Façades Read online

  “Oh, damn you. Hell, I wish I could walk out that door right now. I can’t. You know I can’t. I’m panting for it. And so are you,” gasped Nadine. Then, with a sigh of resignation, she urgently unzipped her uniform from bust to hem, and let it fall to the floor behind her, stepping towards him in her lacy bra and silk G-string, with arms outstretched.

  A short time later, an elderly man and woman walked out of the financier’s office, situated opposite the orthodontic surgery, and headed towards the lift. As they passed the closed door to the surgery’s reception area, they heard a loud, female yelping emanating from deep inside that suite.

  “I don’t know who’s in the greater pain, us with our dwindling superannuation funds, or that woman in there having a tooth extracted,” said the woman to her companion.

  “At least she can afford the extraction,” growled her husband in response, with a wry smile, as they stepped into the descending lift.

  CHAPTER 2

  Simone sat, now, idly stirring her coffee around and around in its cup, while she gazed, absently towards the distant mountains that formed a vibrant picture, framed, as they were, by the parameters of her large rear balcony. She was trying not to think about her recent tryst with Teale, as she had been promising herself, over and over again, that she would bring their crazy assignations to an end. But her powerful sexual urges had proved too strong for her to control, and the mere thought of him, even now, caused her breath to catch in her throat and her heartbeat to quicken. She knew, in her heart, that, despite her best intentions, when she received his next text message she would be unable to resist the magnetic forces that would draw her to his door, and to the fulfillment, once more, of her most basic sexual needs.

  While she strove to push away her lingering thoughts of their latest wild copulation, she also found herself thinking more about Teale as a person. She wondered who he really was, and what sort of a person lay hidden beneath his sizzling sexuality. But she realized that to possess that kind of knowledge would only tend to strengthen her tie to him, and further complicate her already muddled life.

  Looking about her, at the trappings of wealth and privilege she enjoyed, she had to acknowledge that Lee was a very good provider. She and the girls wanted for nothing in the way of material comforts, but she and Lee had become emotionally unplugged a long time ago. She acknowledged, to herself, that that was not entirely Lee’s fault.

  They had been blown away with each other at the start, and she had fallen pregnant almost immediately after she quickly succumbed to his more mature charm and her youthful lustfulness. They married speedily, then, to satisfy her parents, only for her to lose that baby soon after. But, in no time at all she became pregnant again, with her elder child, Sasha. Following her birth, Simone suffered a sustained period of post-natal depression, and had only just recovered from that when she found herself pregnant again, with her younger daughter Delia.

  When Delia was not yet two years of age, Lee, who had then recently qualified as an orthodontist, and emboldened by the receipt of a significant inheritance from a rich uncle, decided to leave England and migrate to Australia. He felt the opportunities for advancement in his profession, and for the investment of his capital, were greater there. Simone had felt strongly the loss of the day-to-day support of her family and close friends that the move entailed, and she continued to suffer occasional bouts of depression over the next few years. Lee was so busy building his professional practice and his investments in Australia that she felt he did not give her the sympathetic support she needed in those difficult years, and they drifted apart emotionally. When she thought of that, she felt a twinge of sadness at the loss of what had once been a vibrant, passionate relationship, at least in the beginning.

  In more recent years, as the girls grew older, and became more independent, Simone had thrown herself into studying computer science, at which she excelled, and had then taken the part-time employment that had led to her chance meeting with Teale. Her study, and later her work, had only seemed to exacerbate the decline in the intimacy of her relationship with Lee.

  “Mum? Where are you?” The sound of Delia’s raised voice startled Simone out of her reverie.

  “I’m here, out on the balcony,” she called in reply.

  A moment later her 18 year old daughter burst through the doorway onto the balcony, talking loudly as she emerged.

  “I can’t come to the mall with you and Sasha tonight anymore.”

  Simone’s head snapped around in the direction of her daughter’s voice, her face bearing a momentary expression of confused surprise. Oh, hell, I forgot about that, she thought, after a moment. But, without conveying that thought to Delia, she spoke to her.

