“Then this morning, I got up early and went into the university to see my old lecturer to see if he could give me any names for my potential new employee.”
“Did he have any ideas?”
“Yes, he gave me a number for a guy who graduated last year called Jackson Parker. He said he was just what I needed, and from what he can remember of me, our styles would compliment each other well. Apparently, he’s been doing bar work whilst looking for a design job.”
“So, have you spoken to him?”
“Oh yeah, sorry. I rang him as soon as I left campus. I’m meeting him at Cocoa’s in the morning. “
“That’s great. I hope he’s as good as your lecturer has made him out to be.”
“Yeah, you and me both. It could take ages to find the right person otherwise.”
I watch as Molly nervously shifts in her seat. Looking at me then back down again, like she is building up to saying something.
“Spit it out, Molls!” I can’t cope watching her struggle any more.
“I’vegotadateonfridaynight,” she says at such a speed it takes me a few seconds to decipher what she just said.
“You’ve got a date on Friday night?” I hope to God that the look on my face right now doesn’t reflect the disappointment I feel inside at hearing this news.
“Yeah, Megan has set me up with one of James’ work mates. His name is Adam and he is taking me to that new Italian in town. According to Megan, we’ll get on like a house on fire, but we’ll see.”
“That’s good, Molly. You need to try to find your Prince Charming.”
Molly chats away to me some more after that little announcement, but I don’t hear any of what she says. I just keep replaying what she said in my head. “I’vegotadateonfridaynight,” “I’vegotadateonfridaynight,” “I’vegotadateonfridaynight,” Shit, fuck, bollocks. Why couldn’t she have told me this before I decided I wanted her?
After we tidied the dishes away from dinner, I told Molly my headache was coming back and excused myself to my room. My head was all over the place, and I needed to be by myself with my thoughts.
Molly
I’ve just watched Ryan walk out of the kitchen after I’m pretty sure he lied about having a headache.
“Shit,” I whisper to myself.
Breaking my news to him about having a date really couldn’t have gone any worse. I watched his face drop as my words settled in his head. He looked like a little kid who had just had his new puppy taken away from him. I feel awful. I didn’t want to hurt him. I’d convinced myself that he would agree with me about not doing anything to ruin our relationship, but the look on his face has me thinking that wasn’t what he wanted at all.
After going through everything I want to talk to Jackson about in the morning, I head to bed, although sleep eludes me for hours. All I can see every time I close my eyes is the look on Ryan’s face. I don’t want to be the one who puts it there.
It feels like I have only been asleep for two hours when my alarm clock goes off. “Noooo…” I grumble as I lean over and hit the top of it to shut it up. I sit up and wipe the sleep from my eyes before I realise why I’m up so early. I’m meeting my possible first employee. The thought of this gives my body the boost it needs to get up and dressed.
It’s nine o’clock and I’m at in our booth at Cocoa’s, waiting for Jackson to arrive. I gave him a brief description of myself on the phone yesterday so he should find me when he arrives.
After a few more minutes, someone approaches me.
“Molly Carter?” he asks.
I look up and am almost stuck for words. The guy stood before me is stunning. The first thing I notice are his eyes; they are bright green. His hair is the colour of dark chocolate and hanging long and shaggy around his face. I think it’s probably long enough to tie up. He has strong cheekbones and a square cut jaw. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to work with someone that good-looking. I pull myself together so I can answer.
“Yes, are you Jackson?”
“Yep, that’s me.”
He sticks his arm out towards me, and I can’t help but let my eyes travel down the length of his forearm that is exposed by his rolled up shirtsleeve. It is pure muscle with strong veins. It looks like it could do some serious damage. It is then packaged in a full sleeve of stunning tattoos. I glance to his other arm, and notice tattoos covering that one as well.
I realise I’m stood here ogling my potential employee, so I quickly stick my own hand out. “Nice to meet you, Jackson. Have a seat. What can I get you to drink?”
While he gets comfortable, I quickly nip behind the bar and make his coffee. Lilly is working this morning so doesn’t bat an eyelid when I intrude on her.
“Who is that? He is seriously hot,” she asks, while her eyes roam over Jackson.
“I’m interviewing him for a job.”
“Shit, Molls, you wouldn’t get any work done if he was sat opposite you in the office.”
“I know, right!”
Jackson must hear us giggling like schoolgirls, because he looks up and smirks at us, and I know we’ve been caught checking him out.
“Fuck,” I mutter and make my way back to him with a slightly higher temperature and flushed cheeks. I desperately want to take my blazer off, but I only put a thin camisole underneath, thinking the air conditioning in here would keep me cool enough. I wasn’t anticipating on meeting Mr. Sex-on-Legs over there.
“Here you go, Jackson,” I say, passing his espresso over to him.
“Please, call me Jax. Only my parents call me Jackson. It makes me think I’m in trouble!”
“Okay, Jax it is. So, do you want to show me what you’ve got?” I nod my head towards his portfolio that he brought with him, but instantly flush when he smiles at me and looks down at it on his lap where it’s resting. “I’m dying to see your designs. I’ve heard great things,” I mutter, trying to cover my embarrassment.
