18. Chapter 18
Chapter 18
O ttie working in the shop meant she had near-endless opportunities to question me about Andrew, so, much to her chagrin, I’d taken to allocating her tasks for the club’s Founding Day party any time she uttered his name.
Which meant party planning was in great shape. Pete had agreed to run the barbeque along with several novices, everyone would bring a bottle, and we would make big vats of punch using the money from the very low entry fee.
Through extensive group messaging—mainly to keep everyone off the topic of Andrew and I—we decided on a Light the Night theme. I wasn’t totally sold, but Ottie and Livia were all in on the concept, and had already sourced disco lights and projectors from a friend who worked in events, so who was I to stand in the way of their formidable abilities to get things done?
It was all coming together, and aside from adding the additional food items to my next catering order, which I was doing now, and the actual set-up, which would happen tomorrow, we were done.
I hadn’t seen Andrew all week and had heard little from him, with only a few brief texts, his time completely consumed by his acquisition. I tried not to let it affect my mood, but between Theo’s bullshit and the radio silence, I couldn’t entirely put aside the idea that maybe I didn’t know Andrew at all …
The bell in the shop dinked just as I finished the food order, and I looked up to see who was there. ‘Hey!’ I said, recognizing the first woman as Beth, Andrew’s little sister. ‘How’s it going?’
‘Good, thank you,’ she said with an exuberant smile, holding the door for the tall, voluptuous black woman behind her. ‘How about you?’
‘Just finishing up the party planning.’
‘Oh … for the boat club? Is now a bad time?’
I stifled a laugh. ‘No! I generally like it when people come into my shop.’
‘Oh, right. Sorry …’
I chuckled at her bashfulness as I rounded the counter. ‘Anything in particular bring you in?’
‘Andrew sent us!’ she said, beaming. ‘And he sent us with this!’ She held up a credit card that presumably belonged to her brother.
‘Oh …’ My eyes flicked to the second woman, wondering who she was.
‘We’re here for twelve gift baskets,’ Beth continued, ‘for the DrewDox team working on the acquisition.’
‘It’s taken over their lives,’ the second woman added in a light, gentle voice. She gave a little shake of her head and exhaled a warm laugh. ‘We haven’t seen any of them in days. I’m Claire, by the way.’
Claire … Why did that name … Oh, the chocolatier. I appraised her with fresh eyes, immediately wondering if she and Andrew had ever had a thing; she was certainly beautiful, and accomplished, and his family seemed to treat her like one of their own. ‘It’s nice to meet you,’ I said with an amiable smile.
‘Andrew loves Claire!’ gushed Beth, snaking her arm through the other woman's. ‘We all do!’ She grinned and raised her shoulders.
Claire nudged the younger woman, then turned to me, a knowing smile on her lips. ‘Did you enjoy your chocolates?’
I faltered for a moment, trying to work out what she meant.
‘The ones Andrew bought you,’ she pressed.
I flushed crimson. ‘I … uh … the Ms?’
She nodded. ‘He was very particular about that order.’
‘Oh, they …’ This was all so very disorienting. ‘They were divine.’
The door dinked again, and I’d never been happier to see Ottie appearing through it. It was one thing for my crew to dig for information about my relationship with Andrew, but quite another to be ambushed by his sister and their close family friend.
‘Ottie, this is Claire and Beth,’ I said. ‘Beth’s Andrew’s sister. He sent them for gift baskets.’ Which was a very generous thing for him to do, and my chest swelled with a strange, tight feeling.
‘I’m the sister!’ Beth said exuberantly.
‘Oh, hi!’ sang Ottie, her eyes lighting up, then she said in a hushed, conspiratorial voice, ‘Is your brother as hopelessly in love with this one as we all think he is?’
‘Ottie!’ I snapped in warning.
The others laughed. ‘I have heard a lot about you,’ replied Beth.
‘Gift baskets …’ I said, trying to divert them.
