Armani Angels (25 page)

‘So why didn't you tell me?'

‘I couldn't, Mum. I'm so sorry, I am so weak, I really am. I knew it would hurt you, I knew it would make you really sad. I couldn't get Amy out of my mind and how devastated she was when Gavin two-timed her, and I didn't want to be the one to have to tell you, to put you through that kind of pain.'

‘Oh, you poor boy, what a dreadful burden you've been carrying around. You're not weak; you're wonderful, protecting me like that. I wish you had come to me. I didn't take the news so badly after all, did I?'

‘No, you're cool. A lot happier than Amy was. So what happens now?' Tyler asked.

‘Now? Well, now it's bedtime, and after that, tomorrow's another day. I guess we'll just have to see. I know that your dad and I will both still want to be in your life as much as we can.' She stood and yawned. ‘So, are you bringing a date on Saturday night to the Mal-Teaser function?'

‘Yeah, maybe, I dunno. Nah, yeah, I dunno.'

‘Okay, well, once you've made up your mind let me know. Goodnight, big guy, see you in the morning.'

‘Goodnight, Mum.' He stood up next to her; his lanky frame towered over hers. He wrapped her in his arms and gave her a big squeeze. ‘I'm sorry Dad did this to you, Mum, but I'll never let you down. I'm here for you, okay? We'll get through this together.'

Gemma squeezed her son around his trunk and leaned her head against him. Her eyes, although shut tight, leaked fat, wet, silent tears onto his T-shirt.

So, she thought, in the end she couldn't give her son the family she had been so sure he needed. Maybe she should start concentrating on giving him a tolerable divorce experience instead. After all, that's what
she
needed. That's what they all needed.

‘Gemma Bristol?' Gemma tucked her phone under her chin and continued to scroll through the list of guests.

She smiled as she realised who was on the other end of the line. ‘Laura, so good to hear from you . . . What? . . . Coffee? Well, I'm fairly busy, as you can imagine – the function's tomorrow. I have to finish up here then head over to the venue for the set-up; I have hundreds of workers arriving this afternoon to install various things . . . Okay, the cafe downstairs would be great . . . I could use a pick-me-up. See you in ten.'

She hung up the phone and finished the list, saving it then attaching it to an email which she sent to her iPhone and to her team so that everyone had an up-to-date version.

Gemma grabbed her bag and walked to the elevator, stopping at various stations en route to check in with her team.

Bethany was tapping away at her keyboard. A large video camera was attached to the computer.

‘Hi, Bethany. How are you going with the webstreaming idea? That was sheer genius by the way.'

‘Hi, Gemma. No biggie, Ustream is a brilliant way of keeping our at-home Mal-Teaser members involved in the event.'

‘Fantastic, show me.'

Bethany clicked away until a hummingbird in a nest appeared on the monitor. It blinked a few times and looked around. ‘This is Phoebe, a Channel Island Allen's Hummingbird. I don't know what is so exciting about her but she has a webcam trained on her twenty-four seven and has had three million views in the last twenty-four hours.' Bethany moved her mouse around the screen to show Gemma how the live webstream technology worked using the hummingbird as the example. ‘This little bird currently has 864 people watching her live.'

‘That's truly incredible,' Gemma said as she looked over Bethany's shoulder. ‘Great quality.'

‘Well, that all depends on the standard of the webcam in use. We've gone top shelf with this baby.' She patted the video camera to her left. ‘Our stream will be brilliant.'

‘Are you going to move it around during the night? Or keep it in one spot?'

‘Move it around, definitely,' Bethany said. ‘I will have it on the hot-pink carpet at the beginning of the evening to show everybody as they arrive, then on the dance floor for two hours, then in other parts of the room and finish off in the chill-out room.'

Gemma chuckled. ‘I hope we don't get sued. Imagine the scandals we could unearth if people aren't aware of the camera.'

‘Oh, it's well publicised that there are cameras about the place,' Bethany reassured her.

Patty walked by, her arms laden with brand-new Flip video cameras. The high-definition mobile-phone-sized Flip camera was the hottest gadget in the tech-set.

‘Oh, Patty,' Gemma stopped her. ‘How'd your Facebook video comp go? Anything good come in?'

