by Dawn Doyle
Getting out of her seat, Emily approached Diane.
“What are you doing for lunch?”
“I’m going with you and the girls.” She smiled back at Emily.
Emily must have had a confused look on her face because Diane explained it to her. “I was about to ask you to lunch, but you got there first sweetie.” She chuckled.
“Oh, ok.”
“You sure don’t have your head on straight Honey. Anything I can help with?” she asked with a knowing look as they met the others.
There was no way Diane could know how Emily felt about Nick. Nobody did and she knew she wasn’t that bad of an actress to have everybody guessing.
“I’ve just been thinking about moving. I secured my apartment and I’m going to go furniture shopping with my Mum. I haven’t had the time to look so I’m a bit worried about not getting enough before I move in.” She said, trying hard to make it sound like that was what was bothering her.
“Well what do you have?” Diane asked as they exited the lifts to join up with the other girls.
“Well, I have my bedroom furniture from my Mum’s. She said I could take that. They’ve only been used when I stayed so they’re pretty much brand new.
I just need a sofa and dining furniture. The other stuff can come when I have the time.”
“You need to make the time.” Lois chipped in. “When I got my first apartment, I was so worried about taking any time off that I had no TV for two months. Not that I watched it much, but when you eventually had a day off and there’s a great movie on that night, it sucks when you can’t watch it.”
“I agree. I didn’t have any pictures or flowers for a long time. You’d think a guy lived in my apartment it was so bare.” Kendra added.
“We’ve all be there, honey.” Julie said, patting her hand. “Moving out is hard and stressful and if you don’t feel comfortable in your surroundings straight away, it can take longer to get used to it.”
Even though they meant well, Emily didn’t feel any better. Especially what Julie had said. She didn’t want to feel any more uncomfortable there as she was going to be already, living next door to Nick’s brother.
“I have a few things and it’s been recently painted and a new floor put down. I’ll pick out a few things online, later on tonight.” She nodded.
If she could get her mind out of the gutter for long enough.
Thoughts of Nick entered her mind.
The way he walked out of the lift that morning, eyes on her. It was to give her a talking to but that was beside the point.
Then she thought about Cora’s party.
The way Nick had come to defend her, telling Jeff where to go and punching him. The way he’d said ‘My Emmy’ had her frozen to the spot.
Then when he came for her again in the bathrooms, wiping her cheeks with the tissue, getting closer to her. It felt like he was going to kiss her, she wanted him to, but whatever he was doing got interrupted when Holly had come to check on her.
He couldn’t have wanted to kiss her, surely. Wouldn’t he have tried again another time if he did?
Oh yeah, I didn’t see him again until today.
Emily thought that it was just the moment of what had happened and her being upset that she, most likely, had misinterpreted his actions. If she’d moved forward to close the gap, and he hadn’t been about to kiss her… it would have been embarrassing for her. But, if he was…
“Emily… Are you ok Sweetie?” Diane asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.
“Hmmm? Oh yeah, sorry. I was miles away.”
The four women looked to each other before smiling at Emily.
“What?”
“Nothing honey. But, the sooner you clear the mess that’s inside that pretty little head of yours, the better things will be.”
Emily had no idea what Diane was talking about so she just nodded in agreement.
*****
Nick sat at his desk, not seeing the words or figures across his screen. He could feel a headache forming and he had about fifteen minutes before he a scheduled meeting with a Mr. Bamber, from the UK.
Emily had been researching the company and had all of the information, which was on his screen, but he couldn’t focus. He needed his glasses.
He hated wearing them but the optician told him that he would get eye strain from using his monitor, and he needed to wear his glasses if he felt a headache forming from prolonged computer use.
He didn’t know whether it was because of the monitor or because the feeling of Emily’s body against him hadn’t left and he couldn’t focus since she let him go.
Since he’d almost kissed her at Cora’s party, every waking moment had been filled with thoughts of her lips. How they would feel, how they would taste and how much he had wanted to find out since the day he met her. Only to have them right there and to have them taken away at the last second.
Emily hadn’t mentioned it so he assumed she wasn’t aware. He hadn’t received a slap or a telling off, so that was probably the case.
Pulling his black framed glasses out of his top drawer, he put them on and stared at the screen.
Nope. They didn’t help at all.
Checking his watch, he looked at the time. Emily had gone to lunch and they would be back just before the meeting, so he had a few minutes to attempt to decipher the jumble in front of his eyes.
It was short lived when there was a knock before the door opened.
Emily walked through the door before he could remove his glasses so she didn’t see them, her eyes widened slightly and her mouth popped open before she snapped it shut.
“Uhhh… Um… the man, uh… Mr… thingy is on his way.” She stuttered before turning to leave.
“Emmy?” He called out before she could close the door.
“Yeah?” she didn’t turn to face him.
“Is everything ok?”
“Yeah, fine.” She said and Nick could swear she sounded a little flustered.
Probably from what I said earlier, or she could be holding back a laugh at my dorky glasses.
