Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
Nina
It’s been two weeks. Two weeks since he kissed me, and you’d think it never happened.
He comes to his PT sessions and basically does his own thing.
I give him some lip and he gives it back, but then he goes home.
He doesn’t offer me lifts, he doesn’t linger when he drops or picks up Ellis.
I’d call him out on it, but truthfully, I’m just glad that we can be in the same room without going at one another.
With Ellis at Mason’s for the weekend, I’ve found myself cleaning the apartment from top to toe.
I’ve barely slept and when five a.m. rolls around, I climb out of my bed and slip on my sweats.
I’d run alone, but I know Joey has been avoiding me and I want to get him out of his apartment. He’d be a total recluse if I let him.
“Joe!” I whisper, shaking his shoulder.
“Hmmm.”
“Wake up!” I shove him harder.
He groans, rolling away from me. “Please, go away.”
“No, get up, we are running. I’ll get you water.”
“Coffee.”
“You can’t run with coffee.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.” I smile, slipping off to his kitchen and filling a water bottle. “You’ve been avoiding me,” I say loud enough so he can hear me.
“No, I haven’t.” Joey appears in the kitchen doorway in a sleepy state.
His hair is wild and flops down onto his forehead, and he’s in only a pair of black boxers.
He is skinnier than he should be for his size, skinnier than when I first met him.
I always worry about him. He has no family here to look out for him after his mum passed away a few years ago, and his brother lives in the states.
From what I can gather, he blames Joey for his mother’s death.
Joey will rarely talk about it and I’m okay with that.
Although I know he can look after himself, he’s happy being independent and I can relate to that.
But that’s not to say it doesn’t get lonely.
We all need someone in life.
“You have but I forgive you. I did kick you out for Mason the last time you came over.”
He smiles up at me. “You did, I was pissed about that actually,” he says it as if he is only now remembering and I instantly know we are okay. “But that’s not why I was avoiding you. I really have been busy.”
“Are you eating enough?” I ask casually, tightening up the bottle top. “You’ve not been up to mine for tea in the last few weeks.”
I’m smothering him and I can’t help it. It’s as if when Ellis isn’t here I look for someone to cling onto.
“Nina, it’s five forty-five. You aren’t lecturing me on food right now. We’re either running or sleeping.”
“Sorry, I’ve been up for hours,” I complain, turning and heading for the door. “Get dressed. I’m going to stretch.”
The benefit of not being able to sleep in has to be experiencing the city before it rises.
Delivery men hustle to unload the trucks, clanking and clanging in their steel toecap boots, but otherwise, in the small little side streets, the city sleeps.
With the cold morning air, not many fools venture out on the gleaming, icy pavements.
“I think I have a studio,” I blurt out, needing to run the idea by someone.
I should speak to Lucy and Megan, but if I fail, they will smother me in their pity and I can’t stand it.
I know Joey deals with knock backs all the time in the photography industry, so I feel a little more comfortable telling him. He won’t expect big things.
“Yeah? Where?”
“Above Logan’s gym.”
“Really? That’s great! Are you going to start teaching again?” We stop at a fountain, catching our breaths.
“Not yet. It needs some love. There’s painting to do and equipment to clear. The floors are a mess too. But it has potential.”
“When was the last time you danced?”
My heart seems to wake with his words, catching up with the rest of my body and beating a little harder than it did moments ago. “It was a few days after the studio sold, at the penthouse.”
“Shit. It’s been what? Over a year. You need to get back into it, throw yourself in, else you never will.”
“Joey, I told you about this because I trust you not to push me. Dancing is my passion, you know that, and I will dance again. I just need some time.”
“I know, I’m sorry.” He pulls me under his arm, walking us to the gates. “You want some help at the gym?”
“No, I need to do it myself.” Working on the studio will be good for me, it will give me something to do when Mason has Ellis. I thought about going this morning, but I feel like I should check with Logan before I just turn up.
And what’s the rush?
“To be honest, I couldn’t find the time. It’s been crazy since I sold my latest prints. I have people booking for next year already. It’s mind blowing to think it’s finally taking off.”
I smile up at him, proud of my friend and the hard work he has poured into the last year of his business. He is a phenomenal photographer. “You’ll have your pictures hung up in—”
“In The National Art gallery one day. You’re an idiot, you know that?” He chuckles, releasing me from under his arm and pushing me away.
