The Boyfriend Sessions (11 page)

I watched, biting my lip a little too hard, while a broad grin spread across Scarlett’s features. “If only it was that simple,” she replied mysteriously.

Cate narrowed her eyes at Scarlett, then turned back to me. “Alright. Spill.”

I shook my head innocently. “It turned out we weren’t all that compatible, that’s all.”

Scarlett attempted to laugh quietly into her wine, but failed. Cate looked at us, but when neither of us would say anything further, she groaned. “It can’t be that bad.”

Maddy, who was watching our conversation silently with a serious look on her face, also broke into a wide grin and started giggling uncontrollably. She waved an apologetic hand in my direction. “I’m sorry, Christa. I tried, I really did.”

Scarlett and Maddy dissolved into fits of laughter so strong Scarlett had tears in her eyes.

“Traitors,” I hissed.

“Christa, tell me!” Cate appealed emotionally.

I looked at Max. He watched his sister and Scarlett with an amused grin, then turned his brown eyes to meet mine. “Would you like me to leave the room?”

The thought was tempting, but a perverse part of me willed him to stay. Possibly because I wondered if, by sharing the worst details of my love life, he might open up to me and tell me what had happened with his ex-fiancée. “No, stay. It would be interesting to get a guy’s perspective on things.”

“Stop stalling, Christa and tell us please,” Cate interrupted.

I sighed. “The nickname Jumpy Justin didn’t happen because he was shy,” I revealed. “After a few months, he gave me a key to his place, so I could meet him there after work or classes. Things were pretty relaxed between us.”

“Or so she thought,” added Scarlett.

“Yes, until whenever I’d walk in on him using his laptop, he’d shut it down really quickly and have this intensely guilty look on his face,” I told them.

“Porn,” Max deduced.

All four of us stared at him wide-eyed.

“What?” he said, with a shrug. “I’m a guy. Guys watch porn from time to time. And before you go getting on your high horses, don’t think women don’t enjoy it too.”

Cate looked at him, so perplexed that Scarlett laughed. “Fifty Shades of Grey, Cate, think about it.”

“Oh, of course,” she replied quickly, a little flushed.

Scarlett shook her head, amused. “Mr Grey strikes again.”

Max laughed softly. “So he had some porn. Is that a deal breaker for you?”

I blinked and considered his question. “Generally, no. In this case, yes.”

“So he had loads of it, then?”

“Speaking from experience?” Scarlett suggested.

Max frowned, then recovered himself. “Want to see my hard drive do you?”

I watched them quietly, wondering how to redirect the conversation. Before I could find the words, Maddy helpfully re-joined the conversation.

“It wasn’t the amount of porn, Max, it was the content itself,” she informed him.

“Oh, right.” He thought for a moment. “A bit too recreational for you then?”

Cate’s eyes widened. “Oh dear, did he go all Mr Grey on you?”

I laughed, at a loss for words. “I wish.”

Max’s eyebrows shot up, a giant question mark. “Give us some help here, Christa. Not sure where you’re going with all of this.”

I cleared my throat. “There were a lot of men.” There. I’d said it.

“Oh,” Max and Cate said almost simultaneously.

“Lots of men,” Scarlett repeated, just in case they hadn’t got it.

“Oh dear,” Cate mused. “Had you ever noticed anything odd when you two were, er … ”

“They didn’t.”

Thank you again, Scarlett
.

“But you were together six months!” Poor Cate. This was proving a little too much for her.

“I know,” I said with a sigh. “But as you already know, I was on the rebound and quite happy to take things slowly after the horror of Handy Hamish.”

“Weren’t you worried?” Cate asked, still trying to get her head around things.

“Not at first, no. I mean, we cuddled and kissed and everything but Justin claimed he was a virgin. Paired with his shyness, I figured he just needed time. It actually seemed kind of sweet, to be honest.”

Max shook his head. “Massive warning sign. Guys like having sex. If he was a twenty-year-old virgin, he should have been even more eager.”

“Thank you for the advice, but it’s come a little too late,” I replied acidly.

“I tried to tell her,” Scarlett said. “But she wouldn’t hear it.”

“So, you found the questionable subject matter on his laptop, what then?” Cate asked.

“I confronted him and he admitted to being really confused. He said he really liked me and that he enjoyed spending time with me. He’d hoped he’d start to have those feelings for me, but well, I guess you know the answer to that, don’t you?”

“Oh,” Cate said, again, at a loss for words.

I shrugged. “We actually still keep in touch. He’s a lovely guy. He’s earning a packet working for a bank and last I heard he and his partner have been together five years.”

