Chanel Sweethearts (18 page)

In her first weeks at Still Life Jimmy treated Jess like a princess.

He took her out for intimate dinners, stopped by her office with coffee, sent her flirty texts after hours, praised every new creation and walked her to the tram each night.

Jess was flustered by the attention at first, but after a week or two she decided she was flattered and excited to be pursued by such a stylish guy. She started to look forward to seeing him each day and found herself dressing with him in mind; anticipating his compliments and approval.

Jess sighed as she sat behind her desk at Still Life, peeking surreptitiously at him as he chatted with the other designers.

His outfit was classic Jimmy. He wore a baggy pin-striped, gangster-style suit with a vest, mauve shirt and purple tie and black fedora. His shoes were chunky burgundy platforms. She shook her head in admiration. On any other man the clothes would look ridiculous, but on Jimmy the outfit made for sophisticated chic.

Jess turned her attention to the materials on her desk: smooth river pebbles, lengths of bamboo and bundles of wire. She tapped the bamboo against her hand. The trouble was that Jimmy seemed to have lost interest in her. All the flirting and compliments had suddenly stopped in the past week, and she wasn't sure why. Not that it mattered, she thought, putting the bamboo down and assembling the river pebbles into a pattern; she didn't know if she was interested anyway, although the flirting had been fun. He no longer accidentally brushed his hand against her when they were talking, they rarely went out to lunch or dinner on their own anymore, and he had stopped favouring her with his soulful, long-lashed stares.

It was all very confusing, she decided, gluing the pebbles into place. But right now she had other things to think about. She was worried about Tori. They'd spoken this morning on the phone and her friend had sounded tired and lonely, but Jess only had a few minutes to chat on her way to the tram so she hadn't been able to get many details. She must organise for them to have lunch again soon.

With a start, she realised Jimmy was standing in her doorway. She fumbled and dropped the rock she'd been trying to place. From the corner of her eye she could see he'd taken off his jacket and was wearing shirt-sleeve garters like a 1920s card sharp.

‘Hey, babe,' he said, leaning on her door frame languidly. ‘Need to remind you about the staff meeting tomorrow morning, okay?'

‘No worries, all under control here. Everything's good.' She put a hand to her mouth to stop her babbling.

‘Cool.' He nodded, smiled and looked at his watch, then pushed himself off the door frame and walked down the hall.

He ignored her for the rest of the day. When in the past he would have come out and listened in on her afternoon meeting with the design team, he now just continued working.

Jessica's relationship with the staff had improved dramatically. After a very productive meeting where everyone agreed, for once, Jessica farewelled the team and stayed late to finish off a piece.

She was in the tearoom when Jimmy walked in. He leaned in front of her to pick up the coffee pot. Saying nothing, he stood very close, making his coffee as if she were invisible. She held her breath. He was so damn sexy with that little tuft of beard under his bottom lip. She stood stirring her tea, willing him to stay in her space just a bit longer.

He turned around to face her. ‘Is it stirred enough yet?' he asked, and he put his hand on hers to still the relentless spoon circles.

That small intimate connection reverberated like a ripple of energy that spread out through her body. She could feel every biological symptom surge spontaneously: her lips swelling, her cheeks flushing, her pupils dilating, not to mention what was happening underneath her clothing.

Jimmy took her chin between his thumb and fore finger and kissed her so softly she suddenly knew the exact meaning of the word swoon. The kiss lingered until her lips parted. When his tongue met hers blood thudded in her ears and throbbed almost painfully through her body.

Then, as abruptly as he had kissed her, he stopped and wandered off with his coffee as if nothing had happened. It took Jess a few minutes to recover the ability to walk and as she took her tea back to her office, she shook her head in confusion. What the hell was he doing?

You don't just come up to a person and sweep them off their feet then go and check your email, she thought. She should say something. No, she should give him the silent treatment back. No, she should go and confront him. No, she should ... oh hell, who knew?

For an hour Jessica's thoughts whirled around her head; her body was on alert, charged with frustration. She'd had enough of his stupid game playing, she decided, savagely snapping wire with her pliers. There was no way she was going to sleep with a colleague anyway. She took a deep breath, pleased with her resolve, just as Jimmy reappeared at her door.

