Chapter 8
CJ
Monday mornings are usually the bane of my existence, but after skipping the club and spending time with Emmy this weekend, I feel surprisingly relaxed. I thought having someone sharing my space again would be awkward, or we would be like ships in the wind, but there’s something about Emmy that makes me feel at ease, and I find that I like having her live here with me. That thought both scares and excites me.
I’m up early, and after showering and getting ready, I head downstairs to the smell of fresh coffee being brewed. I stop just inside the kitchen and look at Emmy, sitting with one leg over the other at the kitchen island, concentrating on her phone, her foot twirling around to the beat of whatever game she’s playing, and I’m mesmerised by her. Scruff catches me staring and barks, then bounds over to me. I kneel to him, giving him some tickles, and I hear Emmy laugh.
“Good morning, would you like a cup of coffee?”
she nods towards my coffee machine, and I stand back up.
“It’s fine. I can make it. Do you want another?”
“Yes please if you don’t mind”
I go to take her cup from her and our hands brush sending an electric jolt through my hand, she must feel it as well because she brings her thumb up to her mouth and I can’t concentrate on anything else when her tongue darts out to the lick the pad of her thumb. She catches me staring and blushing, and it snaps me out of it. I turn around and make a cup of coffee for both of us.
“So, I was going to walk Scruff before work again. Do you want to come? I know you’re at the site today to meet with Cole so at least if he’s been for a good walk this morning he might be ok till one of us can get back later on”
once I’ve calmed down a bit I turn around and hand her the cup, she takes it with a smile for me.
“Sure, that sounds nice. I hope he will be okay on his own for the rest of the day, though. I feel a bit bad having to leave him”
she looks at Scruff adoringly and he wags his tail and cocks his head playing up the woe is me act.
“I’m sure he will be fine. I usually leave the radio on for him anyway if I need to go out.”
She turns to look at me and puts her hand on her heart as she says, “Aww, that has to be the sweetest thing I have ever heard!”
I shake my head and laugh at her.
We get our things together, and I leash up Scruff. Then, we head out to the park near our house. The thought jolts me back, our house, not my house. It doesn’t sound at all scary to me anymore. We get to the park, and I let Scruff off his leash.
We walk together in a comfortable silence before Emmy speaks up. “You know you’re doing me out of a job here? I thought you needed me to move in to be your official dog sitter?”
she peeks up at me with a smile playing on her lips.
“Yeah, but I really like walking him with you, Emmy.”
I waited for her to blush and look away, but at least she was smiling.
“Plus, I am going to need you to help me out when I have to work away on jobs…or of a night when I’m working”
fuck it I’m just going to come on out with it and tell her straight. Maybe she will remember me, perhaps she won’t, but at least I will have told her the truth about Club Envy. “Do you remember when Vik said we were business partners?”
She nods yes and waits for me to continue.
"Well, we are, but I’m a silent partner. We run Club Envy together in town. Now, obviously, because of the nature of the club, I have to be a silent partner. Vik is the face; for some reason, my dad thinks that if people knew his son also owned that club, we might not get serious construction jobs. Still, it’s profitable and sometimes feels like my dirty little secret, you know?”
she nods but doesn’t say anything more. I start to feel like maybe I’m putting her off. Maybe she doesn’t even remember the dance? My nerves are making me ramble “anyway, I’d just started at my dad’s construction company after college. I didn’t want to run the place like Cole did, but I’ve always been good with my hands, so he gave me a job starting out with bricklaying, and then I learned plastering. I found I was good at it, but there was always something missing. Anyway, Vik came into some money and wanted to invest, and I had some money saved up. So, we pooled it together and bought a property downtown.”
I laugh remembering, “We didn’t have a clue what the hell we were going to do with this place that we just bought, and that’s when Vik mentioned that we should open our own club. At first, I thought he was crazy, but as we started talking about it, it made more sense, so Club Envy was born.”
