Читать книгу The Friday Night Debrief - Kylie Jane Asmus - Страница 11
ОглавлениеMarley
Mila turned the key in the ignition. No response. She tried a second time. Again nothing. On her third attempt, Mila’s metallic blue Audi A3 began to cough, fart and produce some rather nasty smells. Knowing her boss would be at the Port office first thing that morning, she dialled the Port office number. Kylie answered.
“It sounds like an ex-boyfriend of mine,” Kylie said when Mila described her car issues.
“Hey that’s funny,” Mila said. “Kylie, could you please tell the boss that I’ll be in late – I need to drop my car off to get it fixed.”
“Yell out if you need a lift from there to work,” Kylie offered. “I’ll come and get you.”
“Oh, thanks. I will,” Mila replied thinking to herself that Kylie’s offer was very thoughtful.
Despite the noises, smoke and smells, Mila was able to drive the car to the Audi dealership where she had purchased it only four months prior and parked it in the service area. As if the world was applying brakes to its orbital speed to slow down to a near stop, the following happened at a third of the actual speed it would have taken normally, as if you were watching a film at reduced speed.
Mila stepped gracefully out of her car, careful not to flash her underwear at passers-by as she extended each lovely long tanned leg outside the driver’s car door. As she walked towards the dealership office, her above the knee dress rustled in the breeze. Barely noticing her reflection in the glass door, she leaned her body in and pushed the office door open with both hands. Once inside she paused to remove her sunglasses. A gentle shake of her head allowed her shiny, gorgeous locks to regain their natural body and fall back into place. Oblivious to the powerful impression she had made on all the men in the dealership office who had just witnessed this scorching display of femininity, she casually sauntered over to the waiting area and joined the queue.
A young man sitting at the service desk, who had witnessed Mila’s commanding entrance, managed to lift his jaw from the desk and wiped both sides of his mouth to remove any evidence of drool. He quickly calculated that her place in the queue would not match up with a free slot at his service desk unless he hot footed his way through the list of extremely uninteresting people who stood in front of her.
“Yes Mrs Jones, your car is in good hands here, if you’d like to wait over there where the customer lounges are, one of the reception ladies will come over and make you a lovely cup of tea while you wait for your car to be fixed,” he said courteously but all the time trying to move the old battle axe on so he could increase his chances of getting to serve that lovely hot bit of gear who had just walked into the room and made the crotch of his pants a little bit tighter.
“Next,” he said, signalling to the burley gent standing at the front of the queue, two people ahead of Mila. “Good morning Sir, dropping your car off for a service this morning?”
“G’day mate. Yeah, just handing in the keys so you can do a 60,000 km service,” he said in a friendly but frank voice. He casually rested both forearms on the bench with his keys dangling loosely between his fingers. The young lad was not about to let the customer get comfortable and loiter around his desk any longer than need be so he processed his booking very efficiently. While asking the customer his name and confirming his registration number, the young man maintained a close eye on the current queue position of the hottest little biscuit ever to present herself at his work place. On noting that she was now second in line, he re-evaluated his game plan of rushing his current customer. Not wanting to risk being stuck with the less than ordinary person in front of said hot stuff, he asked the man, “How are you finding the performance of the vehicle Sir? Would you recommend that model to others?”
Friendly and Frank was happy to oblige and began to detail his cars reliability on the highway should you need to overtake in a hurry or demand extra torque to right a wrong situation. The young lad saw that Ugly-Mick-Fugly was still standing in front of the desirable young lady that was now causing a deep vein throm-boning in the young lads briefs. As the queue had not moved, he continued to question the customer, engaging him in man-to-man conversation until finally he noticed that Less than Ordinary had been called to his workmate’s service desk. It was time to wind up the banter with Frank and Friendly and call upon Miss-Chevious.
Meanwhile, as Mila patiently waited in line, she had noticed the young man behind the service desk and secretly hoped that she would end up talking to him rather than the crusty old dude sitting beside him. This guy was wearing a tight short-sleeved business shirt that accentuated his basketball-shaped beer belly, his faded navy shorts had been exposed to the North Queensland sun for far too long during the natural drying process on the Hills hoist and his knee-high socks with a fold at the top kept making appearances as he walked back and forth from the service desk to the office behind him. He was the epitome of late 1980s work styling but as it was very much now in the naughties the old mate was in desperate need of a top-to-toe makeover.
