Insecure by Ainslie Paton

Author:Ainslie Paton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Australia Pty Ltd
Published: 2015-02-23T05:00:00+00:00

22: Waiting

Jacinta tried lying on a deckchair and lasted three days, the third day only because she’d converted her sit-on-your-butt-and-pretend-to enjoy-it holiday into a walk-till-you-drop trek that started the next morning. Now she had blisters on her blisters. She also had a suntan, a haircut and new casual clothes and shoes.

That took care of the urgent need to fill her unemployed time for the first month. And now she was back in town she needed to find somewhere new to live and give Bryan back his spare room and garage. She also needed to stop dodging Jay’s calls. She plonked herself in a serviced apartment and hired a car while she went flat hunting.

Her first instinct on getting an email from Mel was to ignore it. She didn’t want to think about Wentworth, she wasn’t past the grief, or the anger. But it wasn’t Mel’s fault she reminded Jacinta of where she’d be if not stomping around the place with a rental listing and a crabby temper. And Mel had a problem. After leaving her languishing with almost nothing to do since Jacinta left, HR had finally found a new position for her, but it was a sideways shift and Mel wanted advice. It was the least Jacinta could do.

They met for coffee in that cute neighbourhood with the cafe and restaurant strip, the gallery, gift shops and boutiques where she’d last gone the day Henry wrote the obituary on her career.

“Oh my God, you look amazing, Jacinta.”

She shook her head and her hair swished about her neck and shoulders. “New hair.”

“No, you look...” Mel put her hand to her lips then blurted, “You look ten years younger.”

“It’s the suntan.”

“It’s having a life.”

Jacinta sipped her coffee. She wasn’t having a life; she was waiting for something similar to her old one to come along, and checking her email constantly. Carrying her phone in her pocket wasn’t making it happen any quicker.

“I’m still coming to terms with that.”

“It must feel strange, but exciting too. There must be things you wish you’d been able to do when you were working all those hours.”

There was reading for pleasure, there was the new Pilates class she was considering enrolling in and perhaps the rest would come. Meanwhile she was turning sleeping into an Olympic sport. And that had to stop. That felt like a creeping symptom of depression and she was all too conscious ending up depressed was a real possibility.

They talked about the job Wentworth wanted Mel to do, it wasn’t near as bad as she’d built it up to be.

“I miss you. I guess I panicked a bit. I thought they might’ve tried to get rid of me because they knew I was loyal.”

“If you ever truly believe that I’ll talk to Tom about it.”

Mel nodded. “I guess I have a new boss in the Wentworth mortgages. Oh, while I think of it, I took a call for you from a guy called,” she unfolded a piece of paper, “Mace Lauder.”

“Really, Mace?”

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