I chanced a look at Emmy and found her smiling at me. “So, you’ve probably heard what kind of nights we run sometimes for the ladies?”
I look at her nervously, waiting to hear what she thinks, but she shocks the hell out of me with what she says.
“How could I forget?”
she blushes, embarrassed, and I want to fist pump the air at the fact that she remembers the dance. She stammers, “I…uh…mean you probably don’t even remember me, and that’s okay because I really wasn’t expecting you to remember me, and I wasn’t even going to say anything because that would have just made it awkward, wouldn’t it? Don’t you think, because that’s what I think”
she blows out a breath when she’s finished and looks away, her cheeks blazing.
I stop walking and grab her hand to turn her around, and when she does, I crowd her lifting her chin with my finger. Her eyes look up into mine “It was definitely memorable Emmy, especially that green dress”
she gasps, and my eyes drop to those plump lips of hers, I really fucking love those lips. I lean down, but she jumps back when my phone starts blaring. I look at my phone and see it’s Cole.
“Yeah”
I’m pissed at my brother for interrupting me.
“Well, good morning to you too, what’s crawled up your backside?”
My brother drawls.
I take a breath, there’s no point in pissing him off and it isn’t his fault “Nothing, sorry Cole. What is it you need?”
he grunts on the other end of the line, and I know he’s going to give me shit for it later on.
“I just need you to come in as soon as you can. We had some kids pissing about with some of the equipment over the weekend so it’s all hands on deck to clean up. I’m glad Emily will be starting today I’m going to need the help with all the admin shit”
I can hear it in his voice he’s fed up.
“Yeah, no problem, Cole, be there shortly,”
I say, and then I hang up on my brother. Emmy smiles and shouts “Scruff”
for me, seemingly knowing what I need before I do myself.
We get back to the house, and I grab my things, thinking Emmy is following me out, but when I notice her standing there, ringing her hands, I drop my stuff. “What’s wrong?”
she shakes her head and blows out a breath. “It’s nothing. I’m just a bit nervous, that’s all”
“Do you want a lift to work? We can grab a coffee on the way if you want. It might help to settle your nerves.”
She shakes her head at me “I appreciate that, but I want to stand on my own two feet with this job and I don’t want people thinking I got the job just because I’m your roommate or anything. I’m sorry Cas”
she looks so worried about upsetting me but what she doesn’t realise is my respect for her grows because she wants to do this for herself.
“Emmy, you don’t need to apologise. I think it’s great you want to do this yourself, and I completely agree, but am I allowed to say hello at work?”
We both start laughing, and she nods her head yes, “Okay. Well, I need to get going before Cole has a heart attack. Enjoy your first day, Emmy.”
I pick up my stuff and head to work.
**********
When I get to the job site, it’s utter chaos; everything is trashed, and my blood boils. I head to Cole's trailer and find him inside with his head in hands, knocking on the door. I walk in, and he looks up.
“Well you look like shit. Have you even slept?”
it’s then I notice the blanket and pillow on the couch “Jesus Cole, sleeping in here really?”
he shakes his head and gets up, he takes the blanket and pillow and starts folding them then shoves them in the bottom drawer of his filing cabinet “Talk to me man, what’s going on?”
Cole sits down and covers his face with his hands before grabbing his hair with both hands, causing it to stick up everywhere when he sits up. “I’m sleeping at work because sleeping here in this tin can is better than being at home with Tracey. She’s driving me fucking insane CJ. Yesterday, she told me I needed to choose her over Lacey, or she’d be gone! She’s just so toxic and negative all of the time and now all this shit here with the job site and the damage, it’s just all too much”
he hangs his head, and I feel for him.
“Listen you and Lacey have been best friends since you were both kids and she knew that when you got together so asking you not to be friends with her is out of order man and you know it and as for the job site, yeah it’s shit but we’ll get through it”
he leans back on his chair and puts his hands behind his head.
