The Numbers Game (41 page)

            "You're
looking good," Tabitha told Markie, once she settled the napkin in her
lap. "Must be all the exercise you're getting." She winked.

            Markie
looked to Rick for an explanation.

            "Ah
what Tabitha meant to say is..." Rick paused, throwing her a questioning
look, "is that I told her about um....a marathon that you and I were gonna
be running in...the one I haven't mentioned to you yet...."

            "Oh."
Markie smiled. "Well we better get cracking with training soon then. Say
tomorrow five a.m.?" As predicted, Rick looked aghast. That'd be the
day...Markie thought, Rick getting out of bed before seven. His best friend
enjoyed cross country running about as much as he enjoyed ironing.

            For the
next ten minutes, the trio chatted about weather and politics while the roasted
octopus risotto warmed up in the oven. Then when the bing went off, Rick, the
gracious host, jumped up and excused himself, leaving Markie and Tabitha alone
for the first time ever, in his life.

            "So..."
Tabitha leant toward, smiling deviously. It was a smile which hinted that she
had been waiting for this moment all of her life. "Tell me Markie, how
have you really been the past few months. Missing Serena much?"

            Markie did
his best to stay composed. So that’s what the exercise comment was all about
before. He wasn't entirely sure whether Tabitha was serious or not, whether she
was asking about his supposed gang-banging out of friendliness, just to make
conversation or outright nosiness. He suspected it was the latter.

            "I've
been okay. Of course Serena is never far from my thoughts." Chances were
the gossip would be running straight to Serena so why not insert a few good
words when he had the opportunity?

            "How
about Serena? Is she well?"

            "Serena?"
Tabitha responded sounding rather flustered.  "Yes I guess she is."

            They sat
there twiddling their thumbs until Rick waltzed in with the roast octopus risotto
and a second tray piled with pumpkin, potatoes and long green zucchinis
slathered with extra seafood gravy.

            "Did
I miss anything?" Rick asked, looking from Tabitha to Markie and back
again.

            "No!"
Tabitha and Markie replied, all too quickly, too nervously.

            And no one
mentioned Serena again for the rest of the night.

Over the weekend,
Markie decided there was no two ways about it. He had to contact Serena and
tell her about Harry B. Sangster’s offer, because she was the last hurdle to be
jumped on this path.

            Not
surprisingly Rick and Markie both agreed they’d be crazy m-fuckers to reject
the proposal. If they did, it would be the catalyst to lives as bitter and
twisted old men. You know the type: the ones who skull down liters of cheap
whisky, while telling anyone who cares to listen about
what could have been
.

           
“I
could’ve been a movie star; except my shifts at the petrol station clashed with
the auditions.”

            “I
could’ve been a doctor; if I hadn’t had a baby at sixteen.”

            “I
could’ve been an author if it weren’t for my disability called laziness.”

Markie
didn’t want to live a life of regret. He wanted to embrace all the
opportunities that came along, both the good and the bad.

            “How do
you feel about having to maybe uproot and start all over again?” he asked Rick,
who was pacing the living room up and down, stress ball in hand. He asked
because it was one thing to make a decision and another thing to erase all
accompanying doubt.

            Rick
shrugged his shoulders, as if there was a lot more than a cotton polo sweater
weighing him down. A bit different from the cartwheels he was doing yesterday.

            “I don’t
know.  Excited and scared all at once.”

            “Having
second thoughts because of Tabitha?”

            “Nah,” he
waved, “chicks come and go but a million dollars is….” Rick paused, searching
for the right words. “Well…a million dollars.”

            “So you’re
happy to leave her behind?”

            “Maybe I
won’t need to…” Rick smiled wryly. “Just like you might not have to leave
Serena.”

            They
looked at each other without saying a word but saying a million things at the
same time.

           
He’s
thinking the same thing as me
, Markie realized at that point. He’s thinking
that the money is great and so is the change but it’s as good as dog poop if
the girls decided to stay behind.

            Let’s pray
to God they didn’t.

It took three
messages, the last one almost pleading, before Serena finally called Markie
back. It was five thirty and at the office, which couldn’t have been more
inconvenient for Markie if she tried.

            “Hello
Markie?” Serena said, sounding as distant as the sirocco winds. “I’m returning
your call.”

            That much
was obvious. Markie wanted to say it would’ve been nice if she called him at
home as specifically requested but he didn’t feel like rocking the boat so
soon. Especially since he was grateful she even called at all. The image of him
and Clarissa bumping into a solitary Serena outside the C-Lounge still haunted
him at night sometimes. Markie wondered whether he should explain himself now.

            “Thanks
for getting back to me,” he replied, trying to keep the nervousness out of his
voice. In the background he could hear the busy sounds of a film in progress,
directors yelling orders and so on. Of course, Serena must have called him
during a break on the set.

            “I won’t
keep you long,” he said, “seeing as you’re at work. It’s just there has been
this minor emergency.”

            “Emergency!”
Serena shrilled. For a second the girl he knew and loved was back. “Oh my God,
what happened?”

            Okay so
maybe emergency wasn’t exactly the best choice of words. Maybe ‘urgent
situation’ would’ve sounded less extreme. 

            “Don’t
worry, it’s nothing serious or to do with death,” Markie promised, “but I do
need to speak to you about a decision I have to make. You see, it affects you
directly…if everything’s still fine between us, that is.”

            There was
a long pause, which lasted about a minute. In that minute Markie died a hundred
times.