“Wow, these are awesome. You’ve got some serious talent, Jax. How don’t you already have a job?” I ask while flicking through his work.
“No idea! I’ve had a few interviews over the last year, but my style didn’t really suit the companies, I guess,” he answers with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Well, I hope their loss is my gain.”
“Are you serious?” I look up and give him a wide smile, showing him that I really am.
We spend the next hour chatting about the company, the work we’ve done so far, and I explain about Cocoa’s and the office upstairs when he asks why I keep helping myself to coffee. I talk about Hannah, albeit briefly, and I am thankful Jax doesn’t ask many questions about her. I get the impression he understands, which leads me to wonder if he’s lost someone close to him. We talk money, hours and all the other nitty gritty bits that we need to go through, and generally talk about ourselves. We are going to be spending quite a bit of time together, so it’s important that we can get on.
Eventually, I go put our mugs in the dishwasher and take Jax upstairs to see the office and the work I have done recently, so he can get a feel for my style.
“Wow, this place is amazing,” he says, walking around.
“I know, after meeting you I’m going shopping for all the equipment we are going to need.”
“We?” he asks, with his eyebrows raised.
“Yes, if you’re up for it. Correct me if you don’t agree, but I think we could have a good thing here. Our design styles compliment each other’s well, but we have different skills to enable us to do a range of jobs, and we seem to get on well enough. So far, anyway.”
“No, I completely agree. I’m really excited about this, Molly. I think we could have something really good.”
“Fantastic. Well…welcome to Angel Designs, Jax Parker.” I stick my hand out to him and he grabs it, laughing, then pulls me into a tight hug. It reminds me of a Ryan hug because of all the muscle, but Jax is a smaller build than Ryan. He doesn’t engulf me in quite the same way. The thought of Ryan
makes me sad, so I quickly focus back on the task in hand.
“So, I don’t want to intrude on your plans, but I’m free for the rest of the day. Do you want company while you kit this place out? I’ve got a mate who works in one of the computer stores. He owes me a favour; hopefully he can do us a good deal.”
“Brilliant. I’ve got a list,” I pull my notebook out of my bag and pass it to him as we head out of the office, “see if you think I’ve missed anything.”
We have a great afternoon picking everything we need and getting it all set up in the office ready for us to start working. I went down to Cocoa’s to grab us some lunch that we ate in our new living room. It was weird to think this was my bedroom for so many years. I have great memories in the flat, and I am really glad to be making new ones here.
During lunch, Jax tells me all about his girlfriend, Lucy. They’ve only been together a couple of months, but as far as he’s concerned, it was love at first sight. She moved in with him last month. She was living in a flat her parents paid for, but they have had a huge falling out and kicked her out. Jax looked angry just talking about it, although when I asked why they have fallen out, he wasn’t able to tell me. Apparently, she doesn’t want to talk about it. He explains how much he is loving living with her. It makes me smile, thinking how at odds his appearance is to his romantic heart.
The more we get to know each other, the more I am confident we will get on really well working together. I was pleased when he started talking about his family to find out that, although they own a chain of restaurants across the country, Jax had no intention of working with them. He wanted to do his own thing, like I did. Luckily for him, his family supported his decision wholeheartedly, and have been behind him all the way. I got the impression he couldn’t wait to ring them and tell them about this job.
Jax has to give two weeks’ notice at the bar he works, at but he has agreed to come in during the afternoons before he starts at the bar to help me get started here and pick up some of the briefs I’ve currently got. I’m really grateful he offered to do that, because I’ve got loads on at the moment and it will make my life much less stressful.
Once we say our goodbyes, I head home. I can’t wait to tell Ryan about it all. He’s been so supportive of me expanding the business; I know he will be really excited for me. But to my disappointment, he isn’t at home when I get there. So instead, I ring Susan and tell her all about it. I can’t say I was surprised that by the time I rang, she had already heard all about Jax from Lilly.
“I hear he’s quite the hottie,” she says to me when I tell her about hiring another designer.
“Lilly has already gotten to you then, I take it? But no, he’s not bad to look at, and his artwork is stunning, I think we are going to make a really good team. We’ve been out and got everything we need for the office and set it all up. It looks fantastic - you should pop up and see when you’re next at Cocoa’s.”
“Yes, I will. I’m so glad you found someone so fast that you like so much. It could have been a nightmare.”
“I know, tell me about it. Thank you so much for what you have done for me. I still can’t quite believe it. But I couldn’t think of anywhere I’d rather run the business from. I couldn’t stop smiling when we were setting everything up earlier - and you were right, it does feel like Hannah is part of it.”
“You’re more than welcome, Angel.” I can hear her start to well up as I start talking about Hannah. We chat for a few more minutes, until she has to go and tend to dinner.
I feel a bit lost for what to do, I was hoping to spend the evening with Ryan, but it doesn’t look like that is going to be happening. So, I grab my sketchpad, settle on the sofa with the TV on, and start coming up with some concepts for my next project.
