‘You go first,’ Ella said.
‘Well. You saw Helen leave just now. She said you haven’t called Mick yet, about listing his house?’
Immediately, Ella was on the back foot. ‘It slipped my mind. I’m so sorry.’
‘Have you got any other listings on the go? Done any more appraisals lately?’
There was the man she’d spoken with on the dance floor Friday night, before everything at the disco went pear-shaped and Sam ran away. She hadn’t called him back. What was his name again? She’d never got the chance to write it down.
Jake knew him. I’ll ask him.
‘The thing is, Harvey, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the weekend, and in my email I sent to you yesterday, I mentioned about me doing some training in Gina’s job? I thought there wasn’t much point me starting any new listings now, not if I’ll be handing them over to you or Bob. I can’t do sales and admin. That wouldn’t work.’
‘About that,’ Harvey said, rocking back in his chair, making it squeak. ‘I got your email. I’ve had a bit of a chinwag with Bob about that this morning and I’m afraid he didn’t think it was such a great idea.’
It was Ella’s turn to sit straight in her chair. Bob objected? Bob objected! ‘Why would Bob have a problem with me doing the admin?’
Harvey cleared his throat. ‘Well, he’s concerned your attention to detail might not be what’s required for the role.’
‘My attention to detail?’ Ella sputtered. She’d kill Bob. She’d poison his fancy green ficus.
‘Well, there’s a lot of correspondence required. A lot of keeping on top of things. Settlement dates. Website updates. Marketing. Photography bookings.’ Harvey rattled off the list.
‘I’m sure I can learn,’ Ella said.
‘Mmhmmm.’ Harvey let out a sound every bit as eloquent as Erik at his best and steepled his pudgy fingers. ‘I still think we should advertise Gina’s role. See who’s out there. I’d prefer to keep you in sales. I’m not sure you’ve given yourself long enough to call it quits now. You should follow up with Mick Nillson. That could be a new listing for you.’
That quit word again. It seemed to haunt her lately. Even Erik had used the word yesterday when she’d told him about her plan to put her real estate sales career on hold.
Ella didn’t like the thought of quitting. Quitting wasn’t putting something on hold. Quitting sounded so final.
‘What did Bob say exactly?’ Ella asked.
Harvey wafted his fingers vaguely. ‘The real estate industry isn’t for everyone, whether it’s administration, property management or sales. You have to be attentive to little details. Customer-service oriented. Results-driven. A people person.’
‘Bob thinks I’m not a people person?’ Ella was gobsmacked.
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Harvey said, every bit as vague as before. ‘But don’t worry about that for now. Look, it might work out. I’ll give it a bit more of a think, about you doing reception and admin. Okay? But in the meantime, I’d like you to call Mick Nillson. We need that listing, and he wants to list it with you. So his mum tells me.’
Harvey’s mobile phone vibrated on his desk and he glanced to read the name on the screen. ‘I have to take this. Sorry.’
He’d already picked up the phone and she waved at him to say, not at all.
By the time she reached her chair and her space, and dropped her handbag to the floor, Ella’s hackles were well and truly up.
How dare Bob Begg?
I’ll show him I’m a people person, Ella thought, picking up her phone to call Mick Nillson.
The front door of the office whooshed open, and Ella put down her phone because she was on roster this morning and she could hear Gina talking with a young couple about a property they’d seen in the Begg & Robertson window.
Ella got out of her chair and smoothed her skirt.
I’ll show you, Bob.
* * *
‘That’s pretty heavy stuff, mate,’ Abe said, as they ate lamb chops and Abe’s potato salad on Monday night and debriefed the weekend. Abe had been in Margaret River, visiting Brix. ‘Imagine if some bloke rocked up here when we were kids and told us Dad wasn’t our real dad. I mean … it’d be hard to get your head around.’
‘It’s Erik, Ella’s ex, who I feel for,’ Jake said. ‘I mean, I feel for all of them, but Erik brought Sam up as his own. If Marshall wants to get to know Sam, and if Ella’s with me now … Erik’s the odd man out.’
‘Is Ella with you, though?’ Abe asked.
‘This thing with Marshall has thrown her for six, and her head is all over the place. But I think we can be good. When she cools down, thinks it all through. I need to talk her out of leaving Chalk Hill first, though.’
Abe chewed a mouthful of salad and washed it down with beer. ‘Same goes for you, mate. If you hook up with her, you’ll get attached to the kid. I mean, you already are in a way. How are you gonna feel the day you tell him to do something and he looks at you and says, “You can’t make me, you’re not my dad”?’
Jake gestured with his fork before sticking it under a pyramid of baby peas. ‘I’ve thought about it. Guess you just cross that bridge, you know?’
‘What about if you and your swimmer lady do hook up in a major way, and say you want a kid of your own, and she doesn’t?’
‘Thought about that too.’ Of course he’d thought about it. He wouldn’t be human if he didn’t think about it. He’d spent the last ten years of his life thinking about a child of his own and playing, what if? What if Cassidy kept the baby? He’d be ten now. Or she would.
‘And then there’s the whole thing about visiting if the kid wants to see his old man. Where’d ya say he lives?’
‘Sydney. Bondi Beach. Somewhere on millionaire’s row,’ Jake said.
‘Plane
