Chapter 7 #2
“Exactly. I can’t wait. It feels like forever since I first enrolled.”
“Well, if you change your mind about your course major as many times as you did, that will happen.”
Now it was Katie’s turn to roll her eyes at her sister.
“Now, now. Let’s not spoil Meg’s day with sisterly squabbling,” Mrs. Bennett said.
Katie’s five minutes stretched out to twenty before the clock’s chime startled her to awareness that she had work to do. She made her excuses, leaving Elinor seated next to Jordan. She leaned a little closer as the parents swapped notes about a senior citizens event coming soon.
“I didn’t mean to gossip before. I am sorry.”
“It’s all good.”
She sighed. “But is EJ good? You said before that she’s distracted. And I get the sense that it’s not in a good way.”
“All I can say is from what I’ve seen, and yeah, I think she’s at risk of having her head turned by these new friends. She wants to make a good impression.”
Her mouth tweaked. “I don’t know why she always feels like she has something to prove. Sometimes I get the feeling that she’s embarrassed about her background. Which is ironic considering she’s the one who is always demanding honesty from others about their history.”
He nodded. So true. EJ could be a walking contradiction.
“What are you two talking about so seriously over there?” Mrs. Bennett asked.
There was no way he was going to spill the tea about what Elinor and he had just shared.
“How is that daughter of mine going?” she continued, as if unaware he hadn’t responded to her previous enquiry. “I do worry about her sometimes.”
“I think she’s enjoying making some new friends,” he said carefully.
“Oh, I saw that you took her to Bennelong recently. How wonderful! What a generous friend you are to her.”
“That’s me.”
Elinor snickered.
“She’s always wanted to go there,” he said. “It seemed like an appropriate time to go when it was a celebration.”
“Oh, she’s so lucky to have you as a friend, isn’t she?” Mrs. Bennett said, warm affection in her face.
“EJ would be even luckier if she opened her eyes and realised friends can be more than that,” Elinor murmured.
He shot her a glare, but she sipped her tea, not looking at him.
“What was that, dear?” his mother asked Elinor.
“Nothing,” Elinor said.
“Nothing at all,” he said firmly.
Elinor raised her eyebrows in that annoying way she shared with EJ, like they could see through the bulldust to the truth.
And yes, the truth might be something he didn’t want broadcast for all to see.
Because Elinor was right, and he wasn’t content with staying as mere friends with EJ. He wanted more. Much more. But it felt impossible when she seemed to want to keep him at a distance in every way.
“You just want more, more, more. You’re insane with greed!”
EJ flinched as the actor slammed the Georgian table, spilling the valuables to the floor, while Charlie leaped from her lap and the line spilled truth inside.
The movie might be an adaptation of a Barbara Cartland novel, not Austen, but it was one she and her sisters had watched plenty of times, thanks to Aunty Marion’s love of old romantic movies.
But never had that line struck her in quite the same way.
She was conscious that blowing off her family and old friends to chase new friends was due, in part, to her desire to want more.
More exposure for Dream Match. More investors.
More likes. More money. More trips and exclusive parties and more, more, more.
Was it wrong for her to want more? More money meant she could help others, so it wasn’t automatically a bad thing.
Really, the only people who seemed to have a problem with it were those who were super straitlaced.
Like Jordan. Elinor. And Liv. Oh, and maybe her parents, but she hadn’t spoken to them for a couple of weeks now, so she wouldn’t really know for certain.
Guilt panged. Maybe instead of watching movies she’d already seen a dozen times, she should be speaking with her family, reassuring them that she was fine.
She’d received a few concerned text messages from Elinor and Katie.
Apparently Jordan hadn’t done a stellar job in assuring them that she was fine.
Awesome to know he had her back like that.
Her phone buzzed. Gwen. Again. She’d felt a little distant towards her ever since she’d leaked EJ’s phone number to Eric.
And while she’d yet to respond to Gwen’s messages, including yesterday’s one checking in to say Eric had asked whether she’d received the flowers, she found herself getting more curious by the hour about just what Eric wanted.
She wasn’t so naive that she thought he was genuinely interested in a relationship.
She was curious to know if there was any way she could leverage the situation to work out in Dream Match’s favour.
So she hadn’t definitively decided never to contact him.