I awake with a start at three am from banging on the front door. I scramble out of bed to see what is going on, just as Ryan manages to get his key in the door and comes stumbling through into the hallway. When he sees me he stops and stares at me. The look he gives me makes a shiver run down my spine. I’ve only ever once seen such a cold look in his eyes and that was Saturday night, right before he punched the guy that pulled me off down the street.
After staring at me for what feels like ten minutes, he starts to sway on his feet and steps back so he is leaning against the wall for support.
“Come on, Ry, let’s get you up to bed.” I go to grab him around the waist to help him up the stairs, but he pushes me away.
“I don’t need you, Molly,” he growls at me. I am taken back by his tone. He’s never been anything but nice, so to hear him snap at me is a real shock.
He turns to face the stairs and starts towards them slowly, “I don’t need you,” he repeats, but quieter this time. He looks totally defeated with his head down and shoulders slumped.
I just stand there, shocked, and watch him climb his way up the stairs. Just as he disappears out of my sight, I feel a single tear run down my cheek. I am so confused and hurt by his actions that I can’t help it. I stand there until I hear him reach his room safely, then I hear a thud like he just flopped on his bed.
I eventually make my way back to my room and lie back on my bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering what the hell just happened. Needless to say, I have another restless night’s sleep.
This pattern with Ryan continues for the next three days. I get up every morning, hoping to see him before I go to the office, but he is still in bed. Then, when I get home in the evenings, he has already gone out.
I’ve texted him a few times but got no response, and when I ring his phone, it goes straight to voicemail.
By the time I get in from work on Friday night to get ready for my date, I am surprised to find Ryan sat on the sofa. Granted, he is surrounded by empty beer cans and looks a little worse for wear. I really wish I knew what was going on with him, and I also wish I had time right now to ask, but I’ve got an hour before I need to head out to meet Adam. So I say hello, then head back to my room to get ready.
Chapter Twelve
Ryan
This week has been shit - total shit. Ever since Molly told me about her date, I’ve been a complete mess, and I can’t seem to sort myself out. The only thing that has helped me forget is alcohol. Luckily for me, my mates from school are back and are keen to keep up the party lifestyle from their holiday, so we’ve been out to different bars each night this week. I can’t honestly say I remember much of what’s happened, but it means I don’t remember thinking or being miserable about Molly.
Tonight is Molly’s date, and I made the stupid decision to stay home. I wanted to make sure I was here if she needed me, but at some point during the afternoon, the urge to drown everything out was too strong so I hit the beer, again. Now, I’m not going to be much good if her date goes south and she needs me.
She’s just got in and came up to say hello. To say she looked shocked to see me here would be an understatement – well, either shocked to see me here, or to see me here pissed off my head again, I’m not sure. It felt like my heart skipped at beat when she walked into the room. I’ve missed her so much this week, but the thought of spending time with her at the moment makes my chest hurt too much. I feel like a complete pussy. I’m actually concerned I might be turning into a woman, wallowing like this.
After an amount of time I’m completely unaware of, I hear her coming back up the stairs. When I look up to her, I see she is wearing the white dress she had on the evening we went out for dinner in Cornwall and ended up in the sea. I feel myself get choked up at the memory. That week had been amazing. Although the initial reason for the break had been a sad one, it turned out to be one of the best weeks of my life, and Molly played a big part in that.
“Well, I’m off out. Have a good night, Ryan.” The look on her face when she says this almost looks as dejected as I feel.
I watch as she looks at her feet then turns to walk out. Just before she gets to the door, I find my voice.
“Molly.”
&nbs
p; “Yeah.”
“You look gorgeous. Have a good night. I hope he treats you well.” I even manage to crack a smile at her before she says thank you and leaves the house.
I must have passed out on the sofa before she got home, because the next thing I know, the room is really bright, and when I open my eyes I see Molly making a cup of tea in the kitchen.
“Morning,” she sings cheerfully, making my head hurt.
I just groan back at her.
“Ry, you’re not eighteen anymore. Hangovers from week-long binges are gonna last much longer than our uni days.”
I groan again, roll off the sofa on to my hands and knees, and crawl out of the room and up to my bedroom, where I collapse on my bed and fall back to sleep.
By the time I wake up again, it’s the afternoon, and I still feel like death. I drag my arse into the shower in the hope it will wake me up, but it does very little to pull me out of the slump I’ve found myself in.
I head down to the kitchen, hoping coffee might be more successful. I put the kettle on and turn around to grab a mug when I see a note.
Ry,
I’ve gone out with Megan and Oscar, then I’m having dinner tonight with Jax at The Fat Dog. Maybe lay off the beer today, huh? I’m worried about you.
Love and hugs,
Molly xx
The mug that was in my hand goes flying across the room and crashes against the far wall of the living room.
“Who the fuck is Jax?” I growl to myself.
I lean back against the kitchen worktop, shut my eyes, and try to calm myself down. Molly swore when she moved in here that she was turning over a new leaf with men, and not using them to make herself feel cared for - but here she is, going out with two different guys on two consecutive nights. She might have ruined me at the moment, but I’m sure as hell not going to let her slip back into her old ways.
Angel Series Books #1-2.5 Page 14