On the afternoon Donovan had his near collision with that huge man carrying the water jars as if they were pint bottles, Elle had been checking on Hannah about progress on ditching her married lover.
"It's done, within an hour after you left the apartment. I met him in a nearby park - I had to do it face to face.
"I lied about us starting up a lesbian relationship, and found how easily it was to tell him that; I guess because I accepted it was an easy way of affecting a clean break," Hannah had said.
"And that was it?"
"More or less, but watching his face crumple wrenched my heart a bit. We said our goodbyes and I staggered home and had a modest measure of neat brandy. Perhaps it's rather over emotional saying this, but as the brandy soaked into me I no longer felt as if I'd just gotten out of jail."
"Oh Hannah," Elle said softy, hugging her and patting her back. "You brave, brave woman and I'll help you find someone more suitable."
"How?"
"We'll go to a singles bar, you bra-less and your hair piled up high and..."
"Good heavens no. Ohmigod, I'd rather die. I..."
"You evil woman; you shouldn't be teasing my when I'm feeling so sad."
"Laugh, laugh and laugh Hannah. Life's too short to mope."
"Well said. Off you go; I've work to do. And thank you, thank you. I've done the right thing."
Elle thought that was a clean break for Hannah, and then hours later Elle was very close to being seduced in Hannah's apartment. She'd realized Donovan was trying ever so hard to be a good boy but he probably had caught her scent as she felt aroused. It must have been very hard for him, so she decided to reward him, just a little. He seemed to regard it as being rewarded. She knew she'd only have to whisper two words and he would have begun consuming her in a flash.
Consuming? Well the poor boy was rather pent up; she could almost see steam coming out of his ears. He wanted to seduce her, she had no doubt of that and it would have been on his mind that first time they met outside the bus in Christchurch. If she hadn't just become engaged...
Elle sighed and was irritated that she was tormenting herself. She'd had her chance to go all the way with him and decided not to because that was the right thing to do at present.
She decided to stop thinking about it.
But within seconds she thought what wondered what would she say if he tried again and came on to her hotly? If she succumbed would he ever think of asking her to marry him if he thought she was that damn easy to bed.
Of course he would if she proved so good at it that he couldn't keep his hands off her.
She groaned and said aloud, "Oh I'll go crazy thinking like this. I must seek a diversion."
Elle made a call.
"Hello mum."
"Elle have you any idea what time it is?"
No I don't know."
"What is it and there are you?"
"I'm in LA in America. Mum I want you to get back with dad."
"What on earth for when I'm happy with my life as it is right now?"
"Oh I don't know why, mum. It just seems the right thing to do."
"I have someone else now Elle."
"Yes, I know but you're not married to the guy are you?"
"No we are just lovers."
"Good then dump him and go back to dad."
"I can't an anyway he'd think I was after his money. Just how wealthy has he become?
"He has amassed a few million dollars I guess but it doesn't matter. You've loved him before and you'll love him again. Just go to Christchurch and find him mum."
Her mother asked sleepily did Elle think it really was the right thing to do.
Elle sighed thinking it was like talking to a fence post. Her mother was discussing this entirely without exhibiting emotion.
"Definitely the right thing to do mum is for you to go to him and begin talking. That will sort it out between you both one way of the other. He was shattered when you walked out on him."
"And now he's been at you to try to negotiate reconciliation between us."
"No mum I haven't spoken to dad for more than a week. This is just something that came into my head explosively."
"Yes you and your head or rather you vision as he calls it and you always were a wet emotionally. What you need to develop is a stiffer backbone."
"Mum!"
"Get off my back darling. Very well, I'll contact him about this. I agree it does seem the right thing to do."
The call finished a couple of minutes later, both mother and daughter saying they loved each other.
Elle stood looking at her phone.
She couldn't believe she'd just had that conversation. For goodness sake, it sounded like slapstick, with her being the country yokel. Was that really me? She decided it was, and that behind it all she was wrought over her tantalizingly close sexual relationship with Donovan.