“Good on him!” Cate seemed relieved that at least someone had a happy ending.

I realized at this point that not only was I starving, but I was well and truly over talking about my love life. “Can we order some dinner now?”

“Wait!” Cate cried. “Lessons?”

I rolled my eyes at her. “Seeing someone you’re not sure you actually like on the rebound is a bad idea. And going out with someone just because you’re good friends is also a bad idea. There has to be an attraction.”

“To the opposite sex,” Scarlett added helpfully.

“Yes. Obviously I’m a slow learner, but they won’t be lessons I’ll forget in a hurry, I can assure you.”

“Me neither,” Cate said.

Everyone laughed and I went to grab the take away menus, relieved I was off the hook for another week.

It was only eight o’clock in the morning and the sun was already high above the horizon. The gum trees glistened under the radiant heat, and before them stretched an expansive grassy plain, punctuated here and there with clusters of wild animals. Giraffes loped elegantly between the tall trees, while alongside them, zebras grazed contentedly. Further in the distance, a family of rhinos padded staunchly to a quiet corner.

If I hadn’t known better, it would be easy to mistake the scene in front of me for a snapshot of the African savannah. In reality, I stood in the recently opened African Experience exhibit at Oz Zoo in rural Victoria.

Despite the early hour and light breeze brushing my bared arms, the sun had a bite to it. I was glad I’d lathered myself with a thick layer of sunscreen, although I was pretty sure that Maddy, who stood next to me, hadn’t bothered with the same precautions.

Her dark hair was drawn effortlessly back into a low pony tail. An oversized, dark green sun hat covered her olive features and flapped in the wind. Her eyes were masked by large tortoiseshell framed sunglasses, coordinated cleverly with a brown short-sleeved fitted dress and matching leather sandals.

As usual I pushed away a stab of envy at my good friend’s gracefulness. There was no malice to the feeling, but the same way the planets gravitate toward the sun, people regularly did the same to Maddy. Most of the time I was comfortable, or at least accepting, of my lot in life, but every now and then I wondered what it would be like to be the center of the universe.

“It’s breathtaking, isn’t it?” Maddy mused quietly beside me.

I shook off my thoughts and returned my attention to the scene before me.

That it was. I’d never made it to Africa, but this small slice of Australia almost had me thinking I had. “It’s amazing,” I agreed. In fact, everything about our on-site client meeting so far was amazing.

Oz Guardians were adamant that we would get to experience the magic of the zoo first-hand while we were there. Yesterday, before lunch, we were escorted by private golf caddy around the main exhibits. Then in the afternoon we were taken for a visit to their wildlife sanctuary where they cared for sick and injured wildlife.

This morning we were treated to an early viewing of one of their most popular exhibits, before a meeting at their head office to work through the finer points of Madeleine’s suggested marketing plan. I had a strong feeling that even though we would be working, nothing about the experience would be too arduous.

I watched two giraffes getting a little affectionate and felt my heart swell. “Best. Client. Ever.”

Maddy laughed and glanced at me. “Careful. You might actually be enjoying work for a change.”

It was true. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d enjoyed work that much. After several years with Shout, I guess I’d resigned myself to the fact that work wasn’t something to be enjoyed. I was capable of doing my job but I kept my head down, received little recognition, and worked long hours on clients I wasn’t particularly interested in.

Standing there at the edge of the ‘savannah’, I felt something stir in me I almost didn’t recognize.

Passion.

Releasing a long breath, I realized for the first time just how bad I’d let things become with my work. No wonder I was so eager to pack everything up and travel for months on end overseas. I was going through the motions. Work became a mundane routine to be endured with little hope of advancement or development. With new perspective, I saw now how harmful it was to both my skills and my state of mind. Maddy had recognized it before I did.

It was so energizing to be working on something you believed in. I genuinely looked forward to sitting down with the Oz Guardians team to work on their brand. More than that, I was really keen to create something that would blow them away and help them raise more money for such a wonderful cause.

“I’m going to hand my resignation in at Shout when we get home,” I announced to Maddy.

She turned her head quickly to face me and lowered her glasses. “Really?”

“Really,” I said, with a deep sigh. “I should have done it months ago.”

With a high-pitched squeal, Maddy reached over and engulfed me in a tight hug. Her heartfelt response had tears stinging my eyes, but I forced myself to blink them away. Once she released me, I looked at her seriously.

“I’m not sure I’m ready to sign on as a permanent employee at Grounded Marketing though.”

Always the smooth operator, if she was surprised, she hid it well. “What are you looking for?”

