by Amy Muscat
“God, some people…” she doesn’t finish, just lets her sentence hang there. I smile, Bella in some way reminded me of Lottie, not in looks– but in her feistiness: she didn’t take any shit from people. “Hey, Blake.”
“Hey Bells, how're you?”
“Stressed and hung-over. Not a good combination. Not at all.” She groans, running a hand through her lilac-colored hair.
I wince. It's now that I notice the black bags, ones that she has tried to cover-up with make-up, under her puffy eyes.
“You have a good night, though?”
“Yeah, great night. I'd told myself to only have a couple ’cause, you know, I had work– but you know what it’s like; once you have a few, you’ve gotta drink the rest of the bottle of Jack.” Once again she groans, rubbing her temples.
I laugh, knowing exactly what she was talking about: I've done that before, more than average, never learning from my previous times of how bad I felt the following days.
“How was your night anyway? Have a good birthday drink?”
“Yeah, it was a good night until my ex turned up and ruined the whole thing,” I grunted.
“Oh no! Was Lottie there?” She asks, eyes wide. Bella had never met Lottie, but I spoke about her enough for her to feel like she knows her.
“Oh yeah… she was there all right, all Hell kicked off. She shouted at me, stormed off and to be totally honest with you; I really thought she was gonna break it off with me. But, thankfully, she didn’t; she just shouted at me. A lot.”
Bella looked a mixture between amused and sympathetic. “That sucks. But gotta say, I probably would’ve gone off the deep end too.” She shrugs.
“Yeah, she found something out that shouldn’t have come from someone else’s mouth apart from mine. So, yeah, I do agree: she had a right to blow up on me. But it’s all sorted now. Thank fuck.” I tell her relieved that Lottie and I are still very much together.
“That’s good, then.”
“Yeah,” I agree with her. “Well, I've gotta go, got a meeting– do you know if they're here yet?” Crap. I'd been standing here talking to Bella for about ten minutes now and I only had, I check my watch, five minutes before the meeting was supposed to start.
“No, no one has come here yet about a meeting, so you're all good.”
Phew. Thank fuck.
“Okay, good. Right, I'm gonna head up there before I am late,” I tell her rapping my knuckles on the stone surface of the reception desk.
She waves me off, and the phone rings as I walk away from her, hearing her say her normal greeting. “Good morning, James Security and CO, Bella speaking how may I help?”
I walk over to the elevator, waving and giving a few head nods to the people that pass by me. Once I'm in the cart, I press number three and wait until I reach the third floor, shuffling over when more people step into the cart along with me.
I hear the PING noise, indicating that I had reached floor three, and I rush out before the doors could shut.
I walk down the grey and blue hallway to the meeting room, where I find Mr. James waiting for me.
“Hey son,” Keller’s dad says as he reaches his hand out for me to shake; I do, giving him a firm shake.
“Moring Sir,” I say back and giving him a small smile.
“So, you ready for this meeting?”
“Yeah, I can't wait to start something new, Sir.”
“Son, have I not told you before to stop calling me Sir and Mr. James? I mean we see each other outside of work more times than we see each other in work,” he chuckles.
“I know, it’s just hard is all. I'll try,” I laugh along with him.
“Okay, let’s get in there and organize ourselves before they come.” He claps me on the back and walks into the room by my side. He sits down at the head of the long sixteen-seated table and waves a hand for me to sit at his right. I do and casually lean back into the high-winged back of the leather swivel chair.
I'm just pouring a glass of water from the silver carafe, which is placed in the middle of the table when there's a knock on the meeting room’s door. Craig, Mr. James’s personal assistant, and says, “Sir? Your twelve o’clock is here.”
“Okay, send them in Craig.”
Craig steps back and in walks in what looks to be three bodyguards. I raise my eyebrows, silently wondering who it could be…
What. The. Fuck.
