Glimpses

Zizi called me up to go over to her place as I think she wanted to discuss the Gervais plans without interference from the others, for while they were part of our revenge I do not think she really trusted them to be as discreet as the situation required. Zizi had moved back in with her mother after losing her contract and had the house comfortably to herself. I wondered how she could move back in with her mother after she took up with Osric, the very person who had attempted to hand her daughter over to Gervais. I could only surmise that Zizi had not told her mother about the dinner incident or if she had then Astrid had a heart even more glacial then her pale Nordic exterior.

Astrid after her modeling career had made her name in design and while I had never seen any overt business activity from her I had since the discovery of the Jago/Zizi link been surprised to learn that she had not been living entirely out of Jago’s pocket. One look at her own home said everything you needed to know about Astrid, it was a pale, sterile place filled with modern forms that provided nothing of comfort in the physical or emotional realm. When we were growing up none of us liked to go to Zizi’s house as everything was white, perfect and hard. There were no plush rugs to roll around on, no comfy sofas to throw yourself down on, and no inviting colours to warm up a room. As a child I had much preferred the less stylish but more stimulating environment of my own room than the fashion magazine perfection of Zizi’s house.

Once entering the house I became ten years old again, standing awkwardly in the middle of a marble floor wondering which triangular chair would be the least uncomfortable to sit on. I could tell Zizi sensed my discomfort right away for the corners of her eyes creased with unspoken mirth and she quickly suggested we move up to the privacy of her bedroom, it was a good idea for the last thing we needed to have was Astrid and Osric surprising us. I did not ask how she felt about her mother’s latest ‘Affaire de Coeur’ and she certainly was not revealing her feelings about it to me. Her bedroom was more reminiscent of her flat, full of colour and texture with warm fabrics and big cushions, I was pleased to find somewhere comfortable to sit and told her that I needed to get out of the house as it was getting harder and harder to avoid Simon. She gave me a stern look before remarking that it was time for me set some firm boundaries for him before he discovered what we were up to. I replied that he probably already knew what we were up to and was doing his best to prevent it from happening. Simon was no fool and he had finally worked out that a group of girls were going to do something that none of the men in this town had the balls to even try, we were going to get rid f the Dubois blight called Gervais.

Zizi frowned at this and suggested that I offend Simon in a way that kept him away long term and I said the only thing that would do that is if I brought Jojo back into my life and hell would freeze over before that happened. The problem I said, was not that Simon was onto us but that Gervais was, as he had the upper hand in every single instance. Even those few times when I thought we had disconcerted him we had wound up playing right into his hands, which made me realise that we had not perturbed him with our actions as much as surprised him with our audacity. Gervais appeared genuinely amused that the local girls were taking him on and showed more and more overt enjoyment with each skirmish. Gone was the sly whispers and silent machinations, he was accosting us in daylight, at parties, during dinners, in our own homes. Gervais the bored society brat was being entertained by those he usually considered fodder for his amusement until boredom had him destroy them.

Zizi stared thoughtfully out her window as we considered Gervais and his uncanny ability to know all our plots and plans, she said the problem was that he could predict our behaviour before we had even decided upon a course of action. Then it hit me, he was able to predict our actions because we were predictable, our reactions were all ready decided for he had been pulling our strings all along. He knew how we thought because he lived in our world, knew how our minds worked, understood the boundaries that enclosed our social and familial circles, Gervais had home ground advantage and what we needed to do was put him off guard, do something that would fluster him. I said to Zizi that what we needed to do was the last thing he expected and she said half jokingly that was for me to take him to lunch. We stared at each other for a few seconds and then I picked up the phone and invited him to lunch. Zizi asked if I knew what I was going to do once I had him to lunch and I said I would work it out once there. She offered to sit in a corner as backup but I said he would expect that and if we wanted Gervais off balance we had to take some risks. So I left a concerned Zizi shaking her head and went home to change for my date with Gervais.

I met him a few hours later at Djini’s as I wanted a very public venue just in case he decided to revert to form and try another one of his lovely attacks. Gervais sat down opposite me looking bemused and so pleased that I wanted to smack the smarmy right off his face. He played with me with words and looks until I found myself babbling about anything and everything in order to confuse him. He kept coming back to his query about my visiting him at the compound, leaving me an opening to pick up the thread but since I had no intention of ever going there I kept him as perplexed as I could but as the afternoon wore on it became harder and harder to avoid his direct questions. At one point he held my hand and stroked it causing the hairs on the back of my neck to crackle but I swallowed the urge to stab him with a fork and babbled even more incoherently. It was not until we were getting ready to leave that I knew I had to seal the deal. I wanted to keep him off balance yet not allow myself to be dragged into his web, it was a dangerous game and I had only a few seconds to implement my action.

I waited until he exhausted all the avenues of communication then suddenly remembered an appointment I had to keep, I saw him trying to maintain his usual expression of urbane control as I knew he was unsatisfied with the content of our meeting. I had deftly avoided answering any of his questions directly and changed the subject every time he became intimate, I was very familiar with the art of prattle for I had watched Tiah and Coco do it for years and it amused me that he was defeated by the very characters of the girls he had damaged. We did a swift exit of the café and I knew we could not loiter in the parking lot for our past experiences there were not happy ones. Gervais walked me to my car and as he turned towards me I realized he was going to demand an explanation so it was then that I struck. Before he could take a breath and control of the situation I reached up and kissed him. The masculine scent of his skin jolted me and when my tongue brushed his, despite there still being space between us, I could sense his body tensing in response. I slipped quickly away into my car and drove off before he could explode into open passion. I left him staring at me, his hair ruffled in the wind, his handsome face unguarded and for a second I don’t think anyone would recognise him as the infamous Gervais Dubois.

After I got home I ensured all my phones were turned off, I told Maritka that if he came not to answer the door and she knew exactly who I meant. She gave me a look that suggested I stop playing with fire but I was so appalled and yet so empowered by what happened that I actually could not stop shaking. Maritka poured me a drink and as I sat in Mother’s chair I thought I had just yanked the tail of a tiger. Gervais was either going to plague me until the end of time or destroy me in a fury but either way I had him off balance and I was not about to stop, it was about time he got a glimpse of his new world.

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