by Dawn Doyle
Jeff never did. He would’ve just sat back and watched the whole thing, laughing.
The only other person ever, to really freak out was Holly. Her Mum and Dad, and her real Dad James, always protected her but Holly was like a Tasmanian devil when she lost it. She’d had to stop her from going after him and tearing him a new one.
The whore who took her found that out. When Holly had found an opening to fight back, she’d broken the girl’s arm, cheekbone and fractured her jaw. And all she came away with was a bruised hand and wrist. She was a tough kid.
But she wasn’t a kid anymore. She was engaged to be married and going to college in a couple of months.
Holly would always be ‘baby girl’ to her and her family though.
That would never change.
Emily felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and a shiver down her spine just before Nick opened his office door.
God, it’s getting worse!
“Emmy, can I talk to you for a sec?” He asked gently, looking towards Diane.
Emily understood that he didn’t want Diane to overhear them, so she rose from her seat and walked into his office.
Nick sat on the sofa, but Emily stayed by the door. It was safer that way, to be as far away as possible so she wouldn’t be able to smell him.
She was kidding herself because the whole office smelled like him and him sitting there, and the clean fresh smell, were doing strange things to her parts.
She stayed by the door anyway.
Glancing towards his desk, she saw his glasses and her thoughts immediately turned to earlier when she’d walked in with him wearing them.
Holy shit, he looks so sexy with his eyes framed like that!
Emily had been rendered speechless for a moment and cringed when she even forgot the name of the guy that they were meeting. Little did she know, or Nick, that it was the tosser who’d bothered her since the airport in New York.
“Emmy…?” Nick asked, bringing her back to the present.
“Huh?”
“Are you ok? You seem a little distracted.” He looked concerned and Emily swallowed. Her heart rate increased further and she could feel her palm clamming up.
“I’m ok. Just a lot on my mind.”
“Anything I can help with?”
“No. It’s nothing really. Just getting used to my new surroundings, that’s all.”
Why did I say that?!
“Really?” He didn’t seem convinced.
“Yeah.” She shrugged.
“Oh. I thought, maybe, it was because of what I told you this morning. Or how that meeting went.”
“No. It has nothing to do with what you told me, or what he said. I need to get back to work though.” She opened the door and left before Nick could say anything more to her.
It was obvious that she was acting differently. Admitting her feelings, even just to herself, had just made things worse. When she was confused and angry with him for making her feel things, she could cope by bickering with him. He hadn’t said anything to set her off, except that morning, and that was the problem. She couldn’t just take off on him for nothing. He would know her mood was because of him, in a different way, because he’d been sweet to her and she’d have no reason to have a go at him.
Sweet! Just do something arsey!
Emily sat at her desk and dropped her head into her hands to calm her nerves. She took a deep breath before getting back to work.
There were more financial reports to go over and contracts to have signed and sent to her Dad’s firm.
Emily left the office before Nick had and she was relieved. If she had gotten in the lift with him, in that small space, she would have had a coronary.
“Happy furniture hunting, Sweetie.” Diane hugged Emily as they exited the building. “If you need with help with anything, let me know.”
“Thanks Di.”
Emily got in her Mum’s car and drove home. She really hoped Holly and Alex were behaving when she got back because she wasn’t in any mood to hear them getting it on… again.
When she got there, Emily noticed Alex’s car wasn’t in the driveway and neither was her Dad’s. Well, he would be at work but she guessed the pair had gone out somewhere.
Instead of going to her room, Emily went out back.
Holly had fully landscaped the garden. She took after their real Dad, James for that. He’d been a professional landscape gardener before he was killed, and Holly shared his gift.
It was beautiful.
The garden had really flourished since they’d moved in. Even after the psycho had ruined it, Holly’s friends had all come together to help her put it back together. Now the plants and flowers had fully grown and the different scents were breathtaking.
Holly had built an arched pathway, lined with climbing plants and twinkling lights. It had grown so much that the bench at the end, under the large trees, was completely hidden.
Emily had seen Holly and Alex coming out of there a few times looking like they’d been up to no good.
On the right was a covered seating area with a round table and chairs. The saplings had grown a lot but still a long way off from being fully grown. They were the trees that Nick had planted for her.
That was sweet. Really sweet.
He didn’t have to take time out from his busy schedule to help but he did anyway.
Emily’s chest ached and she unconsciously rubbed it.
In the centre was the memorial rockery for their Dad.
Emily had buried his ashes inside and planted daffodils and tulips that he’d pollinated himself. Holly had explained that it took years to get them from seed to flowering plant.
Now that it was summer, those plants had gone, the bulbs still in the ground for the spring, and Holly had replaced them with white oriental lilies.
Emily’s favourite.
Walking over to the rockery, Emily sat down inhaling the scent of the flowers.