“Yeah, I know you’re right. I just needed to vent, is all. If you could go and coordinate the guys outside for me, that would be great. I have to tidy up before Emily gets here and thinks she’s working for a slob.”
I chuckle and then pin him with a glare, “Yeah, well, just make sure you treat her right, she’s nice”
Cole stops what he’s doing and stares at me, and I mean stares at me.
“Holy shit you like her”
he says it as a statement not a question.
I deflect “Fuck off Cole or I’ll tell mum you’re sleeping at work and not at home”
he throws something at me, but I dodge it running out of the door.
After getting the rabble outside all on their jobs, we cleaned up the worksite in no time, but something tells me this wasn’t kids. There was no vandalism or graffiti tags anywhere; things were just broken, but it almost looked staged. My stomach is growling, and I know that Emmy wants her space to stand on her own two feet, but I want to see her, so I decide to head back up to Coles' trailer. I knock on the door and act as if I am going to see Cole.
“So, everything is cleared up now”
I nod and chance a look at Emmy; her head is down, and she’s concentrating hard on her work as I take a seat.
Cole cleared his throat, and I turned back to look at him. he was smiling, “Okay, what are you telling me for, CJ? You don’t normally come here at lunchtime. Are you here for another reason?”
I see the wicked gleam in his eye as he tries to embarrass me. I look at Emmy and see a small smile on her face, and I know she’s heard him.
I turn back around and point at Cole, “I’m definitely telling Mum”
I lean back on my chair, and must have leaned too far because the next thing I know, I’m staring at the ceiling, legs in the air. I hear Cole laughing so hard he’s almost crying, and the fucker just sits there.
Emmy runs over and asks, “Jesus, Cas, are you ok? Did you hit your head?”
I get up off the floor and shake my head. “No, just my pride is embarrassed”
“You know, Mum always told us never to swing on our chairs.”
I give Cole my middle finger, which makes him laugh even harder.
Emmy looks to Cole, “Is it okay if I take my lunch now?”
He tells her yes, and she turns to me. “I brought your lunch with me since you forgot it this morning. Why don’t we go have it now?”
I turn to Cole and with Emmy’s back turned pull my tongue out at him and fist pumping the air, he chuckles at me and shakes his head, already fed up with my shit.
*********************
3 weeks later
Emmy has been working for my brother for three weeks, and I have to admit she is an absolute godsend. Not only is she helping me with Scruff, but she has also somehow made it so that my brother is no longer stressed out. He smiles now, sometimes. We’ve also fallen into a nice routine back at home together. We’ve just come back from walking Scruff together this morning and Emmy said she needed to head onto the job site today to clear some invoices so I’m just getting our lunches together when I hear her shouting, dropping everything I run outside to find Emmy kicking her tyres and huffing when she hurts her foot. If she weren’t so pissed off, I’d probably have laughed, but seeing as I like my balls where they are I keep my mouth shut.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
She looks to me and seems as if she’s going to burst into tears “I need to get into work and for some reason my car won’t start but I haven’t a clue what the bloody hell is wrong with it”
she huffs out a breath and hands on her hips looks to the sky like she’s praying for a miracle.
“Okay, well, I’m not very good with cars, but my brother, Rafe, is, so I’ll take you to work with me, and then I’ll call him and ask him to look at your car.”
“How is it you’re always there with a solution? Thank you so much, Cas. I really do appreciate it.”
She walks over and goes to kiss me on the cheek, but at the last minute, I turn. I don’t know what makes me do it, but her lips brush the corner of my mouth. She jumps back and goes bright red, stammering, “Oh.my.god...I..uh..oh..I am so sorry”
before rushing off into the house to get her things, and I can’t help but have the biggest grin on my face.
I shouted, “I’m not sorry at all, Emmy!”
She turns to face me and smiles before ducking inside. I know she’s been through a lot, and I’m being patient with her, but Jesus, do I want to kiss her again.