From underneath her long eyelashes, Mila’s lovely brown eyes darted quickly away from the old man and rested for a moment on the young lad who was busy dealing with his customer. She noticed he had quite a healthy beard covering his face and although she was not usually a supporter of facial hair other than eyelashes and eyebrows, she wasn’t turned off. Instead she wondered what was hidden underneath it because as far as Mila could tell, he had a handsome noggin from the nostrils north. South of his eyebrows was a black swamp of hair as dark as midnight broken up only by a lovely white smile. His perfect teeth stood straight and firm and all in line, not fighting each other or trying to grow over the top of one another vying for poll position. As he spoke and built a natural rapport with his customer he was unknowingly showcasing a row of lovely pearly whites. “Hmmm,” whispered Mila to herself as, being careful not to get caught checking him out, she reluctantly turned away to study her perfectly painted toenails .
As Mila distracted herself further by looking at the floor and at her car keys, the young man stole a look in her direction and to his orchestrated delight he saw she was now at the front of the queue. “Thank you Sir,” he said then with a casual wave and a gentle, “Next please”, he signalled to her to come over to his side of the customer service desk. When she finally stood before him, the world resumed its natural orbital speed and as such, sounds and movements returned to normal.
“Good Morning! What can I do to you? I mean for you?” he said, ending his question with a beaming confident smile, his brown eyes looking directly into hers.
Mila giggled and replied, “Um, my car is playing up.”
He quickly retorted, “Your car is cheating on you?”
“No!” Mila said with a smile, “My car is coughing and spluttering and there are black clouds coming out of the muffler.”
“Well then, there’s no need to run a diagnostic, your car has had too many cigarettes and it needs to quit smoking.”
“Stop it! My car is broken and I need to get to work!” Mila said.
“I’m sorry. I apologise. I’m going to be serious now I promise.” He cleared his throat, “Heh, Hem, Young Lady, I will have my team run a diagnostic and I will give you a call to let you know what we discover and how much it will be to repair the vehicle.”
Mila smiled at him and steered him back into the casual flirtation she had tried to redirect him from. “You like that word don’t you?” she asked tilting her head playfully and brushing all her hair forward to drape in front of her left shoulder.
“Which word?” he asked leaning back into his chair, hands placed behind his head, enjoying the banter with the beautiful young lady before him.
“Die-ag-nos-tic!” she said leaning her bust into the desk and sounding out each syllable.
“Well, young lady, I’ll have you know that diagnostic is a word associated with careers that demand years and years of university education, it defines a term that includes problem solving, investigative and analytical findings and quite frankly, makes me sound a little posh, don’t you think?”
“Nup,” Mila said shaking her head. She pressed her lips together to try and stop herself smiling but it didn’t work.
“Well I’ve got another word I’d rather hear, but it’s from you....” he said standing up from his chair and leaning closer into the service desk and teetering on entering her personal space.
“Oh yeah? And what is that?” Mila said folding her arms and standing her ground. She positioned her weight onto her right hip, a move that dropped every mouth in the queue behind her as they watched her figure intensely.
‘Yes,” he said.
“Yes what?” Mila asked.
“Will you let me take you to dinner sometime?” he asked.
“Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!” Mila replied without thinking but then realised she didn’t want everyone in the room to hear their banter.
“Owwwwwwch! ” he said falling backwards clutching at his heart. Then he mimed ripping his heart out, throwing it on the floor, stepping on it, twisting his foot at first and then stomping on it with both feet.
Mila giggled as she watched his 190 cm athletic frame energetically contort. Then she caught herself perving again and looked around at the four people behind her in line who were watching the display with great interest. Leaning in and hoping they couldn’t hear her, she whispered to him, “I’m sorry, I’m seeing someone. And I’m not a cheater.”
“Oh okay, I didn’t realise, I’m sorry,” he said, backing off and trying to regain a professional approach. “He is a lucky man. And I, better get your details, in case you ever become single and need a shoulder to cry on,” he said unable to let the opportunity go by.
