Chapter Eleven
Kingi
“Well, I have to say, this is a surprise.” Moana studies us with more than a little suspicion.
Chessie and I are sitting before the board of the Ngā Whetū Rangatahi Foundation —Mikaere, Moana, and Koa.
They called me in after the article appeared in Kōrero speculating about our relationship—along with a photo of Chessie and me kissing outside the restaurant, and a zoomed-in view of her hand, which clearly showed the ring.
“I know it must seem that way,” Chessie says. She’s sitting beside me, and she holds out a hand to me and smiles as I slide my hand into it. “And it’s true that it has been a whirlwind romance. But we’re both very happy.”
The three of them continue to look unimpressed. “Kingi,” Mikaere says impatiently, “it’s impossible not to think that our previous conversation has something to do with this engagement. And you know how that looks, don’t you?”
I release Chessie’s hand and lean forward, my elbows on my knees. We knew this was going to be difficult. I’m surprised how nervous I am, though. I respect these three elders, and I feel ashamed to think I’m pulling the wool over their eyes. But I’m doing it for the good of the kids.
“Honestly,” I say, “it is connected with our conversation. After our last talk, I went away and had a good think about what you said. I felt ashamed of my behavior.” I shift on the chair.
It makes me uncomfortable to say that, but it was Chessie’s idea to throw myself on my sword and tell them I was sorry, and I know she’s right.
“I’m twenty-eight, and you were right—it’s time I grew up and acknowledged my responsibilities.
I do want this position because I feel I have a lot to offer the kids, and I want to be a good role model in every way. ”
“So you went home, called an old friend, and proposed?” Koa asks, amused.
I find myself tongue-tied. I can close million-dollar deals without breaking a sweat, but suddenly I feel awful for lying to them.
Maybe I should admit I made it all up. Perhaps they’ll see it as cute and adorable and a sign of how much I want it.
Or maybe they’ll throw me out the door in disgust and called Kōrero and tell the whole world what an idiot I am.
“If I may,” Chessie says to me softly. I can’t think what to say, so I nod.
“We know how it looks,” she says to them.
“But it really wasn’t like that. We’ve known each other a long time, and we’ve always had feelings for each other.
Kingi has actually asked me out many times, but I’ve always said no, because…
well… his world is very different from mine, as you can imagine.
I’m a gardener! And he’s high profile, and I’m not really comfortable in the limelight.
I knew the kind of women he dated, and of course I’m nothing like them.
I mean, look at me.” She gestures at herself.
She’s wearing cut-down jeans and a plain white tee.
Her long hair is drawn back in a ponytail, and the only makeup she’s wearing is a touch of lip balm, because her lips look glossy.
“But a couple of weeks ago,” she continues, “I was working on landscaping the bank behind Midnight, and he was out walking, and we bumped into one another. We got talking and decided to go for a coffee to catch up. I was a bit emotional, you see… My father had a quadruple heart bypass recently.”
“Oh no…” Moana murmurs, and the two men frown.
“His wound was infected,” Chessie continues, “but the hospital was sending him home anyway, and I was worried about how my mum was going to cope, and whether the infection would get worse. And Kingi was really nice and said it was going to be okay and made me feel better, and it reminded me how much I liked him. So when he asked me out afterward, I said yes.”
“How is your dad now?” Koa asks.
“A little better, thank you,” she says. “Kingi helped there too—my dad was worried about his business because he’s been unable to work, and there were a few outstanding bills, and Kingi settled those for us, which made Dad feel so much better.”
“That was kind of you,” Moana says quietly.
It’s amazing how Chessie is managing to hide the lie amongst the truth. I look at her with renewed admiration. Nobody would ever think she was lying. She’s so genuine and warm.
“Yes, and so we saw each other every day for the week after that,” she continues. “I wasn’t comfortable being seen in public, so we just went for a few picnics and walks, but we talked for hours, didn’t we?” She throws me a smile.
I nod, determined to play along and not let her effort go to waste.
“It’s hard to explain how different it felt to talk to Chess.
She jokes about not being like the other women I’ve dated, and it’s true, but not in the way she thinks.
She’s so unaffected and natural.” I realize as I say it how true it is.
