Heller’s Decision (12 page)

But once inside he pulled my hands away
and my bikini fell to the floor leaving me totally naked. He yanked
off his towel and threw it over his shoulder, leaving him naked
again as well. And . . . well . . . neither of us left his flat for
the rest of the night.

The next morning, I
staggered down to the security section to
meet up with Bick again. And even though it was a Sunday, there
were still quite a few men standing around, trading crude jokes and
insults while preparing to go out on jobs. Security work never took
a break, definitely not a career for those who enjoyed the
structure of regular Monday to Friday, nine to five
employment.

The atmosphere changed the second I
stepped inside the room. All the men stopped talking to look over
at me, speculative gleams in their eyes
and grins on their faces. I scanned them, noticing
that Farrell wasn’t there. Heller’s insistence we have nothing to
do with each other made me hyper-conscious of his presence in any
environment.

“
What?” I collectively demanded from the
room, immediately suspicious. “What’s going on?”

“Enjoy yourself last night, Tilly?” asked one
in an innocent voice.

“
I might have,” I said with a hint of
attitude. “Most people do on a Saturday night. Did you?”

“
Not as much as some,” he
smirked, and the room erupted
into a burst of snickering.

What the hell?
I appealed to Bick, “What’s
going on here?”

He almost looked abashed as he gently took
my arm and led me to a quieter corner, leaning down to speak to me
discreetly
. “Um, maybe a
couple of the guys in the surveillance section shared with the rest
of us some very interesting security camera footage taken in the
hallway to Heller’s flat last night.”

“
No,” I denied, dismayed, not wanting to
believe that could possibly happen. Surely Heller wouldn’t tolerate
his men distributing footage of his private life.
Definitely
not
, I assured myself.
But that could only mean . . .

I
violently pushed past some of the men in my way and stormed
out of the security section, up the stairs again. I burst into
Heller’s main office, startling Daniel who was at his desk,
industriously punching numbers into a spreadsheet. I ignored him
and his greeting and headed straight for Heller’s enclosed corner
office, not even bothering to knock, slamming the door shut behind
me.

He looked up from some paperwork, his
beautiful, expensive pen poised in his scarred hand. He raised a
cool eyebrow. “Matilda?”

“
Tell me you didn’t know about this!” I
almost shouted. Almost. Well, maybe I didn’t quite hit the ‘almost’
mark. Oh, all right, I’ll be honest – I shouted.

H
e flinched as if hit by a sonic boom and yeah, maybe I
shouted rather loudly. “What are you talking about? Or rather,
yelling about?”

“
The men. They’re laughing at
me
because of what happened
between
us
last night
in
your
hallway,
which, in case you’re having trouble remembering, is fitted
with
your
security
cameras.”

“Why would they laugh?”

I sighed and it was a big enough,
melodramatic enough, sigh to encompass the frustration of every
woman so far born on Earth who’d had to deal with a wilfully
ignorant man. “Gee, I don’t know why they’d laugh, Heller. Maybe it
was because they saw your hard-on and saw you dry-humping me and
saw you completing untying my bikini, leaving me virtually naked,
before pushing me inside your flat.” I stopped for a second to
glare at him some more. “Maybe, just maybe, they
deduced
that you were going to give me
a good, hard
fucking
! And
maybe, just maybe, that gave them all a great big old smutty
laugh.” And my sarcasm level was so high at that point, it could
only have been charted by the most distant of the planet-roving
droids.

He
frowned his disapproval at my blunt language, leaned back
in his chair and contemplated me. At the same time, Bick nervously
knocked on the door, opening it cautiously.

“We have to go, Tilly. Barb and Roger will be
late otherwise.”

“
Go downstairs, Barnes,” Heller ordered.
“Matilda will be there in a few minutes.” Bick scooted away
gratefully.

“I heard about it. Are you not pleased?” he
asked.

I wanted to punch something, preferably
him. “
Pleased?
Are you
fucking kidding me? No, I’m not
pleased
. Tell me whether you allowed or encouraged the
distribution of that footage.”

He stared at me silently, which was answer
enough for me.

“
Why are you doing this, Heller?” I spat
out. “Sending out a message to the troops that I’m your woman? That
they need to keep their hands off me or else?”

“Or else,” he said simply, confirming to me
everything I’d said.

I didn’t know if was more upset or angry.
“
You’re unbelievable.
How could you?”

“Go to Barnes, Matilda. He has a job to do
and I won’t let you hold him up.”

If I’d had something in my hand I would
have thrown it straight at his head. Instead, I flounced out,
slamming his door so hard the window next to it shook. I kicked
over a couple of chairs on my way to the door and left without
saying goodbye to Daniel. I stomped down every step to the
basement, where Bick waited patiently in a 4WD for me.

Noticing the thunderous expression on my
face, he wisely remained silent as he reversed and drove up the
ramp out of the garage. We travelled without saying a word for a
couple of kilometres.

“
I saw the footage,” he ventured, casting
me a hesitant glance. “Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. In fact, it
was pretty hot. You can tell that Heller’s really into you.” I
scorched him with my eyes and he flushed. “Aw man, I didn’t mean
that he was
into
you in a
physical sense, although obviously he likes to get into you as
often as possible, not that I would put it like that, of course.
Um, er, I meant it more in a sense that . . .” And clocking my grim
unrelenting features, he petered out.

“Shut up, Bick.”

“I think I’ll just shut up now.” We drove in
silence for the rest of the way.