“You’re a bit of work aren’t you? My details are linked to the rego of the car, since I bought it here, brand new, only four months ago,” she said handing him her registration papers.
“Fantastic...” he said searching the paperwork for her name, “Mila!”
“Thank you....” Mila said stepping across to the right and focussing in on the young man’s name tag, “Mar-ley!”
“I like the way you say that, it’s very ...Um. Doesn’t matter. So were you named after Milla Milla, the town up north on the Atherton Tablelands, near Cairns?” Marley asked.
“Um Nooooo, I wasn’t. And you’re the second person to ask me if I was named after cheese! Were you named after Bob?” She paused. “Mar-ley?”
“True dat!” Marley replied clapping his hands once then pointing his right index finger at her. “Mumsy and Dadsy were quite the scoobers!” he said matter of fact as he rolled up a piece of A4 paper and imitated smoking it like it was an enormous spliff, before sitting back into his chair like he was relaxed from his imaginary inhalation. He started to chuckle.
Mila giggled too. She was very taken with Marley but true to her declaration, she was not a cheater. Her mind wandered for a moment, long enough to imagine grabbing hold of his business shirt and tearing it open by wrenching the front collar apart, exploding each button from its hole then using his shirt to pull his shoulders towards her, before lunging for his bright and brash smile and locking on to his lips. Feeling goose bumps trickling up her arm, Mila rubbed her arms to cover up any visual trace of lust and belted out sternly, “Well I’d LOVE to stop and chat but I have to find a way to get to work, ‘cause I am late as!”
Ever the quick thinking opportunist, Marley jumped out of his seat and walked over to grab the keys of a demonstration vehicle, saying, “Oh, I can fix that, we have a courtesy service so I’d be happy to drive you to work right away if you like?”
“Oh you’re offering to take me? Why you do offer a good service here don’t you?” she smiled.
“Oh I’d personally like to offer YOU a FULL service but you’re a lovely lady and I’m a gentleman so I shan’t suggest anything of the sort,” he said as posh as he could with a smile brighter than the morning star.
“Stop it!” Mila said, not wanting him to stop it.
Marley signalled to his boss, old beer-bellied Baz who was now on a phone call back in his office, and yelled, “Baz I’ll be back shortly, I’m dropping a customer off to work.”
Baz saw Marley walking out the front door and the four men still waiting in the service queue that he would now have to serve. Putting the phone aside, he yelled towards deaf ears, “That’s not part of your job!”
The four men left waiting in the queue stared at Marley and then at their watches in disbelief. Their wait for service had undoubtedly just doubled. But their disgruntled expressions soon turned to knowing smiles. Marley was simply living their dream of walking away with such an incredibly hot looking young woman.
On the drive to Mila’s work Marley couldn’t keep himself from prying, “So did you say you bought your car from us four months ago?”
“Yes, my dad and I came in.”
“Four months ago, argh, damn it! I must have been on holidays.”
“Maybe, I don’t remember seeing you before,” Mila replied.
“I’m never going on holidays again, I don’t want to miss you coming into my work ever again.”
“Hey, I don’t want to have to go in to your work, it means my car is broken, you better fix it or I want a new one,” Mila said trying to be tough.
Marley decided to change the subject. “So how long have you been seeing your boyfriend?”
“Two months,” Mila replied.
Marley felt like he may have a chance. Even though he didn’t think he was the stealin’ type of man, he felt a connection to Mila. There was something very different about how he felt while he was in her company.
And there was something different about Mila. She had a secret! Mila was really... a…
Man!
No she wasn’t. I just wanted to check to see if you were awake!
It hadn’t even occurred to Marley to ask Mila where she worked, they just both got in the car and he headed towards The Strand, the long way, around the northern circumference of Castle Hill. This happened to be the exact opposite direction to Mila’s workplace.
“Where are you going Marley?”
“I’m doin’ a Strandy with you, it’s like our first date, we should do something memorable and iconic to Townsville,” he said energetically.
“Some date! No food, no drinks, and don’t even think about asking me to get in the backseat with you!” she joked with him.
Marley drove from the Rock Pool end of The Strand to the roundabout at the Gregory Street headland. Then he pulled over into a car park close to a coffee shop.