“Hiya Dad. I miss you.” She took a deep breath. “I could really use some advice now, Dad. I don’t have anybody to talk to.”
Emily stayed for a while and talked to her Dad.
“Hey my baby.” Kim, her Mum called form the doorway.
Emily turned and saw that her Mum was walking out, holding two cups.
“I made you a brew, love. I thought you’d need it seeing as you’re out here.”
“Thanks, Mum. The way I’m feeling I think I need it lacing with something stronger.”
“That bad?”
Emily nodded.
“Want to talk about it?”
“Not really. It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it with you.” She assured her Mum. “It’s just that, I’ve been having a hard time lately with…things, and I’m trying to get my head round it myself.”
“That’s ok, love. I’m sure everything will be fine though. Holly told me about little Cora’s party. Does it have anything to do with that?”
Of course Holly would have told their Mum. She wanted to castrate Jeff when she found out what he’d done.
“No. It’s nothing to do with that.”
“Ok, well, if you want to talk at any time. You know I’m here, right?”
“Yeah. Thanks Mum.”
Getting up to go inside, Emily decided it was time to go furniture hunting.
Sitting down at the dining room table, she got out her Macbook and got to work.
Chapter 11
After ordering everything she needed for the time being, Emily called Patty to make sure that she could pick up her keys that day, after work.
If everything went to plan, she would be able to move in, in the next two days, providing her furniture arrived.
Even if she just had her bedroom furniture she could go. It wasn’t like she was going to be inviting anybody over for a little while anyway.
She’d already spent the last night packing her things into boxes. It was all ready to go and her Mum and Dad were going to help bring her things over but u
sing a moving van for her bedroom furniture. It was going that day, so she would be staying in the spare room until her other furniture arrived.
Emily was really excited.
Until she walked into the lobby at work.
Nick had gotten there before her and he was speaking to Louise. Well, Louise was speaking to him and by the looks of things, Nick wasn’t happy about it. He kept his head forward as she had hers turned fully in his direction, a wide smile on her face and standing so tall she could take someone’s eye out with her boobs.
Nick looked round, just in time to make eye contact with Emily just as she was beginning to look away.
‘Help’ he mouthed to her, so Louise wouldn’t see. Emily smiled and shook her head.
Nick’s eyes widened and the expression on his face said ‘what the fuck?!’
Even though it was pretty clear that Louise was being over friendly with her boss and Emily didn’t like it, she knew Nick wasn’t reciprocating the attention and was clearly uncomfortable.
Something else to focus on. Well, for a few minutes at least.
Smiling, she continued walking towards the security door that led to the lifts. Nick and Louise got there first and Emily held back so that the door would close entirely before she got there, giving Nick a few more moments of awkwardness with Louise.
Swiping her card, she went through and found that he was holding the lift doors open for her. Walking in she smiled as Louise was still talking to him.
Nick was not happy.
“So, this weekend, Gabby’s holding an engagement party for her brother and his fiancée over on Mercer Island…”
Oh my God, she’s going to ask him to be her date!
Emily wanted to laugh and hit her at the same time. She couldn’t wait to hear what Nick would say, even though she was actually nervous that he would accept.
“That reminds me, I have a few meetings in Portland that weekend. Thank you for bringing that up Louise. I would have completely forgotten.”
Louise looked speechless because she’d just been cut short from her build up to asking him out.
“Oh… um… you’re welcome.” She stuttered.
The lift doors opened up on the tenth floor and Louise got out fast.
“I don’t remember any meetings scheduled in Portland.” Emily said innocently as the doors closed.
“There aren’t. Why didn’t you help me?” He asked with a scowl.
“Because I was having too much fun watching you deal with her.”
“That wasn’t funny Emmy.”
“That depends on where you’re standing.” She giggled.
Nick took the two steps separating them and stood up close to her. Her heart hammered but she didn’t want him to see that he affected her that way.
“I’m standing right here. Is it still funny?” His tone lowered and rumbled through Emily’s body like an earthquake. She kept her composure and looked him right in the eye.
“Hilarious.”
Nick’s pupils were dilated as he looked into her eyes. He glanced at her mouth before the doors opened onto their floor. Emily turned quickly away and walked to her desk, Nick not too far behind her.
“What was that about?” Diane asked when Nick closed his door.
“Oh, Nothing. Louise was trying to ask Nick out and I wouldn’t help him. He’s pissed that I thought it was funny.”
“Five dollars, Missy.”
“Shit, oh I mean damn.”
“Ten dollars, now pay up. You’ve been here less than a minute young lady.”
“I know, I know. I’ll try harder.” She complained.
“Well, and just to add my two cents worth, Nick didn’t look annoyed.”
“What was it then?”
“Let’s put it this way, I’ve seen that boy grumpy and he was not grumpy at all.”