She just hadn’t yet figured out what to say. To either Eric or Gwen.
The phone stopped buzzing, then five seconds later resumed again. She sighed and pressed ANSWER. “Gwen.”
“EJ, at last! I thought you were ignoring my calls or something.”
Gwen was right, but EJ would never admit that. “I’ve been a little busy.”
“Oh, I know. Life gets a little hectic sometimes when you’re chasing the dream, doesn’t it?”
But what dream are you chasing? She could almost hear Jordan say those words aloud. Ugh. There was something clearly wrong with her if his thoughts were so heavily entwined in her brain that she could barely think without his voice being there. Was this what codependency felt like?
“So anyway, now that you’re not ignoring me …” Gwen laughed, but it felt like a jab all the same. “I was wondering whether we could meet for dinner to discuss potential investment in Dream Match.”
“Really?” EJ sat up straight. “You want to invest?”
“Look, I know people who know people, and I think there’s a lot of interest, so it’d be good to capitalise on that while people are keen.”
Her heart thudded. She didn’t want to know just who some of those people might be. Didn’t dare ask, either. “I’d love to chat about Dream Match with you some more.”
“Well, if you like, I can set something up. Are you busy tonight?”
EJ hesitated. Why did Gwen’s invitations always happen at the last minute?
For someone who was so successful, she seemed to have a lot of no-shows allowing openings in her schedule.
And not showing wasn’t EJ’s way. She wondered what would happen if she pushed for it to happen later.
Then decided to dare anyway. “I am busy, actually.” She’d finally call her parents. They’d be pleased.
“Oh.” Gwen’s intonation held surprise and disappointment.
Good. See, EJ wasn’t about to drop everything just at Gwen’s say-so. She wanted investors, but if they were as keen as Gwen suggested, then maybe they could afford to plan a proper introduction with a little more notice.
“EJ, I have to admit that surprises me. I would have thought you were super excited to see what might be done to get this across the line.”
“I am, but—”
“But what, EJ? What’s holding you back from saying yes?”
“I’m just not sure if I have my pitch ready for tonight.”
“Come on, EJ. That’s Business 101, isn’t it? Always have your pitch in your pocket, ready to go.”
Her heart rankled at the condescension, even if it was true.
For a second, she wished Jordan were here to advise her.
He might be overly protective at times, but he had a good head on his shoulders and could sometimes sense things.
A previous pastor had said that Jordan had the gift of discernment, that he possessed a special kind of wisdom that could sense people’s motives and make a good judgement about what to do.
And right now, there was something about Gwen’s pushiness that she didn’t quite like.
It felt a little like Lionel’s manipulative practices at Donwell, yet a softer, nicer, better dressed version.
But this time she had no Jordan to back her up.
“EJ? Are you still there?”
“Uh, yes.”
“Look, it’s no biggie if you can’t tonight. But it may mean that some of the interested parties won’t be around next weekend or whenever it is you think you might be ready.”
She closed her eyes. Lord? Nothing was clear. “Um, okay.”
“Great! Look, I happen to know this little bistro in Darling Harbour. I’m sure I can pull a few strings and get them to set aside a private room for us.”
“For us? How many people are we talking?”
“Look, just a few. Maybe half a dozen.”
“But … but I don’t have that many prospectuses printed.” They’d needed updating, and Harriet was supposed to organise a new print run.
“We don’t need a prospectus. Look at it as just another networking opportunity. All you need to do is show up and talk. You can send us hard copies of your prospectus later.”
“Um, okay.” She winced. “Tonight?”
“Tonight,” Gwen said firmly. “Let me contact the bistro now, and I’ll get back to you with the details.”
“That’s really kind of you.”
“Hey, we girls have to stick together, right?”
“Right.”
“It’s a man-eat-man world out there, so let’s let them eat each other while we go make successes of our lives.”
“Amen,” she said without thinking.
Gwen laughed again. “It’s so cute to hear you say things like that. Okay, well I’d better go make some calls. I’ll be in touch really soon.”
“Thanks.”
She hung up the phone, heart filled with wonder. She’d obviously been really wrong about Gwen. Gwen was her friend, just trying to help out a fellow member of the sisterhood.
She pushed back her shoulders, digging deep into her well-mined layers of self-confidence. Tonight would go well. She just knew it.