‘I’d hoped he’d drop by so I could observe them,’ said Ottie, continuing as though I hadn’t opened my mouth. ‘But Andrew hasn’t even been at the club all week.’
‘He’s got a big work thing going on,’ said Beth. ‘It’s so important that if anyone even dares to step outside the office, they’ll be summarily fired.’
Fired. The conversation with Theo came rushing back.
‘Or worse,’ Beth continued dramatically, ‘they might not get their precious bonus!’ She clutched her hand to her chest, and Claire rolled her eyes. ‘I shouldn’t make fun; Andrew’s very generous.’
He really is , I didn’t say. And tall and handsome and kind, but with a bit of a sullen, brooding thing going on that keeps everyone away. And he’s so secretive it makes me nervous, like there’s something bad lurking beneath, something like sacking his employees, who are also his crew members, and putting gag orders on them so they can’t tell anyone about it.
My phone rang—one of my suppliers—and I excused myself, asking Ottie to help Beth and Claire, and heading out onto the patio to take the call. By the time I returned, the two women were finishing up their enormous purchase, and I could hardly believe how quickly Ottie had pulled it all together.
‘Find some things you like?’
‘Yes!’ squealed Beth. ‘SO many things. This place is going to be top of my Christmas shopping list!’
My face split into a broad smile because it never got old, people telling me they liked the shop. ‘Great!’
The bell dinked yet again, and Theo entered, a prickling sensation creeping across my skin as his eyes scanned the four of us. What the hell did he want? He did a double take when it came to Beth, then froze, their eyes locking across the room.
‘I’ll come back later,’ he muttered, then left, and my face creased in confusion. What the hell?
Beth flushed scarlet, and Claire was looking at her with a curious expression on her face.
‘He’s pretty to look at, but an absolute arsehole,’ said Ottie. ‘Don’t waste your time on men like that.’ Then she threw me a meaningful look, and I scowled hard.
‘It was so nice to see you again, Miri,’ Beth breathed, her voice smaller than before, her smile half the wattage, then she added with a cheeky smile and a knowing glance at Ottie, ‘I’ll hope to see you at a family dinner soon!’
‘Beth!’ Claire chastised, then turned to Ottie, suddenly all business. ‘You’ll courier the gift baskets?’
‘Of course! I’ll do that now.’
Claire followed Beth out of the shop, and I rounded on my friend the second they were gone. ‘What the fuck, Ottie?’
She stifled a laugh. ‘She is SO sweet. I want her as my sister-in-law.’
‘Ottie, seriously, can you knock it off?’
The wind disappeared from Ottie’s sails, and her features dropped as she realized I wasn’t fooling around. ‘Oh, sorry, Miri. I … is everything okay? You know I’m only joking, right?’
I sighed deeply. ‘I know, but sometimes it gets a bit much.’ I rubbed my face with my hands. ‘Trying to figure out a relationship is hard, and it’s ten times harder when the whole club is watching our every move.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said again. ‘I’ll tone it down. But … you like him, right?’
I hissed out a frustrated breath. ‘Ottie, you literally just said—’
‘No … I know … I just mean,’ she lifted her hands to placate me, ‘if you don’t want him, then for God’s sake put him out of his misery. His sister just came in to buy up half the shop!’
I scowled hard. ‘He needed gift baskets for—’
‘Whatever. Look, the point is, the man’s obviously besotted, and I think you are, too! He practically declared his love for you on the club’s Discord server, and you left him hanging! Why don’t you just get out of your own way and give it a go?’
‘Or alternatively, everyone could just fuck off and leave my love life alone.’
I grabbed my bag, and Ottie’s eyes flew wide. ‘Hey, Miri, I’m sorry, I …’
But I didn’t want to hear it. Instead, I yanked open the door and stormed all the way home.
