Four Night Stand, page 10
The noise in the auditorium drops away and her eyes snap open as an older man looking like the dictionary definition of ‘scholar’ strolls onto the stage. Tan chinos, a checked shirt, glasses perched on his nose and a jacket with actual elbow pads.
It makes her daydreams seem indecent and she smooths her skirt down over her knees. It’s probably a good thing Cameron isn’t in the room to break her concentration.
‘Welcome everyone,’ the man greets them, spreading his arms wide. Jules pulls her laptop from its case and hovers her hands over the keyboard.
‘My name is James McCarthy. I’m the founder of McCarthy Media. I’ll keep the intro short because it’s all online and I know you’re not really here to listen to my bio.’
He speaks with confidence and a self-aware manner that has half the audience laughing, even at the dry stuff about how he founded his company that runs marketing and research methodology workshops and critique services. She gets sucked in despite herself. It’s the energy he has, that enthusiasm and utter belief in what he’s talking about. Like she used to have when she first started at Infinity.
The session flies by. Jules takes plentiful notes for Samantha’s benefit, but also because she’s drawn to James’s charismatic way of talking. For a man who looks like a stereotype, his presentation is anything but stereotypical. Filled with funny anecdotes, colourful animated graphs and musical excerpts, Jules appreciates the presentation on more levels than she was expecting. Not only is it well presented, but the information is new to her. It’s lateral thinking problem-solving techniques that make sense and she can see herself applying them at Infinity to make further improvements on the archiving system, and even the intranet. Her notes for Samantha are peppered with asides to herself she’ll need to delete later. ‘Can we use this for image tagging?’ ‘Improve search function – eBook site?’.
The applause when James finishes speaking is thunderous, and Jules claps as hard as anyone. James might have found himself a new fangirl.
People hover outside the auditorium afterwards, but Jules heads for her bedroom where she left her portable charger in her haste to make it to this session.
A man steps out of a plain door ahead of her and she almost crashes into him, pulling back at the last moment.
‘Sorry, Mr McCarthy,’ she apologises, recognising the patched jacket immediately.
‘That’s quite alright.’ James turns to her, pushing his glasses up the slope of his nose. ‘Hang on.’ He assesses her quickly. ‘You’re the lady from the front row! You were certainly taking plenty of notes during my presentation. I think you must have gotten a full transcript!’
His cheerful laugh reminds Jules of her dad and she finds herself laughing along with him. ‘Yeah. I probably did. It was a fantastic talk.’
‘Thank you, thank you. I hope you learned something while you were busy typing away?’
‘Oh for sure. So much. I actually loved it more than I was expecting, to be honest.’
James purses his lips. Jules’s skin heats at her slipped confession, and she rushes to say, ‘Not in a bad way, I promise. I meant, I’ve never considered how strongly contextual and social factors can influence how people interact with technology, even in the publishing sphere, and how that can influence their responses to surveys and in focus groups and the like.’
‘Ah.’ His lips lift into a smile. ‘Most people don’t. It’s why I run a whole company to teach people that exact thing.’
‘Yeah. I’ll have to look into it.’
‘Here. Let me give you this.’ He flicks open his briefcase and passes her a business card. ‘Website, email, phone number are all on there. Enjoy the rest of your day,’ James says, starting to leave.
Jules looks at the card. She should send a picture of it to Samantha.
Thinking of Samantha has her calling out. ‘Excuse me again. Sorry.’
James turns to her and her tongue gets heavy in her mouth. She takes a deep breath and asks anyway before she loses the spark of confidence that made her stop him. ‘This is probably a big ask, but are there copies of the conference slides available? I’m filling in here last minute for my boss and yours is the one talk she was sad to miss.’
James rubs the underside of his chin with his knuckles. ‘Hmm. Who’s your boss?’
Jules goes to tuck her hair behind her ear but it’s already pulled back in a ponytail. ‘Samantha Liu? We work at Infinity Press.’