  “Why not?”

  And, before Delia had a chance to respond, she continued, “You could do with something feminine to wear to your sister’s twenty-first, you know. All you seem to get around in are those awful jeans or shorts and singlet tops. You need a party dress much more than Sasha does. Her wardrobe is jammed full! You two are like chalk and cheese.”

  “Oh, yes, Mum. I know I don’t measure up to Miss Beauty Queen!”

  “Get over it, Delia! I’m sick of hearing that, and if it’s not you, it’s her, saying she’ll ‘never measure up to Little Miss Brilliance!’ Besides, you’re an attractive girl, very attractive, if only you’d get rid of that metalwork in your face. And the tattoos! Anyway, where are you going that’s so important you can’t come with us, for a change? You’re always off somewhere, on your own lately, and you never even telling me where you’re disappearing to.”

  “Aww, Mum, stop being such a helicopter. I’m not a baby, you know!”

  Then, without a pause, she continued, “I’m hungry. What’s Hannah cooked today?”

  “Check the fridge. I might join you,” said Simone, with a shrug of resignation, rising from her chair to follow her daughter in the direction of the kitchen. “I’d better eat something before I go shopping with Sasha.”

  Reefing open the refrigerator door, Delia bent forward to closely inspect its contents. From behind her, Simone was confronted, once again, by the colourful tattoo of an eagle between her shoulder blades, just above the top of her skimpy singlet. At the same time, the bottom of her singlet rode up, as she bent, to reveal the four black cats’ paws that were etched into her lower back, just above the line of her hipster jeans.

  Straightening and turning back towards her mother, Delia produced from the refrigerator, a large tray piled high with an assortment of hors-d’oeuvres. She scanned it critically, before announcing, triumphantly, “Yummy! Mushroom, leek and asparagus tarts! Good old Hannah never forgets the only vegan of the family. There’s plenty of other unhealthy stuff for you to choose from, as well, Mother,” she added, depositing the tray on the kitchen table and giving Simone one of her superior stares.

  “Yeah, I’m sure I’ll find something suitable for a carnivore like me,” responded Simone, producing plates from a cupboard and sitting at the table opposite her daughter. As she began to munch on a honey and sesame chicken drumstick, Delia pretended to gag, before tucking into one of her favourite vegetarian tarts.

  While the two ate in silence, Simone took in, once more, her younger daughter’s unusual appearance. Her dyed, jet-black hair was cut extremely short on one side, but much longer on the other, giving her a lop-sided look. Her ears each had several silver keepers through their multiple piercings, whilst the left nostril of her strong, straight nose displayed a silver stud, and she wore a labret in her lower lip, just above the chin. When she opened her mouth, a similar stud could be glimpsed, from time to time, in her tongue. Despite all these primitive accoutrements, and the complete absence of makeup, Delia still had an attractive and sensitive face.

  Simone still recalled, with some displeasure, the day Delia and her friend, Anita, bowled in through the door to proudly display their latest acquisitions: in Delia’s case, her labret and her nostril stud, and in Anita’s , a ‘Monroe’ through t
he left side of her upper lip. Simone’s annoyance at Delia’s obtaining those primitive decorations paled into insignificance beside Lee’s apoplectic response to his discovery, a few weeks later, of her tongue piercing. He berated her, long and loudly, about the dangers to her oral health posed by the existence of such a foreign body in her mouth, but all his protestations fell on deaf ears, producing only a stubborn determination in Delia to maintain her right, as an adult, to make her own decisions about her body. The rift that this bitter dispute caused in the already shaky relationship between Lee and his younger daughter, was something that Simone deeply regretted.

  Simone’s reminiscence was interrupted by Delia’s noisily pushing back her chair, and rising to leave the kitchen, saying, “I’m going to Anita’s place to work on our assignment.”

  “Not before you put that tray back in the fridge!” demanded Simone.