“Can I be freelance for a while? Until we’re both sure it’s the right thing. That is, if you’ve enough work to offer me,” I added.

She placed both hands on my shoulders and looked at me seriously. “There will always be work for you at Grounded Marketing, Christa. And freelance is fine. In fact, I think it’s the best thing for you right now. I’m just so happy you are going to resign from that ridiculous agency. It’s taken you far too long.”

I gave her a relieved smile and squeezed her hands as she released me.

“Just promise me you’ll work on your sketches as well. We can make that work. You don’t need to be in the office full-time.”

“I really appreciate that.” And I did. I’d looked through my collection of sketches over the weekend and realized I had enough polished ones to make a decent portfolio. Maybe I could show them to Max and he could give me an idea of whether they’d be suitable for his gaming projects.

Maddy pulled out her phone and typed a message furiously.

I looked at her quizzically. “I should probably resign first before you tell the world.”

She waved a hand at me. “I wouldn’t do that. I’m just texting Max to remind him to hassle you about your sketches.”

I suppressed a grin. She’d read my mind and was never one to miss an opportunity.

We made our way slowly along the walking trail that followed the edge of the savannah. We had an appointment with one of the Zoo’s cheetahs at eight-thirty and I was nervous but excited. The Zoo regularly had one-on-one sessions with the animals and Oz Guardians were shouting us a free encounter with a cheetah before our meeting.

Perhaps it was a strategic move to demonstrate what could happen if we didn’t service the account properly, I mused. Probably not. It was blatantly evident that all the staff at Oz Guardians lived and breathed Oz Zoo and its causes, so this was their attempt to share their passion with us.

We arrived at the edge of the cheetah enclosure. Actually it was hardly an enclosure, more a five-star area for the four-legged oversized cat reclining languidly in the heat. The positively regal cheetah surveyed us with amber eyes that glowed in the sun, a calm, self-possessed look on her face. It was clear we were in her territory and she was doing us a favor by allowing us to be there.

As she yawned lazily, showing off a set of piercingly sharp teeth, my phone beeped loudly. I fished it out of my hand bag and swore I saw the cheetah raise an eyebrow at me.

A text. From Max. I furrowed my brow, trying to think why he’d be contacting me and tried to ignore the jolt of pleasure that he had.

Hey slacker. Missed you at boot camp this morning. Maddy told me the good news. Now that you’re soon to be a free agent can I see more of your work? Will keep annoying you until you agree. Max.

I smiled at his easy tone and directness. The Spencers were honest and, truth be known, I found it refreshing. I hit reply.

Putting together a portfolio. Happy to talk you through it. I’m not slacking. I’m at a client meeting :)

I hit send. Maddy stood a few meters away talking to the keeper, obviously determining whether it was safe to set foot in the cheetah’s enclosure. Before I could join her, my phone beeped again.

Bring it Thursday morning and we’ll go for breakfast after boot camp. Maddy will understand. And going to the zoo is not work ;)

Thursday morning breakfast. A nervous tingle made its way down my spine. I was about to show Max all my sketches, which I’d yet to do with anyone, so naturally I was unsettled. I hit reply.

Alright, will bring Thurs. And yes, it is work. I’m about to take my life in my hands if you must know. Pic to follow …

I hit send and switched to camera mode on my phone. I took a quick happy snap of the cheetah, who was clearly used to being the subject of numerous photos. She looked directly into the camera, but didn’t look as fierce as I’d hoped. More unimpressed.

I sent the picture to Max and waited for his reply. My phone beeped less than a minute later while the cheetah continued to stare at me as though I was wasting her time.

Jealous, Bubbles. Don’t let her take a bite out of you. I want you home in one piece.

My breath faltered at his response. God, texting was a mire of uncertainty. Had he just been joking around? Probably. Or was there more to his message than he was letting on?
I want you home in one piece.
It sounded so personal, so intimate. The fact that he wanted me home suggested he was keen to see me again. What did that mean?

For your sketches, stupid
, my subconscious shouted at me.

There I went again, overreacting and over-analyzing things. I was most definitely suffering at the hands of my self-imposed single status.

I noticed Maddy gesturing me over, so I hit reply again and quickly typed a response. I couldn’t help myself.

You never know, I might taste good 
 …

I hit send and dropped my phone back into my bag. It was deliciously wicked of me, but I hoped my text might taunt him. If I couldn’t date anyone, I might as well have some innocent fun flirting with someone as nice and safe as Max.

I joined Maddy and introduced myself to the keeper. I listened as he told us about Sasha, our cheetah friend. She still had a bored look on her face, obviously undecided as to whether or not she was going to take a bite out of us.