Not Counting You

By Melinda Olliver

Not Counting You, as a modern adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion, deals with love, loss and jealousy in a witty rapport.

Alice McGinnis is a lawyer whose life is consumed by work and managing the difficult personalities in her life. She has come to terms with her lot in life, until she learns that Tony, the only boy she has ever loved and whom she rejected the night before their wedding ten years prior, has returned to town as a self-made celebrity.

Tony still harbors resentment over what he sees as Alice’s cowardice and easily influenced mind and convinces himself that hiring Alice’s law firm is simply a business decision. However, as Alice and Tony are inadvertently thrown together they both have to learn how to navigate their new relationship while keeping old feelings buried and managing their new romantic relationships.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melinda Olliver
• Release date: Nov 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311431189

Book preview

Not Counting You

Melinda Olliver

Distributed by Smashwords

Copyright 2014 Melinda Olliver

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Chapter 1

Alice stared at the glitter encrusted golden envelope and used her index finger to lightly push it away from her. It seemed as though the envelope might come alive and bite her. She had been through this before – the year after she had graduated from her undergraduate degree had produced a few of the elegant envelopes and even more followed five years later after she finished law school. The first round had been exciting; people promising to be true and spend their lives together. They had all been so caught up in the novelty of it all. She had been part of that first round, the youngest and last of all the brides. It had been exhilarating; Alice had never felt so admired. It had been nice having old friends call her out of the blue to congratulate her (even the ones she knew were only fishing for an invitation to the open bar). At least once a month there had been a shower or a stagette or a wedding. And then it had been her turn. Alice had danced and laughed her way through an entire summer of weddings, safe and confident in the arms of her fiancé, Tony. It had been the happiest time of her life. And then it had all come to a screeching halt.

The second round had been almost painful to endure. Even though it was years later, the pain of her failed engagement hadn’t yet left her and she had smiled through the countless events hoping that no one would notice the curtain of tears that clouded her eyes. She was happy for her friends; she just wasn’t happy for herself.

Alice grabbed the envelope and gently eased the adhesive apart, careful not to tear the surprisingly hardy paper. She never liked to destroy pretty things. She had been expecting this; Janie, her twenty-four year old cousin, had gotten engaged last summer and so her Facebook page had been inundated with notes on the progress of the plans. Alice had known this envelope was coming for weeks, she had even predicted the day based on Janie’s exuberant status posted just last week announcing all the invitations had been finished after a ‘grueling’ night in watching the Oscars.

After carefully reading the invitation which reiterated the date and festivities that Alice had already memorized from her mother’s and grandmother’s constant chatter about the event, Alice placed it back into the glittery envelope and filed it away in her drawer of random things with no other place to go. She didn’t want to look at the RSVP card that she knew she would get checked as ‘Alice McGinnis, no guest, beef’.

She was about to turn on her laptop to begin the legal memorandum she had brought home to work home when the phone rang, the sound of Like a Prayer filling her small apartment.

Hello? she asked, hitting the speaker button on her phone so she could start up her laptop.

Did you get it?

It was her mother. The last person Alice wanted to speak to as she knew she couldn’t stomach another discussion as to why she wasn’t also in a position to send out wedding invitations.

Get what? she asked, cheekily.

Don’t be ridiculous. The invitation! Janie and Barb worked so hard to get them out and aren’t they just darling? Although a little heavy on the glitter if you ask me. Almost tacky really.

Alice’s mother tried to mean well, but her interest in her own self tended to get in the way of her intentions.

I thought they were nice. Alice said.

They are good enough, I suppose. For a garden wedding. Anyway, Barb was asking me who you might be bringing. They are already getting started on the seating chart- Janie is pretty sure she knows who is going to be able to come already and the invitations only just got sent out!

Nothing like cutting right to the chase. Alice thought, with an affectionate smile. Her mother was entirely predictable in her reactions to event.

I don’t know Mom. You know my philosophy on wedding guests.

You and your philosophies! You should bring a guest. A date. Of the romantic variety. Who will you have to slow dance with? Who will carry your purse for you when you get tired?

Alice shook her head. The silent reason her mother wasn’t saying was ‘what will my friends think if you show up alone again?’ Alice’s philosophy on wedding guests was that she didn’t bring one if they weren’t in a serious relationship and said boy had already met both the bride and groom. She didn’t want to put anyone through spending an entire evening with her family if they wouldn’t know anyone else there. Was it her fault that there had only ever been one person who fit that criteria?

Think about it, Alice. You aren’t getting any younger. Oh someone is buzzing in. I have to go, toodles! Her mom sang, having already achieved the purpose of her call.

Alice sat down at her round kitchen table and placed her phone beside the laptop. She was ready to get to work now. If her mom was good for anything, it was motivating her to work harder. For a fleeting moment she reconsidered her choice in career. There were days when she was glad she had decided to become a lawyer and that she had gone through those years of university and near poverty. On those days, she felt fulfilled, like she had truly helped someone or she had accomplished a difficult goal. But those days did not come as frequently as she had anticipated when she was a bright-eyed, first-year law student.

