by Dawn Doyle
“I will… Mum.”
“Funny Em. Just be careful ok?”
“I will, babes.”
Holly had always been like that with Emily. Getting her to call her whenever she was out late, just to make sure that she wasn’t somewhere she shouldn’t. It was like having a second Mum sometimes, even though Holly was five years younger than her.
Emily was protective of Holly too. If anybody was mean, or said something nasty, Emily would be there, ready to maim. Especially when Ryan had thrown her into the pool. She’d gone ballistic and had tried to kick the crap out of him but the others had held her back.
She only stopped when Holly told her to leave him alone.
Then when they got outside, there was Nick.
Emily took a deep breath and tried to put him to the back of her mind. She’d had enough for one day and just wanted to get home.
Though his grey eyes and mousy brown hair, lightened in parts from the sun, were teasing their way into the forefront of her mind.
*****
It was still early when Nick walked onto the floor his office was situated. He’d woken up a few hours before than he normally would and he wondered if he needed stronger sleeping pills. He needed them to help him sleep and to stop the frequent nightmares that he had.
Nightmares. At his age.
He hadn’t told anybody about them, except for his doctor, and he felt embarrassed about it. It had been over a year since that night and even though he felt ok during the day, at night he felt like a child after a scary movie.
Diane wasn’t in yet, it was too early for her, and Nick spotted the pile of resumés she had sorted through. He picked them up and took them through to his office to look through.
He could tell the ones that weren’t suitable straight away. He put them down and, curiosity getting the better of him, he picked up the one Diane thought was over qualified.
The name on the front was very familiar to him. He looked at the address and knew it was the person he thought it was. Smiling, he flicked the page and read through the resumé.
Diane was right, over qualified and had the experience that a lot of business owners lacked.
Perfect for him.
Nick read and re-read the resumé a few times when Diane came in and sat at her desk.
“Good morning, Di.” He said as he approached her.
“Oh, good morning, Nick. It’s a bit early for you isn’t it?”
Nick had told Diane to call him by his name. He didn’t like being called ‘Mr. Lake’ unless it was from business clients, until he got to know them, and people he didn’t know.
“I got here a little while ago. Hey, Di, I need you to do something for me. The resumé you said was over qualified? I want you to schedule an interview.”
“Is that wise? I mean, if they’re over qualified then why would you have them come in?” she asked, confusion across her face.
“Well, the thing is, I think this person would be great for the company. I don’t want to interview anybody else. This is the person I want for the job. Also, I want you to do the interview.”
“What? Me? I’m hardly the person to be holding interviews.”
“Just one interview, Di. We’re offering the job anyway, so it’s more of a ‘getting to know them’ chat. Please?” Nick shot her his best pleading smile and she rolled her eyes.
“Fine. But I think you’re making a mistake. They could be a know-it-all and that’d just get in the way of your work.” She had her eyebrows raised and looked at Nick over the rim of her silver framed glasses.
“I want this person Di. It’ll be fine. I promise. Oh, and don’t refer to me as Nick. Just Mr. Lake.” He smiled at her and walked back to his office.
This is going to be fun!
Nick knew that the skills on the resumé would be perfect for his company and the qualifications made it even better. They knew what they were doing, which was a huge bonus. They wouldn’t have to be trained up. Just shown were everything is and be introduced to the other employees. He brushed off the fact that the main reason for offering the job was for his own selfishness.
Nick got through the rest of the working day with a smile on his face and the fact he was having dinner with his parents that evening didn’t dampen his mood at all.
“Nick, before you go, I called the number on the resumé and the interview is scheduled for tomorrow at eleven.” Diane said as they were leaving.
“Excellent, thanks Di. I’ll make sure I’m out of the office then.”
He didn’t want to be seen, just incase the office got trashed.
“Just out of curiosity, why don’t you want to do the interview and why don’t you want to be seen?” she asked, cocking her head to the side. Nick liked that about Diane. She wasn’t just a ‘yes’ person. If she wanted to know why you were doing something, she just asked. He admired that about her.
“That’s a good question.” He said with a smirk.
“And…?” she folded her arms, waiting for his answer.
“I just want that person to work for me. I’d rather they felt comfortable than knowing that their future boss was watching them.”
Also, that they might just punch me in the face.
“Oh, ok then.” Diane replied, not completely satisfied with his explanation.
“See you tomorrow Di.”
Nick got in his car and drove to his parents house. He was still smiling as he parked up and walked inside.
“Nick! Hi honey!” said his Mom as he walked into the kitchen.
“Hi, Mom. How are you?” His mother was a lot shorter than he was. Around five feet and six inches next to his six feet and two inches.
“I’m good now that you’re here. How have you been? Have you been working too hard again?”
Nick had gone through a phase of staying at the office from early until very late and his Mom had been worried when she saw him with dark circles under his eyes. That’s when he’d finally gone to the doctor for his sleeping pills. The only way he was able to sleep was to work himself into exhaustion.
