by Dawn Doyle
Luckily, Joel came back with the crêpes.
“Mmmmm.” Emily moaned, closing her eyes as she put a fork full in her mouth.
Nick’s pants instantly tightened, listening to her enjoying her food.
“These are so nice!” She said after she swallowed. “They don’t even taste like egg.”
“They are a customer favorite.” Smiled Edna and winked at Nick.
My own personal favorite.
“I can see why.” She replied.
Emily continued to eat and Nick tried to watch her as he ate his own.
He paused, his fork in the air when he saw Emily’s tongue dart out to lick chocolate off her bottom lip.
Joel cleared his throat and gently nudged his elbow, bringing him back to earth.
Emily turned to him and he put his fork in his mouth.
Thanks Joel. That was close.
Emily had almost caught him gawking at her mouth.
“So how’s business going?” Joel asked, suppressing a grin.
“Busy.” He replied, wiping the corners of his mouth with his napkin. “A few new investment proposals came our way over the past few weeks.”
“How about you Emily?”
“Huh?” She replied as if she hadn’t been paying attention.
Nick saw that her cheeks were slightly flushed.
“How is it? Working for Nick, here.”
“Um…” Emily’s eyes darted to Nick and then Edna. “Fine.”
“Just fine?” Edna smiled.
“It’s eventful.” Emily didn’t give anything away and Nick was happy about that. He really didn’t want them knowing he’d been a dick to her.
“Is he a good boss?” Joel asked and Nick wished he hadn’t. He was anxious with what Emily would say.
“He has his moments.” She smiled.
“Hey, I’m a great boss.” He said, trying to turn the conversation into a joke. “Have I ever complained about your work?”
“Have you ever needed to?” Emily stared right in to his eyes, waiting for him to answer. She obviously didn’t like what he’d said.
“No.” He had no problems with Emily whatsoever.
Only the fact that I see her there and I can’t touch her like I want to. Kiss her like I want to…
“Well then.” She licked her lips and his eyes followed the movement of her tongue.
“So, how long are you staying?” Edna asked, breaking the tension.
“Just the day. We’re going to see Johnny and Ray before making another stop. We’re flying back tonight.”
“That’s a shame.” Edna and Joel said in unison. “We would’ve loved to have chatted some more with you, Emily.” Edna said with a warm smile for her. Nick could tell that she liked Emily very much.
“Well we should get going.” Nick said as he stood, holding Emily’s chair as she raised from her seat.
Edna and Joel hugged them both, and they said their goodbyes before they left.
“They’re really nice.” Emily said as he opened the car door for her.
Nick came round and got into the drivers side.
“They are. They’re one of the sweetest couples I know.”
“It’s nice what you did for them. Edna told me that you approached them when you saw their café was failing.”
“They made great coffee. What was I supposed to do?” he said with a shrug.
He felt uncomfortable receiving praise for doing what he loved to do. He didn’t do it for that.
“Of course. You did it for the coffee.” She said sarcastically. “I saw how they looked at you. Like you were their guardian angel.”
“I’ve known them for a while. They’re good people.”
Emily narrowed her eyes at him, as if there was something she was trying to figure out but she remained silent.
They drove the short journey to Downtown LA and Nick parked outside a building that had construction works going on.
“This is it.”
Getting out of the car, Nick went to help Emily again.
“You don’t need to do that.” She said.
“I know. But I do it anyway. ‘Cos I’m good like tha’” he said mimicking her accent from when he’d asked about her spotting mistakes.
“You’re getting better.”
“Hey Nick!” Johnny said as he walked out with Ray.
They both wore hard hats and overalls.
Johnny was the taller of the two, and they both had short, blonde hair and brown eyes.
“Hey guys. How are things progressing?”
“Amazingly well.” Ray said, his eyes fixed on Emily.
Nick wanted to stand in front of her to hide her from his gaze.
“Guys, this is Emily. Emmy… Johnny and Ray.”
The guys looked at each other and then back to Emily, before smirking at Nick.
“It’s nice to meet you.” Emily said, shaking their hands.
“Likewise” they chorused.
Turning to go into the building, Nick picked up two hard hats.
“You need to wear this.” He raised his arms and placed the hat on her head, noticing that she held her breath when he did.
He put his own hat on and then they walked together as Johnny and Ray gave them a tour of what was happening with the construction.
*****
“Why did they give you a funny look?” Emily whispered beside him.
She hadn’t missed that at all and wondered if Nick had been talking about her to them.
“I told them that if they hit on you, I would hurt them.” He shrugged like it was nothing.
That shocked Emily. She thought he may have said something like ‘my assistant is a pain in the ass’ or similar. Maybe he’d said it because he didn’t want them getting to close to his business by trying it on with her. Not that they had a chance.
Deciding to test him, she made a comment about one of the guys.
