Selling the Drama (33 page)

Charlotte rested against the door, thinking
rapidly. "Would your dad sell it as a gym if he had an offer?"

Annabel raised her eyebrows, looking at
Charlotte with interest. "I don't see why not. Are you
interested?"

Charlotte smiled widely. "What do you think?
Get your dad on the phone so we can talk specifics. My husband is a
lawyer; specifics is the only type of language he speaks."

Toby made enough money for them to live on
comfortably. This was aided greatly by the fact that they had no
mortgage to pay and no rent either; they lived with Iris in her
fully owned home, so this saved them a lot right from the outset.
They did not go away on holidays; the kids were too young to make
going anywhere worthwhile and Toby was far too busy to consider it
anyway, so they saved on that front too. While they had two cars,
these were not expensive models, practicality winning out over
style, particularly with Charlotte's car. Toby had lived off of an
educational trust fund his solicitor had set up for him while
studying for his law degree, but this had not been fully depleted
and they were still using that money now to pay for Ashley's school
fees.

The educational trust fund though, was just
the tip of a very big iceberg. Toby was the sole heir to a fortune;
a somewhat tainted fortune, but a vast one nonetheless. Added to
this fortune were life insurance payouts, property settlements, and
proceeds from the sale of his father's medical practice. Aside from
paying for the plastic surgery she had needed in order to get her
neck fixed, and their two cars, this money had remained untouched.
While fully aware of the scope of his wealth, Charlotte tended to
ignore it, because that was what he did. He budgeted his salary and
kept careful consideration of expenses even though he did not need
to. And while they never went without, they never lived with any
extravagance. There was a curiosity within Charlotte about why he
was so repelled by all of his money, but not so much so that she
would dig around at him to find out. There were just some things
you did not try and talk to Toby about.

Even so, the knowledge of this fortune was
teasing Charlotte now that this new opportunity had presented
itself to her. The amount of money a person might need, to say, buy
a gym, would probably be an insignificant dent in the balance.
Charlotte was more than capable of running a gymnastics academy,
and she was certainly qualified as a trainer to do so. She just
needed to be able to get Toby to see that and agree to it. She had
made herself entirely dependent upon him financially, and it was
only now when faced with a prospect she did not want to pass up,
that she realised just how vulnerable that really made her. She was
twenty nine years old and had no money of her own to speak of; she
had been unemployed for more than four years now and owned nothing
in her own name. There was no way she could do this without
him.

It was rather sobering when you laid it all
out like that.

Toby looked over the figures Charlotte had
neatly laid out in front of him. They looked good, better than he
might have expected for a gymnastics academy that did no
advertising and had not upgraded their facilities in at least
twenty five years. Even if it had looked less healthy financially,
he would still never have refused her. It was good to at last be
able to do something like this for her. She had given up her career
to have his children and the significance of that sacrifice was not
lost on him. Her sacrifice had enabled him to climb upwards in his
own career and he was in a much better place now than he would be
if he had needed to scale back his workload in order to help juggle
things at home.

"You can talk him down from his asking
price. All of the equipment is old and the whole place could do
with a refit, which is what you should do when you take it over.
Close for a few weeks and re-open with a fresh look. Back to the
price though, he's asking too much. Take twenty grand off, at
least, and then you work up back to fifteen below and stop at that.
I think he'll take less though, but it's good to have room to move.
I'll transfer some money into our joint account for now, but you'll
need to open a business account. The bank will help you sort out
what you need." He gathered the papers together and handed them
back to her.

Charlotte stared at him, her hands remaining
by her side, the papers still hanging out in front of her, clasped
in Toby's hand. "You're saying yes? Just like that?" she asked, her
expression wary.

Toby smiled at her, putting the papers down
onto his desk. "You don't need my permission. My opinion is that
it's viable and a good idea. But it's not up to me to say yes or
no. You don't defer to me."

"But it's your money," Charlotte
protested.

