Falling for the Lawyer

chapter Seven


When Sophie was made Acting Head of HR her brother had given her an illustrated coffee table book featuring the best excuses to give your boss when taking a sickie. When Alex visited Sophie’s house she’d occasionally flick through its pages and some of the more creative excuses were still clear in her mind.

‘My dog is having a nervous breakdown’ was one of Alex’s favourites, as was ‘My toe is stuck in a bath tap.’ There were quite a few others coming to Alex’s mind too as she travelled to work that morning. Unfortunately, she was positive that none of them would satisfy JP were she to ring in sick that day, despite their creative flair. But it wasn’t until she sat down at her desk at eight-thirty, her mobile phone ringing like crazy in the depths of her handbag, that she finally accepted that her mental quest to find a way out of an entire day sitting next to JP had failed.

“Hi Hun!” Simon piped up cheerfully on the other end of her phone when Alex finally answered it. “Can you get away for an hour by any chance? I’m in the city now. “

Alex hesitated. Normally she wouldn’t leave the office for no good reason but she was going to be working very late and so agreed immediately. Somehow, she’d clear it with JP and it would give her an opportunity to spend some desperately needed private time with Simon.

Despite spending most of the weekend together at his family’s house things were still strained between them. Time and time again she’d tried to begin a conversation to clear the air after JP’s interference at her parents’ home. She was also desperate to raise the subject of her working and studying for the next few years rather than starting their family straight away but an opportunity never seemed to come up. In fact, Alex wondered at times whether Simon was intentionally avoiding being alone with her so that he could also avoid discussing the sensitive topics JP had raised.

“Yes, I’m sure I can get away. That’ll be fine,” she replied. “Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise. I’ll pick you up outside your building in ten minutes and have you back in the city by ten.”

“Are you sure you can’t give me a hint about where we’re going?”

“No, so don’t ask. See you soon.” With that he rang off without giving Alex any further chance to protest.

Feeling oddly unsettled about what lay in store for her that morning she wandered distractedly into JP’s office. He was poring over papers at his desk but his blue eyes soon began a slow but detached elevation across every square inch of her body before resting finally upon her face.

“New dress?”

“Yes. My friend Sophie helped me choose it. In fact, who am I kidding? She did choose it.” Alex could hear the babble in her voice as she ran a hand nervously over the cool lycra of the navy blue dress that fitted her like a glove before adding, “I’m not much good at that sort of thing.”

“Aye, I know that,” he agreed, a droll curl at his mouth. “What can I do for you?”

“Do you mind if I go out for about an hour now? I wouldn’t normally ask but it’s important and I’ll be out of action until tomorrow …”

“That’s fine,” he interrupted. “Where are you going?”

“I don’t know. Simon wants to take me somewhere.”

JP muttered something inaudible.

“What did you say?” Alex asked tetchily He didn’t need to put his two cents worth into it. After all, he’d promised to stay out of her private life.

“Nothing. Are you still free for this ten o’clock meeting with Mark Jackson?”

“Of course. I said I was.”

“So you think you’ll be coming, even though you’re having this rendezvous with Simon this morning?”

“Yes,” Alex replied, unable to keep the edginess out of her voice, unsure where he was coming from with his questioning.

“All right then. I’ll meet you in the hotel foyer at ten.”

Alex wandered back out feeling wretched and unhappy and she had no idea why. Her mood wasn’t improved when her mobile rang again and her mother’s voice was at the other end.

“Have you got a minute, Alex? I need to speak to you.”

Alex’s heart sank. She knew that tone of voice. A lecture was on its way.

“I don’t really have a minute Mum, no,” she replied, but sensing the call was going to go ahead whether she liked it or not she wandered into an empty office nearby and closed the door.

“I’ll only be a minute. This can’t wait.” Mary Farrer’s reply was sharp.

Alex sighed. Short of hanging up on her own mother there was no possible way she was going to escape the talk.