When she first made her career choice, she had been heavily influenced by her love of John Grisham novels and the television show Ally McBeal. No one had told her that the real life of a lawyer was not nearly as sexy. Alice had quickly learned that she didn’t have the stomach for criminal law when her first year criminal law professor had brought in photographs of a murder scene for a trial in which he was being called in as an expert witness. Her dreams of living out a real life John Grisham novel had immediately disappeared. She also found she didn’t have the taste for litigation, a la Ally, as she found arguing intimidating and couldn’t understand how emotionally invested people got in their law suits. By default, she had ended up as a corporate lawyer and the vast majority of her time was spent drafting and editing documents in front of her computer. Instead of being out celebrating big wins, she was strapped to a desk and researching and drafting documents that would likely not be appreciated by her clients.

Her firm, Carter Williams LLP, charged her clients three hundred dollars an hour—not that she saw anything even close to that three hundred – for her valuable work. But her hourly wage was probably less than her assistant’s.

She had imagined working banker’s hours and then she would be free to go out in the evenings with the rest of the glamorous downtown workers to sip cocktails, gossip about boys, and live the exciting life she had been promised by television shows like Sex and the City. It had never occurred to her younger self that she would be so exhausted every day and that the thought of going out for drinks would be the last thing on her mind. Watching mindless television on her couch was her sole extra-curricular activity except for working at home, which didn’t really count.

Alice stood up, reaching her arms above her head in a vigorous stretch, hoping to energize her fatigued body. The words were not coming to her for her memo. She frowned and furrowed her eyebrows together in a way that her best friend Naomi referred to as the Muppet brow after the grumpy old man who sits in the theatre balcony. She was getting old before her time; what Naomi said was true – her job was aging her. No wonder her mother was worried about her marriage prospects.

Alice turned her attention back to her computer screen and decided to take an internet break. It was a habit of Alice’s—every few hours she checked her personal email, then her favourite online gossip site, and last, the local news for any breaking stories.

She typed in the first couple letters of the URL for the local newspaper and the entire address instantly popped up.

You know you go to a site too often when… she muttered to herself.

Alice scrolled down the page and saw the usual stories, many of which she had seen earlier in the day. She re-read the mundane headlines—comments on the weather, complaints about politicians, an update on the hockey game—but nothing seemed to pique her interest or be capable of providing the quick distraction she craved. She caught her reflection in the dark screen of her second monitor and realized she was frowning again. Maybe there was something to Naomi’s teasing her about her Muppet brow. After all, her mother did tell her that if she used the same facial expression often enough it might freeze that way. Naomi would have a field day if Alice’s face froze in a frown.

Alice dutifully continued to scroll, unwilling to admit defeat quite yet. And there it was.

It was a small headline, buried in the newsfeed that ran along the right side of her screen. Alice’s eyes widened and her heart began to beat faster as she read the few, simple words. She leaned in closer to the screen.

Financial Wizard Returns Home to Local Fanfare.

The headline was innocuous enough, but Alice’s intuition compelled her to click on the link. She had known a person once who was destined to become a financial wizard. And she had heard rumours he was returning to the city. The world had become an age of endless information and it had been easy to follow this person’s path for the decade they’d been apart. From what she’d gleaned from her online research, financial wizard was a modest term for what this person was capable of doing. A mathematical genius, he had devised algorithms for investing that had put him in high demand of international investment firms. He’d spent the last decade traveling all over the world, working in investment banks and for independent hedge funds, and making a lot of people a lot of money. Including himself. Occasionally she found photos of him at some party or another with a glamorous model-type hanging off his arm.

She didn’t care about the money. She was happy for his success, of course. He had been a good person who had worked hard and earned it. But it hurt her to see him with these attractive girls. She had loved that genius before these other people had discovered him. And he had loved her.

She hadn’t seen him in those ten years, except on her computer screen, in the articles she read and in various social media sites. Even now, ten years later, he still crossed her mind almost daily. She wondered if she ever crossed his.

Alice took a long drink of her mug of coffee. She gagged on the putrid tasting liquid, having picked up the wrong mug containing cold coffee. She made a mental note to start cleaning up things more often.

The short article—only a few lines—read: Satpal ‘Tony’ Sekhon is bringing his investment expertise to Calgary and will be starting up a new commodity-based hedge fund. The Alberta economy was almost entirely driven by oil and natural gas, so the anticipated move was making waves in the business and banking community.

Alice read the comments thread. People seemed evenly split on the idea of a local hedge fund. Most of the commentators appeared completely uninformed on what a hedge fund even was, but freedom of speech allowed them to voice their opinions.

Alice knew there was no way Tony could manage the fund from his current home in Dubai. He would have to move to Calgary. The move would make Tony one of the youngest hedge fund managers in Western Canada.