“What are you doing?” Mila asked turning her head to look at him.
“Righto, sweet cheeks, fork it or walk it,” he said seriously, but only for a second, then he burst out laughing. It was just as Mila was grabbing for the door, giving her answer loud and clear without the use of any words.
“Mila! I’m kidding. I really pulled over and parked because I think we should go and have a coffee,” he said.
“Marley! I’m late for work!” Mila replied.
“Didn’t you already ring them and tell them your car broke down and you’d be in when you could get there?” Marley asked optimistically.
“Yes, but I’m already late enough,” Mila said trying to be the adult.
“Well, what if I can’t get you there until you have a coffee with me? That’s not any different to what you’ve already told them, and you know what? You look really, really thirsty. Car morn! Car-morn Mila, Come chilla with me Mila, Have a lar-tey with Mar-ley, do it for Bob!”
“Who? What?” Harghhhh! Righto, a QUICK coffee then you HAVE to take me to work, Okay!” she said, acting like she was unhappy about it but loving the spontaneity and persistence he showed.
Off they went to enjoy the 180-degree ocean views from the C-Bar. They ordered coffees and sat at the front table and continued to chat effortlessly as though they had been friends for years, laughing often and not running out of conversation. Living up to his word, Marley delivered Mila to her work. But for the rest of the afternoon he could not stop thinking about her. She felt the same but was not going to act on it. Marley was not so patient. He couldn’t wait to call her at work and give her an ‘update’ on her car and offered to pick her up after work. Stuck for a lift she agreed. True to his promise he was out the front waiting for her at 5.01 pm. As he watched her walk out of the office, he was hoping for a quick gust of wind so her dress would fly up Marilyn Monroe style and show off her lovely long toned legs.
“Good Afternoon Mila, I have something for you,” he said grinning, happy to see her again as she stepped into the car.
“Is it a fixed vehicle with no bill?” Mila asked optimistically.
“Nup, you needed a fuel dump so you owe us for a tank of fuel which was $60 plus $40 labour, so it’s a clean one hundred dollars all up,” he stated.
“And why did I need a fuel dump?” Mila asked.
“There were some contaminants in the fuel line and it was affecting the fuel quality and performance of the engine – maybe from a bad batch of fuel at the bowser? Any-who, it’s all sorted now and your car won’t be farting black shit as you drive up the road,” Marley replied.
“Whatever, as long as it’s fixed,” said Mila, relieved her brand new car was not the lemon she feared it might be.
“So, here is the something I have for you that I was talking about,” Marley said. He passed her twelve envelopes, the first one had the word ‘Invoice’ in bold letters and the rest of them were numbered consecutively from one to eleven.
“How many invoices do I need?” Mila asked in surprise.
“Oh, only the top one is an invoice,” he said, waiting for her to open the other eleven.
“What?”
“Just open them up in numerical order and say what you see on the page.”
“What’s going on?” She had no idea of what was happening but she was loving it, absolutely loving every single moment of it.
“Just say what you see,” he repeated.
Opening the envelope marked with a one, she pulled out a piece of paper. It was a printout of a photo of an eye, one of Marley’s eyes, opened wide.
“Eye?” Mila asked with a strange look on her face.
“Correct!...Next,” Marley said, happy his idea seemed to be working.
The next page had a photo of a nose under an armpit, with the letter S on it crossed out.
“What? Smelling an Armpit?”
“Noooo, think about it. What does an armpit do?” Marley prompted her.
“STINK!” Mila said with disgust.
“Correct, but only half correct, what else is on the page?”
“An S, crossed out,” Mila said looking at him, then blurting out, “TINK!”
“Correct!” Marley said smiling. “Next envelope.”
This was the most daring photo. It showed a man’s rear, facing a toilet, with his legs apart, with a stream of liquid in between the man’s legs. Mind you, the man’s trousers were still on and the liquid was clear water.
“Yuck,” said Mila, shrieking and playfully punching Marley in the arm.
“Incorrect and it’s not really yuck, my duds aren’t down, it’s just a clue, and might I say, a nice shot of my arse!”
“Pee!” she said.
“Close....rhymes with,” he hinted.