"Really? Hardly. Anyway, it ceased being my
money right from when we first started living together as a family.
Besides, most of it is in your name already. I set that up ages ago
so you were protected if anything ever happened to me. I didn't
want you having to go without for any period of time, because
generally speaking, the more money you have, the longer it can take
for estates to be finalised."

"What do you mean, if something happened to
you?" She looked alarmed now.

"I mean if I die, Charlotte. Honey, I'm a
lawyer. It's impossible for me to not think about the specifics of
life in this manner. Anyway, we're getting way off track. I think
this is a great idea, you'll be brilliant. It will be the best
gymnastics academy in town. You should make an offer this afternoon
and then go and sort out the bank account tomorrow." He looked over
at her and grinned then. "Bree is going to be so excited. She'll
get to spend even more time doing her favourite thing."

Charlotte smiled widely back at him. "I
know. I think it will be good for us, to have that common interest.
She's not as naughty there, so I might be able to tell her off less
each day."

"Here's hoping." Toby glanced down at his
watch with a frown. "I have to go. Sorry."

Charlotte stood up, gathering her papers up
off his desk and sliding them into her bag. "That's fine. I have
things to do. I'm a very busy person you know; no time for all this
sitting around and chatting," she said to him, a breezy tone to her
voice.

Toby laughed at her, standing also. He
really did need to go, but he did have time for one more thing.
Walking around the desk, he grabbed hold of her face with both
hands, kissing her hard on the mouth. "I love you."

Charlotte patted him on the shoulder,
sending him a wink as she turned to leave. "It's very hard not to.
I'm completely irresistible."

Toby smiled at her retreating figure. She
really did not know just how true for him that was.

Annabel's father accepted a price twelve
thousand dollars below his asking one. He wanted a quick sale so
the gym changed hands rather rapidly. Jake had some connections to
a couple of tradies who were available to work on the refit while
Charlotte ordered upgraded equipment that arrived in time for them
to install before her scheduled re-opening.

Bree spent every bit of time at the gym that
Charlotte did, and in the space of three weeks, became an entirely
different child. The flow on effect to the rest of the family was
profound. Ashley was happier because Bree was no longer annoying
him constantly; Courtney was less whiny because Charlotte was less
cranky because Bree was less naughty; Toby was more relaxed in the
evening because he was no longer bracing himself for an onslaught
of complaints from his entire family each time he walked in the
door. Iris and Danielle were essentially unchanged, one too
indifferent to have even been bothered by all the fuss anyway and
the other too young to be affected by anything other than an
alteration in her feeding schedule.

When the gym re-opened, it did so with
Charlotte in charge of the acrobatic classes, and two other
existing coaches staying on and sharing the load of the other
classes dependent upon their expertise. A play area was installed,
not only for her own children, but for the use of others that came
along while their older siblings trained. The kitchen in the back
had been upgraded so Charlotte could make light meals for herself,
the children, and the other staff members while they were there.
She bought a coffee machine and offered it out as a help yourself
with a one dollar charge to cover the coffee, milk and sugar. She
quickly had more interest than she could cater for and needed to
develop a systematic waiting list. The list grew longer so she
advertised for a third coach.

Ellie began to spend more and more time down
at the gym also, not because she was a gymnast, but because she
liked the atmosphere. She claimed it was the only place she could
get coffee for a dollar with the added perk of drinking it while
being able to check out the hottest twenty two year old man she had
seen in long while. Charlotte's newest coach was possibly also the
reason why many of her student's mothers were all of sudden hanging
around to watch their sons and daughters train. While the coffee on
offer was pretty good, Charlotte didn't think it was actually good
enough to warrant the crowds she was suddenly entertaining.

