Julie watched him stroll away in his smart pinstripe suit and imagined him heading for his next big meeting. He certainly looked hot. She didn’t know what his profession was, but judging by his style and dress sense it was obviously important. He was probably the head of a large company, a CEO or something, or possibly a bank executive. Or maybe he was a lawyer. She scowled briefly at that last thought.
Dan, a few boyfriends back, had been a lawyer. But he had been a jerk. No, actually more a complete arsehole, she thought angrily. It still riled her to think about it, and when she did, she could feel her fingers tingle and her muscles burn. It had all been a huge lie and a farce. She took a deep breath to calm herself but his image barged into her consciousness and waltzed through her front door in that expensive designer suit he wore.
Initially Dan had seemed so attentive, so interested in her wellbeing, so considerate of her needs and so generous with his gifts. He had bought her a beautiful diamond-encrusted watch, the one she had seen in a shop window in Collins Street and told him about. He had asked her to describe it in intimate detail and then he had surprised her with it on her birthday, the exact watch deliciously wrapped in silver paper with a long silver ribbon tied in a small bow. She had been overwhelmed; it had made her feel more special than any of her previous conquests. Dan was the one. He was the man, and this was every bit the life she wanted to enjoy, living in luxury and swimming contentedly in blissful happiness with a successful entrepreneur. This was the life of a princess, a lifestyle that others would die for.
But once she had danced beyond the wonderful world of wistful fantasies and possibilities, the reality was very different. It hadn’t worked out quite like the dream intended. For all his care and attention, he would not shower her with any of this adoring affection in public. In fact, he would not meet her in any public place and so they always hooked up, when it suited him, in her small Brunswick apartment. He would arrive, looking every bit the suave and sophisticated lawyer that he was, in a beautifully tailored suit with a tie that matched the colour of the handkerchief in his top pocket. He would greet her with a quick kiss before removing his jacket and tie, hanging it with great care on the coat rack she had bought at his request. He’d then pour two glasses of his favourite chilled Chardonnay and seat himself comfortably on her faux leather chaise by the fire in winter or on the stool in the kitchen in summer and wait while she prepared dinner. It was always the same routine. An entrée of cheese and biscuits, followed by a light meal low in fat that would not upset his diet, a short lovemaking session and then another hour sitting up in bed while he told her about his current client and the difficult case he had been defending that week.
He talked a lot about himself, but then he was very busy and she had to understand that. He didn’t have the time for idle chat. She needed to fit in with the little bit he had if they were going to have any time together. It wasn’t vital that she always went out to a nice restaurant, now was it? Well, it would have been nice if she had gone once, she had told him. When this crazy busy time was over, he promised, they would go. It wouldn’t be long, but she had to accept that clients were extremely important and there could be devastating consequences if their cases were lost. She wouldn’t want that to happen now, would she? That would be dire. She just had to be patient.
But one client became another, each case rolled into the next, unsatisfactory verdicts became appeals, special hearings were rescheduled and … nothing changed. At eleven each evening he retrieved his coat and tie and left, and she was on her own again until the next time it suited him to catch up. This had usually been a Thursday but sometimes if she was lucky it had been a Tuesday as well.
For three years she had lived with this arrangement, dreaming of the promised day and the life she would one day live. On occasions she had asked and infrequently he had reassured, but then one evening out of the blue it all went horribly pear-shaped when he suddenly announced that this would be their last time together for a little while. He was leaving for his honeymoon next week, and would be abroad for two months.
Honeymoon? What honeymoon? Since when did he even have a fiancée?
He didn’t, he told her bluntly. He had got married a few months back and the honeymoon had been delayed as his wife had a conference she had to attend and couldn’t take the time off.
Julie had been both stunned and furious and had promptly thrown him out. A wife! A wife for heaven’s sake! After all those promises!
Her friends, seeing her black mood, had quizzed her at length until she imparted her plight and then they belittled her for it. ‘How did you not see this coming?’ they had berated. ‘Did you ever meet his friends or family? No. Or meet at his place? No. Or anywhere in public? No! Why not? Because there was a reason. He had someone else!’
She’d tried to present a few feeble counterpoints, but it was a hopelessly weak defence and she was soon completely outdone. ‘He was in a relationship and you were just his little bit on the side,’ they’d told her candidly. ‘He played you for a fool, and he even thought it could all continue once he got back. You’ve been blindsided,’ they had scoffed. ‘More fool you.’
Julie had flushed at the humiliation and shrugged it all off, but it hurt. It hurt a lot. Secretly she had suspected something was amiss; he had endless excuses for why they could not go out and why he could not stay. She had known; deep down she had known it was too good to be true. But this was her dream, a handsome professional who would sweep her off her feet like the prince had with Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and countless other fairytale goddesses. This was her fantasy, a lawyer especially, who was comfortably off and would shower her with love and attention. Doctors, lawyers, a head of a major corporate – someone charming, highly regarded, loaded. Was that really an unreasonable thing to seek?
But Dan was a jerk. This had all been a farce and she’d wasted three years, time that she could no longer afford to throw away. In a few months she would be forty, and her time would be nearly up.
Her friends had been right. She’d been taken for a ride again and now she was left licking her wounds and swearing just like the last time that she wouldn’t do it again. ‘Stop looking for the golden goose,’ they told her. ‘These good-looking hot shots are all the same. You’ll get burned …’
But Jason was different, she could tell. Jason was so handsome, she couldn’t resist. He looked smart, he was professional and he was probably charming and well-to-do, from what she could see. And there couldn’t be that many bad apples. He looked much too sophisticated for that.
Jason gathered his case and ventured quickly to the rest rooms. He’d wasted too much time. Rushing to the lockers now was out of the question – he would have to go as he was. He was rarely this distracted and cursed himself. Too late, it was done now. His flight would be here shortly and there was nothing he could do. He’d get himself a locker when he landed in Sydney and leave them there. He would just need to remember to pick them up on the way back. He made a mental note.
Unusually, there was a queue and he had to wait. It was Monday morning and the busiest he had seen it in a long time; it seemed as if half the population of Victoria was travelling interstate. At last he made his way out, narrowly avoiding a collision with a lanky guy in a sweater juggling a heavy backpack.
‘Hi, Jason,’ the guy remarked casually.
Jason took a step back as he recognised the familiar figure. He checked himself; thankfully, he still looked the part.
‘Lewis,’ he acknowledged. ‘Where’re you off to?’
‘Oh, I’m not going anywhere,’ said Lewis. He shrugged. ‘I’m here to fix one of the local servers. The airport’s one of my customers.’ He twisted and showed Jason the backpack. ‘PC Tools. Computers always need bloody fixing.’
‘Yeah,’ said Jason, breathing out. For a moment he had feared he would be