Alice’s felt her face flush at the thought of being in the same city as Tony again. He had seemed far too cosmopolitan for the ranch and oilman mentality of Alberta. She had thought he would never move back. She leaned back in her chair and smiled as she imagined the prospect of running into him—looking her best, of course. Maybe she would have just come from the spa and salon, complete with full hair and makeup. She would have on a flattering new outfit, and be minus ten pounds. She smiled at the possibility.

The smile soon faded away as Alice realized the improbability of her reverie. With her luck she would run into him after getting drenched with muddy water from a passing bus. Besides, she didn’t deserve good luck. There was no way he would have forgiven her. There was no reason that he should.

* * *

Naomi Sowa had seen the same article as her best friend, Alice, as she lounged on her pristine cream leather couch with her laptop open. Her couch was not comfortable but it looked good in her stylish and modern apartment and Naomi knew that the look of it counted more than the feel of it. Seeing the article on Tony had prompted her to view her own exes, a practice she engaged in at least once every few months. Naomi knew that Alice still followed Tony’s movements though she always denied it. Naomi shook her head- why bother denying totally normal behaviour. Who didn’t keep tabs on their exes? Naomi certainly did. She liked seeing photos of her past loves, learning that they had become less attractive or had moved on to a less pretty woman than she. It gave her no small amount of satisfaction to know she was prettier than all of them and therefore was likely missed. She always moved on first so she never worried that her exes did not have lingering feelings. Naomi did the leaving. In fact, her mantra was, she didn’t trade in, she traded up.

Naomi clicked through to Tony’s profile. While there were several photos of him with girls, none of the photos looked like romantic snapshots with a loved one. Had he dated anyone seriously since Alice? Alice certainly hadn’t dated anyone seriously since Tony, though this was not for a lack of effort on Naomi’s part. Naomi constantly tried to set up Alice with friends of hers, or gentlemen that Naomi herself wasn’t interested in. But Alice was never interested. She was practically married to her job and basically celibate. Naomi could never understand that mentality. A girl could, and should, have her fun when she could. You didn’t have to be in love with someone to have a good time!

Naomi put away her laptop and got up from the couch, admiring her silhouette in the full-length mirror across the room. She had practiced gracefully sitting and standing and knew that she made a pretty picture. Naomi padded her way into her kitchen, running a perfectly manicured fingernail along the sleek white granite countertop that had taken her over two months to find.

Naomi wondered if Alice would be upset by the fact that Tony was back. Ten years was a long time, but was it long enough? She picked up her pink crystal crusted iPhone and decided to call her friend, as a courtesy check. There was also the added bonus that Alice might have some additional information to add.

Hello? Alice’s cool voice came over the line. She sounded fine. Tired, but fine.

Hi babe, it’s me!

Hi Naomi.

Do not tell me you’re still at work. Naomi demanded.

Alice worked far too much and she was becoming boring for it. Naomi wandered toward her fridge, hoping there was a leftover bottle of wine inside. She was pretty sure there wasn’t any food in there, but it was worth a look.

I’m not. I should be because I have a memo that should be done by tomorrow but I decided to take the night off because I simply couldn’t focus anymore. You know I read the funniest article…

Good for you! Naomi interrupted. There was no wine in her refrigerator and hunger pangs were beginning to make her empty stomach known. If Alice wasn’t working, she would probably want to go out for dinner. It would be the first weeknight in a long time that Alice and Naomi had hung out and then Naomi could really pump her for some details about Tony’s return and make sure she was okay with everything. Are you free for a drink or some food?

The other end of the line was silent for a time. Naomi drummed her long, perfectly manicured nails on the granite countertop. She watched each individual nail strum the granite with a tight ‘ping’. She was not, by nature, a patient person.

Well?

You know what? Yes. I am free for a drink and I would love one. Lets do it! Where should we go?

What do you feel like having? Ordinarily Naomi would state a place and Alice would come meet her. It was their routine. Tonight she was feeling magnanimous so she thought she might defer to Alice’s preference.

Wine. I definitely need wine. How about Double Zero? Double Zero was an Italian pizza place in between their offices in downtown Calgary where they sometimes met for lunch. It was a bit further from their homes but still in the heart of downtown. It wasn’t at all what Naomi had in mind.

Nah. Pizza places are so overdone right now. Lets go to National! Just the thought of the international beer boasting over 200 different beers made Naomi giddy as did the thought of all the available men standing around with their stout, beer and cider. Naomi was in the mood to be noticed and a restaurant full of men was sure-fire way to make that happen. Besides, she knew Alice wouldn’t mind. Alice could always be convinced to have a burger when they were girls growing up together, she wouldn’t even put up a fight.

Sure enough, Alice agreed to meet her at National in twenty minutes, Naomi smiled to herself. She was creating such good karma for herself by being such a good friend.

* * *

The view from his apartment looked out of over the vast sea of blue that was the Persian Gulf. Despite the fact that it was considered winter or early spring in Dubai, the thermometer was still showing a blistering 33 degrees Celsius. Even the windows were sweating. He would miss the excitement of Dubai, but not the terrible heat. Tony was even looking forward to snow, and not just the artificial kind