Ellie also spent this time down at the gym
planning Charlotte's wedding for her, an activity Charlotte was
more than happy to pass over. Ellie was a devil for the details,
and Charlotte had never been all that inclined towards the
organisation of events. Anyway, Ellie knew what she was doing, she
had organised her own wedding in a spectacular fashion, leaving
Charlotte with no doubts whatsoever that she was in good, capable
hands. The dress remained a point of contention though. Iris and
Ellie both had very clear ideas on what sort of dress Charlotte
should be wearing. Charlotte herself had not been taken with
anything she had seen so far, but she was unconcerned; something
would turn up. Eventually. Ellie, of course, was freaking out,
because she refused to pick a dress for herself until Charlotte had
hers sorted so they could be complementary. Iris felt the same
about the dresses for the girls. None of them were old enough to be
in the wedding party, but Charlotte wanted them to all still wear
matching dresses. Ashley was the only one participating officially,
and Toby had his suit all in hand. This was unsurprising given that
the suit selection was the only task he had been given, and it
would be pretty sad indeed if he had not managed to get on top of
that in good time.

Charlotte ended up completely bypassing her
mother and Ellie one day while out on her own doing some banking
and errands. She stopped off on a whim at Vinnie's, intending on
looking for some leotard castoffs to have as spares down at the
gym. They were expensive new and there were enough dancing schools
around to give Charlotte the impression there was a good chance she
might get lucky. Dancing schools were notorious for changing their
leotard colours on a whim.

She picked out half a dozen leotards and
then found herself wandering to the back of the store where she'd
spied a rack of wedding dresses. Some of them were hideous; where
they had come from she had no idea. There were a few modern ones
but they were not to her liking. And then she found it. A strapless
dress with a fitted bodice and a sash that tied at the waist giving
way to four layered tiers; vintage seventies, for sure. It was
ivory, which suited her fine, her complexion and dark brown hair
were not really suited to bright white. After trying it on and
discovering that it fit her perfectly, she bought it for thirty
five dollars. Charged with a renewed interest in the whole event,
she drove to a dress store that she knew stocked formal wear for
children. She picked out three identical dresses in a bright yellow
chiffon that had a tiered skirt not dissimilar to that of her own.
The irony of them costing her almost ten times more than her own
dress was not lost on her.

Toby watched as the jury filed back in,
their decision apparently made. Twenty five minutes it had taken
for them to decide. It was either going to be very bad for his
client, or very good. He was leaning towards good, but there were a
couple of members of that jury that gave him cause for concern.
Glancing across to the dock, he noted how terrified his client
appeared. She looked positively sick. He hoped she didn't pass out
before they were done.

This was a legal aid case. He made a point
of accepting them regularly, the type of cases becoming more
distinct as his career progressed. Toby was showing himself to be
very good at getting acquittals for women who had committed crimes
against men. This case was a fairly cut and dry one. Years of
abuse, wife finally cracks it, husband permanently wounded,
thankfully though, for the purposes of her defence, not dead. There
were hospital reports, police reports, witnesses who could verify
the abuse; in all truth, it should not have gotten this far. But
she had done a lot of damage to her husband in the attack, years of
fear transforming her in her anger. Still, she had a solid motive.
And the rest was all in how you presented it. They would find out
in about thirty seconds if he had presented it right.

"Not Guilty."

The woman dropped her head into her hands
and started to sob. Toby squeezed the shoulder of his instructing
solicitor, jubilation taking him over. Euphoric at the hand of
justice. Standing and checking his watch with impatience, he bid
the solicitor a hasty goodbye and left the courtroom in a hurry. He
had to drive down to Innisfail to appear in the magistrates' court
for a committal hearing. The barrister previously briefed could no
longer attend, being held up in court on another case, so Toby had
agreed to take his place. He'd tried calling Charlotte at the gym
before entering court this morning, but the phone had rung out. He
always told her when he had to travel, just in case something came
up and she needed him; if she knew he was no longer in town, then
she would know not to bother with trying to get a hold of him.
Walking out of the court house now, he tried calling her mobile but
that went straight to messages, so he left a brief one telling her
where he was going and how long he expected to be, finishing off
with his usual, "Love you", at the end.