“No. Do I look tired? I don’t feel tired.” That was a lie. As he’d gotten up so early, he was a little tired.
“A little, honey. Not as bad as last year, but I still worry about you.” Mia, his Mom, said as she held his face, looking into his eyes as if she was trying to see what was in his mind.
“I’m good Mom. Honestly. Hi Dad.” He said as his Dad came through.
“Hi Son. How’s work? Got any new business deals?”
“I’ve been approached by a few new businesses. I need to look into them more before I decide on anything though.”
Nick’s father, David, had been the one to get him interested in owning his own company. David owned, and ran, his own architecture and construction company. He would design, and build, whatever the client was after and he also had people come to him to improve on already established buildings. That’s where Nick got his skills from when it came to scoping out new premises and, sometimes, upgrades on existing ones. His father had shown him what to look out for.
Nick frequently hired his Dad’s firm for the businesses he’d invested in. They’d been the ones to re-vamp the café in LA, and the extra work needed for the expansions.
“Good. You’ve got a great head on your shoulders, son.”
“Thanks, Dad. Where’s Cora?”
Cora, Nick’s little sister came running through and crashed into him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
“Nick!” she squealed, happy to see him.
“Hey tiny girl. How are you?” Nick had always called her ‘tiny girl’. Cora was quite small for a long time, but since she turned ten, she’d had a growth spurt. Now, almost eleven, her head reached to his chest.
“I’m good. I missed you. Where have you been?” she asked, looking up at him as she continued to hug him.
“I’ve been working in LA for a few weeks. I’ll be back for a little while before I need to go again though, so we cou
ld hang out if you want?”
“Yes! That would be awesome!” Cora jumped up and down excitedly, letting go of Nick so she could.
“Hey bro!” said Ryan as he walked in with Riss.
“Hi Ry, Riss. How are things?”
Once the welcomes and general ‘what’s happening?’ questions were out of the way, they all sat down in the dining room for dinner.
Their Dad, David, sat at the head of the table, with Mia to his left. Ryan sat to his right, with Riss, and Cora sat next to Mia. Nick was at the other end.
“How’s your apartment hunt going?” David asked Ryan.
Nick turned to Ryan and Riss. He knew they were planning on moving in together, he just didn’t think it would be so soon. They’d just graduated from high school and were a few months away from turning nineteen, but Nick thought it was a bit soon to be committing to each other like that. Then again, Holly and Alex were engaged and so were Dev and Ben. He thought it was way too soon for them. Holly and Alex had only been dating for less than two weeks when he proposed.
At least Dev and Ben had know each other for twelve years previously, but still, they’d only been dating for a week before the big question.
It didn’t make any sense to Nick, even though he knew that they were in love.
They all were.
Seeing them at the school a few months ago, and how they’d all paired up, it was nice to see but Nick knew that it wasn’t for him.
He couldn’t.
“So Emily’s looking for a job and she’s also looking for an apartment.” Nick heard Riss say to his parents. “Oli offered her a position in his law firm but she refused. She wants to get a job on her own.”
“Couldn’t she stay living with them? It would be much better than living by herself. Especially as she’s just moved to a new country.” Mia replied.
“She wants to get her own place and pay for herself. She told Holly that she doesn’t want to ‘mooch’ off them.” Riss giggled at the word.
“Mooch?” David asked.
“It means to sponge off them. Holly and Em practically have their own language. We had to look up some of the things they say to each other. It’s funny listening to them. It’s like foreign people having a conversation and you only know a few words of their language.” Ryan chuckled.
Nick remembered Ryan telling him about the ‘lern yerself scouse’ website with a lot of the slang words and what they meant. He’d had a look for himself and wondered what it would be like to hear Emily say some of those things.
He needed to avoid mentioning her name. A few months ago, after the pool incident when Ryan had thrown Holly in, he’d asked how Holly was and, stupidly, asked about Emily a few times. Ryan wouldn’t let it go, accusing Nick of having a thing for her. Nick had said she was just some ’wacko chick’, trying to shut Ryan up, but the truth was, he’d been thinking about her blue eyes boring holes into him that day on Riss’ path.
“Work on your mind honey?” his Mom asked him, bringing him out of his thoughts.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry. I had a meeting yesterday and I keep going over it in my head.”
“Well you need to give yourself a break every now and again. Maybe find yourself a nice girl and go out and do things together.”
Here we go again.
Mia always brought up the ‘finding a nice girl’ comment every time he was there. It wasn’t like he was forty years old and never had a girlfriend. He was only twenty six. He had plenty of time for that. Not that it was going to happen but he wasn’t about to tell his Mom that.
“Too busy Mom. Besides, I’m only twenty six.”
“Yes, but you’ll wake up one day and realize that you could have found that special someone years before but you were too busy to do anything about it. Then you’ll be filled with regret…”
Here it comes…
“And I would like to have some grandchildren before I’m too old to enjoy them.”