“I’ve hesitated about asking you this until now but it can’t wait any longer. I want to know what’s going on with you, young lady. Last Thursday night was a three-ring circus. You’re supposed to be marrying Simon but anyone looking at you would never have guessed it. I saw the way you looked at Jonathan McKenzie. The way he looked at you. Do you think I’m blind?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Alex said, genuinely shocked at her mother’s acute observational powers.

“Oh yes you do. Something’s going on there.”

“Mum, that’s just not right,” Alex defended herself, although her mother was breathtakingly closer to the truth than she knew.

“I don’t know that Simon saw what I saw but if you carry on like that it’ll only be a matter of time.”

“There’s nothing to see, Mum. I promise you, there’s nothing going on.”

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Alex. I love Monique but I know she’s got her eye on Simon. One false move from you and you’ll lose him to her for good and who would blame him?”

“How can you suggest that of Monique?” Alex shot back.

Monique pursuing Simon? It couldn’t be true!

“Easily. I wasn’t born yesterday. She’s crazy about him and he’s a good catch.”

“This is not a fishing competition!” Alex was unable to keep the exasperation out of her voice. Somehow she had to wind the phone call up, and fast.

“That’s exactly what it is. And what’s all this nonsense about studying law? What do you want to go and do that for when you and Simon are starting a family soon? You’ll never use it.”

“What if it’s what I want,” Alex snapped. “Has anyone actually asked me what I want? Have you and Dad once sat me down and asked me what I want to do with my life, my career, my marriage …?” Alex stopped and closed her mouth, wondering where all the pent up anger was coming from all of a sudden.

Silence reigned on the other end of the phone. “Your father and I have done everything for you,” Mary Farrer replied eventually in a crackly voice, clearly hurt. “And now you’re suggesting that we’ve forced you into things?”

“No I’m not blaming you and Dad. Things got away from me a long time ago and I should have spoken up sooner. It’s my fault.”

“I don’t understand where all this talk is coming from! Your father and I want whatever makes you happy.”

“But I’m not happy Mum, that’s the problem,” Alex croaked huskily, tears welling. A long silence reigned on the other end of the phone before Alex continued.

“I know you want me to be happy but my life is in a big mess and I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t know how to start telling the people I love what it is I really want. But I’m sorry, I’m going to have to hang up now. I’m at work and Simon’s picking me up soon …”

“All right then,” Mary conceded. “I’ll let you go but I think you’d better come over soon and talk to your father and me. Can you come tonight?”

“No. I’ll be tied up with work until late. I’ll give you a call as soon as I can come over.”

Alex rang off in a daze of disbelief. Was her mother right? Was there really something between herself and JP? Was Monique really on a mission to lure Simon away from his engagement? Impossible questions! And absolutely no chance to digest them, for Alex had to grab her bag and head out of her office as fast as she could to meet Simon outside.

“Where are we going?” she asked breathlessly just minutes later as she slipped into the passenger seat of Simon’s black Saab.

“Bellevue Hill.”

“Bellevue Hill!” Alex echoed. What could possibly be at Bellevue Hill that he needed to pull her out of work for? “And you won’t let me know what this is all about?”

“No,” Simon shook his head definitively. “Do you have to rush back to work? I thought we could grab an early lunch afterwards.”

Alex felt a sick feeling in her stomach as she anticipated his reaction to her next response. “I can’t, Simon. I’m sorry. I have to be at the Central Hotel for a meeting at ten. I’m likely to be there until late, maybe after midnight.”

“Until when?” he bit back, slamming his hand down upon the steering wheel, unable to conceal his frustration and anger. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“I was going to tell you this morning on the phone but you cut me off.”

“This is getting ridiculous! When are you going to give up all this nonsense, Alex?”

“It’s not nonsense. It’s my work.”

“Tell them you can’t go,” he demanded.

“No, I’ve agreed to go so that a statement can be drawn up today, and it’s not an unreasonable request when you work at a law firm. The matter’s urgent.”

“I can’t take too much more of this!” Simon warned. “I could cope with it when I was busy in New Zealand but now I’m back I don’t want to be met with your work commitments every time I suggest something.”

“I like working Simon, you know that.”

“You don’t need to work. I’m a wealthy man.”

