by Dawn Doyle
“That’s absolutely fine. I’m just happy that you took the time to meet with me.” Brendan replied. They shook hands and Brendan left, leaving his portfolio with Nick.
He wasn’t going to go through any more of it that day. He wasn’t in the mood. He still didn’t know what the hell Brendan was talking about and he wasn’t about to sit and read through to find out.
Nick reached into his draw for the bottle of Advil. His headache still hadn’t gone.
Nick was going through his daily influx of emails. Sorting through the business ones from the junk was his first priority.
Russian brides? Penis enlargement? Hair transplants? Seriously what the fuck do these people have going on in their heads?! And why didn’t the filter send them straight to junk?
Nick shook his head in distaste.
Bride? Not a chance in hell. Cock pump? Definitely don’t need one of those. Hair transplant…?
He ran his hand through his jaw length hair. Nah, he was still good for a while. He snorted a laugh at the crazy crap that was sent. He highlighted a block of junk and deleted them.
He replied to the numerous emails from business owners he’d invested in and also replied to the ones from the departments from his own business. He didn’t realize how long he’d been working when there was a knock on the door. Nick didn’t get a chance to say anything to whomever was there as the door opened.
“Hey big bro!” said Ryan as he walked in, followed by Riss.
“Hey Ry, how’s it going? Hi Riss.”
“It’s going great thanks. Riss and I called this morning about lunch. Did you get the message?”
“Yes, I did. Diane told me.”
They were going to go out for lunch. Luckily Nick’s headache had calmed enough for him to brave the crowds in the city.
“Where’s Craig?” Riss asked as she looked behind her at the empty desk where he usually sat in front of Nick’s office.
“He left. It was his last day on Friday. I forgot.”
Nick felt bad about forgetting. He was away in LA, California and was having a session that day. He’d gone back to his hotel and stayed there.
“Oh yeah, he’s moved to Florida hasn’t he? When’s he getting married?”
“Um…I think in about eight or nine weeks. I’m not too sure of the exact date though. I’ll have to ask Diane.”
It wasn’t that Nick didn’t pay attention, ok sometimes he didn’t, but he’d had a few things on his mind and the day when Craig had told him about his wedding, he’d not been completely with it. He felt bad needing to ask him what he said so he said nothing, hoping that it would come up in conversation again. But… Nick needing to go out of town meant he didn’t get to find out.
“You don’t know? Didn’t you get an invite?” Riss asked with a look that said ‘seriously?’.
“Yes, I just couldn’t remember the date. I’ve been busy Riss, come on, stop busting my balls. I’ve been busy and I got them a gift anyway.”
“Ok, let’s not get into this right now. We know you’ve been busy man.” Ryan said and then turned to Riss. “Riss, please leave it alone, babe. Anyway, I’m starving so can we go?”
Nick grabbed his phone and his keys and they the three of them left for lunch.
They went to the café that sold Riss’ favorite cheesy fries.
“Oh my God I love these!” she said as she tucked into her food. “These are so good, I even got Holly hooked on them.”
The mention of Holly’s name caught Nick’s attention.
“How is she?” he asked.
He’d helped put some of her garden back together after the psycho bitch had wrecked it, before breaking into Alex’s house to try and seduce him.
Nick wan’t hungry anymore.
“She’s doing really well, actually. You wouldn’t even guess that she’d gone through that trauma a couple of months back.” She said.
Ryan had told Nick all about how the psycho had turned up at Alex’s house and sneaked into Holly’s car whilst she was saying goodbye at Alex’s door. She’d had a gun and kidnapped her. Luckily, Holly hadn’t been hurt.
“So what were you doing in Cali?” Ryan asked. “Any new business there?”
“No. Just checking in on the ones that are close to the end of their contracts. They’re doing well. The club will be finished in the next two months, unless the guys want to renew.”
A café and a bar were the businesses Nick had invested in.
The café was in need of management help and a serious face lift.
It was the first investment he had ever made and had a soft spot for it.
It was supposed to be a French style café but it looked more like a small town coffee shop. He’d gone in, gutted the place, gotten contractors in to remodel the inside and decorated it with a vintage Parisienne look.
The walls were whitewashed to give it an ‘old’ feel. Round, black bistro tables with black metal chairs and black cushions for comfort. Wicker chairs for outside.
On the walls were framed pictures of the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre. Nick had even sourced, and hired, a French chef to redesign the menu and show the owners how to make a decent cup of French coffee.
Even though Edna, one of the owners, was french… she wasn’t exactly a professional chef.
He was so good, that Nick insisted that he was hired to work in the café.
The business had done so well, that after the first year, or ‘vintage year’, they had opened another Café a few miles away, and another the year after, in Santa Monica.
When Nick visited, he saw that the original premises was busy, with people waiting outside just to get a takeout coffee. He’d had some great returns on his investment.