I couldn’t sleep, Ottie’s words circling round and round in my head. Besotted . She was so dramatic. But also, was he? Was I ? Was there anything real between us at all? I hadn’t seen or heard from him in days. He’d sent his sister to the shop, yes, but that wasn’t the same as a declaration of, well, anything. It was a purely economic arrangement, and for all I knew, he could have been using it as a way to get his sister to spend more time with Claire, who he loved so much …
Ottie had messaged to apologize, and I’d messaged back saying it was fine, but that had done nothing to ease the hive of aggravated bees buzzing around my mind.
Urgh . At five in the morning, I threw the covers off and went down to the café, helping the staff on the early shift get pastries in the oven, and making the first batch of sandwiches for the counter.
After an hour, it was clear there were too many cooks in the kitchen, so I left them to it, heading to the boat club and grabbing a single scull from the racks. A few other scullers were already out, and it was a gorgeous, still day, with barely a ripple dancing across the water—the kind of conditions we rowers dreamed of.
But the farther I travelled, the more frustrated I became, the gentle rhythmic splashes of my blades failing to lull me as I’d hoped. The flight of my boat across the water seemed mocking, no matter how hard I pushed, the beating sun glaring, the birdsong shrill. The idea of him being besotted turned sour in my mind, and I wondered why he hadn’t called, had barely messaged, hadn’t set foot inside the shop.
The word besotted seemed increasingly ridiculous, in fact. Men like Andrew did not become besotted, especially with women like me. Maybe with women in smart suits to match his sharp mind, who drove fast cars and yelled things like, Sell, now! into their phones.
And yes, I owned three businesses, but they were trivial compared to his. No big acquisitions requiring complex modelling. No multi-million-dollar investments. Nothing difficult at all. I was no one special, and Andrew … well, he was.
The idea of him being besotted with me? Absolutely not. But if everyone thought I was head over heels for him … Was I really that transparent? It was embarrassing. Mortifying, actually. The thought made me want to crawl into a hole and hide, and I had no idea what to do about it.
By the time I made it back to the boat club, the place was a flurry of activity. Crews coming in and out, a crowd of novices milling about, waiting to be told what to do, veterans sitting on the patio in the early morning sun, watching proceedings with a critical eye.
I put my boat away, then headed home. I showered, changed, and when I got back to the boat club, a small group of party volunteers lounged in front of the clubhouse waiting for me. Not that I felt much like a party.
I managed a few lackluster instructions, and then Ottie and Livia took over, putting everyone to work in their usual efficient way. Hazel periodically reassured everyone that they were doing a great job—despite the impression Livia might be giving them—while Belle merrily got on with whatever she wanted, ignoring the directives entirely.
We bustled about, moving boats out of the boathouse—where we would hold the party, seeing as it was bigger than the clubhouse—then lifting furniture and lighting in. I was so preoccupied I didn’t even notice the men’s first crew until they’d already put their boat on the trailer and were hanging their blades on the racks. My heart leapt as I looked around for Andrew, and when I spotted him, he was on one end of a sofa, carrying it into the boathouse.
He smiled as he passed, and I smiled back, ruing the butterflies fluttering in my chest, then I gathered a couple of volunteers and headed for my café to retrieve the ingredients that had just arrived. I spent the next couple of hours in the clubhouse kitchen, making salads and dressings, then mixing up big vats of punch behind the bar.
It was midafternoon before I resurfaced, finding the work all but done, and most people had headed home to change. The boathouse had been transformed, with brightly colored fabric hanging from the racks, seating placed down each side, and a cozy circle of sofas and armchairs at the back.
‘Perfect!’ said Livia, making me jump as she materialized from under a swathe of fabric, standing back to admire her work.
‘And these projectors will look amazing when it gets dark!’ Ottie shouted excitedly from the top of a nearby ladder.
‘Wow!’ said Hazel, appearing at my shoulder. ‘That came together quicker than expected!’
‘Many hands make light work,’ said Belle, one step behind Hazel.