‘Ah, Ms Liu.’ He smiles, nodding his head. ‘I know the woman. I remember hearing her talk at the last Sydney conference. Spoke a mile a minute but great stuff, great stuff.’
‘So you’ll send me the slides?’
‘Why not.’ He pulls his phone from his pocket and passes it over after unlocking it. ‘Give me your email and I’ll sort it out.’
‘Thank you so much.’ Jules enters her details.
‘Will you be giving her presentation then?’ James asks as she types in her work address. ‘I noticed she was on the timetable.’
‘Yes. Tomorrow afternoon. I just finished polishing it up at lunch.’
‘Working on it right up until the deadline. That’s always been my technique too.’ James smiles at her, taking his phone back, then glancing at the screen. ‘Julianne, is it?’
‘Yes. Julianne Doherty.’
‘I’m looking forward to your talk, Julianne.’ James walks away with a nod of his head.
Jules watches him leave, tapping her finger on the corner of the business card still in her hand. There’s an energy sparking in her chest that lingers from his talk, the energy she felt when she first started working at Infinity. She reads the business card again before slipping it into her phone case.
***
After the last of the day’s talks, Jules showers at the hotel then catches a bus to Chloe’s university where they’ve arranged to meet. She steps off the bus with her make-up bag, some hair stuff and two pairs of shoes that Chloe asked her to bring, with a promise she’d drop them back at the hotel so Jules could go straight to the concert. She spots Chloe’s pink-and-purple streaked hair immediately. A good thing too, because the hug comes in swiftly, and suddenly Jules is surrounded by slender arms and she’s got curls up her nose.
‘Jules! I’m so excited you’re letting me dress you.’ Chloe pulls back with a bright dimpled smile so similar to Cameron’s it makes Jules’s stomach swoop.
‘Thanks for agreeing to it,’ Jules says, falling in beside Chloe as she sets a fast pace into the campus. ‘I probably could have gotten away with something I have in my suitcase, but I wanted it to be special.’
‘First time going to the Opera House?’ Chloe stops at a bay of lifts and presses the up button. The doors open and they step in.
‘No, I’ve been before, but not for years.’
‘I’ve gone so many times since Carrie got into the orchestra. Which sounds like I’m bragging, which I’m totally not. It never loses it’s cool and I always dress up.’
They exit on level four and Chloe takes them around enough corners that Jules loses all sense of orientation, before Chloe pushes open a wide door.
Jules steps into an explosion of fabrics. ‘Woah.’
She swings her head a full 180 degrees to take in the racks upon racks of clothes of all kinds and styles. In the middle of the room are a few bays with sewing machines sitting on them, and dress forms adorned in outfits at various stages of completion.
‘This would be my friend Cat’s wet dream,’ she tells Chloe.
Chloe laughs and grabs Jules’s wrist to pull her into the back left corner of the room, taking her bags off and dumping them onto one of the sewing tables. ‘It’s a chaotic mess, but I love it.’
Chloe’s like a firecracker, sparking around Jules and making her try on outfit after outfit while she keeps up a steady conversation about the musical she’s helping out with and the collection she’s creating using all scavenged fabrics. Eventually, after Jules has tried on so many outfits she’s lost all sense of modesty, Chloe settles on a midnight blue dress.
Chloe pushes Jules over to the full-length mirror with surprising strength. The top half of the dress clings to Jules’s body from the wide, off-the shoulder bands to her waist. The bottom half is made with thick panels of fabric in varying dark shades of blue. Jules swishes side to side and they reveal flashes of skin up to mid-thigh, though there’s a tan slip underneath for security.
Jules twirls, feeling like Cinderella after her Fairy Godmother waves that magic wand. The dress does amazing things to her breasts and brings out the colour of her eyes. She’d love to slowly descend a curving staircase wearing this and have Cameron waiting at the bottom with barely-banked fire in his eyes. The need that’s lingered since this morning flares hot inside her.
‘It’s not too scandalous for the Opera House?’ Jules paces in front of the mirror to see if there’s any underwear on show.
