by Dawn Doyle
“It was because of Ryan that I was mad.”
“I know…” he said, interrupting her before she could say anything else. “…But you’ve forgiven him, right? Holly had already, but you seem to be holding a grudge against me and I don’t know why.”
“Seriously? After what you’ve just said?!”
“Oh my God, Emmy, I was messing with you. Can’t you take a joke?”
Emily turned her head and stared out of the window instead of answering him. She was so angry that all of the things that were playing through her mind, from looking at Nick, had gone. Instead, she was a raging inferno.
“Emmy come on. Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t keep bringing up your fetish.”
That was it, Emily snapped.
“You fucker!” she shouted as she punched him in the arm… and immediately felt pain gripping her hand. His arm was like concrete!
“Ow!” he chuckled. “Ok, maybe I deserved that.” He said as he glanced at her and Emily saw that he noticed her cradling her fist.
“Are you ok?” he asked softly.
“I’m fine.” She muttered. She wasn’t though. Her hand was throbbing and her fingers were growing numb.
“Have you hurt your hand?” The frown on his face showed he was concerned.
“I said I’m fine.” She said, abruptly. Emily felt the sting in her eyes as she was holding back tears. Not that she was upset, but because she was so mad and now Nick had seen her in pain.
“No you’re not. You’re hurt.”
“I wasn’t expecting your arm to be rock hard. There… happy now? I bet you are. So fuckin’ made up that you won’t be able to get out of the car for your swell ‘ed.”
Emily knew what she was saying was in defense of her own wounded pride, but she couldn’t help the pang of guilt she felt. It was worse when she saw the look in Nick’s eyes. What she said had hurt him.
“Regardless of how you feel about me, Emmy, I don’t want you to get hurt.” He said as he pulled over and stopped the car. He turned to her and held out his hand.
“Let me see.”
“What? No!”
“Come on Emmy, give me your hand.”
“I don’t want you to touch me.” She said, flinching away.
I’m scared of what will happen if you do.
“Ok, if you don’t let me check, I’ll drive you to the hospital. Is that what you want?”
No, she didn’t. She wasn’t hurt that bad, and if he drove her there, he’d miss his business lunch.
“Fine” she groaned as she held out her hand for him to look at.
Emily felt a bolt shoot up her arm as soon as Nick touched her hand. She hoped he didn’t notice the flush creeping up her neck into her face.
He opened her fingers flat, her palm against his and gently brushed over the back with his other hand. He turned it over and stroked across her palm and fingers and Emily could feel the butterflies in her stomach multiplying the longer their skin was in contact.
Nick turned her hand back over, brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles.
“All better now.” He said before letting her hand go.
It was, too. Her hand felt a lot better.
Emily sat, shocked at what Nick had just done and was even more so when it seemed like he was just as surprised as her, at his actions.
“We should go now. We don’t want to keep him waiting.” He said before pulling away from the kerb.
After the remainder of the journey, in awkward silence, Nick pulled up outside the Amantes restaurant. The same one whose accounts Emily had worked on with Jerome.
*****
Nick didn’t know why he’d kissed Emily’s hand. Maybe it was because he did that for his little sister, Cora, whenever she’d hurt herself and he’d automatically reacted.
But she’s not my sister, she’s Emmy.
On his lips, tiny prickles were still dancing where they’d touched her hand and they weren’t going away. They seemed to be asking for more. A lot more.
Nick hadn’t meant for their conversation to turn the way it had, but he couldn’t resist getting Emily riled up again.
When she’d punched him, and held her hand afterwards, he knew she’d hurt herself and he felt bad about it.
Contrary to what she’d said to him, he wasn’t happy, or ‘made up’ that she thought his arm was ‘rock hard’. He wasn’t the type to brag about his physical appearance, but it didn’t matter to her. She thought he was and that disappointed him.
Emily didn’t give Nick time to open her door for her, like he was about to, however he opened the entrance door to the restaurant and gestured for her to go in before him. He was trying to keep his eyes up instead of sliding down her back to her rear. If she saw him doing that then he wouldn’t just get a punch in the arm.
A waiter greeted them and led them to the table where he was meeting his business client, Mr. Stewart.
Emily froze when they got to the table and Nick, thinking it was a case of nerves, introduced them.
“Hi, I’m Nick Lake and this is my assistant Emily.” He said as they shook hands. “Emmy, this is Jeff Stewart.” He continued, noticing the glare from Emily and the wide smile forming on Jeff’s face.
“Hello Emily.” Jeff said as he held his hand out. Emily looked at it and scowled.
“Jeff.” She said between gritted teeth, without accepting.
Nick thought it was odd for her to react that way and wondered if they knew each other. It was clear they did when her glare, her murderous glare turned to him.
He was concerned when Emily’s hostility was more severe towards Jeff, than it was to him.
Why does she dislike him so much?
“Um… let’s sit down and discuss business… Emmy?” he asked as she remained standing. He pulled out her chair and she, reluctantly, sat. Nick took the chair next to her.