We arrive together at work, and just as we’re getting out of my truck, I hear a bunch of the guys wolf-whistling, poor Emmy’s cheeks heat, and I give my guys the middle finger.
She hands me my lunch for the day. “Here’s your lunch, Cas. I hope you have a good day,”
she says with a smile, and then heads off into the trailer for her day. I head over to the guys, and Rick looks at me pointedly.
“So, are you and Emmy a thing now?”
Rick is one of the guys I manage and work with, and he’s become a good friend over the years, especially since he was one of the ones who saw the fallout between Stephanie and me. I know he doesn’t mean anything by it, but his question makes me bristle.
“Why do you wanna know? Do you have a thing for her or something?”
Rick balks back like I’ve slapped him “What? No, of course not! Jesus, the guys and I have a pool going on for how long we think it will take you two to become official, and I was wondering whether I'm in the running for it, that’s all. Calm down, would you?”
I scrub my hands down my face and look at him “Shit I’m sorry Rick, I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just that I really, really like her and living with her makes me like her even more. It’s driving me crazy.”
He looks at me as if I have grown two heads. “So what’s the issue then? I don’t get it. You like her a lot, and it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that she likes you, too. Take last week for example; she came all the way down to the worksite to bring you some homemade cookies and a coffee. She didn’t have to do that; she isn’t your assistant”
“I can’t make a move yet; it’s complicated”
“So, un-complicate it then. What’s stopping you?”
“Her ex is a complete prick, and I think he did a number on her mentally and emotionally, and she has this drive to stand on her own two feet to prove to herself she doesn’t have to rely on anyone. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s sexy as anything that she wants to be independent, but I would also give anything to be the one she relies on”
“I think you’re overthinking this. From what I see, you are the one she relies on, and she seems pretty independent to me. Maybe you should ask her out on a date and see what she says. If she says no, then you have your answer, and she needs more time, but if she says yes? Well, it might just be the best thing to happen to you. Enough mushy shit now we really need to get this room finished up”
he pats me on the shoulder and gets back to plastering the wall, leaving me with my mind turning like gears.
Lunchtime hits, and I head towards Cole’s trailer to have lunch with Emmy when my phone rings. I fish it out of my pocket and see that Cole is ringing me, cursing because he probably wants to give me another job. I ignore it, but two seconds later, he’s calling again.
“Yeah, Cole, what do you want? I’m just on my way back up to get Emmy for lunch, so don’t…”
I don’t even finish what I was saying before Cole jumps in.
“You need to get back up here quicker, like now, CJ. Emmy got a call, and the colour drained from her face. Then she told me she was taking an earlier break 5 minutes ago. I’ve just checked the cameras, and she’s near the front of the site, talking to a guy. It looks heated. Do you want me to go out?”
Cole sounds pissed off but not as pissed off as I feel.
“No, I’m almost there. I’ll deal with the prick.”
I don’t even wait for Cole to tell me not to do something stupid; I hang up and storm over to where Cole said Emmy was. I’m just about to round the corner when I hear Count Dickless pleading with Emmy to take him back.
“Emily, please, I will do anything to get you back. I made a mistake. Aren’t people allowed to make mistakes?”
“Yeah of course you’re allowed to make mistakes”
her voice sounds soft and sad, and it pisses me off that it seems like she’s feeding into his bullshit. Where is that firecracker that I know she can be?
“Right then, so you understand that what I did was a mistake and will never happen again. I mean, really, what I did, you drove me to do anyway, Emily. If you had paid me more attention or been more adventurous in the bedroom, then I wouldn’t have had to go elsewhere, would I? I have needs Emily, I’m just a man”
God this pathetic, whiney, arsehole needs a good kicking.
“Don’t call me Emily. I hate how you say my name”. She has fire in her voice now, and I smile.