‘Not at all.’ Chloe dismisses the worry, pulling out a set of electric hair curlers from a storage container and plugging them into a wall socket. ‘Just think of all the scandalous operas that house has seen.’
‘That’s a fair point.’ Jules spins to peek over her shoulder at the back of the dress where there’s a V that comes down low enough it would have shown her bra had she not taken it off. The dress is supportive enough and the fabric thick enough to temper the worst of any nipple visibility, which around Cameron, is as inevitable as Cat and Tori buying her flowers for her birthday.
‘Plus, I know Cameron will be wearing a nice suit, so you need to match his level.’
Jules wobbles on her stilettos. Cameron in a suit. Now that’s an image. Would he let her peel it off his toned frame slowly? She’d love to unbutton his shirt and just push it to the side to reveal those abs that make her mouth water. Kiss slowly down that exposed skin, sinking to her knees so she could undo his belt and then—
Chloe pushes Jules down into a chair, jarring the image from her head. Probably a good thing.
Jules rearranges the panels on her dress so they show slightly less thigh while Chloe grabs a smock from a storage chest.
‘Cameron’s going to see you and lose his breath,’ Chloe says as she ties the smock around Jules like she’s at the hairdressers.
‘What makes you say that?’
‘You’re a ten out of ten and Cameron’s predisposed to smart women who make him laugh, anyway.’
Jules bites her lip, watching in the mirror as Chloe rolls sections of her hair into the heated curlers. He’s probably predisposed to women he’s had sex with as well, but Jules still gets melty inside hearing someone close to him confirm she’s his type. There’s hope for ‘how to turn a conference fling into a real relationship in five easy steps’. That really needs a better name.
‘Thanks again for helping me,’ Jules tells her.
Chloe waves a hand in front of her face, pulling out items from Jules’s make-up bag. She locates the foundation and starts smoothing it over Jules’s skin. ‘It’s totally my pleasure. I love dressing people up and making them feel confident. Besides, Cameron asked me to and I love my brother, and you and him are obviously close, so you and I are friends by default.’
The assumption catches Jules by surprise and her stomach does a hopeful lift upwards. ‘How do you know we’re close?’
Chloe moves onto her eyeshadow. ‘He told us about you months ago.’
Jules almost gets an eye-full of eyeshadow as her eyes fly open before she snaps them shut again. ‘He did?’ Her heart beats a samba in her chest. At lunch, Chloe and Carrie said they’d heard about her, but she didn’t realise he’d been describing her like they were close.
‘Sure. You were the woman he geeked out with about music. The only other person he talks about regularly is Steven, who’s a family friend, so it doesn’t really count. Done.’
Jules opens her eyes, watching Chloe reach for the blush and highlighter. ‘But we only met face-to-face on Friday.’
‘Woah.’ Chloe’s eyes widen. ‘Seriously?’
‘Yeah. We’ve been talking on the phone a while, but, I mean, that doesn’t really make us friends.’ Plus there’s all the very not-friend-appropriate things they did to and with each other last night. But she’s not sharing that with Chloe.
‘I think it does. Who cares if you hadn’t met in person?’ Chloe resumes applying Jules’s make-up. ‘You were so comfortable around each other at lunch the other day, and you don’t get chemistry like that with someone you’re not close to.’
Jules’s heart does a little flutter at ‘chemistry’ being applied to her and Cameron.
‘It’s why me and Carrie were so keen to meet you,’ Chloe continues. ‘Sorry if we came across overbearing, by the way.’
‘You didn’t.’
‘Good. We were just so happy you were real and a good person. Doesn’t hurt that you two are super into each other, either.’
‘What? No we’re not.’ Is she that obvious? Does Cameron know she’s been crushing on him for months? She bites her lip, worry dancing up her spine.
‘Sorry. Gah! Ignore me.’ Chloe snaps the blush and highlighter cases closed. ‘I’m a little too open off the bat, I’ve been told. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.’
‘It’s fine. It’s just …’ Jules’s heart lurches from a samba to a two-step. It’s just what? What are her and Cameron right now? Hooking up? Friends with benefits? Should she deny her crush to Chloe?
