Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Finishing up the call with Doug, Elijah got the answer he hoped for.
He left his office and entered the bar. This time of day was quiet, the lunchtime crowd had gone back to work and just a few stragglers were talking in groups.
Looking around to find Elaine, Elijah couldn’t see her anywhere.
He gestured to Pete who nodded to the restrooms. Elijah sat on the stool nearest to him and waited for her to return.
He spied Jack coming over to see him. His brother had left a group of men at the bar drinking pints and laughing at something they were all looking at on the TV.
He loved his brother, and it didn’t make any difference that they weren’t blood-related.
They couldn’t be any different in temperament, possibly why they got on so well and had each other’s backs.
“Good to see you brother,” Jack said to Elijah as he gave him a hug in greeting and squeezed his cheek for good measure.
“Good to see you too, what brings you here in the middle of the day?” Elijah said rubbing his cheek to remove the pinch he felt.
“I thought I’d entertain these young sales lads as a reward for reaching their quarterly targets,” Jack said.
“Right now I wish I were one of your sales reps, I’m about to have an uncomfortable conversation with Elaine,” Elijah said and grimaced.
“Well she’s on her way over. Does she still like to be choked?” Jack asked.
“How the hell do you know that? Please tell me you haven’t fucked her?” Elijah said and sighed.
“Don’t be ridiculous, of course I haven’t. She can’t resist telling me every time we bump into each other here. She makes my skin crawl,” Jack said.
“Seriously, why is it I’m last to know these things? Plus, I’m not dating her, so you can say anything you like,” Elijah said gleefully.
“That’s because you don’t listen to gossip and you don’t fuck around either,” Jack stated proudly. “I’m going to leave you to it, I don’t want to get caught talking to her. See you at dinner tonight with your date. Just so you know Olivia is beyond excited that you are bringing Lilly.”
“Oh hell, really? You gotta go easy, she’s the one.”
“I know. It’s why we’re excited.”
Jack walked away as Elaine walked towards Elijah as soon as Jack had passed her he turned on his heel and made a choking mime behind her back. Elijah burst out laughing just as Elaine approached.
“What’s so funny Elijah, we have things to discuss, and I need you to be serious.”
“Oh lighten up Elaine, I was laughing at Jack.”
“Oh him? He doesn’t like me, I have no idea why, it’s not like I’ve turned him down.”
Elijah raised an eyebrow at Elaine in question “What do you mean?”
“It’s well-known that your brother is the biggest tart in Edinburgh but he’s never made a move on me.”
“I think that’s more to do with the fact that you were trying to date me or that he has a fiancé.”
“When did that ever stop Jack? Can we stop talking about your brother please and talk about the wall,” Elaine asked.
“Hold on a second, are you angry that he didn’t make a move on you?”
“No, of course not, and don’t be so paranoid,” Elaine said and patted his arm.
“Why would I be paranoid?”
Elaine shifted on the spot and looked decidedly uncomfortable. She looked over to where Jack was but couldn’t get his attention.
“Who knows, can we move this along?”
“No, we can’t, why would I be paranoid Elaine? Tell me. Jack has been with Olivia for quite some time, so your tart remark is uncalled for.”
“No reason sweetie, I told you.”
“Oh, I’m so stupid,” Elijah said and looked at the ceiling and laughed humourlessly. “You were trying to date me because you couldn’t date him. How could I be so stupid? For fuck’s sake Elaine, you spent time with me for you to get close to Jack?”
“Well it didn’t work, did it? So let’s move on. You both fell for weak women, neither of you could handle a woman like me.”
Elijah stared into space but Elaine thought Elijah was looking at her.
“Get over it Elijah, we’re history, so what’s the problem?”
“No problem Elaine. I’m not going to discuss business with you today, make an appointment for later in the week,” Elijah said.
Elijah walked away from an open-mouthed Elaine. He was beyond angry and well on his way to livid, he needed to get away from her contrite face. Elaine was not giving up so easily.
“Oh come on Elijah, I didn’t think you were ever going to come out of that office of yours. You should get out more and not immerse yourself in your job. You might stand some chance of finding a girlfriend.” She sat down on the stool and beckoned him to sit next to her.
She was still bitter and there was nothing Elijah could do about it.
If she needed to vent that way, he could take it.
He’d heard far worse and probably deserved it.
Elaine was right, he did immerse himself in his work, it was the only thing he found he could rely on.
With Lilly being more than his lunch break fix, he planned on changing his ways.
He decided to remove the anger from his mind and play her at her own game.
The quicker he had this conversation the quicker he could be rid of her.
“It’s lovely to see you Elaine, please forgive my quick temper, you look ravishing as always.” he said as a reply to her acidity.