“You what? I’m stood here pouring my heart out to you and you’re having a fucking hissy fit over the way I say your name. It isn’t Em or Emmy like that fucking jumped up Bob the Builder calls you but fucking Emily!”
“Cas isn’t a jumped-up Bob the Builder! For your information, he is successful, kind, considerate, funny and basically everything you aren’t. Do you know what Chad you can just…just…urgh go FUCK YOURSELF!”
Emmy is going full on hell cat and I fucking love it, at this rate I won’t need to put the little prick in his place. I carry on listening and peek round the corner. That’s when he starts getting nasty.
“Fuck myself? I bet you’re fucking him aren’t you, you dirty, filthy little fucking slut!”
I round the corner having enough of him laying into Emmy just as I hear her shout “Yes, I am FUCKING him you arrogant arsehole! At least he has a bigger dick compared to your micro one!”
I want to burst out laughing, but it dies in my throat as I see him step over to her, his fist raised.
I don’t know how I don’t snap the little fuckers neck, but I grab his arm and drag him back, hearing a sickening popping sound. Count Dickless screams in agony, and I throw him to the floor. He’s cowering beneath me, and just as I’m about to lay into him, two sets of strong arms grab me underneath my arms and haul me back.
I shout at him “You don’t get no more chances you little prick! Next time I see you near her or looking at her you can bet I’ll rip your fucking head off!”
the blood is rushing around my ears, and I faintly hear someone telling me to calm down. I turn around and see Emmy, tears streaming down her face. The guys let go of me, and I go to her, my hands cupping her face and wiping away her tears.
“You’re welcome to my sloppy seconds. The fat bitch was no good in bed anyway”
I see Emmy’s face pale and her breath hitches as she holds back a sob, and the site of her broken eyes sends me over the edge. I round on him, and before anyone can get to me, my fist connects with his nose in a satisfying crunch. He falls back to the floor screaming about how I’ve broken his nose and he’s going to press charges against me, but fuck it, it was 100% worth it. I look around, and all the workers have formed a circle with Cole and Rick, and a few others stand around Emmy, protecting her.
Rick steps forward “Do you have witnesses little guy, because CJ here has a whole bunch of them and we all saw you trip and fall on a rock. Right guys?”
everyone shouts yeah and nods their head, and the little prick must realise how deep in shit he is, his eyes going wide when he sees no one is on his side.
“Yeah and the fact you ‘fell’ whilst trespassing on private property, you really don’t have a leg to stand on”
sometimes my brothers smug face pisses me off but not right in this moment, right now I would give up a year’s supplier of my mums Yorkshire Puddings for him. Count Dickless scrambles up off the floor and without a backwards glance, probably the smartest thing he’s done all day, he runs out of the work site and back to his shitty little Smart car.
I mentally noted his license plate, model, and car colour. I’ll ask Cole to check the CCTV footage from the night the site was vandalised. I have a sneaking suspicion this isn’t the last we will hear from him.
I turn to Cole. “We’re leaving for the day”
he doesn’t say a word, nods, turns, and says something to Emmy. She gives him a small smile and heads to the trailer to gather her belongings.
“You know dad’s going to have a fit when he finds out you punched someone on site?”
Cole levels me with a stare.
“Yeah but it was worth it, and I’m sure when I introduce Emmy to him and mum and tell him I did it for my future wife all will be forgiven”
Coles eyebrows shoot up into his hairline and I laugh and pat his shoulder “I’ll see you tomorrow, but expect Emmy to be taking the day off. Paid.”
He shakes his head at me and shouts to the other guys to get cleared up and back to work.
I will make sure Emmy knows I am the one she can count on when she needs it.
Entry #35
It didn’t work.
It was supposed to drive them apart; it was supposed to damage him and that business.
He was supposed to connect the dots and realise why it had happened.
But it didn’t work. They just cleaned up and carried on like nothing happened.
I’m going to have to be more creative.
He can’t have her.
I won’t let him have her.