  Delia gave her mother an exasperated look, before begrudgingly picking up the tray and returning it to the refrigerator. She then headed for the door, pausing to give Simone a quick peck on the cheek as she passed.

  “Make sure you take a warm top with you,” shouted Simone after her. “The nights are getting pretty cool now.”

  “You’re hovering, again, Mother,” responded Delia, as she disappeared from the kitchen in the direction of her bedroom.

  Half an hour later, after a relaxing shower, Simone emerged, naked, from the ensuite bathroom into the master bedroom she still shared with Lee. Her trim figure clearly showed the benefits of her regular workouts in the home gymnasium. As she crossed towards the large dressing room, she noticed that she had neglected to pull the vertical blinds across the sliding glass double doors that gave access from the bedroom to the private balcony. As she moved to do so now, her eye caught a movement beyond, and for a brief moment she gained the impression of a man standing inside the window of her neighbours’ house opposite her bedroom balcony, looking in her direction. But then the figure disappeared, as if the person had stepped quickly back from the window, and, at the same instant, the room behind was plunged into darkness.

  That was probably that sleazy George having a secret perv on me, she thought, as she hurriedly drew the blinds.

  She dressed quickly, then, in a smart but conservative beige slack-suit, and was putting the finishing touches to her hair when the telephone rang. “Hello?” she said after picking up the handset of the bedroom extension.

  “Hello, Mum,” replied Sasha’s voice. “I’m already here at Frenzies, and I’ve picked out a couple of beautiful frocks, but I can’t choose between them. I’ve also spotted some smart outfits that would suit you. So, hurry up!”

  “OK, dear, I’m just about ready. Won’t be long.”

  Teale was lolling on a leather recliner in his apartment, talking animatedly on the telephone.

  “I can’t wait to see you again, darling,” he said. “So I’ll be at the airport to meet you at 8 o’clock next Thursday night.”

  “OK, sweetheart. I’ve missed you, too,” replied Megan. “But I have to go now. Anne’s waiting for me to go out for the day. I’ll see you next Thursday.”

  As he hung up the phone, Teale thought about Megan, and about how things had changed in the six weeks she had been away on her overseas holiday with her friend, Anne. She had planned the holiday before they had become lovers. He had been smitten by her from the day they met, not only because of her stunning good looks, but also because of her bright personality and her sharp intellect, which had become apparent to him as soon as they started working together. When, soon after, they became lovers, he had felt that their relationship was everything he could wish for, until the unexpected liaison with his mysterious computer lover had suddenly arisen and thrown him completely off-balance. The thought of her, now, after his phone contact with Megan, caused him to feel a strong surge of guilt.

  He found it difficult to justify his behaviour, even to himself, and he knew that he could never justify it to Megan. Of particular concern to him was the unsafe sex that he had indulged in with his mystery woman. He had often intended to raise this topic with her, but was always carried away by the unbridled lust that her close presence and their shared pornographic voyeurism evoked. He wondered, anxiously, if he was her only fantasy lover, and, if not, how many others there might be.

  In an attempt at self-justification, and to assuage his guilt, he allowed himself to wonder whether Megan would have stayed true to him during her six week absence. With her stunning looks and figure she would undoubtedly have attracted the attention of many young men, and he thought it entirely possible that she might have succumbed to the temptation to indulge in some secret sexual liaison on foreign soil.

  Troubled by these thoughts, he decided to get out and relax, for a while, at his favourite haunt, Zoot’s Bar & Grill, in the trendy bay suburb of De Largo.

  Simone and Sasha were relaxing at a corner table, surrounded by packages, which not only cluttered the floor around their feet but also covered the two spare chairs positioned at their table. Simone had replaced her conservative slack-suit with a figure hugging, low cut, emerald green, bandage-style frock that beautifully complemented her green eyes and her auburn hair. She had also exchanged her sensible, low-heeled shoes for a pair of high-heeled, strappy sandals, which toned perfectly with her new frock. Sasha had insisted that she wear these new acquisitions from Frenzies when she suggested that they have a drink together, to relax, after their hectic two hours of shopping.