As for the bar, it too had been in need of some TLC. The owners couldn’t afford to put in enough capital to attract attention. Nick saw the potential and poured money in to modernize it, rivaling any of the larger bars in the area. Again, when he visited he found the place to be jam-packed with bodies. He’d gone over the owner’s ideas of expansion and it had taken a while looking at new premises.
Now that the club was near the end of their contract, the owners could either buy Nick out or renew their contract for another two years for follow-up-funding. With the new businesses that were asking for his help, he knew he could afford to be bought out, but he had a feeling they wanted to renew.
The café was still in its first year of their third contract.
Nick was the one to suggest expansion, both times, and they’d gained a lot of profit from doing so and they’d trusted his decisions.
“So, do you have any plans to take on more business?” Ryan asked.
“I had a meeting with a guy about screw in studs for the soles on cleats. I have the guy’s reports to look at though. See if it’s worth it.”
Nick told them about the meeting he had and the little bit about the product that he’d paid attention to. He wasn’t sold on the idea as yet and he had too many things running through his mind to concentrate on it any more that day.
“Emily’s moved here, you know?” Riss said all of a sudden.
Nick’s breathing stopped for a second as his eyes snapped to her.
“And you’re telling me this…why?” He tried to sound nonchalant, like just the mention of her name had no effect on him whatsoever.
“Just thought you might want to know.” She smirked.
“Why would I want to know? I don’t even know her.” He looked down at his lunch and pushed the food around on his plate. He knew she was moving here. Oli had spoken about it before but he hadn’t mentioned, to anybody, that he knew.
“After the last conversation you guys had, the day we all helped in Holly’s garden, we thought you guys really hit it off.” Riss was holding back her laughter.
“Are you kidding me? You think her telling me to fuck off was us hitting it off?”
It was a few months ago, but Nick remembered their conversation. He’d gone to the
High School to offer some intern placements to Mr. Lawson, the Principal, for spring break. He didn’t normally go to the school in person, but when he found out that a certain person wouldn’t be there, he went. Knowing he would see his brother at the same time.
He’d said ‘Hi beautiful’ and Emily had called him ‘Cock’ed’.
The way she spoke amused him. Her accent and the way she dropped the g’s and t’s from her words. She’d threatened to get Holly to hit him and he’d retorted by saying he wasn’t ready for S&M. Her shocked reaction had made him laugh. Not that he was into any of that weird shit, he just wanted to get a rise out of her.
And watch her furious blue eyes.
Ryan had mentioned Emily a few times since then, saying that she was visiting Holly for her birthday and she was coming to the States to live after she graduated from University.
“Hello…Nick?” Ryan said as he waved his hand in front of his face.
“What?”
Ryan and Riss both had stupid grins across their faces. They looked insane.
“I was talking to you and you zoned out, bro.”
“Sorry, business stuff. What did you say?”
“Uh huh…” Ryan didn’t look convinced. “I said that Emily will be around a lot more, obviously because she lives here now, and there’s a good chance you’ll run into each other.”
“I’ve only seen Holly a few times in the past few months, so I doubt I’ll have the displeasure of Emily’s company.”
“Ok. Sure.” Riss said as she suppressed a giggle.
Ok, shut up now.
Chapter 2
It had been a couple of days since Emily had sent out her resume’s. So far, from the emailed copies, she’d had two responses of ‘we have no vacancies but we would like to keep your details on file should one open up.’ Nothing else. Twenty-seven emails with only two responses.
Great.
She’d had nothing back from the posted copies but Emily understood that it could take longer for them to get to the relevant person.
Emily booted up her Macbook, at the dining table, and searched for more apartments in the area. She’d found a couple of one bedroom rentals, but they were tiny.
They had everything in the same room, apart from the bathroom, thankfully, and they looked to be more like a bedsit than an apartment.
Emily continued looking until she saw a nice one bedroom rental, not far from her parents house, and the price range was affordable. The problem…no job. No job meant no apartment. There was no way she was going to ask anybody for money, even though they’d offered.
No. It was her own fault she’d lost all of her savings by trusting that shit head of a nob jockey. If she’d have seen him for who he really was, she would’ve taken her money and got the hell out of there.
Now she was more determined than ever to make a fresh start, on her own.
“Hiya Em. What are you up to today?” asked Holly as she and Alex walked into the kitchen.
“Just lookin’ for apartments babes.”
“Have you seen anything you like?”
“Yeah, there’s a decent one here, so as soon as I get a job I’ll go take a look at it, if it’s still available then.”
It probably won’t be.
“How’s the job hunting going?” Alex asked as he sat down, pulling Holly onto his lap. If she wasn’t sitting on him, then they were holding hands or had their arms around each other.
It was beautiful watching how in love they were with each other. The way they held each other, looked at each other, spoke to each other, saying ‘I love you’ and meaning it.
