Take Two by Danielle Hawkins

Author:Danielle Hawkins [Danielle Hawkins]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin NZ
Published: 2024-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

It turned out that we were really quite responsible people. It was only a few minutes — certainly not more than ten — before we remembered our obligations.

‘We’d better get back before Polly wakes up,’ I said, disengaging myself reluctantly.

Mick sighed and straightened my shirt for me. ‘Yeah.’

We began to walk back towards the house, hand in hand. Just before the path emerged onto the lawn, I pulled my hand free and said, ‘Mick? Can we keep this to ourselves, for a bit?’

‘Why?’ he asked.

This was the wrong response; the correct answer would have been, ‘Yes, of course, my angel, whatever you want.’ I stopped walking and struggled for the right words to describe my amorphous terror. ‘It’s new, and — and scary, and I don’t want to hear anyone else’s opinion of it just yet.’

He looked at me thoughtfully for a moment before he said, ‘Okay.’

Finding that our obligations were all still asleep, we retired to the outdoor couch that stood on the porch between two sets of French doors. A sturdy wooden affair with big squashy cushions, it was long enough for two people to sit at either end with their feet up and not encroach too much on one another’s personal space.

Mick encroached anyway. He arranged himself so his legs took up at least three-quarters of the available room and lifted my feet onto his lap, resting a hand on my right shin.

‘Comfortable?’ I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

‘Yes, thanks. I like your nail polish.’ His hand slid up my leg.

‘Stop that,’ I said sternly.

He lifted the hand with exaggerated care and returned it to my ankle. ‘Fun fact: most of my teenage fantasies started with you lifting one eyebrow at me, just like that.’

‘Ew.’ I made a face.

‘Why ew?’

‘The thought of teenage-boy fantasies in general.’

‘You should feel honoured.’

‘You reckon?’ I freed my foot and ran it lightly up the inside of his leg.

He caught my foot again and held it. ‘And why is it okay for you to do that but not me?’

‘You make a compelling point,’ I said. ‘Sorry.’

‘That is such a management word.’

‘Sorry? It most certainly is not!’

‘No, you peanut. Compelling.’

‘Really? I know heaps better jargon than that,’ I said.

‘Go on, then.’

At which, of course, my mind went entirely blank.

‘You’ve got nothing, have you?’ Mick said, grinning.

‘Operationalise!’ I said. ‘Deliverables. Reaching out.’

‘Only counts if you use it in a sentence.’

I drew myself up very straight, shook my hair back and pictured the Agile Scrum Master at a company I’d done some work for the year before. His dapper little beard and too-tight trousers rose before my mind’s eye, a shining symbol of inspiration. ‘Alright,’ I said. ‘Let’s do a deep dive on this. We want scalable deliverables, and our execution needs to be seamless. We’ll need to do the groundwork, find the pain points and make sure we’re ticking every box. It’s all about operationalising our core competencies.’

Mick applauded.

I bowed. ‘Your turn.’

‘What?’ he said. ‘No.’

‘Go on, give it a go. Think outside the square.

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