The following Monday rolled around, and I was looking forward to my dinner date with Victoria and Sadie. I was unsure if Sadie knew Victoria and I had a brief affair, and it was so long ago, it didn’t matter.
I say affair because she was married at the time, not to Sadie and not to a woman, but she did have her husband’s consent, so I guess she wasn’t technically having an affair. The need rolling off Victoria had been palpable.
I’d been a stripper before Victoria gave me my break, and now women paid me for sex. To the outside world, I was a beauty technician, and to be fair, I did my share of massages and facials. Making women feel good was the core value of Libellule’s.
I pulled up outside Victoria’s two-storey house in Acacia Bay and shut off the engine. Considering Victoria and Sadie were now married, I really needed to start calling it their house.
The door cracked open, and there they stood, Victoria looking as glamorous as ever in a knee-length skirt, and Sadie looking totally at home in shorts and a tee. She was also cradling a tabby cat in her arms. As I got closer, I noticed the cat was a mishmash of colours and had a ginger ring around its eye.
“Well, aren’t you an ugly sucker?” I ruffled its fur.
“Hey!” Sadie whisked her out the way. “Don’t listen to her.”
“Only a mother could love a face like that,” I joked.
Sadie shot Victoria a look I couldn’t decipher. I wasn’t sure if she was genuinely hurt or not.
“Hey.” I held up my hands. “I was kidding. Black, white, ginger, pink—I love them all.”
“And that’s why we love you.” Victoria gave me an air kiss and ushered me inside.
“Something smells good.” I inhaled deeply, trying to decipher the aroma infusing the air.
“That would be my new essential oil,” Sadie said. “Cloves, cinnamon, eucalyptus, rosemary, and lemon.”
Victoria eyed me up and down. “I like this.” She flicked the bottom of my hair. “It suits you.”
“Thanks.” I’d recently had it cut and coloured, and although I loved the streaks of red mixed with the natural brown, I was still adjusting to the shorter length. It wasn’t exactly short, but it no longer reached my backside.
I glanced around at the cat toys scattered across the living room. Not so long ago, stepping into Victoria’s home was like stepping into a show home. Everything in its place. No personal touch to speak of. Sadie was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
“You look good. Both of you.” I handed over the bottle of Merlot I’d brought with me.
“Thanks.” Victoria grabbed a corkscrew, Sadie rinsed her hands under the tap, and I pulled up a chair on the other side of the granite benchtop.
The cat shot under me in hot pursuit of the tinkering ball. “So, that’s Jasmine, huh?”
“It is,” Sadie said, her gaze on the cat. “I think she was abandoned.”
“No way.” I feigned shock. “Who would abandon such a pretty girl?” Jasmine really was ugly but in a lovable kind of way.
“How are your two fur babies?” Victoria asked as she handed me a glass of wine.
“Sulking. Hating the long hours.” I took a sip, enjoying the black cherries layered with notes of clove and vanilla.
“Are weekends busy?” Sadie asked as she filled a tall glass with water.
“Not drinking?” I chastised myself. I hated it when people answered a question with a question, and it wasn’t any of my business whether Sadie was drinking or not. “Never mind. Weekends are great. Sundays more so than Saturdays.” I brought up a picture on my phone and held it up to Sadie.
Her eyes went wide. “Oh my God, that’s hot!” She blushed. “Sorry, am I allowed to say that?”
It had always amused me how easily Sadie blushed, and that hadn’t changed.
Victoria walked up behind Sadie and wrapped an arm around her waist. “Let me see.”
I held up my phone, and Victoria reached for it. I quickly retracted my arm. No way was she getting her hands on my phone. I had pictures on there no one was privy to except for the clients who requested them. I took them and sent them, keeping a few for myself and deleting the rest. None were taken with a client’s phone, and I never included faces.
Sadie fanned herself. “It was a sexy-as-hell nun’s outfit.”
Victoria raised a questioning eyebrow. “Is that a new thing? Confessions with Soraya?”
I returned her grin. “I prefer to call it Sunday school with Soraya.”
“I bet you teach them a lesson or two too.” Sadie frowned. “Is that a thing? Two too? Sounds weird.”
It did sound weird, but I got it, and I wasn’t there to talk shop. “Tell me about you. How’s the job going?”
They exchanged another look, and I wondered what I was missing. Then I remembered why I was there. “Victoria tells me you have news.”
Sadie grabbed Victoria’s hand, and they both looked like they were about to burst. I wanted to round the kitchen island and strangle the words out of them. Instead, I picked up my glass of wine and took a sip.