Diane wasn’t making any sense and Emily just shook her head and booted up her iMac. She’d been in work for two minutes, she was down ten dollars and already had a headache forming. She had a feeling that the rest of the day wasn’t going to get any better.
*****
Nick took deep breaths to calm himself. He didn’t know what happened in the elevator with Emily.
All he knew was that when he was close to her, he would almost lose his ability to control himself. He knew it wouldn’t be long before he acted upon his feelings. He was trying hard not to, because he didn’t fancy getting kicked in the balls any time soon, but he couldn’t help it.
Emily had come into his life and changed it. He started to feel like himself again. Even his nightmares had become less frequent.
The night before had been no different.
The dream started off the same, looking for Ryan and then being led upstairs. The newest additions were when he could hear Emily calling for him and he would cry out for her to help him. In real life, that never happened.
Nobody helped him.
Nobody knew he was there.
In his recent dreams, Emily couldn’t find him, but last night… she had.
She found him and held him tight, telling him everything was going to be ok.
For the first time, in almost a year and a half, he hadn’t woken up in a sweat afterwards. This time, he woke up relieved.
Because of Emily.
He hadn’t meant to stand so close to her in the elevator but he needed to.
After she’d hugged him, he longed to feel her in his arms again.
When he looked in her eyes, and then to her lips, in a split second he would have kissed her, if the elevator doors hadn’t opened.
Luckily they had, otherwise Diane would have been greeted to him flying out of the elevator instead of stepping.
What had confused him though, was the look on Emily’s face when they both knew what Louise was doing. She sounded like she was going to ask him to be her date to her friend’s brothers engagement party. Emily didn’t look happy about it, but maybe because of what she’d heard Louise and some other staff members saying about him a couple of weeks ago.
It didn’t make any sense.
The phone ringing broke his thoughts.
“Hey big brother!” Ryan chirped on the other end.
“Hey Ry, what’s up?”
“Nothing. Just letting you know that Riss and I are having a housewarming party on Friday. Just us and the others though. Mom and Dad will come round during the day, with Riss’ parents. Emily moves in, in a couple of days too.”
“What? Emily’s got an apartment?” He didn’t know she’d found a place, let alone secured it.
“Yeah, and you’ll never guess where!” Ryan sounded excited to tell him.
“I don’t know. I didn’t know she was still looking.”
“Well, she was and… she’s our neighbor!” he laughed.
“What?!!”
“Yep. She’s in two-oh-five. Right next door!”
Why didn’t she tell me?
“How did you find out?”
“It’s funny really, she hasn’t actually told us. I’m guessing Holly knows, and Alex, but they didn’t say anything either…”
“Ryan, you’re rambling.” Nick was getting impatient.
“Oh, shit yeah, um… Patty said that a nice girl from the UK was moving in next door. I asked her where and she said Liverpool. Now, I know Holly and Alex aren’t moving in, so I asked if it was Emily. She said it was!”
Nick wondered if it was because of him that she hadn’t told anybody. Well, he would have found out soon enough but to keep it quiet, it was weird.
“Oh Ok.” He tried to sound indifferent as much as he could. If Ryan had been in his office at the time, he would’ve seen right through his bullshit.
“So, we’re gonna try and get her to come to the party too. With the two of you together, it’ll be fun!”
“Don’t be starting anything Ryan. I mean it.”
“You really think I need to start anything? You two in the same room for more than five minutes… we can jus
t sit back and watch the show.”
“Hey! We’ve been in the same room for longer than that and nothing happened.” Nick was getting annoyed at Ryan. He and Emily weren’t always bickering. Ok, so Ryan heard that they had, and they kind of did, but not all the time. No, most of the time they stayed away from each other.
“Ok, so you were both at Cora’s party for about an hour before things really got exciting.”
“She also helped with the Rochelle mess.”
“Ahh yes. She did. But, if I remember the story, she laughed her ass off at you and then ignored you almost the whole journey to work. That’s true love right there.” Ryan joked.
True love. Ha! It’s a fucking joke.
Emily didn’t return the feelings for him that he felt for her. If she did, wouldn’t he see that? Other women made it perfectly clear when they were interested; Emily did her best to push him away.
Nick rubbed his arm that was itching like crazy. The tattoo, that he’d had done in Vegas, was now complete and starting to scab over.
He didn’t know why he’d suddenly decided to do it. It was a spur of the moment thing and when he’d explained to the artist how he wanted it to look, he hadn’t expected how it had turned out.
It was perfect.
The only thing now, was keeping it hidden from Ryan and the others. One look and it would be obvious.
“Well, I need to get back to work. I’ll be there on Friday.”
Nick ended the call with Ryan and saw that he had a few emails from some of the businesses he’d invested in. He replied to them and got on with the rest of his work, which that day, was dealing with things from his personal businesses.