In walks a man, I know all too well. A man with his dark blond hair, and his bright green eyes– hair and eyes that are the same as his daughters. A daughter that I used to date… A daughter that I had loved… A daughter that cheated on me fucked two men and broke my heart... A daughter who I had seen last night, and one who almost made Lottie and I split up… A daughter that walked into the room five seconds after her father.
No.
No, this could not be happening. I'm in the middle of having an illusion… or a mental breakdown. I must be.
I blinked, trying to come out of the dream world I'm obviously in. Nope, it didn’t work.
Fuck!
They walk around the long table and sit opposite where Mr. James and I were still sitting.
Lucy sits her ass down in the chair and says, “Hi Blake,” acting all coy. But I can see through her act, and I could see the beginning of her smug smile pulling at her pink-painted lips.
She knew! She fucking knew about today. That bitch. I now got why she was so smug last night. Her words from last night came rushing through my head. “I'll see you soon, Blake.” Before she walked off to join her friends, who had been standing just off to the side.
I stand up so fast that my chair flies back and hits the wall with a bang.
“Blake! What the heck?” Mr. James says in shock, standing up too, and laying a hand on my shoulder.
I look over and see that the bodyguards had all surrounded Lucy and Richard, her father, looking over at me warningly.
They could go fuck themselves.
“Blake…”
I ignore Keller's dad, my boss, and speak. “You. You fucking knew about this, didn’t you?” I direct the question at Lucy. “You fucking knew I was asked to be your bodyguard, didn’t you?!” I shouted when she still said nothing after a minute of silence.
“Yes.” She whispers, looking up at me with those green eyes of hers, which used to make me melt.
“You sneaky, conniving bit–” Richard interrupts me before I can say anymore.
“Blake!” He snaps sharply. “It was me that set this all up, so don’t take this out on Lucy.”
“I'm sorry, Richard, for this,” Mr. James says.
Richard waves him off, along with his steroid-pumped men. “Sit down, he isn’t gonna do anything, are you son?” He raises an eyebrow at me.
“Don’t call me fucking son; I am not you son.” I hiss at him.
He holds his hands up. “Okay, okay, I'm sorry. You know what I meant.”
“Can we all calm down and sit, and discuss this like adults, please? Perhaps someone could fill me in about all of this, too.” Mr. James says, ever the mediator.
I blow out a breath, turn and pull my chair back until it hits the backs of my knees and I sit back down, waiting for the others to join me, too.
“Okay, now would someone like to fill me in, please?”
“Blake and Lucy used to date back in college. They had a bad break-up.”
I choked on air. A bad break-up? A bad fucking break-up?
Once I get my breath back, I start laughing without humor. “A bad break-up? More like I walked in on her fucking two guys. If that is what you want to call a bad break-up, then yeah: we had a bad fucking break-up.” I reply sarcastically.
I watch as Lucy’s face goes bright red; tears fill her eyes, and shame coats her face.
Maybe I shouldn’t have said that like that– in a roomful of men, but fuck it. Fuck her. She almost ruined my life. She almost made me go to prison, ’cause I had gotten so drunk, all because of the hurt I felt from her deception
, that I didn’t care about her feelings anymore.
She had caused Lottie and me to have an argument last night. Caused her to doubt me, and our relationship– if only for a little while. Thankfully, she had come home with me and let me explain everything.
“Blake!”
“No, fuck that. I can't sit here and let you sugar-coat the shit that she put me through, I can't. I'm sorry, I know she’s your daughter, but I can't let you sit there and justify her wrongs.”
“I understand, and I'm sorry. I know Lucy is sorry about what happened. When I asked Rob if he knew anyone for the job, and he sent me over your credentials; I just knew that you would be the perfect person to protect my daughter in the following months. I didn’t tell Rob that there was history, but I did ask him not to tell you it was me that would be hiring you. I knew you would say no straight away. But I was hoping you would let me talk to you, and why I want– no need– why I need you to protect my daughter. So, please, hear me out.”
