. He wanted to put his big clumsy hand over his enormous stupid mouth,
because oh, yeah baby, let’s shift it up from gibbering to grasping.

She
smiled. “Nice try. Run through the week for me. What worked, what didn’t? What
do we need to change for next week? How was Mia today?”

“I
was good, Mum. I was special good at kindy gym. I did tundling. It was dizzy
Lizzy.”

He
wiped the table in front of Mia, a slop of jelly. “Tumbling.”

“Tundling.”

Who
was he to correct her tonight? “Close enough.”

Audrey’s
eyes were busy, watching Mia, watching him. “So kindy gym was a success.”

Other
than their brief handover in the morning when Audrey was rushing out the door
and in the evenings when he was, this was the only time they’d spent together. There’d
been a daily phone call to check in, brisk and business-like, but their actual
contact had been pretty limited. No wonder she wanted a week’s end roundup.

“How
was playgroup?”

Playgroup
had been a challenge. Of course he’d gone twice with Cameron, so he’d been
introduced to the other mothers and carers, but it was a different thing to go it
alone. To be the only male in the group. He was asked the girlfriend question
four separate times and he was fairly sure Carrie, Eugenia’s mum, propositioned
him. He pretended not to hear her suggestion he bring Mia over for an afternoon
nap so the two of them could chill.

“That
good,” Audrey laughed.

“Mia
loves it.” All the kids were around the same age; it was chaotic, but more laughter
and learning than tears.

“We
don’t have to do it forever.”

“More
jelly, Reece.

Audrey
smoothed a hand over Mia’s hair. “Say may I have more jelly, please, Reece.”

“May
I have jelly prease, Reece.”

He
took her bowl and gave her another tablespoonful. “You’ll turn into jelly.”

She
shook herself head to tail. “Wibble, wobble.” She turned to Audrey. “We did
dancin’ all the days, before lunch.”

“Did
you? Was it Wiggle time?”

Mia
nodded around her spoon. “Did you dance on your own?” Audrey looked at him,
Mia’s brand of mischief in her expression. “Cameron wasn’t a dance fan.”

He
dropped his head, wondering what Mia would come out with. Fortunately she was
unlikely to say he busted a move to
Big Red Car
and
Hot Potato
.

“I
did up, up, up and down, down, down. I was a statue.”

“I
bet you were a good statue.

“I
was a lady beetle.”

Audrey
laughed. She smoothed Mia’s hair again. “We keep kindy gym. Give playgroup
another couple of weeks. Wiggle time is still a big hit. Any trouble with going
to the toilet or getting her to eat?”

“I
eated it all, Mum.”

He’d
bear hugged Cameron when he discovered Mia was completely toilet trained. Accidents
he could cope with, but no nappy changing, that was a bonus.

“Mia
was no trouble at all. Is there anything you need different for next week?”

Audrey
reached for her bag and pulled out her phone. She consulted the screen. “I have
a late meeting Wednesday, could you cover an additional hour, till seven instead
of six?”

“No
problem. Do you feel comfortable with me giving Mia her bath and getting her
ready for bed?”

“Read
me a story in Mum’s bed. But no monsters, only wibble wobble, trundling, and
fairies.”

Audrey
frowned and he braced for an objection. If it came it would be a problem, it
meant he hadn’t won her trust and she wasn’t going to be comfortable leaving
him with Mia overnight. Then she kicked off her killer heels.

“Sorry,
my feet are wrecking me and it’s been a shocker of a week at work.” She was so
much more Ms Bates in her fitted dark suit, she made him twitchy and anxious
but shoeless, she was more the Audrey he could relate to again.

“I
had big problem with a major project. I managed to make my boss’s boss notice
me, not a good thing, and I had my first serious disagreement with the other
female manager on the team. I’m exhausted. I hope the tumbling fairy here is as
well. Can I think about bath time and let you know?”

“Sure.
There’s leftover spaghetti sauce in the fridge. There’s a baguette and dessert.
Not jelly.”

Audrey
opened the fridge. “Really.” She pulled out the bottle of wine and gave him a
smile that not only wiped the layers of tiredness from her face, it made him
feel like doing the propeller dance. “You’re a hero.”

He
stepped sideways to let her move around him and get a glass and there might’ve
been a bounce in his step. He was inordinately pleased about making Audrey happy.
The week had gone without a hitch if you discounted playgroup where he’d felt
like a which of these doesn’t fit puzzle; a vegetable amongst pictures of
fruit, and pleasing his employer was a good way to keep his job.

“You
know you don’t have to provide for me.” Audrey pulled the covered bowl of meat
sauce out of the fridge. “But this is heaven. Thank you, that was very
thoughtful. Can I pour you a drink?”

“Can
I hab a drink?” said Mia.

“Have,”
he said. “Please.”
Shit
, it was reflect. Had he overstepped? He flicked
a glance at Audrey.

“Can
I have a drink, prese.”