Noticing the faint blush form on her cheeks and she combed her fingers through her hair, preening. He smiled. She still wanted him, which could work in his favour, she might be reasonable to what he was going to say.
“Thank you Elijah but I’m not here for your compliments, I need you to sign off on the final painting and give me a date when I can finish the damn thing. Obviously it’s going to take longer now that the fire has damaged the base coat.”
Her tone had softened slightly, but she was still all business. She wouldn’t take this next bit well.
“I’m afraid that I’m going to cancel the rest of it Elaine and not go any further ahead.”
“You can’t do that Elijah, you signed the contract for me to do the painting. You gave me the job, you can’t just dismiss me halfway through.”
“I did give you the job and I can take the job away too. I cannot meet your criteria so the deal is off.”
“What criteria?” she asked hesitantly.
“The health and safety part of your terms and conditions. The area that you are painting in, isn’t cordoned off enough for it to be safe.
For you to safely do the painting, I’ll have to shut the place for a week and I cannot afford to do that.
You’ve taken a lot longer than originally discussed.
Now that the damage has been done, you will take even longer than you said you would to complete it.
So as it says in your agreement, I have to ensure complete fire safety while you’re here.
I can’t do that so the deal is off,” Elijah concluded.
“I don’t believe you, you’ll have to pay for my time and loss of earnings Elijah, and you can’t just walk away. I have turned other work away to take this project on,” Elaine said.
“That was your choice Elaine, not my fault. You can ask any independent but I have asked an ex-Fire Chief his opinion. He is very familiar with this property, he oversaw the fire safety here when I first opened and he said that it wouldn’t be safe to my customers to have you here at the same time.
Your contract says that I will not suffer any loss of earnings while you are here.
So I have to walk away from your services,” Elijah said.
“You can’t do this Elijah, you will regret it if you do this,” Elaine said.
“Are you threatening me?”
“I’ll make you pay for breaking the contract, one way or another.”
Elaine hopped off the stool, grabbed her handbag from the bar top and walked out of Blue’s. He sat there in silence until Pete came over.
“What did you say to her? She looked angry.”
“I told her I couldn’t carry on with her here, she was taking too long and I was losing money. She threatened to make me pay. I thought it went better than expected. She didn’t slap me which was a bonus.”
“You only get slapped when you’re breaking their hearts not their bank balance. I’d keep a close eye on her, she looks like spiteful one.”
“Maybe, but I think she’s all bark and no bite, she’ll realise that she hasn’t a leg to stand on and we won’t see her again.”
Pete grunted and walked back up the galley to the other end of the bar and served a customer.
Pete made a good point, she wouldn’t let this go, but he had to find a new painter.
His mind instantly flew to Lilly, but he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
Mixing business with pleasure always backfired.
Elijah needed to speak with Lilly’s brother about his drug dealing and see what he had to say for himself.
When he saw him again, he would give him a good talking to, with his fists preferably.
He was vehemently anti drug and distanced himself from anyone taking drugs let alone dealing them.
The Police came to Blue’s during their time off and it surprised him that any dealer would come within fifty feet of the place.
From what he understood about Lilly’s brother, he was intelligent but not very smart. Not the best combination.
Finding him creeping about in his sister’s apartment was weird. If he was welcome why did he feel the need to hide? All these questions would have to wait for another day. One fight per day was his general rule of thumb and the discussion with Elaine counted as one.
He needed to get to Lilly’s place in a few hours and he wanted to get ready for this evening’s shift.
He hadn’t lied about the private party, it was a hen night and a stag night in separate rooms and different weddings.
Weddings seemed to surround him at the moment and he couldn’t escape from them.
Lilly had only done one shift, and he didn’t like the idea of her working behind the bar when she wasn’t fully recovered.
If he were honest, he still wasn’t comfortable with the thought of dating her and her working there.
He would raise the subject at dinner this evening about her future work plans.
He knew he had offered her a safe job while she worked out what she wanted and felt responsible that he already wanted to fire her for selfish reasons.
She wasn’t well enough to do full shifts, and he wanted her all to himself.
When he saw the customers slip her, their phone number he wanted to snatch it out of her hands and rip it into tiny pieces.
It was a childish reaction but he couldn’t help how he felt.
Lilly was the one for him and he would do all he could to make sure they were a couple and stayed that way until they were old and senile.
He hadn’t quite worked out how to tell Lilly about his secret.
Mickey knew about it as did Jack which probably meant Olivia did too.
Aside from those few people, he hadn’t shared it with anyone else.
It didn’t affect anyone else apart from him and the woman he would spend the rest of his life with.
He didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but society would argue the point.