I didn’t want to protect his daughter. Didn’t want to protect and become my ex-cheating whore of a girlfriend. I didn’t say that to him, though, I would humor him, and let him say what he wanted to say. I blow out a frustrated breath and told him to go on.
“Will you guys leave the room, please? I would prefer to speak to Blake in private.” He directs the question to his guards. They all nod and start walking from the room, all except one. He's the one who has been standing vigilant; watching me like a hawk, a scowl on his face the whole time. I raise my left eyebrow at him, but he just continues standing there. “Kane…” Richard says in exasperation.
“Sir, I would prefer if I stayed in here with you. I don’t like him, and I certainly don’t trust him.”
Son of a bitch, I thought sneering.
“Okay...” Richard says, shrugging back apologetically to me. I couldn’t give a fuck.
“Let the douche stay, I don’t really care,” I say, waving my hand dismissively. Kane scowled harder, his face becoming hard-as-rock. I just flipped him the bird. He could go fuck himself.
“Okay. So the reason I want you to become Lucy’s guard is because the deal I'm about to make is going to cause an uproar. I don’t want my daughter unprotected– okay, she won't be unprotected. There will be untold amounts of guards around her, but I would be more at ease with someone I trust guarding her.”
“What deal are you about to make that would cause all this?” I ask curiously.
“I will be closing down the New York building, selling it, and moving it to China.”
“You're moving to China?” I ask shocked.
“No. I'm moving my company there. I've commissioned another office in Upper Manhattan, so I will oversee everything there, but the products will be made in China.”
“Okay, so what’s the big deal? Why would Lucy need more people guarding her?”
“Son– Blake.” He amends at my glare. He had no right calling me son anymore, I already had a dad: I didn’t need two. “Ten thousand people are going to be out of a job…”
“And they're gonna be angry about it.” I finish his sentence.
“Yes.”
Shit.
I understood all the close protection, now. There was going to be thousands of pissed off people on a rampage, angry that they had lost their jobs. There were some fucked-up people out in this world, and it wouldn’t surprise me if one or more came for their ex-bosses daughter. This sort of shit is known to happen; people become so enraged that they plan and plot to kidnap said boss, or someone extremely close to them. Use those people for ransom, sometimes killing the kidnapped and nine times out of ten, getting themselves killed.
“How long are you giving the people employed at your company to find another job? Have you or are you gonna be asking any of those people to move and work in the Chinese office?” I ask him. As far as I know, you have to give at least a months’ notice; so they can deal with things, tie up loose ends, and if need be: find another job.
“When the deal goes through next week, everyone will be getting two months’ notice. I think that’s fair. And yes, I will be offering two thousand of them a job and place over in China. I can't do more than that, but the rest will be getting a redundancy payment. There's nothing else I can do, Blake, it’s too costly in America. I had to look for an alternative, and I found one; the downside was that it was in China. I couldn’t say no.” He actually looks apologetic about what he was about to do.
Richard Thomas was always a nice man, a great dad. He'd always been nice to me, welcoming me with open arms, until his daughter went ahead and cheated on me. Then I had had no contact with either one of them. Couldn’t even bear to think about her, thus making me cut all contact and ties with her family.
But… I don’t think I could take the job protecting Lucy.
“Richard…” I hesitate. I didn’t know how to tell him that I couldn’t take the job and protect his daughter when I fucking hated the woman.
He held up a large hand and said, “Wait before you say anything, please just listen to me. Please?” He pleads.
I give him a slight nod. I'd listen to him and what he had to say, but it was highly doubtful that he would change my mind.
“Firstly, the pay would be great; I will pay you handsomely to protect my daughter–” I cut him off before he could say anymore.
“I have money, you know that, so money isn’t going to persuade me, Mr. Thomas.”
“I know you have money, Blake, but you don’t know how much I'm offering.”