“So, how can I help you, Jeff?” Nick asked, not liking the way Jeff was looking at Emily like she was his prey. He didn’t like it one bit.
“Well, as I told you in my email…” Jeff began “… I’m looking for possible investments to build my company overseas. Our aims are to find failing businesses, acquire them, improve them and then sell on for a profit.”
So, Vulture capital then. Asshole.
“…Of course, expanding over here needs an amount of resources that we’re unable to release at the moment. We are able to buy businesses but lack the finances to regenerate them, as they’re currently tied up in other projects back in the UK. However, setting up here now, instead of later, would improve our cash flow enormously. What we’re looking for isn’t someone to invest in the main company, however, but to invest in the smaller ones that we buy out, thus giving them a greater chance of improvement and success. The entrepreneurs that buy the new businesses, would purchase them from myself, the investors would receive their initial sum back, plus any returns gained during the development of the small business. In effect, we would both be bought out when the businesses are purchased.”
Nick didn’t like the way that Jeff had felt the need to explain what the selling of the smaller business would mean, like he didn’t understand how this business worked. Sitting there with a smug look on his face, whilst staring at Emily, wasn’t doing him any favors either.
“I understand what you’re saying, Jeff, and I think that you have something there. However…” Nick emphasized the word “…My company invests in businesses to help them, rather than taking their hard work and then selling it on. I don’t think I’d be comfortable knowing that somebody’s livelihood came crashing down because they had to sell up.” Nick explained as he grew more uncomfortable with the attention Emily was receiving from Jeff.
“That’s the beauty of this, Nick, the businesses are already up for sale. We don’t ask them to sell to us. They’re already on the market.”
When Nick had looked through the details that Jeff had given him, Nick saw that he’d bought the businesses that were in the b
eginnings of bankruptcy or were already up for sale.
“I don’t think it’s a wise decision.” Emily said, suddenly. Nick turned to her and saw that she was clenching her jaw and her hands were gripping each other tightly.
“Why not? You thought it was a good idea a while ago, Emily. Why the sudden change?” Jeff asked and Nick’s skin crawled with the familiar way Jeff was talking to her.
“Don’t speak to me, fuck ‘ed. You’re a piece of shit who doesn’t give two fucks about anyone other than yourself.” She spat.
“She has a mouth on her doesn’t she?” Jeff aimed the question at Nick. “I’ve missed that.”
“Excuse me.” Emily got up from the table and went to the bathrooms.
Emily couldn’t believe the audacity of Jeff, coming to Seattle to try to get business from Nick!
At first, Emily thought Nick had set her up, but the confusion on his face when Emily had seen him made her believe that he hadn’t.
That cheeky bastard, trying to get money from Nick when he can’t even handle his own!
Emily looked down at her hands. They were trembling. She could hear her pulse beating in her ears as her heart pounded away in her chest. Her stomach rolled and she felt like she was going to vomit.
She stood by the sinks and rinsed her hands under the cold water faucet when the door to the bathrooms opened.
“Emmy, are you ok?” Nick said as he walked in, looking around to make sure nobody was there.
“Nick, what are you doing in here? This is the ladies!” she whisper shouted.
“I know. But I couldn’t just leave you on your own after you took off. What’s going on?” He walked over to her and leant against the counter.
“Nothing.”
“That didn’t look like nothing, Emmy. You know each other and I’m guessing that you don’t like him very much.”
Emily glanced at Nick and the same look in his eyes was there from before. He was concerned.
Emily took a deep breath and slowly blinked her eyes.
“He’s my arsehole ex-boyfriend, who I never wanted to see again. But somehow, he managed to score a meeting with you.”
“I didn’t know, Emmy, I swear. He contacted me. You don’t have the same accent so I didn’t think to mention him.”
“He’s from Ipswich in Suffolk, but he resides up his own backside in ‘Jeff’s-the-Kingsville’.”
Emily looked back down at her hands. She wasn’t going to have a go at Nick for something he wasn’t aware of. Even though they bickered, she couldn’t do that to him.
“Did he hurt you?” Nick asked gently, tilting his head trying to make eye contact with her.
“It doesn’t matter, Nick. It’s in the past. I don’t want anything to do with him. But I want to warn you… getting mixed up with him will be a massive mistake. He doesn’t care about anything, or anyone, as long as he gets what he wants.”
“I’m not giving him anything, Emmy. As soon as I saw his reaction to you, I was pretty much against him anyway.”
Emily looked at Nick that time. She was wondering why Jeff’s reaction would turn him against him.
“Reaction?”
“Yeah. I didn’t like it. He looked like a smug little bastard. But I do have a question… Fuck head. That’s a new one I’ve heard from you. Is that worse than cock head? Because I want to know where I stand on your shit list.”
Emily felt the corners of her lips curve into a smile and Nick smiled too when he saw it.
“It’s worse.” She nodded her head.
“Thank God. I’d hate to be higher on the list than him.” Nick said, mockingly wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. “Come on, let’s get going.” He said, gesturing for her to leave.