“Mom!” he whined. There was no way he was going to have kids. He needed to be in a relationship for that to happen and that wasn’t going to be any time soon.”
“Riss and I can give you grand-babies” Ryan said as he winked at Riss.
“Don’t even think about it! You have to go to college and graduate before any of that. I want to be able to enjoy them, when the time comes, but I can’t be doing that if you give me a heart attack by having them too young!”
Their Mom was twenty six when Nick was born. Eight years later, Ryan came along, then over seven years before Cora came along.
“Mom, Cora’s not even eleven yet and you want to make her an aunt?” Nick asked, trying to deter his Mom from harassing him further.
“Hey, when I was at school, there were two girls who were best friends. One was the other’s aunt, and she was younger! So don’t tell me that Cora’s too young.”
“Mom, it’s not happening any time soon. You’re not old enough to be a grandmother anyway so please just leave it?” he asked.
“That’s sweet honey, but Deedee is only forty eight and her grandson is two. She’s a happy grandma. I’m fifty two.”
She had a point but Nick really wanted to stop having these discussions every time he visited his parents. His Mom would grill him about relationships and his Dad would sit back and watch with a grin on his face like he was enjoying the show.
“Look Mom, Cora will be having kids before I will. So can you drop it? I don’t want to discuss this anymore.”
“Fine. But know this, Cora won’t be having any children until she’s at least twenty five. That’ll make you forty one. You don’t want to be that old when you have your first.”
“I’m not having any!” he almost shouted and Mia’s mouth hung open.
“Nick.” His Dad said with a warning tone.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I just don’t want to talk about relationships and kids. I have a busy life. I like it that way. If that should change in the future, then fine. But I’m not looking for that to happen any time soon.” He ran a hand through his hair and down his face in frustration.
“Ok. I just worry about you being alone.” She said, softly.
“I know, but I’m happy the way I am. Honestly.”
Dinner was quiet after that. Well, it was for Nick. He wasn’t really paying attention to the conversations going on around him until Ryan said his name.
“Nick. Nick.”
“What?”
“I thought you were dating someone? There was a girl a couple of months ago, or did you dump her too?” he asked with a grin.
“Don’t Ry. I’m not having my private life being brought up again.” He said quietly so his Mom wouldn’t hear him.
“Come on, Nick. I’m just curious. The last one lasted a week. Where’d this one go? Is she still on the scene?”
Lacey was a tall blonde girl. Not that he preferred blondes, she was just someone to make the people around him think he was dating. She’d approached him at the bar near his office, and he’d bought her a drink.
She wouldn’t shut up about herself.
He found out that she wanted to be an actress, had enrolled in acting classes and was working as a receptionist in a hotel in the city centre. That’s all he could remember. That, and her penchant for expensive, sparkly things.
Lacey had asked him if he would want to take her out for dinner sometime. She’d actually asked him to ask her on a date.
He’d reluctantly agreed and they’d had their first date at Quincy’s. She’d chosen the place and he knew, from Ryan and Riss, that it was a romantic, yet casual restaurant. He was dreading it but he managed to keep his distance by sitting across the table from Lacey and let her talk, with him zoning out.
When the night ended, he took her home and she’d asked him in for coffee. He politely refused, and she smiled saying he was a gentleman, before asking him to take her out again. He agreed, again, and took her to the bar where they’d first met. When she was all over him and trying to kiss him, he let her know that
he wasn’t ready for a relationship and his work schedule got in the way for a chance of one anyway.
She wasn’t happy about it but after he’d said that she was a nice girl, she got a little angry.
“You say that to every girl you date. Why don’t you just pick somebody and hold on for a while?” she said to him, which he thought was a strange thing to say.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, confused.
“I know a lot of the girls you dated. They all said the same thing. Three dates max and you say you don’t want a relationship. We’ve only had two. I have another to persuade you to have more.” She said, pointing her finger in his chest.
“What the fuck? All of you have been keeping tabs on me? What fucked up shit is this? I have as many dates as I want and it’s not for you, or anybody else to decide who, and how long, I get to spend my time with. That’s just creepy. I’m outta here.” He said as he left her there in the bar. She lived just around the corner so he wasn’t concerned with her being there on her own. She’d probably picked up somebody else that night anyway.
“Jesus, Nick, you dumped another one? What happened this time? Too boring? Too talkative? Not good enough in the sack?”
“Ryan, that’s enough. I didn’t dump anyone. We weren’t in a relationship. We went on two dates, she was trying too hard and I ended it. Period.” He snapped. He didn’t sleep with her but he wasn’t about to admit that to Ryan. Not unless he asked. He wasn’t a liar.
Oh God, please don’t ask.
“Trying too hard? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means, that for only the second date, she was all over me and I was uncomfortable with it. There wasn’t anything between us and I wasn’t gonna sit there and let her drape herself all over me when I wasn’t interested.”