‘Are you kidding?' Patty grinned. ‘Brilliant stuff. We had thousands of entries; I had to hire a group of uni students just to get them all viewed.'

As the resident Facebook fiend, Patty had started a fan page for the event, transferring thousands of friends from her page to the fan page. It instantly went viral when Patty posted a contest to send in a video showing how chocolate got you through tough times. The twenty winners received free Flip cameras and a ticket to the event, where another contest would determine the winner of the best coverage of the event. The overall winner would get a MacBook complete with the latest movie-editing software.

‘Well done, absolutely wonderful. You're a very clever techy,' Gemma said, with a hand on Patty's back.

‘I hope that's not like a Trekkie,' Patty said and grinned in response.

‘Isn't it Trekker?' Bethany asked and Gemma continued on to the elevator, leaving the girls discussing
Star Trek
semantics.

The lift door opened. Chantelle was inside engrossed in her phone. ‘Hi, Chantelle. What are you doing here?' Gemma asked and stepped back so she could enter the floor. The lift closed.

‘Oh, Gemma, luv, bloody Dame Frances has amped up the comp, darl. Just wanted to come by and tell you the news myself.'

‘Oh, God, what's she done?'

‘Well, you know her event has sold out but she also got that big private donation which brings you neck and neck?'

‘Yeeesss,' Gemma said.

‘Well, guess who's coming to dinner?'

‘Who?'

‘Rumour has it,' at this Chantelle waggled her phone, ‘that bloody Liz herself is involved.'

‘Liz who?'

‘Liz fooking Windsor, that's who.' Chantelle's bottom lip stuck out.

‘The Queen? She's got the Queen of England involved? You can't be serious.'

‘Well, not directly as such,' Chantelle wriggled out of her exaggeration, ‘but the Queen's rep. Turns out the Governor-General is going.'

‘Quentin Bryce is going to the ball? My God, this is huge, the donations will flood in. Bloody Dame Frances, will she stop at nothing? She's formidable.'

‘You ain't wrong there, my darling.'

Gemma stared in horror at her friend. She had seriously underestimated Dame Frances's abilities and connections. What did Gemma think she was doing having this little Facebook party when Dame Frances had such a strong, untouchable network? There was absolutely no way she was going to beat the Dame. She'd been stupid to think that she could have.

Gemma smiled weakly at Chantelle. ‘I'm sure it won't impact on us at all,' she said with all the bravado she could muster. ‘Anyway I'm glad you're here. Come downstairs with me; I'm having coffee with Laura.' The women stepped into the lift and continued to discuss the implications of this A-lister's attendance at the Rum Ball.

The cafe lay directly opposite the lift door on the ground floor. Gemma and Chantelle went in, stood in the queue, ordered and paid for three lattes.

‘G'day,' a voice behind them said.

‘Oh, hi, Laura.' They were at the coffee station. ‘Do you have sugar?'

‘Nope, as it comes.'

The three women made their way over to the only empty table in the cafe's far back corner and sat.

‘I heard about your marriage split,' Laura started.

‘It's a right cock-up, it is,' Chantelle put in.

Gemma slumped. ‘Did Mathew say how Tyler's doing with the break-up?'

‘He says he's okay about it. After all, Gemma, it's not like the olden days; it's so common for a marriage to break up. It's not as if he'll feel like an outcast or anything.'

‘I know, Laura, that makes sense, but why can't I shake this horrible feeling of failure? My marriage failed. After all those years. I know it's for the best, but it still hurts.'

‘Of course it does. You can't walk away from a major part of your life and not feel something. It's tough, darl, what you've been through.'

Gemma sighed and stared into her corrugated cardboard cup. ‘Going through, I'm afraid. It's a long and nasty road ahead of me. I still feel rotten about it. I can't untangle my emotions, you know? They're all tied together and I'm left with this horrid rock-like lump right here.' She placed her fingers onto her throat.

‘Tell me about that. Maybe I can help,' Laura offered. She leaned forward and put her hand on Gemma's left forearm. Chantelle linked an arm in Gemma's right one. ‘It's completely natural that you feel confused and upset. This is a dramatic life change for you, and your son is involved, so you're going to feel effects from this great upheaval. So spill.'