"I better take a cold shower," she said aloud and went to her bedroom, going to bed instead of taking a shower and was asleep peacefully, seconds after her head hit the pillow.
Next day Elle was steady as a rock. She met Donovan at reception, called out brightly, "Good morning Donovan" and sailed by, leaving him with only a whiff of French perfume.
He phoned her later and suggested lunch.
"I really cannot afford the time today - sorry," she said, ending the call before he could argue.
On Sunday at noon Hannah was pacing the room, really anxious to leave she muttered "It's rude of them to keep me waiting."
A minute later she was at it again: "Oh Hannah, they will be talking about your non-appearance, thinking you may have messed up on the time, even the date. So when you arrive they will be so relieve they will rush you. Huh, my children appreciate me to that extent? That will be the day."
She arrived at Donovan's apartment two minutes late.
Donovan, Kate and Annie cried out "Hi mom" and crowded her, saying why was she late, was she all right and the girls saying they were so pleased to see her, although they were twisting their heads to eye up the New Zealander who had just walked in.
"Girls this is my friend Elle. I've told you about her. Elle this is Kate and this energetic bundle is Annie."
"I'm thrilled to meet you, I've heard so much about you," said Annie, holding out her hand.
Elle smiled.
"Where I come from males shake hands. Women hug lightly or hug and kiss if they're friends. Let's skip the preliminaries huh?"
Kate and Elle hugged and lightly kissed each other on the cheek watched by Annie who was waiting for her turn impatiently.
"Ohmigod you are so beautiful," said the very attractive youngest girl, when stroking Elle's cheek.
Elle had spent almost two hours in the bath and getting ready, making sure her personal presentation was close to perfection.
"You are a charmer," she said to Annie, who blushed happily,
The group took the elevator to the roof top where Donovan popped a bottle of sparkling wine and poured it over peach schnapps and ice in three glasses and poured a beer for himself.
The rooftop function was underway.
As the afternoon wore on Annie cornered Donovan and whispered, "She's lovely, Donny. You have to win her and keep her. She's exactly right for an extension of our family."
"That is a mature and perceptive remark from you."
"Pull your head in, big brother."
Kate was even more direct: "Marry her Donny; she'll be a fabulous sister-in-law and for you I say you are unlikely to do better."
At one stage the conversation died and Kate gave it a crank up.
"How on earth can someone be engaged as a visionary Elle? You can't see anything more than anyone else."
"Careful Kate," smiled her mother. "You'll be pulled out of your depth."
Annie said she was also interested in the answer.
"Well visionary was just a tag Donovan attached to me. We spent several days on a tour when he was in New Zealand - I being the tour director, and because he was the only unattached person, in that he was not traveling with a companion or part of a larger group, he sat by me and walked, skied and tramped alongside me. We even ate together. So we talked a great deal and things I said surprised him"
"I did this on auto really by sometimes completing his sentences. It's just something that just comes to me; I don't have to think about it. Then he started feeding me information about business issues his company had solved for clients and seemed surprised by what I said."
Donovan said, "In some cases Elle reached conclusions the whole team of us had combined to reach and on occasions her suggestions appeared to offer alternative fixes that could have been faster and either more economic to achieve or may have been more profitable, though that would require analysis to establish. I eventually became aware that she had an amazing ability to see the total picture and just either accepts or knows the interrelationship of things in a generalized sense without being an architect or an engineer or scientist."
"Give us an example of your extrapolated thinking Elle, because that's what it is isn't it?"
"Yes basically that's what it is Annie Why not outline a personal problem to me."
"I don't have a complex one; at least I don't think I do."
"I do," said Kate. "I have taken on a heavy workload at university and work in a restaurant to earn money for extras, and I'm turning down dates if they cut into my study time or I'll be scheduled to work at the time of that date. I also have the pressure of girlfriends wanting to go out on hen's nights. It's all too much and I get bitchy under the pressure."
"Do fellow students have similar problems?"