“I don’t want to see him. I’ll just wait here until he’s gone.”
“He’s already gone. I told him to ‘do one’.” He said with a smirk.
“You did?”
“Yep.”
They both left the bathrooms, gaining a few accusatorial glances from the other diners there.
Emily was horrified that people had thought they’d been up to something in there. Her face heated and Nick held back a grin as they left.
Emily kept quiet on the drive back to the office and Nick turned the Bang and Olufsen stereo on. The song ‘The Fire Down Below’ by Slaves was on. She loved that song and she was pissed that she was in the car with Nick at that moment. If she was alone, she would’ve turned up the volume and rocked out. Instead, the best thing she could do was tap her foot along with the rhythm.
Nick turned the volume up.
“You like this song.” He said as if stating a fact. Emily simply nodded her head and looked out of the window at the buildings they passed.
Getting back to the office in silence was uncomfortable for Nick. He wanted to ask Emily about Jeff and what he did. He didn’t like the thoughts that had plagued him the entire journey. He could tell Jeff had hurt Emily. An amicable breakup wouldn’t have such animosity between them. Jeff had looked pleased to see her but Emily was furious. He could feel the rage from her fill the room.
His fault then.
Nick wondered what he’d done to make Emily so enraged. It couldn’t have been something stupid, like forgetting a birthday or constantly making a mess. No, it had to be serious, like lying or cheating.
Emily hadn’t seemed to want to talk about it so Nick had stayed quiet and he didn’t want to anger her further by bringing it up again.
Instead, Nick decided to do a little further research into Jeff’s business.
Jeff had initially contacted him two weeks previously and Nick had agreed to meet, because he wondered what he had to offer, with his description of buying and selling businesses. Helping businesses was Nick’s thing not taking them away, but Jeff had assured him they were already up for sale.
Something didn’t sit right with Nick. The way Jeff had acted with Emily and the warning she had given him; Nick wanted to know what he was up to.
Opening Safari, Nick searched the registry for businesses that had closed down. Then he looked for some that were in Jeff’s portfolio.
Jeff had lied.
Nick carried on delving into the business for the rest of the afternoon.
A few hours later, his phone rang. It was his Dad, David.
“Hi Dad.”
“Hi Son. I’ve got the ideas ready for the club and I have a few free days so I was thinking we could go to LA and put them to Johnny and Ray. I have a week to plan everything, which should be plenty of time.”
“That was quick, Dad, and yeah we could go. I’ll email the guys and let them know that we’ll be there Monday, if we can. I’ll have to check the flights for us.”
Nick had no choice but to agree with his Dad. With him doing the works on the premises, he had to be there when any plans were put forward and any legalities needed to be addressed. The time in LA, two weeks for him, would coincide with his appointment. It was lucky that it did, because going to California for just one day looked suspicious and now he’d be able to look in on other things he had going on too. They were overdue for a visit.
Ending the call with his Dad, Nick called Ryan.
“Hey Ry, how are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m good man, you?” Ryan sounded tired on the other end of the phone. No guesses as to why…
“I’m good. Hey are you doing anything tomorrow?” Nick wanted to see his brother before he left. He’d be seeing Cora for most of the weekend already.
“I’ll be with Riss, obviously, but other than that we were just going to hang out with the others. Why?”
“I’ve got to go to LA for business. I’ll be away for about two weeks because I’m checking in with the clubs in Vegas.”
Nick owned two other nightclubs in Las Vegas, that weren’t part of his investment company.
“Two weeks? That’s a long time to check on your stuff. Sure it’s not some extra activities?” Nick could hear Ryan chuckling down
the line.
“No, not that that’s any of your business. But, anyway, that’s why I called. To see if you wanted to do something before I go.”
“You could come with us. We’re just going to Alex’s house.” Alex and his twin sister Dev, had a hangout room where they all went to watch movies, play video games or… hangout.
“I’m taking Cora to the movies, so we could meet up after that.” Nick didn’t want to hang out with Ryan’s group. They were a good bunch, but a lot younger than him. Also, the constant reminder that he was alone was getting too much. That and the fact he felt as guilty as hell.
“Yeah sure. What do you wanna do?” Ryan asked, breaking his thoughts.
“You could come over to my place. Cora’s staying over until the day I go.”
“That depends, have you finally bought an Xbox one?”
Nick blew out a breath.
“I’ll get one.” He said in defeat.
“Then you have yourself and evening with Ryan.” He said, sounding smug.
“Don’t refer to yourself in the third person, Ry. It’s weird.”
“I know” Ryan chuckled. “And Ryan knows you hate it.”
*****
“I’m leaving for the day.” Nick said as he exited his office. He looked right at Emily, with his silver eyes, as he spoke and her stomach flip flopped.
“Any plans for the weekend?” Diane asked with a huge smile.
Emily thought she could see a hidden meaning behind it when Diane quickly glanced to her.
“I’m picking up Cora now. She’s staying for the weekend and I’m taking her to the movies tonight.” He said.