“That’s a pity. That Ray guy is kinda cute.”
Nick paused and the expression on is face showed that he wasn’t happy about what she’d said.
“I’m only messin’!” She assured him. “I didn’t realise you felt that way about him.” She tried to keep a straight face, and failed.
Nick raised an eyebrow. He knew she was kidding.
“Come on, let’s see how amazingly well this thing is going.”
Nick’s Dad’s company were doing the works on the building, and so far, they’d transformed an empty brick building into the beginnings of, what looked to be, a really nice club.
“We’re keeping the brick wall behind the bars.” Nick said as she looked around. The other walls will be rendered white when the electrics are completed.”
The bar was a huge rectangular shape. Black tops with white counters. The wires hanging down every couple of feet showed that there would be down-lights under the edges of the tops.
There was a raised platform at the back-centre of the space that looked to be a stage for acts and also a DJ booth.
“Up there is going to be a huge screen and there’ll be smaller ones around the sides.” Nick continued. “The floor is gong to be completely wooden. No specific dance floor.”
Nick placed his hand on Emily’s back and guided her to a large separate area that looked like it was going to be shut off from the rest of the club.
“There are going to be lots of sofas and tables around the club, but this one is a separate room. What do you think it should be?” he asked.
“Um… what is it supposed to be?” Emily didn’t really understand what he was asking.
“Well it wasn’t in the original plans, but the guys suggested a women’s only room so they wouldn’t get harassed by guys hitting on them.”
“That’s sexist. What about the men not wanting to get hit on by women?”
“That’s what I said.”
“It could be a private party room, with its own bar, staff, and door security.”
“That’s what I said.” He smiled.
“Oh. So who won?”
Nick’s smile got even bigger. Of course he won.
Looking around the huge place, Emily could see that it was going to look phenomenal when it was complete. Obviously it would. It had the Lake family dealing with it.
“One more stop before we have to head back.” Nick opened the car door for Emily, again, before getting in and headed towards Culver City.
“Where are we going?” she asked. He didn’t have any clubs in the area so Emily didn’t know where they were headed.
“I want you to meet someone.”
Uh oh. He wants to meet someone. ‘Oh Emily, meet such-and-such, my girlfriend, fiancée, wife’.
Thinking about it, she knew it couldn’t be that. He was away for far too long to have a fiancée or wife. Maybe a long distance relationship with somebody.
“Hey, don’t look so worried. It’ll be fine, I promise.” He smiled and Emily relaxed a little.
He couldn’t have known what she was worried about, but he’d still noticed that she was.
“I’m not worried.” She lied.
“Whatever you say.” He smirked.
Emily rolled her eyes before looking out the window to take in the scenery around her.
Nick pulled up to a small, red brick building.
There was no name on it except for a gold colour plaque near the front door.
He opened her door and he led her to the entrance.
“What’s this?” she asked as he held open the door for her.
Nick didn’t answer as they stepped inside, where a young man, who looked to be the same age as Emily, sat behind a desk. The large monitor of his computer almost hiding him from view.
“Hello Nick. How are you.” He said, peering around the screen. His brown hair carefully sculpted and held in place.
“Hi Tyler. I’m good thanks. You?”
“I’m great, thank you! You can go right in.”
Nick led Emily to the set of double doors to the left. Opening, they went inside.
The room was bright with large windows to the right of the doors, which were next to a wall of shelves that were jam-packed with books of all shapes and sizes.
In the centre of the wooden floor sat two black sofas, facing each other, on top of a cream coloured rug.
“Good afternoon Nick.” A male voice came from behind a large potted plant.
He stepped out, holding a watering jug, and placed it on the table next to him. He looked to be in his sixties, short grey hair and round glasses. His grey suit and white shirt looked expensive and Emily realised where they were.
They were at the therapists’ office.
“Hi Doc. Emmy, this is my therapist, Doctor Wilkinson. Doc, this is Emily.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you, Emily. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Emily’s eyes snapped to Nick’s.
“Oh it’s all good things, I assure you.” The Doctor chuckled. “Please, take a seat.”
Nick sat next to Emily, right next to her, and she felt uncomfortable with the tremors running through her whilst a therapist, who could probably tell what was happening, sat opposite.
“So, Emily. You’re Nick’s assistant. How are you finding working with him?”
“Um… It’s fine… I guess.” She didn’t know what to say. He was Nick’s therapist but he was asking her questions.
“I notice by your accent that you’re not American.”
Oh dear God.
“No. I’m from Liverpool.”
The Doctor just nodded his head.
“You worked for another company before. How was that?”
Emily swallowed. She felt anger rising from the floor and seeping through her skin; Working its way up through her legs.
“Crap.”
“Would you like to talk about it?”