At the hotel, I ran up to bring Roger and
Barb to the car, while Bick idled the 4WD out the front. They’d
dressed as befitting their status as major stars again. Barb had
squeezed into a snugly cut, red leather ensemble, her taut tanned
midriff on display, her enormous boobs barely contained in the cow
hide, the top being zipped down to its last few centimetres, her
copious bounty spilling out the front. The tight mini-shorts she
wore highlighted her perky buttocks and toned thighs. She’d left
her hair long and loose and it curled coquettishly around her
shoulders. She looked gorgeous and stunning and I felt like a frump
in a potato sack standing next to her.
I really had to get to the gym more
often
, I thought
morosely, sucking in my stomach.

Roger
was dressed immaculately too, but really, who cared what he
wore? Nobody paid him any attention. All eyes were on Ms Busty, not
him.

I bundled them into the 4WD and we sped
off, parking in the priority bay at the conference centre again.
Once more, Garrett hurried forward to greet them, enveloping them
in his devoted attention. We whisked them to the HUMP Productions
booth without further delay, where the morning panned out much the
same as yesterday’s had.

“
Everything okay, Tilly?” asked Barb
in a kind, confidential voice
as we escorted them from their booth to the auditorium.

“
No, not really,” I admitted, rather
subdued.

“
I thought you seemed a bit down today. Man
problems?”

“How did you guess?”

She laughed. “They’re usually the cause of
all of a woman’s problems. Was your guy being a jerk?”

“
Yep. That’s a good word for him. Though I
would probably add arrogant in front of it.”

We didn’t have a chance to say any more,
Roger and her having to ascend the stage to the enthusiastic
welcome of the cheering crowd.

I
barely even watched what was going on up on the big screen.
One of their ‘favourite’ scenes was showing, another one where
Roger pumped Barb and another two women endlessly and mechanically,
all of them looking quite bored. Instead, dark thoughts filled my
head about Heller and the precise scathing words I was going to
blast him with when I saw him again tonight. Or maybe I’d just lock
my flat door and refuse to speak to him all together. I couldn’t
make up my mind which action would give me greater satisfaction and
a greater salve to my hurt feelings.

Fully occupied with those
doleful considerations, the
time slipped by quickly and it seemed like only a blink later that
Barb and Roger’s presentation was over for another day. On our
return to the HUMP Productions booth, we could hardly fail to
notice a new entertainer present in the arcade near the booth. I
actually cracked a smile for the first time that day as we watched
a guy dressed in a giant penis costume – a startlingly realistic
and rather terrifying representation of one – wiggling and dancing
passionately to the thumping music that played all day throughout
the centre. Realising he had an audience, a small group of other
patrons now also milling around him, the entertainer performed for
us with gutso. His unbridled enthusiasm for putting on a show and
cheeky features left none of us unsmiling. It was such a ridiculous
sight that it was impossible, even for someone currently as grumpy
as me, to not be amused.

Barb and Roger, after smiling at the
dancing penis
a few
minutes longer, gave Bick a break while they ate their lunch inside
the booth. We leaned on the barriers surrounding the booth, joined
by the thick-necks, and watched the entertainer finish his routine,
warming to our spatter of applause. He bowed graciously, a
difficult task in his tall, rigid suit. Having had some
spectacularly crappy jobs myself in my past, I had a real
appreciation for anyone doing their very best in such
circumstances. After the other spectators wandered off, he came
over to us, his young face flushed with effort.

“
Hi,” he said, leaning on one of the
barrier poles too.

I smiled at him
while Bick high-fived him, saying, “Good job, man.
Tough gig.”

“
It sure is,” he said, taking off his
‘helmet’ and running his fingers through his damp, curly ash-brown
hair. He had friendly hazel eyes and a ready smile. “But when you
want to be a dancer, you have to take what you can get.” He swiped
at his forehead. “It’s really hot in this costume. I wouldn’t have
to work so hard if my partner had bothered to turn up for work
today. We’re supposed to be a pair.”

“
What costume was your partner
meant to be in?” I
asked.

He rolled his eyes.
“Use your imagination.” When we stared at
him blankly, he added, “The female equivalent.”

“
Oh,” Bick and I said simultaneously. My
mind boggled at the thought of what that costume
would have looked like.

“
Probably better she didn’t turn up,” the
young man mused for a short moment. “Her costume’s a bit
scary.”

Bick laughed. “They’re all scary, mate.
You’ll find that out when you grow up some.”

I thumped his arm for that sexist comment.
“How old are you, anyway?” I enquired of the boy. He didn’t look a
day over thirteen.

He sighed hugely, obviously hearing that
question a lot. “I’m eighteen. I’m legal. I’m allowed to be here,
if that’s what you’re worried about
,” he said with an uncontainable grin. “By the
way, my name’s Benjy.”

We introduced ourselves.

“
What do you do?” he asked Bick, obviously
impressed with his height, bulk and muscles.

“Private security,” said Bick.

“
Cool. Do you carry a gun?”

“
Sometimes. She doesn’t though,” he said
nodding towards me. “She doesn’t know one end of a gun from the
other.”

“
I do so.”

“Are you in security too?” Benjy asked
me.

“Not at the moment.”

“She was fired.”

“I wasn’t fired. I was suspended. Big
difference.”

“Who are you looking after?”

“Some porn stars.”

“Adult entertainment stars,” I corrected.

“Who? I might know them.”

“Busty Biggen and Roger Harder.”

“
Oh yeah! The door-to-door survey lady
movie, right? That’s a classic.”

“
That’s a dog of a movie,” I insisted,
hoping Barb and Roger couldn’t overhear me. “You’re a bit young to
be watching movies like that, aren’t you?”

“
No!” he said, indignantly. “I’m eighteen,
I told you. I can do whatever I want.”

A cranky, overweight man with an ugly
moustache and spectacularly bad hairpiece stormed over to
us.