‘Although, Theo is such a dick!’ huffed Ottie, climbing down the last few rungs of the ladder and coming to join us. ‘I asked him to do one single thing, and he laughed, then took off.’
‘We’ll be limiting his free punch, then,’ I said, and the others snickered.
Ottie pursed her lips. ‘I might take a stint on the barbeque just to spit in his burger.’
‘Seems like a lot of hassle for not much reward,’ said Belle. ‘We can do better.’
‘Ooo, if Belle’s getting involved, I’m scared for him,’ I said on a laugh.
‘We could turn his pee blue?’ Belle suggested.
‘Or tell all the novice women he’s got an STD,’ said Livia.
Ottie cackled. ‘That would hit him where it hurts.’
I looked around for Andrew but couldn’t see him, and refused to ask the others where he’d gone, so we locked up the boathouse and headed to mine to get ready. We only had a couple of hours before the party started, and most of us didn’t put make-up on very often, so it would take some time.
We sat back on the sofas in my apartment and finally opened the bottle of prosecco we’d been talking about pouring for the last hour and a half. Livia and Belle handed round the glasses, and we chinked before savoring our first mouthfuls, the bubbles so vigorous, they made my jaw ache.
We were dressed in ridiculous outfits in all the colors of the rainbow, with a hefty helping of neon thrown in for good measure. Our makeup was bright and loud and shimmery, and we all wore some variation of chunky bling jewelry that would reflect the disco lights, as would the sequins on my body-hugging dress, along with my clumpy silver platform shoes.
I blew out a long breath and looked at the ceiling, willing the prosecco to hurry into my blood, hoping it would improve my mood in a way both exercise and the distraction of party set- up had failed to. ‘My outing this morning was so frustrating,’ I blurted, some part of me needing to share my Andrew worries, even if I had to do it in a roundabout way.
‘Really?’ said Hazel, turning curious eyes on me.
‘Ours was so good!’ said Ottie, adding, ‘What?’ when Hazel scowled at her.
‘We know why Miri’s outing was bad,’ joked Livia.
‘Guys,’ snapped Hazel, ditching her usual mild-manners, something that seemed to be becoming more common for her of late. ‘Can you please try to be supportive?’
‘ I am,’ Belle chirped proudly, like an overachieving school kid.
‘It’s tough love,’ said Livia. ‘And as ever, we’re merely jealous that Miri has a love interest and we do not.’
‘Two, if you count Theo,’ Ottie added.
‘Which we don’t,’ Hazel said sternly.
‘You’ve got to pony up and tell him how you feel!’ said Livia. ‘It’s the only way.’
Ottie visibly backed off, looking apologetic and a little sheepish.
‘They do have a point,’ said Belle. ‘Although, if you’re not sure if you want him, you shouldn’t feel any pressure from us. You should take your time.’ But then she looked expectantly at me, clearly waiting for an answer.
‘Crew selection for Nationals is next week, isn’t it?’ I said, trying to run away from the topic I’d so clumsily brought up, but when Ottie, Livia, and Belle went tense, I wished I hadn’t. ‘So it’s great you guys had a good outing!’ I added lamely.
‘Yeah,’ said Livia. ‘I mean, it would probably make sense for the crew to stay as it is, given how much time we’ve spent in the boat together.’ She wasn’t being a bitch, she was just saying it as it was, but my competitive side raised its head anyway, and I couldn’t let it go.
‘I’ve been training,’ I said, a little too sharply.
‘We know, but you haven’t been in the boat with us,’ said Livia, never one to back down.
‘Well, anyway, it’s up to Cassandra,’ said Hazel, giving us an escape route, which we grabbed with matching shrugs.
I smiled gratefully at Hazel, although honestly, Livia had a point. My ergo scores were still the best, but I hadn’t been out in the boat with them much, and if they were gelling as a crew, I didn’t want to upset their hard work. But I’d never not gone to Nationals, not since I’d first been in a senior crew, and it would hurt to stand on the sidelines and watch.