  “Don’t be a nerd, Mum,” she had insisted, when Simone at first declined her suggestion to discard her conservative clothes in favour of these striking new purchases. But, without too much resistance, she had then allowed herself to be persuaded to succumb to her daughter’s urging.

  As the two sat together, now, chatting over their drinks, a casual observer would have been forgiven for taking them for sisters, rather than mother and daughter. Although Sasha’s hair was blonde, and hung down to her shoulders in irregular ringlets, giving her an appearance of studied dishevelment, the facial features of the two, and their mannerisms, were strikingly similar. They each had a short, straight nose; a high forehead with well-arched eyebrows; full, softly sensuous lips; and strong jaw lines culminating in a delicate, rounded chin. When they laughed, as they now did frequently, each had the same way of giving her head a slight toss to the back and to one side, and each displayed a set of even, pearly-white teeth.

  “Okay, This is weird. I’ve been meaning to tell you. Dad’s assistant, Nadine, has been in for a facial a few times, recently,” said Sasha. “And sometimes, while I’ve been working on her, it’s as if she’s trying to pump me about what goes on at home.”

  “Ahh, women. We just can’t resist probing into other peoples’ lives,” replied Simone, chuckling. “As you know, your father’s not too keen on small talk, particularly with staff. He’s funny about becoming too familiar.”

  “I knew you wouldn’t be able to talk Delia into coming with us to buy herself something,” said Sasha, changing the subject. “Her taste in clothes is terrible, but at least we don’t fight over borrowing each other’s things.”

  “Yeah, you’d hardly know you two were sisters, the way you dress, and the different career paths you’ve chosen. But I couldn’t imagine Delia working in a beauty salon, and I can’t imagine you with your arm up a cow’s rectum, either!”

  “Ugh!” responded Sasha, with a shake of her head, and a quick gulp of her drink. They both laughed heartily, then, at the thought of Sasha, with her beautifully manicured nails, in such a position.

  Their laughter was interrupted by an apologetic cough and a tentative “Hello, there?” from over Simone’s left shoulder. Her head whirled around to enable her eyes to discover the source of this vaguely familiar voice. Her eyes widened with disbelief as she recognized Teale standing there, looking at her with equal disbelief. For a moment they both just stared at each other in silence. He was transfixed by her unexpected transformation from the one-dimens
ional sex object to which he had become accustomed into the sparkling, vivacious real woman he now beheld. She was immobilized by the shock of coming face-to-face, in this most public place, with the object of what, until now, had been her secret, guilty passion.

  Swallowing hard, and struggling to maintain her composure, Simone turned quickly to look at her daughter who was, herself, staring, open-mouthed, at Teale, and appeared, for once, to be lost for words.

  “Oh, Sasha – ah, this is – um, Teale – ah, Downey, a – um, a client of mine,” stammered Simone. Then, turning again in Teale’s direction, and with slightly more composure, she continued. “Mr. Downey, this is my daughter, Sasha.”

  Sasha gave Teale a steady look of appraisal, before tilting her head slightly to one side and beginning to twirl a lock of her hair around and around, between her fingers. Then, quickly removing the packages from the chair nearest to her, she said, in her sweetest voice, “Would you like to join us for a drink?”

  Teale looked, uncertainly, at Simone, before responding.

  “Ah, no, thanks – ah, another time, maybe. I have an appointment now.” Then, to Simone, he said, “I wasn’t sure if it was you. I’m sorry if I interrupted you.”

  They exchanged hungry looks, both beginning to feel the re-awakening of their dormant desire for each other. But, Teale tore himself away, it taking all his willpower to resist the impulse to grasp her by the hand and lead her away with him. In his mind, he could taste the sweetness of her, and feel the warmth of her breath upon his cheek, as he hastened to remove himself before the stirring he felt in his loins became too strong for him to control and its result visible to all around.