Jeff hadn’t ever told Emily that he loved her. She hadn’t said it to him either, but she knew that she had never loved him in the first place. If she had, she would have felt a lot more hurt than she did when she found him with the woman on his desk, and when she’d found out what he’d done with her best friend. Instead, she was angry for allowing herself to be used and for not getting out sooner.
“Not good. I need a job before I can move out.”
“If you really want to move we can help you, you know. It’s no trouble.” Holly said. “We’d like to help you, Em.”
‘We’. Holly and Alex were a package deal. You couldn’t get one without the other.
“No baby girl. I want to pay my own way. As soon as I get a job, I can get a place. I’ll just have to keep looking. Thanks anyway, though.”
Their parents had opened high interest bank accounts for them, when they were born, and had paid into them every month. When their Dad had been killed by a drunk driver, his insurance paid out to their Mum and they also received a lump sum into their accounts. The funds were floated on the stock market and they’d made high returns from the investments. They were both to be given control of their account, once they turned eighteen. Of course, Emily had met Jeff less than a year later and most of her money went into his business.
Stupid, stupid!
“What if I loaned you the money? Would you take it then?”
“Thanks, love, but I don’t want to borrow money either.”
Emily had already had that discussion with her Mum. She’d refused because if they were paying her bills for her, and she couldn’t get a job for a long time, she would end up owing them a huge amount and then she may not be able to afford paying rent and repaying a loan at the same time.
That wasn’t happening.
She was already living in their house, which she knew she was more than welcome, but she needed out. Besides, she’d heard Holly and Alex getting it on a few times and knowing what your baby sister was up to with her fella wasn’t good at all.
“Why can’t you just stay here? There’s loads of room. You don’t need to find your own place.” Holly asked, but sounded more like a plea. Emily knew they didn’t want her to move out.
“I can’t live with family forever, hun. Anyway, my ears need a rest from listening to you two all night. You do realise that your bathroom is right next to my room?” Emily tried to keep herself from laughing at the horrified look on Holly’s face. Alex hid his reddening cheeks in Holly’s hair, even though he was smiling.
“Oh my God, Em!”
“What? I’m just saying. I can’t hear much from your bedroom but the bathroom… I can hear plenty.”
Holly hid her face behind her hands and turned into Alex’s shoulder.
Emily burst out laughing.
“I’m just messing with you. Don’t get me wrong, I can hear you but not that bad…” Emily paused when Holly turned to look at her.
“That’s not funny Em.”
“Actually what’s not funny is how many times you said ‘Oh God’ last night. I actually lost count.”
“Em!!”
“I’m just messing calm down!” Emily laughed.
Alex was chuckling behind Holly, even though she could see he was embarrassed too. They shouldn’t be though. They weren’t doing anything wrong.
“Seriously Em? You can hear everything?” Holly looked concerned about Emily hearing what she was doing with Alex. She wasn’t embarrassed with Emily knowing they were having sex, just hearing whilst they were at it.
“No, love. I can tell what you’re up to but that’s it. Don’t be ashamed. If I had a fella half as good looking as yours, I’d be making noises too.”
“Emily, that’s so wrong.” Holly said, shaking her head.
Alex was gorgeous. Very tall, muscular with brown eyes and cheekbones to die for. Thick eyelashes girls went to salons to buy, and inky black hair. It was short around the sides and back, blending to longer on the top. The front fell to his eyes and she knew Holly loved that.
Even though he was seriously fit, Emily hadn’t thought of him, or his friends that way at all. Maybe because they’re younger than her but also, now, Alex was going to be her brother-in-law.
Actually, she hadn’t thought of anybody that way at all.
Not even Jeff.
The past few months, however, the same pa
ir of grey eyes had continuously popped into her head.
Probably latent hostility.
Even now, thoughts of Nick entered her mind and all she could see was the way he looked at her.
Right at her.
Emily decided that, to take her mind off things, she’d go out and take a look at the city. She’d been around a few times when she’d visited, but now she was living there she thought it was a good idea to get more acquainted with her surroundings. She borrowed her Mum’s car and went out.
As Emily drove around Belltown, she remembered some of the apartments that were up for sale in the area. She programmed the sat nav on her phone as she had no idea how to work the one on her Mum’s car. She’d pressed the screen to access the Sat Nav and there were too many things on the screen that she used the one she knew how to work the best.
Her phone.
Emily drove straight down Queen Anne Avenue until she got to Western Avenue. She took a left and continued until she got to the apartment block she wanted to take a look at. Finding a parking space, she got out and walked into the building.
The foyer looked pretty plain. White walls with grey tiled flooring. There was a wooden counter where the concierge sat.
“Can I help you Ma’am?” the guy asked with a smile as she approached him.
“Yes. I wondering if I could take a look at the apartments you have available?”