The anger was nipping at her stomach. Telling her to say something. Something bad to keep the Doctor from sticking his nose in. She didn’t want to cause a problem for Nick. He’d taken her there to show her where he went and he was trusting her with his secret so she held the anger back.
“Emmy, you don’t have to answer. Doc, what are you doing? I didn’t bring Emmy here for you to question her.”
Nick’s voice had risen, in defence of her. He didn’t like it either.
He should know. He should know what that prick did to me.
She decided it was time to come clean. To get it all out once and for all.
“Nick, it’s ok. I’ll answer. What do you want to know?” She asked the Doctor.
“Well, I understand that you had some problems with an ex boyfriend who tried to do business with Nick. Did that have anything to do with your last job?”
“It did. It had a lot to do with my job.”
“Fuck.” Nick whispered. She knew he’d discussed her with his Doctor. Obviously Nick hadn’t seen the Doctor yet to tell him Jeff was the problem.
“Nick told me about a meeting in a restaurant and at a birthday party. He was concerned for you.”
Nick rested his head back with his hands over his face. He was uncomfortable too.
“Talking about it can help.”
The Doctor sat there with a smile on his face and the way Emily was feeling, she wanted to slap it off.
Here goes.
She took a deep breath.
“Ok then… I was eighteen and I’d had just started university, studying for a business degree.
I wanted to become an investor. To help companies improve or progress. Even to start out. Just like Nick’s business.
My real Dad was knocked down and killed when I was fourteen and with the money he left for me, together with my savings account my parents had opened, I could afford to pay off the entire tuition costs for the whole five years. I easily had enough left to start off small but I needed to complete my studying first.
Anyway, after the first month of the course, the professor told us that getting a work placement or even a job of a corporate nature, would help with our studies.
So, I sent out a few letters asking for placements or a part time job.
I got a placement with a company as an undergrad.
At first, I found it easy because I was only there a couple of hours a day, sorting through paperwork. The business looked like it was in trouble and I made sure to do all that I could to help it. I started to stay for longer. Collecting documents, different invoices and other receipts. It took a couple of weeks but I had the bookkeeping system all organised and up to date.
It wasn’t too difficult because I’d already covered most of what I’d done in my coursework.
The business owner, Jeff, took me to one side and asked me if he could take me to dinner to thank me for all my hard work. I said no.”
Nick stiffened beside Emily. He’d obviously remembered he’d asked her the same thing. Emily turned and smiled weakly, letting him know she understood.
“A couple more weeks went by, and I was given more and more tasks to do. After two months, I had reorganised the accounts and also cleared a backlog of un-submitted invoices. By the end of the third month, I was given my first job of setting up a new business. Jeff had bought a business that had wanted to sell up. I asked if he would consider just investing instead, so that they could keep their business. He told me that he’d already offered that and they wanted out. So he bought it. I used everything I’d learned from school, and Uni, and I got the business back up and running within three months. I had no idea about running hair salons so I’d spent every spare minute researching. In the end, it was a success. The salon was fully booked and it was looking good.
Then he put it up for sale.
I asked him why and he said that’s what he did. Bought them, improved them, sold them on for a profit. He said it was like buying a house to develop, to then sell it on.
It made a lot of sense, even though it’s not what I would have done, but it wasn’t my business so it had nothing to do with me.
The business sold after a month on the market and he made a lot of profit on it. He asked if he could take me out again. Proud of myself for what I’d achieved, I agreed.
Next thing I know, I’m given more businesses to set up. He was buying up places I wasn’t even sure were up for sale. Somehow though, he produced the deeds saying they were his. I was really busy, working on a few projects at once.
I’d been there for sixteen months, when he took me to one side, and told me that we made a great team and he offered me a promotion. I would be running his company with him and I would be the one to make all the decisions for improvements and he would just source out the businesses.
It still wasn’t what I would have preferred but he assured me that what he was doing was good. The businesses were successful meaning more people had jobs instead of an empty space where the business used to be.
Stupidly, I agreed.
I thought that I was actually helping people. I was happy thinking that, by working my arse off, I was helping to create more jobs.
The following month, Jeff was on the phone in his office. He was talking like he was in trouble.
I asked him what was wrong and he said he needed more money for his company. Now, I didn’t understand why he didn’t have any. The businesses he’d sold had turned over almost half a million pounds in profit.”
“That’s lot of money in such a short space of time.” The Doctor said. “I take it that was all your doing?”
“Of course it was!” Nick said, his voice cold as ice.
“Please, continue.” The Doctor urged.
“Ok, so I asked him what he needed money for. He said that he’d needed to pay off a lot of back payments. I knew he’d had a few, but as I had organised the accounts, I knew they were already paid. I asked him what back payments they were. He told me that he needed to pay off old debts from an older company so that meant he didn’t have much money to ‘develop’ anything. I should’ve seen it coming.” She snorted, shaking her head. She’d been so young and naïve.