“Wee?” she cringed.
“Yes! Correct. Next Envelope.” Marley was rubbing his hands together in pure delight.
The next photo was a set of traffic lights with the red and amber colours crossed out.
“Green?” she asked, puzzled.
“What’s green mean?” he asked.
“GO!”
“Correct, next.”
Marley had taken a photo of the Welcome to Townsville sign but only showed the first two letters “TO” so that was a give away.
A fishing hook was featured in the next photo.
“Fishing?” she said, proud of herself…
Until he said, “Nope, next guess?” Egging her on, he gave her another hint by speaking Pirate, “Argggh, me ardies, I’m Captain......?”
“Hook!” she exclaimed.
“Yes!” Marley said.
The next page showed a carton with an arrow with the words THIS WAY crossed out and UP left over.
“UP,” she squealed.
The next photo was of a 40 speed restriction sign without the 0. Another give away.
“FOUR!” she said tearing open the next envelope without the need for confirmation.
It was a picture of a standard hot meal served for dinner, meat and three veg. “MEAL or DINNER?” Mila questioned.
“Dinner,” Marley confirmed. “Next!”
On the next page was written 1 + 1 = _um
“Sum?” she said, not sure if she was correct.
“YES!” he said.
The page inside the last envelope showed two pictures, one was the sun on the top of the page and the other was the moon on the bottom of the page. NIGHT was written in the same section of page as the moon and was crossed out and DAY was the only word left to read out.
“DAY!” said Mila, proud that she made her way through all the puzzles.
“Now read them all out in order so you can make a sentence,” Marley asked politely.
Mila gathered the pages and turned them over one by one. “EYE, TINK, WEE, GO, 2, HOOK, UP, 4, DINNER, SUM, DAY.”
“Yes! I’d love to!” Marley replied, cheekily answering the question he had created for Mila.
“I can’t Marley, you know why!” Mila said, head down towards her chest, sticking to her guns.
“Sum Day, when you can, when you aren’t in a relationship, okay?” Marley clarified softly.
“Here’s my number, keep it with the pages from the envelopes. If you ever want to catch up, just send me a photo of your thumb in the thumbs up position to my mobile. Okay! And I’ll give you a call. Until then, I will only pester you if I see you out and about. Howzat sound?” he said calmly and genuinely.
“Okay. Okay, Thank you. That sounds like a plan,” Mila agreed.
Marley started up the car and drove back to his work so that Mila could pay her invoice and pick up her car. There was no awkward silence after the paper proposal. It was not Marley’s style to be short of words or charisma.
“Do you have anything planned for the weekend? How long have you lived in Townsville? What sort of movies do you like to go watch?” he rattled off one question after the other. The conversation flowed so freely between them that they arrived back at the dealership in no time and were again standing at the same desk where they had first met. “Super to meet you Mila. Take care,” Marley said when she had finished settling the bill and was about to walk away.
“You too Marley, you too,” Mila said genuinely. Sunnies in one hand, her paper request for a date in the other and her eyes smiling, she turned away and walked out to her car. After stashing all the paperwork Marley had given her in the glove box, Mila drove home.
As she drove, the unexpected events of the day were food for thought. The man she was seeing, Jake, worked out of town on a mine site for fourteen days at a time was only back for seven and he didn’t have half the communication skills Marley seemed to possess. When she got home, Mila checked her calendar and saw that Jake was due to fly back in eight days. Their relationship was only in the beginning stages but it seemed to be held in a time warp for longer than normal since he was away at work for two weeks at a time. When he did come back he would forget what she had previously told him about herself and seemed to ask the same basic questions over and over again. At this stage, their relationship was mildly better than a booty call arrangement. They had minimal conversation when they sat across from each other at dinner followed by sleepovers at his house a few nights when he was home. Mila wondered if she would ever feel as excited to be around Jake as she did when she was around Marley.
Convinced she should stop thinking about the whole situation she jumped in the shower and washed the day away. Then she rang Jake, knowing he would be finished work for the day. The call went straight to his message bank so she asked him to call her back. It took him two days to return her call. Mila was not impressed at the lack of interest he showed in calling her or returning any of her messages. But on the flip side, this was all good news for Marley!