I always tell him he will make it big one day. He doesn’t believe in himself like I do.
“You never know, all it takes is one image.”
He looks down his nose at me, tipping his chin and smirking. “You’d be the one.”
“What?” I giggle, starting to jog again.
“If I were to make it big, you’d be my masterpiece.”
I laugh loudly, the pigeons scattering off as I scare them. “As if!”
“The pictures of you in the studio, they’re some of the best I’ve ever taken. It’s a damn shame you don’t let me sell them.” He grins down at me, letting me know he’s messing with me.
Once upon a time, I’d have had no problem with Joey selling the pictures he took. But when I lost the studio, they seemed to become more personal.
The image of me looking into the camera, it reminded me of Mason.
And in nearly every shot stands his mother’s beloved piano.
They remind me of something I don’t hold on to anymore, so keeping them in my grasp and only my grasp seems important to me.
“It doesn’t seem right to have my face on a wall.
I love the pictures and I’m glad I got you that distinction. ”
He rolls his eyes. “Oh, because it was all you.”
“But I wouldn’t want them plastered on random people’s walls. It seems… weird.”
“Did you know Mason offered me money for them?”
I falter but keep moving. “What?”
Joey doesn’t answer me right away, and his face is a mask of indifference.
“Mason offer—”
“You know, forget it.” He waves me off, picking up the pace.
“No. What you just said! Mason offered you money for the photos?”
Joey runs his hand through his hair, looking conflicted. “Yeah.” He nods.
My lungs burn but I don’t stop. “When?”
“God, I don’t know.”
“Before or after I found out I was pregnant?”
He frowns, slowing to a walk. I welcome the change of pace. My legs feel like jelly. “After, it was just before you moved into the apartment.”
“What!” I feel my brows crease, my mind tripping out.
“I didn’t sell them,” he assures me, as if that’s what’s important.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You didn’t speak about him at the time. I didn’t think you’d want to know.”
He’s probably right. I wouldn’t have wanted to know. Things were tough after I left Mason. But now I do know, and it leaves me with so many questions.
Mason made out he was angry with me. That he didn’t want me after I ran out on him. But why would he try to buy my photos after I left if that was the case?
I stop dead in my tracks as a thought comes to me.
“How much?” I ask.
Joey drops his head, knowing how important the answer is to me.
“How much did he offer for them, Joe?”
“More than I will probably make in a lifetime off all my other photos.”
“Son of a bitch!” I seethe. “How much? I want to know.”
He rolls his eyes. “I wouldn’t let him have them and he wouldn’t give up. He didn’t go in high at first, but every time I refused, he upped the offer.”
I shake my head, waiting.
“One point two.”
“One point two?” I frown, shaking my head, confused.
“Yeah.”
“One point two,” I repeat, willing my brain to function.
“Million, Nina. One point two million pounds.”
Bile rises in my throat.
Why does he have to do it? Some women would be humbled. But me? It makes me feel sick to my stomach.
“I shouldn’t have told you. I didn’t want to upset you, Nina.”
“Why didn’t you take it?”
He stares through me, thinking about it for a second.
“The pictures meant more.” He shrugs.
I nod, the irony breaking my heart in two. If only Mason could see that. He’s so desensitised to his own wealth, he doesn’t understand the value of the things money will never buy.
“I’m sorry, that he put you in that position, Joey.”
He shrugs again. “At first, I was pulling my hair out, literally. I almost gave them up at ￡20K.” His honesty makes me smile. “But then I felt powerful, to turn down that amount of money, especially Mason’s money.” He grins. “It felt good.”
“I can imagine. And I bet he didn’t like it much either.” I smile despite my annoyance.
“Nope. I had to tell him to leave. He probably wouldn’t have stopped at one point two.”
“He’s a damn idiot.” Hearing the colossal amount of money Mason can just throw around like pocket change makes the fire in my gut burn like a raging furnace. “You should’ve sold them.” I look up at him, knowing how much even a fraction of that money would benefit him.
“Probably.” He laughs. “You’re going to confront him about it aren’t you.”
“Yep.”
It’s been the longest day and as Elliot pulls up outside my apartment in his Aston Martin, I yawn wide, not feeling the evening ahead at all.