Nick opened his drawer and took out his bottle of Advil. He took two before he tried to look over the details again before meeting with Mr. Bamber.
Mr Thingy. Yeah, Emily was definitely flustered about something.
“Where’s Emmy?” He asked Diane when he left his office a minute later.
“She’s gone into the conference room, sweetie. She said something about the meeting and Mr. Bamber is on his way up from the lobby. He was running a few minutes late because his cab got caught in the roadworks traffic. Didn’t Emily tell you? I saw her leave your office a minute ago.”
“Oh, yeah, she mentioned he was on his way.”
She didn’t mention anything about him being late though.
“Ok, thanks Di. I’ll go right in.”
Nick was about to enter the conference room when the elevator doors opened. He wasn’t expecting the person to be the very same one that was annoying Emily in Cal’s coffee a couple of months previously.
Nick smiled to himself thinking how Emily was going to be pissed and he was looking forward to see how she handled him.
“Hi, I’m Nick Lake. You must be Harry Bamber.”
“Yes. Apologies for my tardiness. Ran into a little roadworks trouble.”
“No problem, you’re actually right on time.” Nick replied as they shook hands.
He could see Harry recognised him and was trying to place his face. He was about to find out soon enough and then maybe Harry would be put off trying to pursue Emily again.
“The conference room is this way. My assistant is already waiting for us.” He said, gesturing to the room.
This is going to be awesome!
Nick opened the door and followed Harry inside.
Emily looked up and her eyes flew from Nick to Harry and then narrowed. Oh, she wasn’t happy alright.
Nick could see the slight scowl on her face. Others may not notice it, but he’d p
aid enough attention to her to know when something had pissed her off.
“Harry, this is my assistant Emily.” He made sure that he called her ‘Emily’ so nobody else called her by the name he used. “Emmy, this is Harry Bamber.”
“I know who he is.” She replied with a fake sweetness to her voice.
“Hello again.” Harry said, looking between them. “I didn’t think I’d see you again, but… here you are.” He looked back to Nick. “Oh, you were at the coffee shop the last time I saw Emily.” He said as if finally remembering where he saw him.
“I was.” He said simply. He didn’t like Harry’s tone. It was as if he was accusing him of something. Maybe disrupting his plans to seduce Emily. Well, that wasn’t happening anyway. He’d seen Emily trying to get rid of him but he was relentless in trying to talk to her. Also, he wasn’t her type.
So what is her type, hot shot? You?
Emily was looking down at the papers in front of her, clearly annoyed that Harry was there. He hadn’t guessed it was him because he didn’t know the guy’s name at Cal’s and Emily hadn’t mentioned him again. Neither had he because of what he heard Harry say on his phone after she’d left. He didn’t like it and had wanted to break his neck at the time.
He wasn’t going to tell Emily that. He might be dangerous, but he wasn’t suicidal.
“Anyway, we have a lot to discuss. Shall we get started?”
Nick took his seat next to Emily and he noticed she tensed. He’d have to address that later.
“So, you’re looking for an investment of two hundred twenty-thousand dollars?” Nick asked, getting straight to the point.
“Well, it’s three hundred thousand now. My company is looking to expand here, in the states, and I’ve been looking for other companies to take part in, what I hope, will be a great business venture.”
Harry sat with a smile on his face that said ‘You want to do business with me because I’m so great.’ Well, Nick wasn’t that easily swayed. He wasn’t about to give up a huge sum of money to a guy who loved himself more than his product. Especially one that referred to his company as ‘I’ instead of ‘We’.
Even Jeff had used the better terms but he was guessing he’d learned that from Emily.
“Ok, so, our initial offer was sixty percent of the asked investment and a twenty percent stake of the company. You’ll find that is a generous offer, for what you propose, and you’ll have great difficulty finding an offer of greater value. However, the original investment you asked for was two hundred twenty-thousand. I’m intrigued as to why the sudden increase?”
They hadn’t discussed any increases and it wan’t good practice to surprise a possible investor with it.
“Well, there were extra production costs that I wasn’t made aware of, and with the increased shipping costs for materials, the investment needed to be increased a fraction.” Harry replied, with a smug look on his face as if he’d just settled a deal.
Obviously not researched properly otherwise those costs would have been known beforehand.
Nick wasn’t impressed. Harry was coming across as obnoxious and he knew instantly why Emily wanted nothing to do with him.
She just sat quietly listening to their conversation. Biting her lip as if she was stopping herself from butting in. Nick didn’t like how Harry kept turning his attention to her either, like he was trying to get her attention so she would look at him.
“Well, unfortunately, Harry. I won’t increase the amount any more than the first offer of sixty percent of the original sum. Researching your company, we see that some of your expenditures are unnecessary and costs could be cut by reducing needless spending. If that was addressed, the need for an investment increase would be removed.”
The look on Harry’s face said it all. He wasn’t happy that he’d been called on his bad business and lack of efficient financial handling.
“I have had other offers, Nick, and I could take my business elsewhere. In fact, I’ve got a couple of other meetings that I was willing to cancel if you wanted to join my company.”