“But I want to work,” she argued. How could she put it more simply?

“Maybe I could understand it if you were doing something important. But the way you’re talking you’d think you were Hilary goddamn Clinton!”

Alex’s hand rose to her lips and pressed on them tightly to stop the violent wobble that threatened. But she couldn’t hold back the two salty tears of crushing humiliation stinging her eyes. She stared out the passenger window and brushed them away. She couldn’t have said a word if she’d tried. Simon withdrew into a sulky, guilty silence that Alex knew from experience would last quite awhile.

Within fifteen minutes they were pulling up outside an apartment complex. Alex was sufficiently aware of her surroundings to notice it all looked brand new and that a sale board was out the front. Her heart pounded in anxious anticipation.

When they climbed out of the car a man approached them from the front door and held out his hand firstly to Simon and then to Alex.

“Robert Jones. We spoke this morning, Simon. This must be your fiancée. Nice to meet you, Alex.”

The blood was pounding so deafeningly at her temples that Alex hardly knew how she babbled a greeting in return. Thankfully, like so many real estate agents, he had the gift of the gab and dominating the conversation he soon had them through the front door of the stunning but rather soulless apartment.

Alex was grateful that Robert kept them fully occupied with his endless pitch about the modern features of the vast property. She wandered around in a half daze, nodding and making admiring noises every now and then. Simon watched her closely but she couldn’t bring herself to look at him.

Close to half an hour must have passed as Robert talked the talk. Simon asked lots of questions about proximity to schools, transport and shops. Finally Robert and Simon got around to price and Alex almost fell over.

“We should be able to persuade the developer to come in at under three and a half,” Robert explained. “He hasn’t been able to offload as quickly as he’d have liked and is under some pressure.”

Three and a half million dollars! Alex was staggered. She couldn’t help but stare at Simon. She’d known he was comfortable but had no idea he was that well off. Robert was looking at Alex carefully when he suggested that Simon might like to take her out onto the terrace to discuss an offer.

She wandered outside obediently. Each apartment was cantilevered down a steep slope. The apartment they were in was at the top and had stunning views across the eastern suburbs to the distant ocean. A lap pool to their right sparkled aqua blue in the bright sunshine. Adjacent to it was an enormous marble terrace. It was like something on the Amalfi Coast—it was every girl’s dream home.

“Well, what do you think?” Simon queried, his expression a mixed offering of excitement and awkwardness after their earlier conversation.

“It’s beautiful,” Alex murmured as she basked in the warm morning sunshine.

“Can you see yourself living here?”

“Simon, I’ve never seen myself living in a home like this. I had no idea you could afford it.”

“You mean ‘we’,” he corrected her.

“Whatever. It’s a lot to think about. And we haven’t looked at anything else yet.”

“You won’t find better than this.”

“Perhaps not, but don’t you think it would be a good idea if we looked for a place together? Robert said the developer was having trouble selling these so why don’t we take a few weeks and see what’s around?”

Simon’s features grew hard. “This is all because of the comment I made in the car about your work, isn’t it?”

“No, of course not, although I want us to talk more openly about our future from now on. You’ve been away so long and there’s lots we need to discuss.”

Simon laughed spitefully. “Like whether or not a three and a half million dollar home is good enough for you?”

Alex flushed as she noticed Robert disappear inside the apartment to give them more privacy.

“It’s not that Si,” she explained, keeping her voice low. “We should be planning things together. Isn’t that half the fun?”

“Fun! This is fun, isn’t it? I bring you along to a place like this and suggest we buy it only to be told in the car that you’re too busy with work to stay long and you think we should be discussing everything together!”

Alex couldn’t answer. Again she was fighting back tears of frustration and misery. But was Simon right? Was she just being difficult?

“I feel as though your work has always been more important to you than our engagement,” he railed. “You’ve resisted everything I’ve tried to do to move it forward to a wedding.”

“You’re right, I have,” she conceded. “And I’m sorry about that. We were engaged very young and I felt we were far too immature to get married back then. But we can move forward now. There’s nothing to stop us.”