A brief stare down followed. I was the first to look away, thanks to Jasmine tugging on the hem of my jeans. I bent down and scooped her up. She licked the tip of my nose, and I wrinkled it, wiggling my nose like a bunny.
“Here.” Sadie reached for Jasmine.
“Nope.” I turned sideways on the barstool. “We’re having cuddles.” Jasmine started purring, and I put her in my lap. “You were saying.”
“We’re expecting…a baby.”
“What!” I leapt off the chair, knocking Jasmine to the floor. Thankfully, she landed on her feet and didn’t look any worse for wear. “Sorry, puss.” I scratched her head before rounding the counter.
I wasn’t sure who to pull into my arms first, Sadie or Victoria, so I grabbed them both. Grinning like fools, we bounced up and down in an uncoordinated group hug. I was over the moon for them, especially since Victoria thought she’d never be a mum.
It probably wasn’t a good time to ask, but I wondered if Victoria saw the irony in the situation. She’d married a man to conform and have a family, only to discover she couldn’t conceive. Now, here she was, living the life she wanted, married to a woman and expecting their first child.
“How far along are you?” I asked Sadie once we parted.
“Who said I’m carrying?” She looked down at her belly. “I’m barely even showing.”
Victoria looked at her lovingly. “You forget Soraya and I go way back.”
“Oh, yeah.” Sadie gave Victoria a mischievous grin. “Plus, you’re too old.”
“Hey, watch who you’re calling old.” Victoria swatted her backside playfully. “And if it’s good enough for Elton John to become a dad in his sixties, it’s good enough for me to become a mum in my forties.”
“Mum one and Mum two?” I looked between them, unsure who was radiating more.
“Nope.” Sadie set a bowl of salt and vinegar chips on the bench. “Mum-mum and Mumma.”
“Cute.” I didn’t bother asking who was who. It didn’t matter, and the names would probably change as the little guy or girl aged. “Do you know what you’re having?”
“No!” Sadie’s voice boomed around the kitchen.
Victoria set down her glass. “We’ve decided to wait and see.”
If Sadie’s reaction was anything to go by, she’d been firm about that. That would be tough for Victoria, who liked everything organised days in advance of an event. And this was a life-changing event.
The oven timer dinged, and Sadie grabbed the oven mitts. She pulled open the door, and the aroma of lamb and mint made my mouth water. Living alone, it wasn’t often I cooked a roast.
She placed the dish on the stovetop, and my eyes feasted on the vegetables around the leg of lamb.
“Gravy?” Sadie asked.
“Yes, please.” I loved homemade gravy. “Can I help with anything?”
“Nope.” Sadie grabbed a carving knife out of the wooden block.
“Yep.” Victoria slid some cutlery across the benchtop. “You can set the table.”
Sadie glanced over her shoulder. “Rude!”
Smiling, I picked up the cutlery, happy to help out. Once we were all seated, the conversation turned to Libellule’s.
“How’s Juliet?” Sadie asked.
“She’s doing okay, but her heart took a hell of a blow.”
“I feel sorry for her.” Sadie stabbed a piece of kumara and cut it in half. “She was good to me. Took me in when I was stranded. She got rid of that cow and took the risk of being found out.” Her face fell. “It was kind of my fault she got found out.”
Victoria put her hand on top of Sadie’s. “You’re not responsible for someone else’s actions.”
“Or your actions.” I pointed my fork at Victoria. “Madam PI.” Victoria staking out Juliet had been Juliet’s undoing.
Admittedly, if Victoria hadn’t been obsessed with Sadie, that never would’ve happened either, so what Sadie said held weight.
It also reiterated what I already knew. Juliet wasn’t a bad person. She just got into a bad situation. One that cost her both her job and self-worth.
Victoria reached for the gravy boat and poured a generous serving over the meat on her plate. “Speaking of PIs, how’s Officer Dunn?”
Without conscious thought, I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth. “Delicious.”
“You gonna date her now you’re the boss?” Sadie asked.
“Nope.” I shook my head adamantly. “Rules are rules. No dating the staff or clientele.”
“You know what?” Sadie used her fork like a pointer. “I got to thinking about that.”
Victoria looked amused. She cocked an eyebrow, waiting for Sadie to continue.
“The rules are in place so you don’t lose staff or clients. But that could happen regardless. Case in point.” She swept a hand in front of herself. “I wanted my boss, so I left.”
It hadn’t gone quite like that, but Sadie made a good point. Likewise, the no-dating-the-clients rule hadn’t stopped us from losing one. Not that I’d miss Tiffany, but perhaps it was time to relax the rules.
“How’s work?” I directed my question at Sadie. I’d asked earlier, but she hadn’t given me a straight answer.