Nick watched as Emily’s hands fisted on the table. Just before she opened her glorious mouth.
“What?! You’ve got some cheek comin’ in ‘ere an’ askin’ for tha’. Nobody else has offered you what Nick has.” Her accent had thickened in her temper and Nick knew Harry was in trouble.
Harry looked at Emily, wide eyed and in shock. Nick was smiling as she continued.
“Yeah, I’ve done my research. One company offered you twenty-five percent of the funds, and that was the maximum offer you got, they also wanted a thirty percent stake. Nick has been more than generous with his offer. Nobody will offer tha’. Especially since your product is a load of bollocks!”
Harry gasped at Emily’s outburst and Nick had to stop himself from laughing, but Emily wasn’t finished.
“It’s a blatant copy of Bremont watches. A cheap and nasty rip-off!”
“Excuse me, but they’re great quality watches at affordable prices. Bremont are expensive.”
“Because they hand make all of their watch parts and make them to order. Anyway, Nick has seen some potential there, but don’t you ever come in here demanding more for a less than mediocre company, you cheeky get.”
“Now hold on, my company is global…” He began to defend himself but Emily carried on.
“Global?! You don’t use the countries’ resources that you sell in. You have your crap machine-made in China, using their materials and workers, and ship them off. So, actually, you’re barely international. Don’t make yourself bigger than you are. If you were, you wouldn’t need help.”
Nick wanted to stand up and applaud but he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of Emily’s temper at that moment.
Harry snorted and turned to Nick.
“Why’d you employ her?” He asked Nick before he turned to Emily. “…Who did you do to get this job?”
“What did you say?!” Emily almost screamed.
Nick couldn’t stand anymore. He was shocked when Harry asked why but when he turned on Emily, he couldn’t hold back. He stood and rushed to Harry, picking him up out of his seat by the lapels on his jacket.
“If you ever say another word to Emmy again, or about her, I will fuck you over so bad you’ll be living out of a cardboard box. Now get out of my office and fuck off back to England.”
He pushed Harry away from him and watched as he quickly left.
“Emmy, are you ok?” He asked, turning to her and seeing that she was breathing heavily with rage.
”How dare he accuse me of bein’ a slut! I can’t stand fuck ‘eds like him throwing a fuckin’ insult around when they don’t get their way. It pisses me off.” She said through gritted teeth and rubbing her forehead.
“He’s full of shit, Emmy. He was just pissed that he couldn’t get a date with you and when he was trying to impress you with his business, you call him out for being greedy and obnoxious.”
“What? A date? How did you…?”
“Yeah, I know what he was doing in the coffee shop, and I heard him asking you to dinner. When you left, I heard him on his cell telling somebody that he still hadn’t managed to ‘bang the scouse bird’ after spotting you and following you in.”
Emily’s expression didn’t change. Nick wondered if he should slowly walk away or say something.
“Not a chance in hell would that happen.” She growled.
“I know.” Nick placed his hand on her shoulder and felt the zing shoot up his arm that he felt every time he touched her.
“Ignore him. He’s a fuck head after all.” He smiled.
“Yeah he is. He’s right up there on the list.”
“Is everything ok in here?” Diane asked as she rushed into the room. “I saw that man leave like his pants were on fire.”
“Yeah, Di. Emily called him out on his bullshit and he left.”
“Good for you honey, but the look on his face said it was more than that.”
Diane stood with her arms crossed and Nick knew she wouldn’t budge until she got an explanation. For a secretary she sure was bossy.
“He asked for more than necessary.”
“But I heard you shouting, Nick. What was that about?”
Emily looked down and Nick saw her cheeks flush.
“He said something he shouldn’t have, so I asked him to leave.”
“Hmmmmm.” Diane wasn’t convinced and Nick knew there were more questions to follow.
Emily walked out of the room and mumbled something to Diane on the way.
“What did she say?”
“She said that she’s going to get twenty five dollars from her purse. For the jar.”
Nick had to laugh at that. Even through her outburst, she’d kept track of how may swear words she used. That could only mean that she was holding back.
“I owe too.” He dug in his pocket and handed a twenty to Diane.
“I would have let you off if that man had said something bad to our girl, but I like that you’re both honest.”
Our girl?
“Hang on, how did you know he said something bad to Emmy?” The room had better sound proofing than his office so there’s no way Diane would’ve made out what he’d said.
“Well, for you to get like that, he must have. You punched the last guy.”
“How the hell did you know about that? Did Emmy tell you?”
“Oh, Nick. I find out a lot of things, but no, Emily didn’t tell me anything. But I’m a little disappointed.”
“He deserved it.”
“I’m sure he did, but I’m disappointed that you didn’t break his jaw instead.”
With that, Diane beamed and walked back to her desk.
The day was getting stranger by the second.
*****
Nick had come to her rescue again and Emily felt uneasy about it. He was being protective of her and she liked it. She shouldn’t, though, because she was his employee and that was the reason why he did it. But it still felt nice that he had defended her… again.