‘Coming?' he asked, slipping his fedora on to his head, and looking deep into her eyes for the first time in a week.

‘Yes,' she said.

Jessica leaned on her elbow and watched Jimmy fasten his baggy canvas trousers and pull a T-shirt over his head.

‘Why do you always leave straightaway?' she asked. ‘It's not even eleven yet.' They'd been sleeping together for a month now, but he never stayed overnight.

He shoved his hair back with one hand and flopped down on the bed next to her. ‘We chat, we cuddle,' he said and looked at her closely. ‘Oh, you poor sweet thing,' he said, as if he'd suddenly had an epiphany. ‘Are you feeling a bit needy? Oh, that's so selfish of me.' He threw himself back on the pillow and reached an arm around her neck to draw her close. ‘Let's talk.'

Trapped against his chest Jess didn't know whether to tell him to bugger off for being such a condescending bastard, or to enjoy the extra cuddle. In the end she decided to ignore the annoyance that surged inside her and just keep the peace. ‘What shall we talk about?' she asked finally.

‘Tell me what you're working on.'

For the past week or so she'd been thinking of using recycled tins as the base for a more-affordable art range with a high-turnover that could take Still Life's work to a broader demographic. She explained the plan to Jimmy.

‘Wow, that's fabulous.' He seemed genuinely impressed.

‘Really?' she said.

‘Yeah, it's great, but...'

‘What?' She was instantly disappointed.

‘I don't think Mimsy's going to be too rapt,
mon petit chou.
You know how much she loves that Still Life is so exclusive. I'm worried she'll say that by introducing a lower price point with a mass appeal we'd be committing market status suicide and our top-shelf customers would ditch us. See what happened to Stella McCartney when her label went to Target?'

‘Of course, you're right,' Jess said, embarrassed to have even mentioned the idea. ‘I feel silly,' she said.

‘Never mind,' he said squeezing her closer to him. ‘Rookie mistake, could happen to anyone. Maybe you should just stick to the art, darling.'

Jess liked having the chance to share work ideas with Jimmy. The week before they'd talked for ages about a concept she'd had for an Australia-wide design contest, tapping into junior talent while simultaneously getting Mimsy into a much larger market. He was so encouraging, listening to her, prodding her to come up with the tin-tacks of each idea. It was really encouraging to brainstorm with him.

He was still aloof in the office, but Jess was accustomed to it now. She figured it was his way of avoiding gossip.

The next morning when she walked into the team meeting, she was struck once again by just how damn cool he was. He had a cotton scarf draped around his neck teamed with cargo pants and a leather bomber jacket. His black fedora worked perfectly, goodness knows how.

‘Children, sit.' Mimsy stomped in, her barrel-like body launching into the high-back swivel chair at the top of the boardroom table. ‘Ideas? Suggestions? Epiphanies?' she demanded.

Sventana put up her hand. ‘The store needs a seat. If the husband can sit, the wife will shop longer.'

‘Excellent. Go to Space; show me four photos. You know the colourway. Next?'

Sventana smiled smugly.

Jess thought it might be time to share one of her ideas and moved to raise her hand, but Jimmy cleared his throat to get her attention and frowned, so she changed her mind. She gave him a quick smile; thank goodness she had him to prevent her from making an idiot of herself.

‘No?' said Mimsy. ‘Good. Next: we're running an Australiawide contest. The Still Life brand is going national, people. We're getting fresh ideas from young creative geniuses from all over the country. First prize is a job here. What do you think?'

Everyone thought they'd like to keep their own jobs, so the applause was snappy and enthusiastic.

Jessica was stunned. She looked back at Jimmy who gave her a thumbs-up signal.

After the meeting she stormed into his office. Before she had a chance to speak he put a finger to his lips and closed his door.

‘You absolute legend,' he said.

‘Sorry?' She was taken aback.

‘I thought some more about your idea and it did have legs after all. Isn't that great? Mimsy loved it, you've done well.' He kissed her forehead.

Jess was confused. ‘But does she know it was my idea?' she asked.

He arched one eyebrow at her. ‘Jess, it's not about pats on the back you know, it's about the team,' he scolded.