“Then the article came out about me jumping off the waterfall. I was worried about it because it mentioned Sabrina, but Chessie was so supportive, and she said that of course I wouldn’t have done it under the influence of alcohol, and there was no doubt in her voice at all. ”
“He’d never do that,” she says. “We jumped off the waterfall a lot when we were young, didn’t we? And we were always very respectful of the power of nature.”
“You’ve jumped off?” Moana asks her, surprised. “I could never do that!”
“She’s done it many times,” I tell them. “She’s completely fearless. That’s one thing I love about her, that and her openness, the fact that she never pretends to be anyone else. Being with her felt so natural.”
“What I don’t understand is why you didn’t mention that you were dating when we called you in last week,” Mikaere says.
“We’d only been dating a week,” I reply. “I didn’t feel it was appropriate to talk about a new girlfriend. But after I left you, I talked to Chessie about it because I felt terrible.”
“We talked for ages that night,” she says, “didn’t we?
Well into the early hours. He really opened up,” she tells them.
“He talked a lot about missing me when he went away to boarding school, and how he hated that we’d grown apart as he got more caught up in his new world.
I realized how unhappy he was deep down.
He told me how bad he felt after your meeting, and that he was ashamed of what had happened with Sabrina.
He was very sweet about it and said he was worried about hurting me, and…
I don’t know… we just sort of connected, didn’t we?
” She looks back at me, and her face flushes.
She’s implying we slept together that night for the first time.
I reach out and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, and just smile.
“After that,” she says, “it’s been such a lovely week. We’ve spent so much time together, and we’ve talked a lot about the Foundation, and the work he wants to do with the kids there.”
“I’ll be honest with you,” I say to them, “we discussed your comment about me making some commitment to show respectability and responsibility. And Chessie laughed and said maybe we should get married then, and it was like a lightbulb came on. I’ve never thought about it before.
I couldn’t imagine settling down with anyone.
But the thought of being with her for the rest of my life just filled me with joy. And so I proposed there and then.”
“I was stunned,” Chessie says. “Of course I said it was ridiculous—we’d only been dating a fortnight.
But it’s been such a magical couple of weeks, and I’m so head over heels for him that I just had to say yes.
I made it clear, though, that we should wait a while before we get married, so we’re both absolutely sure that it’s not a flash-in-the-pan thing, and he was happy with that, but he wanted me to wear the ring straight away. ”
“I told Orson,” I say, “and he revealed that he’d asked Scarlett to marry him, too! We both thought it was hilarious that we’d done it within a day of each other, and we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate, and so the girls could meet each other. And that’s when the photographer saw us.”
“You weren’t exactly hiding it,” Koa says, smiling.
“No.” I pick up Chessie’s hand again. “I admit I wanted to show her off.”
“Aw,” Moana says.
Mikaere gives a short laugh. “Well, it’s a very romantic story. And at least you were honest in admitting you took on board what we said, and that it might have influenced your decision.”
“Oh, it definitely did,” I say, “but only in a positive way.”
The three of them exchange glances. Koa and Moana both nod and smile. Then Mikaere says, “Okay, so we had a talk beforehand, and we’d like to offer you the CEO role.”
I inhale with surprise, and joy fills me. “Really?”
“Oh my God!” Chessie turns to me and throws her arms around my neck, and I laugh and hug her back.
“Thank you,” I say over her shoulder. “I’m so pleased.”
“You’re one of the good guys,” Koa says. “It wasn’t a hard decision. I hope we can all work together to improve the lives of these kids, and it’s good to have you at the helm to steer the ship.”
Chessie moves back, and I stand and lean across the table to shake their hands.
“We’ll set up a meeting in a week or so to start thinking about what direction we’re going to take this in,” Mikaere says. “I’m guessing you’ll officially announce the engagement soon?”
“At the Midnight Ball,” I confirm.
“Then we’ll put out a press release on the following Monday.”
“Okay. Thank you. You won’t regret it.”
“I hope not,” Mikaere says, meeting my eyes. My stomach flips. He still doesn’t believe me a hundred percent. But the other two are smiling, and I guess he thinks it’s worth the risk.
Chessie slips her hand into mine, and we lead the way out of Midnight’s boardroom. In the lobby, we say goodbye to them, and they head out of the front doors.
We wait for a moment, then turn to each other and blow out a long breath.
“You want a celebratory coffee?” I ask her.
“God, yes.”