‘Well, first of all, I do have feelings of betrayal.' She looked at both women. ‘I can't help but feel so cheated. Even though I was just as bad.'

‘You weren't, darlin' girl. They're so much worse!' Chantelle loyally piped up.

Gemma went on. ‘I can't bear the fact they were sneaking behind my back for so long. As soon as it happened with Peter and me, I immediately knew I had to do the right thing by Stephen. I mean, I know it was wrong, I know it was too late, but marriage is just such a hard thing to get out of unless there is an enormous catalyst like this. You know, she and Stephen are actually a good match; they suit each other.' She grinned at the women.

‘They sure do,' Chantelle said.

‘So, if I look really closely, I can see beyond the pain and mutual betrayal and kind of enjoy the irony of the situation,' she frowned again, ‘but that leads me down the track of enjoying the sweet revenge that two really cruel people are going to inflict pain on each other in the near future.'

‘That would be a bonus,' Laura smiled, ‘wouldn't it?'

‘I just don't enjoy being the kind of person who feels happy at another's misfortune – what's it called, schadenfreude?'

‘I'm no Einstein, or Freud for that matter, but I'd warrant it's a completely normal feeling, wanting a little revenge,' Laura suggested. ‘Let it run its course. This might sound childish, but when I was going through tough times with one particularly nasty boyfriend I did a boxing class and imagined the punching bag was him shouting at me. The intense physical expenditure of anger honestly drained me of those feelings and it really worked.'

‘Really?' Gemma said. ‘Well, that's a great suggestion. I might try that, get it out of my system.'

‘Ooh, yeah,' Chantelle nodded eagerly, ‘I'll come, I love punching things up.' She clenched her little fists and made a one-two punching motion.

‘Now you know I'm here for you if you ever need to talk,' Laura said. ‘We both are.' She nodded towards Chantelle.

Laura continued, ‘I'm in a much happier place myself nowadays. I look back and see how prickly and bitchy I've been, and I was completely blind to it at the time but God, I was a bossy cow.'

‘No,' Gemma said, ‘not at all.' She saw Laura's disbelieving expression. ‘Well, maybe a little bit.' The women laughed. ‘So how's Gino?' Gemma grinned; she was so happy about her friend's new outlook on life.

‘Buono. Molto buono,' she said and smiled such a shy girlish smile Gemma could only conclude she was head over heels. ‘But the best news is Mathew is really making an effort at home. He looks up to Gino so much that he tries to be the best he can be, it's wonderful.'

‘Laura, I am so pleased for you. But, girls –' she glanced at her watch, ‘oh my God, I have to go. I need to finish off upstairs and hustle over to The Shed. Are you both coming down?'

‘I am. I have to pick up those large mounted images of chocolate for you to hang in the chill-out room then I'm heading straight there.'

‘Excellent. See you then.'

‘And I'm popping in later to see that the stylists have made the place look nice and trampy enough,' Chantelle said with a wink.

The women all stood and walked in single file towards the door. On an impulse, Gemma turned and encircled the women in a group hug. ‘Thank you so much, girls. I really needed to talk.'

‘Yeah, we know you did. We've got your back,' Laura responded. Chantelle rubbed Gemma's arm and smiled before each turned and went her separate way.

*

Gemma leaned against the rear wall of the lift and stared at the display as the lift ascended. What was she going to do about this job offer? She was truly torn. It was becoming increasingly difficult to find time to dedicate to the decision as the rest of her life galloped on at a frightening pace. If she said yes to Dirk and took on the job, she'd surely drown. What with the divorce, her son's needs, not to mention her day-to-day responsibilities to her clients. Of course she was doing the job already but Dirk had explained how much larger the new role would be. New offices, new clients, expanding in the region. She'd be away from home even more. And that was the last thing Tyler needed. Then again, the pay hike would be stratospheric. And, after all, she could use more money when Stephen and she split their assets.

But if she said no, she'd be letting her company down. And it would be career suicide. They'd never ask her again. Besides, she hated to think of disappointing Peter. Gemma thought back to his excitement when Dirk had made the offer. She smiled at the memory. The shortness of breath tickled the back of her throat as the lift arrived at her floor. She took in a deep breath, squared her shoulders and stepped into the bustling, open-plan space of IQPR.