The Shock Engagement

‘Are we disturbing you?’ Tahlia asked, hope lacing her voice. It seemed this was a check-up conference call.

‘Please. What do you think?’ Emma said, slumping back on to her big beautiful unchristened bed. ‘He’s taking a shower and—’

‘Well, now’s your big chance,’ Keely insisted, her voice rising with excitement. ‘Go in there. Join him. Naked and wet there will be nowhere for him to run!’

Tahlia joined Emma in her silent stupor.

‘You have to be kidding me,’ Emma finally managed.

‘Well, you are only madly in love with him. Joining him for a soap and scrub will put him in no doubt.’

‘That’s for sure. Just as surely it will scare him back to the other side of the country before the sun sets.’

‘Fine,’ Keely acquiesced. ‘But just know that we are here for you with advice, hugs, chocolate and constant reminders that you ought to go for it. It will be the best thing you ever did for yourself. Take my word for it.’

Emma’s synapses were making progress. Brainstorming with the girls always helped and, just like that, the way to help Harry opened up before her. It wouldn’t be the easiest path, thus she needed moral support. ‘Guys, I have something important to run by you. We have to find a way out of the Flirt competition for Harry.’ Emma went on to explain why.

Keely sucked in a sharp breath. ‘Jeez, Em! I had no idea. That’s why he had the sudden turn-around about coming to your party. The poor guy was keeping you from the clutches of a crazy stalker. How sweet!’

‘Anyway,’ Emma said, ‘I think I have found a way out, but I’m going to need your help.’

‘Why do I have a bad feeling about this?’ Tahlia asked.

‘Because you don’t want to do anything to jeopardise your precious promotion chances,’ Keely blurted. ‘Come on, T. Sometimes it’s good to be bad. I’m in, Em. What do you want us to do?’

Emma took a deep breath and blurted out her idea. ‘I am going to suggest to Harry that we become engaged.’

The silence on the other end of the phone was deafening, from both sources. Emma leapt in to fill the silence. ‘Temporarily,’ she added. ‘Just to make him ineligible. Can I rely on you guys to tell anyone who asks that we have had a long distance relationship for the last few months and are madly in love and you saw this coming from a mile away? Guys?’

‘What do you get out of this?’ Tahlia finally asked.

‘The opportunity to help a friend in need,’ Emma said.

‘A friend for whom you would lay down in traffic if that was what he wanted,’ Keely reminded her. ‘Em, are you sure you aren’t just setting yourself up for heartache here?’

‘Hey, this was my idea, guys. Not his. I’m not even sure if he will go for it, but I don’t see any other way out and he’s been through enough already. So can I count on you to support me?’

‘Of course, sweetheart,’ Tahlia finally acquiesced. ‘So long as you also know that we’ll be there to scrape you off the road and supply you with sickening amounts of conciliating chocolate after this whole charade ends and Harry has gone back into hiding.’

Emma heard a funny crackle down the phone line. ‘What’s that noise?’

Keely piped up. ‘Um, it’s some of that chocolate we were talking about. I felt the sudden need to taste test.’

Emma heard a familiar snap.

‘It’s really good,’ Keely promised with a mouthful.

‘Aren’t you guys meant to be working?’ Emma asked.

‘Aren’t you?’ Keely shot back.

‘Okay. Point taken.’

The shower stopped.

‘I’d better go. See you guys tomorrow morning.’

‘Breakfast at Sammy’s?’ Tahlia asked.

‘Sure. Usual time.’

‘Be strong!’ Keely called out.

‘Thanks, guys. Bye.’ Emma hung up.

There was a light knock at Emma’s door. Emma jumped and pulled a white T-shirt over her head. ‘Yeah?’

Harry opened the door and popped his head in. He was naked bar a towel wrapped around his waist. ‘How about a walk on the beach?’ he suggested. ‘I’ve been too far from the coast for too long. I think half the dust from the Northern Territory has just disappeared down your shower drain.’

Emma had no idea what words had come out of his mouth. Her brain was pretty much filled with an expanse of male chest. Why on earth had she asked him to stay with her? She knew he did stuff like this. Even at her folks’ place. The guy was shameless. Did she really think she could manage to spend one week under the same roof with the guy, alone, and not completely collapse into a nervous wreck?

Yes. She did. She had to. The time had come in her life that she had to do something about this crush of hers once and for all. Keely and Tahlia were on the money. This time she would either tell him how she felt, how she had felt for a number of years, or she would make herself finally get over him. She just wasn’t sure yet which way she would go. But if he agreed to her idea, she would go a fair way to finding out.

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Get dressed and we’ll head off.’

Harry closed her door with a soft click and Emma finally collapsed under the weight of her own foolishness and slumped, face down and spread-eagled, on to the bed.

When most families were making their way home from work and school, Emma and Harry walked along the path that snaked around St Kilda beach.

Harry had ditched his jacket and jeans for a long-sleeved T-shirt and knee-length shorts. His flip-flops were spattered with the red dirt of the heart of Australia.

Emma picked up a shell from the pathway and played with it as she walked. ‘So you’ve been in Alice Springs all this time?’

‘Most recently.’

‘And where before that?’

‘Around.’

‘Always around. Anywhere more specific? Some town with a name, perhaps?’

Harry shrugged, kicking at a stray tuft of grass growing between a crack in the concrete. ‘Kakadu.’

‘Seriously? I should have known. The new colour scheme for Harold’s House is straight out of that part of the country.’

The heavy burnt umbers and rich forest greens of Kakadu National Park, located in the far north of Australia, held a mystical quality which Emma thought Harry’s web designers had translated beautifully.

‘You go on to the Harold’s House site much?’ he asked. He stepped sideways and gave her a little bump with his hip.