“Except your work,” he corrected, pressing the advantage he sensed he was gaining in their conversation.

“Simon, let’s not talk about that again. Not here.”

“Why not? It’s highly relevant to this discussion. How are you going to plan a wedding when you’re working the hours you are?”

“I can do it,” she assured him. “Lots of girls in the office juggle both.”

“But I don’t want you to ‘juggle’ it. I want you to have time to do it properly rather than just jamming phone calls and menus in at spare moments.”

“Are you saying you want me to give work up now?”

“Yes, I guess I am,” he declared bluntly. “And you can forget all that nonsense about doing law too. You’ll never use it; it’s a complete waste of our time and money.”

Alex turned away and gazed blindly out across the view, taking in nothing.

“We’re going to start a family soon anyway,” Simon continued, unmoved by her silence. “We always agreed we would.”

“No, Simon,” Alex replied coldly, “You agreed we would. I’m far from being ready to start a family.”

Alex watched transfixed as his face turned pink with anger. “This is ridiculous,” he scoffed, shaking his head. “You’re a secretary. You earn a fraction of the profits I’ll be taking out of my next business. You’ll make no contribution to our financial position at all.”

“That’s not the point,” Alex argued, reeling from his dismissal. “I enjoy it. I enjoy the challenge and the friendships. I enjoy having a shape to my day when I wake up every morning. And I … I think I’m pretty good at it.”

“Okay,” Simon announced, suddenly brighter as though thinking a great idea through. “If you really want to work for awhile you can come and be a secretary at my business, part-time.”

Alex swallowed. His expression told her he was clearly struck by the sense and logic of his suggestion. How could she explain that it was not enough?

“I don’t want to work part-time. And I don’t think it’s a good idea for a husband and wife to work together anyway.”

“This is all because that boss of yours has done a job on your ego about doing law, isn’t it?”

“No, that’s not fair, Simon. What you don’t know is that I’ve wanted to do law for a long time and certainly before JP arrived. He made the offer, that’s true, but my real failure is that I should have discussed it with you and Mum and Dad ages ago. I was wrong not to.”

“God help me, all of a sudden you’re thinking about no one but yourself!”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Robert had approached Alex and Simon without their noticing. He’d clearly heard much of their recent exchange. “I have to show another place shortly but I can meet you back here later today if you’d like to see it again.”

“Alex here has to go back to work on a very important job,” Simon explained sulkily. “But I’d like to look at it again.”

Not another word passed between them as minutes later she and Simon walked to the car.

“I can phone for a cab if that’s easier,” Alex offered, knowing he would never agree.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Get in,” he ordered and they were the last words he uttered to her that day.

When he pulled over at the drop-off zone outside the hotel he glared straight ahead through the front windscreen, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.

“Si, can we please not leave things like this. This is awful,” Alex pleaded but he didn’t flinch. The second she stepped onto the footpath and closed the car door he sped off in a fury of rubber tyre friction on tarmac.

Alex stood there motionless, watching as his black car weaved recklessly through the long line of cabs and other vehicles in the traffic. In a daze of mortification and heartache she then walked into the foyer of the hotel.

JP was waiting for her.

He was sitting on a lounge chair with one foot propped up on his other leg, balancing his laptop precariously on his knee and typing very badly with only two fingers involved in the process. Alex stood there frozen, almost insensible of what she would do or say to him.

As though sensing her presence he looked up and then straight across at her. His smile was heart meltingly gentle as he shifted his computer onto the seat next to him and climbed to his feet. Watching her closely he walked slowly to where she stood rooted to the ground.

“You came,” he murmured quietly, running a hand through his hair in a clear gesture of relief. “I had the strongest feeling you wouldn’t; I fully expected to get a call from you at any minute … what’s wrong?”

But before the words had escaped his lips it started.

Great, racking sobs gripped Alex’s entire body as she burst into tears. Dropping her bag to the ground she lifted her hands to cover her face and stooped forward under the crushing weight of the agony consuming her. In the next moment, he’d gathered her into his arms as she moaned and sobbed helplessly into the safe haven of his broad chest.