Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 82767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Chapter 18
KEEGAN
I DON’T KNOW why I went. I was a bit drunk, sure, but I wasn’t drunk enough to think gate-crashing my employees’ night out was a good idea. But what was the alternative? Confront Sean? Confront Lucy? Lie in front of the TV getting hammered? No, anything but that – I had to get out of the condo. The huge, white, sparkling clean condo that had been rented for me and was cleaned for me by Beverly and which felt like living in an expensive dentist’s waiting room. I wanted to be around people, and the thought surprised me. Usually, I wanted to avoid people and their falseness. People either sucked up to me and agreed with everything I said, or they immediately resented me because of who I was or what I had. My ‘position,’ as my father would call it. I was sick of it.
Anyway, for whatever reason, I found myself in a strange little club, trying to ignore the horror on the faces of Taylor from the Design team when she saw me. I ordered a beer and planned to drink it, leave some money behind the bar, and then get out of there. And then I saw Effie approaching me. Well, at first I didn’t realize it was her. She stood framed by two green velvet curtains at a booth, and she looked for all the world like she was about to perform something. I realized that if she did, I wouldn’t be able to tear my eyes away. I couldn’t have been more surprised. I understood why she had trouble getting into the dress, it turned out that under those pantsuits she had an insane figure, all curves but a tiny waist. Like a pin-up model from the fifties, I mused, and then realized she was gesturing for me to join her.
I slid into the booth, and as I did, I tried to work out what the hell to say to her.
“Thanks for the invite,” I smiled, not daring to look at her. I had sobered up a little since we had spoken, and now I regretted ever calling her.
“No worries.” She seemed to be avoiding eye contact too.
We sat and watched the dancers for a while, sipping our drinks, and I was so relieved when she finally broke the silence.
“So, you had a bad day then?” she asked.
“Uh, not the best,” I agreed. “You know how Sean and I are.”
“Ah,” she nodded. “But still, you can’t choose your family, right?”
“Yeah…” I agreed, still looking out of the booth at the dance floor. “But you can choose not to fuck their girlfriends…”
She looked at me, her eyes wide. “Sean… Oh! I’m so… Shit, that’s awful!”
“Yeah.” I sat back now and looked at her, her face full of concern, her strongly colored lips parted in surprise. “I mean, she wasn’t really a… girlfriend, but she was my… Well, whatever she was, she isn’t it now.” I lifted my beer as if to toast this.
“But your brother! You must be so hurt.” Effie was clearly furious on my behalf, and it was slightly touching.
“Yeah, well…” I realized that it has been so long since anyone had actually asked me how I felt about anything other than spreadsheets and design ideas that I didn’t know where to look.
“I’ll be right back,” she said as she got up and slid out of the other side of the booth.
I was powerless to resist watching as she went. She made her way across the dance floor, stepping around the dancing couples and groups of girls. I saw Taylor take her hands and try to drag her into a salsa-type dance, but she only gave in for a second, sashaying her hips to the music with some impressive footwork, spinning on Taylor’s hand before pointing to the bar and moving off. How had I not noticed Effie in the office? I felt like I had never seen her before. When she returned she had drinks for us both.
“I think this conversation needs more alcohol,” she said, setting down a tray.
“I don’t think we need to say anything more on the matter,” I disagreed, replacing my empty beer with a full one.
“Ah, I’ll take these back then?” she smiled.
“Nah, you’re all right, we might as well…” I smiled back at her.
The conversation flowed more easily after that. We discussed the music, and we discovered that we liked a lot of the same musicians and bands and had even been to a couple of the same concerts. It was a good, safe topic. I was relieved that she wasn’t going to press me on what had happened with Sean and Lucy. I was relieved that I didn’t have to think about it right now. After a while, Taylor came to fetch her, and she apologized to me and joined the others on the dance floor. I didn’t mind. I was happy to sit half-hidden in the booth and just watch everyone. My eyes kept going back to Effie, to the way she moved. It was as if she could feel the music in her body, she was so responsive. I looked away. I felt uneasy watching her like this, but she was just so different to the closed-off woman I had to share my office with. I would easily have believed that this was her wilder twin sister. That thought created a stirring somewhere inside me, and I couldn’t quite believe that I was sitting here, getting slowly hammered, with a hard-on over my employee.