‘Yes, I know.' She felt a blush flood her face.

‘Right. Off you go then and work on some more magic. Have you got anything else?'

‘Yes, a few ideas,' she murmured. ‘I'm working with an Aboriginal art theme at the moment.'

‘Gorgeous, whip up a report and a pricing structure and email it to me, will you?'

‘Shall I cc Mimsy?'

‘Oh, no, that's not necessary.' Jimmy unwound his scarf and tossed it on his desk. ‘She'll see it. She just loves your work,
babette
.'

Jess folded her arms and took a step back from him. ‘Jimmy, I don't know. This is a bit odd. If you've presented these ideas on my behalf, I need to be involved in development and I need to get the credit.'

Jimmy smiled his best smile. ‘You dear sweet thing, come here.' He stretched out his arms. She hesitated, so he moved to embrace her. ‘I am so sorry if I've stuffed it up. I didn't mean to present it without you, it's just that Mimsy and I were en route to a conference and it came up. I would never steal your glory, sweetness. I am your champion.' He let his lips wander down her neck and she felt her anger dissipate. ‘Tell you what, next time I'll organise a meeting and you can present, how about that? Are we still on for tonight? I want to take you somewhere fabulous.'

She nodded. He took her face in his hands, brushed the hair from her forehead and kissed her deeply. She wandered back to her office, her lips stinging with the force of the kiss.

That evening Jessica felt the heat of Sventana's customary evil stare as she left the building, but simply ignored it; she was sick of trying to make friends with the girl, whom she suspected had a crush on Jimmy. It was exhausting enough just trying to fit in with her team, trying to make the new dynamic work and hoping they weren't all bitching behind her back.

Outside, she was pleased to see that the heavy late summer rain that had drummed against the building all day had finally stopped, leaving the footpaths slick and steaming and creating psychedelic patterns of oil and water on the road. Apart from Sventana, she thought as wandered towards her tram stop, things did seem to be going well with her staff: they were polite, efficient and respectful – to her face anyway.

The job was so much more full-on than she had expected. For one thing, there was so much work – and expense – in coming up with fabulous outfits to wear every day. And Mimsy's lack of feedback about her designs was frustrating too. Sometimes she wondered whether she was doing a good job or not, but Jimmy kept assuring her that Mimsy loved her, so she just kept creating and hoped for the best.

Stepping quickly away from the edge of the footpath to avoid being sprayed with water by the passing cars, she sighed and thought of her Stumpy Gully friends. She missed the simplicity of her country life; everything just seemed so much easier there. Then she thought of Nick and the confusion between them, and of Graham and her boys, and the emptiness of the house when they'd left. Maybe life hadn't been perfect there either. She wove around the footpath to avoid puddles of water and a busker who filled the air with the mellow sounds from his saxophone. She scrabbled in the bottom of her bag for some gold coins and tossed them onto a piece of cardboard in front of him, stopping for a minute to listen to his music.

The city did have lots going for it. She loved the drama and adventure of Melbourne. From the tiny back alleys with their graffiti and late-night jazz bands, to the broad crowded thoroughfares of the Bourke Street Mall and Spencer Street, Jess enjoyed exploring the city landscapes. In her first few months she had set herself the challenge of eating somewhere new every week. She tried the Hare Krishna vegetarian food at Gopals, sat in the crowded communal dining room eating Japanese delicacies at the Chocolate Buddha in Federation Square, and travelled out to the Abbotsford Convent to be served by volunteers at Lentil as Anything.

But tonight, she decided as she breathed in the steaming air, lulled by the busker's cool notes, tonight she needed some comfort. She turned in the opposite direction and hailed a cab. She smiled as she slid into the back of the taxi. Her dad would be surprised to see her, and he'd help her sort out the confusion of the day. Her face clouded as she remembered Mimsy calling Jimmy into a last-minute meeting, which meant he'd had to cancel their date. As Mimsy was closing the door, Jess had heard her say, ‘Let's talk about this Aboriginal art idea, young man.'

She didn't know what to do. Her body was leading her in one direction and her mind in another. Was she being paranoid? One thing was certain, she thought, relaxing back into the vinyl seat: her dad would help her sort things out.