Audrey
smiled at him and put a glass of milk in front of Mia.

He
answered her earlier question. “I won’t, thanks.”

He
put a magnetic dress up doll and its wardrobe of outfits in front of Mia,
taking a seat beside her. He was taking Sky out for dinner at the new Mongolian
BBQ place, but he had time and he wanted this, to learn about the mother like
he’d learned about the daughter.

“Will
you be able to fix your problem at work?”

Audrey
sat opposite Mia at the table with her wine glass. They both watched while Mia
changed Princess Olivia’s sparkly dress.

“A
contractor defaulted. It’s a big four-letter word problem.”

He
grinned at her replacement word strategy. He was conscious of having to clean
up his language after months on the job with Polly where four letter words were
nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Sometimes in the same sentence. Sometimes
they were a whole sentence.

“I
keep wondering if I should’ve seen it coming. If I could’ve prevented it. It
puts my whole project in jeopardy right at a time when I didn’t need to screw
up,” she said.

“Don’t
strew up, Mummy.”

Audrey
reached over and adjusted Princess Olivia’s crown. “That’s upside down, isn’t
it?”

“No.”
Mia put the crown back the way it was.

It
might’ve been upside down. Reece found it hard to tell. He was better at
Barbie. There was nothing flat pack about Barbie. All woman, even if
structurally unsound. If a tradie defaulted on a Pollidore Homes job the shit
hit the fan. From what he understood, Audrey managed large infrastructure
builds, mostly for government and big companies. She wasn’t dealing with one
pissed off family but a family tree of trouble.

“What
can you do?”

“Crisis
talks. I have to come up with a workable alternative and fast.”

“And
if you can’t, what’s the worst case?”

She
groaned. “My COO asked that question too. It’ll be like a group of hungry and riotously
tired three year olds with the means of hurting themselves and each other
without any adult supervision. Just about everyone will get hurt and there will
be tears before bedtime.”

He
laughed. “I’ll stick with Wiggle time.”

“Better
you than me.”

Mia
slid off her seat and ran into the other room. Reece leaned back in his chair
to watch her. He’d distract her if she started pulling out too many toys.

Audrey
did the same thing, looking into the next room at Mia. “I love her to bits, but
she wears me out. I’m exhausted after the weekend. I don’t know how you manage
five days.”

“I
get my evenings off remember, and I don’t have to worry about politics like you
do.”

“Playgroup?”

He
grinned. “Yeah, that might test me.”

“Don’t
let Junna get to you. She’s desperately single, but she’ll travel with the
Sinclairs when they go to London. And don’t let Carrie frighten you off
either.”

Audrey
left the table and poured another glass of wine, asking again with a gesture if
he wanted one. He shook his head. She returned to the table. “Don’t let her
proposition you.”

He
made a sound of surprise and turned it into a call to Mia to put the farmyard
back in the toy box. Junna had been obviously interested, but Carrie,
Jesus
.

“Oh
my God, Reece, she already did.”

He
grimaced. “I don’t know if that’s what it was.” He didn’t know if Carrie was a
good mate of Audrey’s, best to play this down, ignorance was security.

“If
she asked you to her place, that’s probably what it was.” Audrey groaned. “Her
husband is twenty years older. He’s a bigwig in aviation. He’s never around. She’s
so terribly lonely and so terribly horny. I’m so sorry, Reece. I’ll tell her to
lay off. Unless you’re...in your own time...she’s very attractive...ah.”

Colour
rushed into Audrey’s face. There was a timely crash in the other room and Reece
stood. Mia had upended the toy box. “I’ll just, um,” he gestured towards the
mess. Anything to get out of this conversation.

Audrey
groaned. “Gah, give me a work crisis any day.”

He
righted the toy box and started to repack it while Mia helped by putting stuff
in the box then taking it out again. It was a toss-up as to which of them was
quicker.

“Leave
it, Reece. I’ll do it. You should get on with your night.”

He
got to his feet. Audrey was standing in the doorway. “I wouldn’t with Carrie.”

“If
it’s not on my time, it’s none of my business, Reece.”

“All
the same. I wouldn’t.”

“You’re
serious about Sky.”

He
picked up the head of a doll and a block with a piece of rope like a tail and chucked
them in the box. “We’re living together.”

“Sounds
serious.”

It
was different, that’s for sure. Early days, they were still navigating around
each other, much like what was going on here, but with more tension, which now
he thought about it, was frustrating.

“It
must be wonderful.”

He
picked up a black and white cow loose from its plastic herd. That’s how he
felt, as though he’d wandered away from a relationship he should’ve felt secure
in and gotten lost in the bush. He had drawers and wardrobe space. His Monaro
was in the garage, but it didn’t feel like home yet. He was a neat freak and
Sky was into minimalism so that should’ve worked, but they were irritating each
other. He missed the girls. And he couldn’t tell Sky that, she wouldn’t
understand.