‘Hey. No need to respond.’ Chloe grips Jules’s chin to steady her while she starts applying mascara. ‘Like I said, Carrie and I were just happy to meet you. Cameron’s been a little knocked about after breaking up with Braden.’
Jules doesn’t have a claim on Cameron—yet—but her fingers still curl into her palm hearing about him with another person.
‘I personally don’t think moving to Canberra was a great choice for him,’ Chloe continues while Jules’s stomach grows heavy. ‘It seems like he’s isolated himself, which isn’t great for him. Or anyone, for that matter. But he seems his old self with you.’
Chloe gives her an unguarded smile but Jules is still stuck a step behind. ‘Braden?’
‘Oh, yeah. He was dating this woman at his old work and things did not end well,’ Chloe says with a dark look on her face. ‘Not to get into the specifics, but it really shook his confidence. She’s actually attending the conference with you guys.’
‘Really?’ Jules asks, stomach stirring uncomfortably.
‘Uh-huh. Honestly, me and Carrie have been worried about him seeing her again.’ Chloe recaps the mascara, returning it to Jules’s make-up bag, and taking the time to pack the rest of her stuff away, except for a tube of lipstick. ‘That’s why we’re glad you’re with him. Otherwise, he’d be getting all trapped in his own head, turning into a doom and gloom guy. He needs some sunshine around.’
Chloe steps behind Jules to start undoing the hair curlers. With each perfect curl that unravels over her shoulders, the ache grows inside Jules, the one that can only be filled by learning more about Cameron than just his body.
She was riding that post-orgasm high after last night if she thought the sex alone would be satisfying. No way will she be satisfied with just a fling. She wants to know him in all the ways partners know each other. Like what he’s like early in the morning and when he’s tired, what he wears to bed and how he sleeps, what makes him laugh so much he cries, if he’s ticklish anywhere.
Knowing his sisters approve of her—which they must if Chloe felt able to drop so much info about Cameron on her today—helps her stomach settle, though her legs feel shaky as she stands in front of the mirror. Chloe’s made her look classy but still sensual, and in less than an hour, she’ll be seeing Cameron. Her insides clench and she watches in the mirror as her pupils dilate. She hopes Chloe’s right, that he loses his breath when he sees her, because she could use the confidence boost to follow through making this week about sex and pillow talk.
They can ride the conference fling-train together, destination potential long-term dating. Even if it includes a baggage compartment filled with bad break ups and an ex who’s going to be around for the rest of the week.
Chapter 12
Cameron takes the long route from the hotel down to The Rocks, walking through Circular Quay and following the wide path around Sydney Harbour. People crowd onto ferries bound for beaches, the zoo or nature reserves, tourists stop to take photos with the bridge or the Opera House in the background. Kids in school uniforms mill around eating hot chips or ice-creams or both.
It’s … There’s a looseness to his limbs and something light in his chest.
He didn’t expect being in Sydney to feel like coming home.
He’s lived in Canberra for almost a year. Shouldn’t he have settled in there? He unpacked all his boxes. He bought new kitchen utensils. He changed his address for every service he could think of. But stepping through his front door never brings that immediate release like stepping onto these sun-soaked pavements has.
Walking through The Rocks, he passes the sole office of Lin & Luther, one of the biggest publishing companies in Australia, and the one he’s dreamed about working for since he graduated from university. They publish some of the most progressive stuff, especially in the young adult space, and he’d been planning on using his YA-centric work at Cable as a portfolio to apply for a job there. And then the shit with Braden happened and he couldn’t stay and see his largest project through, not to any standard he’d be happy with. Not without costing his mental health.
He doesn’t let himself pause outside the building, but it prompts an inconvenient thought anyway.
Was leaving Sydney a mistake?
Carrie and Chloe would say yes. In fact they have, many times, right from when he first mentioned the idea to when they helped him unload moving boxes from the rented van. His parents didn’t express a view either way, which means they also thought it was a mistake but didn’t want to influence his decision.