“Enlighten me then,” I say, already bored of the subject. Money wasn’t a thing I required, I had loads of it. It didn’t bother me so much that everything revolved around it. I highly doubted he could say an amount that would sway me…
I watched as he wrote on a piece of paper and slid it across the table to me. Curious, I unfolded the paper and felt my eyebrows rise.
Was he serious?
“Are you for real?”
Mistaking my question, he quickly fumbles and desperately says, “I can offer you more, that’s fine.”
Waving my hand dismissively again, I say to him, “No Richard, I didn’t mean that I would want more– that is a lot of money. I was just shocked at the amount, that’s all.”
“Oh. Okay so, secondly; I know Lucy isn’t top of your favorite people list, but I'm hoping you still like me, and you would do me this huge favor and do this for me.”
“No she is not on my favorite person list– she isn’t on any list of mine, well maybe the hate list.” I shrug over to him, not sorry, but considering she is his daughter I don’t think he’d really want to hear that. “Yes I do still like you, but that won't sway me and my answer, Richard, I'm sorry.”
“Blake, please.”
“Why can he not do it?” I ask pointing to Kane.
“Kane’s wife is having a baby and he had booked the time off when they first found out they were expecting. I won't go back on my word, it will only be for six weeks– two months tops.”
Oh. He was the one leaving on maternity leave.
Goddamnit.
“I'm sorry, Richard, I just don’t think I can do it. But I do know someone who can.”
“Who?” Rob asks me.
“Jayden.”
“Jayden can't do it, he was contracted the other day to do another job; and I can't get him out of the job. I'm sorry, Blake. Are you sure you don’t want to do this? I understand if you really can't, I didn’t know you and Richard had a history, maybe I should have told you who it was from the start and none of this would have happened.” The apology is shining in his eyes, as he whispers to me.
I didn’t blame him, he didn’t know. “No sir, it’s fine, you didn’t know. I didn’t ask you for the client’s name, so it is fine. I just don’t think I can do it. After what she did to me… I don’t think I can bear to be around her.”
“Okay, it’s fine; I'll just have to find someone else. If I can't do that, then I'll just have to tell Richard he’l
l have to go somewhere else.” He tells me laying a soothing hand upon my shoulder.
I nod my okay and relax back into my seat. I look over and see Lucy sitting there, her eyes on me, along with her dads, her eyes sad and his pleading.
“I'm sorry Richard, I won't be accepting the job. I hope everything goes well with the company, and I wish you well. I’m gonna go now.” I say standing up and reaching a hand out to shake my ex-father-in-laws hand.
He grasps my hand in a firm shake. “Will you just think about it, please? I'll give you a couple of days. Go home and have a think about it, yeah?” He asks this sincerely, but there's a certain sureness in his eyes that makes me think that he thinks I'll take the job.
Yeah okay, that’s not going to happen, but I'll let him think that until I can find someone who can.
Sighing, I tell him fine, and turn and shake my Mr. James’s hand, nod at Kane, and walk out of the room, not even glancing in Lucy’s direction.
I walk out and spot the guards standing vigilant just outside the door. “I think you can go back in there now,” I tell them as I walk past, striding to my office.
“Blake!” A voice calls out.
I ignore Lucy’s call of my name and slam my office door behind me, so hard that the frosted glass rattles behind me.
I've just sat at my desk, my head in my hands, when the door opens and in strides Lucy. I don’t want her here. Don’t want to deal with her. I don’t want to even breathe the same fucking air she does. To me, she is the lowest scum of earth– okay, not the lowest; there was murderers, rapists, and terrorists out there who was obviously much worse than her. But she was the one person I hated most in life.
“Fuck off, Lucy,” I demand, without looking up at her.
When I hear no movement, I look up and see her standing with her back against the door, blocking the middle of the glass, tears in her eyes and her teeth chewing her bottom lip.
“Blake…” She says quietly.
“No. The shit you caused last night was a fucking joke. How dare you bring that up? How dare you say that shit to Lottie? Do you know what you caused?” I fumed at her. I could feel my face become hot and I felt myself sneer at her.