“Oh, right. Good but bad. I love being a junior chef, but right now, the smell of certain foods makes me want to barf.”
“Not a good old roast, though.” I dragged a piece of lamb through some mint sauce and forked it into my mouth.
“Whoever named it morning sickness got it wrong,” Victoria said.
“No kidding. It hits me mid-afternoon. Food helps.” Sadie popped a roast potato into her mouth and chewed around a smile.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur of good food and great conversation. By the time I’d eaten a healthy portion of dessert—baked apple cheesecake tart—I had to pop the top button on my jeans.
“That was delicious. Thank you.”
Victoria nudged Sadie’s elbow. “I keep telling her we don’t have to eat for two.”
“Hey, we don’t eat like that every night.” She patted her stomach. “Thank goodness. I’ll be the size of a house by the time this kid’s born.”
“Ooh, it could be twins.” I couldn’t help sliding that in there. I also couldn’t think of anything worse.
Rather than look appalled, Sadie’s face lit up. “Wow! Imagine that. One each.”
After shooting Sadie a sidelong glance, Victoria pushed back from the table. “Let’s not imagine that.”
While Sadie cleared the dishes, something she refused to let me help with, Victoria and I headed upstairs to her home office.
After going over some business, Victoria turned to me, her expression serious. “Now that Sadie’s in the family way, she’s been talking about Taylor meeting his or her grandparents.”
“You’ve picked a name?”
“Not officially, but it’s gender-neutral. And I refuse to call it ‘the bean’ or ‘peanut’.”
“Good call.” Referring to a foetus as ‘the bean’ was as unlikable as referring to masturbating as ‘flicking the bean’.
“As I was saying,” Victoria said, “since finding out we’re expecting, Sadie’s been talking about making contact with her father. I’ve booked a flight to Melbourne.”
I nodded, wondering how all this concerned me.
“I haven’t booked a return flight.”
A knot formed in my stomach. Was that Victoria’s way of telling me they were moving to Australia. No, that couldn’t be it. She had too much to settle here before she could even think about moving abroad.
“You thinking of extending your holiday?”
“That depends on how the meeting goes with Sadie’s father…and you.”
Now I was completely lost. I’d never met my father, so why would I want to meet Sadie’s?
Victoria met my gaze, and the confusion I felt must’ve been written all over my face.
“What I mean is, will you be okay for ten days on your own? You’ll have to learn how to do the staff roster, and if anything goes wrong, I won’t be only a phone call away.”
This was the perfect opportunity for me to prove my worth. “Why? Don’t they have phones in Australia?”
Sitting sideways in her chair, Victoria rested an elbow on the desk. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“I’ll be fine,” I assured her. “And if anything goes dreadfully wrong, which I’m sure it won’t, you are only a phone call away.” My conversation with Officer Dunn briefly flitted through my mind, but I didn’t mention it. With any luck, it would blow over in a few weeks, and Victoria didn’t need to worry about it with everything else going on.
“How long’s it been?” I asked. I knew it had been a while since Sadie saw her father, but I wasn’t sure how long.
“Sixteen years. I can’t even imagine.” Victoria shook her head, and I wasn’t sure if the sad smile was for Sadie or me.
There wasn’t much Victoria didn’t know about me, including the fact my mother abandoned me when I was five years old. She’d kissed me goodbye and said she would see me in the morning. The only problem was she didn’t say what morning.
“We’ll be gone from here…”
I tuned back into Victoria.
“To here.” She dragged the mouse across the top section of the bookings calendar, shading out Friday to Monday in a couple of weeks’ time. She dragged the mouse to the following Monday. “Possibly here.”
“Take all the time you need.” I pushed up from my perch on the corner of the desk. “I’m happy for you.”
“Me too.” Victoria stood. “Still no one on the radar for you?” She nudged me playfully. “Officer Dunn?”
I laughed but didn’t bother replying. Victoria knew my stance on that. We could never be more.
“Kahu?”
That got my attention. “What? No!” I drew my eyebrows together. “Why would you even say that?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I guess I just know how rewarding an age-gap relationship can be. And that girl’s got attitude.”
“Don’t I know it?” I thought back to her antics the previous week.
“Something a firm hand would help with.”
“Oh my God. I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation.”
“We’re not.” Victoria flicked out the lights. “I’ll see you out.”
If it wasn’t for her smile, I would’ve felt like I was being dismissed. But I was on to Victoria. She loved to plant the seed of an idea then shrug it off, leaving it to take root and blossom.
Little did she know my weedkiller was stronger than her hints of romance.