            The fact
that Serena didn’t automatically respond to him, the fact that she even
hesitated just went to show how big the wedge was between them now. In the
olden days, Serena would’ve sounded like a kid on helium whenever Markie was
concerned. Her response rate used to be something like ten minutes from
answering machine to return call, quicker than any impressive beeper service.

            “Serena,
are you still there?” Markie asked.

            “Yes, I
am.”   This time Serena sounded less ice-queen and more teary princess. “You
just had me worried there for a moment.  Tell me about this minor emergency
then.”

            “Um,
well...” Markie cleared his throat. “It’s about the business. We had an offer.”

            “What sort
of offer?” Serena seemed intrigued, almost reminiscent of Christmas Eve
present-poking times.

            “Um…”
Markie looked around the buzzy office, which was still clueless with regards to
the move. “I don’t really feel comfortable talking about this from work,” he
murmured. “Maybe if you’re free we can meet up?”

            “How about
I call you instead tonight?” Serena suggested. “What time are you getting home
nowadays?”

            “You mean at
Ricks?” Markie glanced up at the chrome wall clock, trying to disguise the
disappointment in his voice. Stop it, he cursed himself, try focusing on how
you plan to get some privacy rather than the fact she just rejected a live meeting.
“Probably about seven tonight.”

            Serena
laughed softly. “I needn’t have asked. It’s nice to know some things never
change.

            With that,
she said her goodbye and hung up the phone. Leaving Markie with absolutely no
idea what she meant by that comment.

Serena didn’t really
mean anything bad by that statement; it just came out sounding that way.

            Holding
the receiver in both hands, she stared at it and tried to shake off that eerie
dream-like feeling. But it was hopeless. She couldn’t remember half of what had
just happened there, though Serena knew it was a substantial as a baby’s first
steps.
I just spoke to Markie, I just spoke to Markie
, was reverberating
through her brain. Ruminating on that juicy piece of truth alone would be
enough to get her through another tediously long day at work.

            Serena
hadn’t meant to wait so long before calling Markie but after the latest Jasper
situation, there hadn’t been much choice.

            It had
happened the night Markie left his first message. Jasper and Serena had just
stumbled back to her place after an adventurous night on a pub crawl. Now as is
almost guaranteed on a traditional pub crawl, the couple was blind drunk and
little things like putting key to lock and taking off their shoes were an
extreme struggle when they got home. A struggle they both found absolutely
hilarious.

            “Let’s go
see if we have any Coke in the refrigerator?” Serena slurred with a giggle,
after picking herself off the floor for what seemed like the dozenth time. 
They knew full well there was no soft drink of any sort in the house but when
you are drunk, wishful thinking goes into overdrive.

            “Coke to
celebrate our two month anniversary?” Jasper roared, following her into the
kitchen. “How ridiculous! We definitely need more wine I think.”

            It was
there in the dark, that the pair both spied the red flashing light beaming at
them from the answering machine.

            “Oooh,
messages!” Serena shrieked. She loved coming home to that sight, knowing that
someone somewhere in the world was waiting to hear her voice. “Let’s see who was
thinking of me while we were out getting smashed.”

            Message
number was Champagne:

            “Don’t
forget we’ve having another bastard day on Monday babe. So bring along those
tarot cards you were telling me about. That way we can look into my future and
see if I will ever be as lucky as…”

            Serena hit
the Next button hard at that point because, intoxicated or not, she was getting
a scary glimpse into the future just then.  The last thing she wanted to hear
in front of Jasper was Champagne whining on about how hard it is to get one
man, let alone two and how some girls had all the luck.

            Messages
number two and three were the usual beep, beep, beeps…callers who were either
less than impressed with getting the machine or incapable of leaving messages
without sounding like an utter fool and well aware of it. Serena took this
opportunity to make a mad dash to the bathroom nearest the kitchen (seeing as
her bladder was about to explode) when the fourth and final message kicked into
gear.

            “Hi
Serena, it’s me…” Serena stopped dead in her tracks and turned around,
forgetting all about the haste to relieve herself.

            “It’s
Markie,” the voice continued. “I know you said we weren’t supposed to contact
each other till the end of our break but it’s important. When you get the
chance, please call me back.”

            The
message was over before she could even move from her spot. Jasper looked away
from the device which Serena would inevitably rename “the destroyer of my life”
then straight at her, his mouth dropped, eyes stunned.

            “I can
explain…” she started, pressing one hand urgently against her groin area. If
she wasn’t careful, she‘d be peeing all over her leg soon, something Serena
hadn’t done since her first day at kindergarten, because she couldn’t hold it
in until lunchtime.

            “Can you
really?” Jasper frowned, looking back at the machine. It was as if the device
was Markie and Jasper had walked in to find him and Serena in a heated embrace.
Was he going to yank it out from the wall, stomp on it a bit and throw it around
until the electrical sparks went flying? No…it’d looked like this confrontation
was going to be fairly tame one.

            “I can,”
Serena had nodded, jumping foot to foot, in her best attempt to hold back the
river flowing. “Just let me first go to the bathroom, and then I’ll spill it
all out.”

            Ignoring
Jasper’s less than convinced impression, Serena skipped straight to the toilet,
shut the door and pulled down her pants. Maybe stupidly she wasted a second or
two on trying to find the light switch and upon failing Serena went to rest her
bottom on the toilet seat. It was situated nowhere near where she expected
because spatially Serena was all out of whack. Whack – well maybe that actually
better described the sound of her back-bone hitting the tiles and head slamming
against the glass shower screen, when she missed the toilet altogether.