Chapter 16
Sixteen
Iwoke up the same way I had after hundreds of sleepovers over the years. With Keira’s legs tangled with mine, and her breathing noisily in my ear as she slept.
My alarm chirruped but Keira didn’t stir. Carefully, I de-tangled myself from her. I headed for the bathroom, leaving the alarm beeping. It would wake her up eventually. I dressed quickly and by the time I came back, Keira was sitting up, eyes still closed, hair sticking up, groaning.
“Morning, beautiful,” I said in a sing-song voice.
She groaned again in response and gave me the finger.
“Apparently a car is picking me up at nine. Elliot says so. That’s Alfie’s security, right?” She waved her phone at me with a message on it apparently from Elliot.
“It’s half-eight. We slept in. We’ve got time to eat though if you’re hungry.”
She groaned once more and shook her head. Then she disappeared into the bathroom.
Half an hour later, we were in the driveway, hugging each other tight as Elliot put Keira’s bag into the truck of the car.
“Talk to Alfie,” she said. “Don’t let it fester.”
“I will.”
She lowered her voice. “And don’t take any more shit from Julia.”
“Promise.”
Elliot gave me a wave. Never one for small talk, especially when he knew that Alfie and I were at odds. I watched Keira go with a pang, wishing already that she’d come back.
I took a deep breath as I faced the day. I felt like I had too many problems to deal with at once and a bit of compartmentalising was in order. Alfie I would tackle this weekend. My father was a problem for another time. Today, I had work to do.
Sid and I worked like dogs. This project wasn’t coming together as well as the last one. No matter what I did, it didn’t look the way I wanted it. If Sid was annoyed by my perfectionism he didn’t show it.
As the day drew on, I was getting worried. If we didn’t finish it today, I’d have to stay the weekend to make sure it was ready for Monday. That meant I wouldn’t get to see Alfie to talk everything through. I sighed in frustration, resisting the urge to punch the lop-sided elephant in the face.
“Lola,” a smooth voice called, disturbing my thoughts. I turned to find Julia Whitmore striding into our work tent. “I’ve come to check on the progress of your next piece? It’ll be ready for Monday?”
“Yes. I need to tweak it here and there but it’ll be ready.” I began talking her through the specifics of the sculpture but she cut me off.
“I don’t need to know all of that. Have a description written and email it to me so I can pass it onto the presenters. They need to at least pretend they know what they’re talking about.”
“Sure.” That was fine by me, the less I needed to talk to her the better. Julia didn’t say anything else but didn’t move to leave either. I got the feeling she had something to say in private. “Sid, why don’t you go take your lunch break?”
“Um…okay.” He raised his brows at me but left without questions.
A smug smile spread across Julia’s pretty face. “So, did you enjoy yourself at the club?”
I knew it. I knew she didn’t give a crap about the project. She could have found out if it was ready with just a phone call. She just came down here to mess with me.
“Muffin said she met you. She said she didn’t think much of you but I have to admit, I was jealous I didn’t get to see you myself.”
She took a step towards me.
Don’t take anymore shit, Lola. I heard Keira’s voice in my head, giving me the confidence I needed to stand up for myself.
“Julia, this is not appropriate,” I said, forcing my voice to be steady. “In fact, beyond inappropriate, it directly violates club rules to discuss club activities outside of said club with members that you don’t have that prior agreement with.” I knew it for a fact. Alfie had told me so.
Julia raised her eyebrows, looking highly amused. “Did you just admonish me? That’s adorable.”
“Would having your club membership revoked be adorable too?” I snapped. “Or perhaps I could be extra cute and have you fired?” I didn’t mean it, having her fired would be bad for the show but she didn’t need to know I cared about that.
She raised her hand and pinched my chin as if I were a child. “You can’t do that, sweetie.”
I shoved her hand away. “Are you sure?” I stared her down, holding my nerve. I wasn’t completely sure Alfie could have her fired but then again, he had connections everywhere. Hell, the head of the network could be a club member for all I knew.
“You think Alfie Tell would go to that trouble for you?”
“Alfie Tell went to the trouble of having this entire production moved to my hometown just so that I’d be closer to him. So yes, I think he’d have no problem banning you from his property if he thought you weren’t behaving professionally around me.”
Julia finally took a step back. Her eyes swept me over as she reassessed me. “You didn’t seem like the type to hide behind a man.”
“Really? I thought you said I seemed like a scared, little bunny.”
“I think you’ve misunderstood me. I saw you at the club months ago and thought you were attractive. I was excited when I found out I’d be working with you. I thought we could enjoy some time together.”
I narrowed my eyes at her and folded my arms tight over my chest. “I’m with Alfie.”
“Alfie Tell is with a lot of women but if you’re telling me that he’s made you an exclusive play partner then I’ll respect that.”
“Actually, he’s making me his wife.”
I almost laughed at the way her mouth fell open. “If I’d known—”
“You’d have what? Treated me with some respect? Your behaviour is out of line whether he and I were casual or not. This isn’t how you approach someone for sex.”
I shook my head at her. I was used to men being inappropriate with me but I’d never dealt with such a sexually aggressive woman before. It was unnerving.
“You know, I just wanted to show up, do my job, and enjoy the experience. But you’ve made yourself a problem and now I have to deal with it.”
“Does Alfie know that I spoke to you the other day?” For the first time, she looked nervous. Whether about losing her club membership or her job I wasn’t sure. Hopefully both.
“No, but he’s going to. We don’t keep secrets.” I raised my hand to stop her from arguing. “What he chooses to do about you is up to him but I don’t want to have this conversation with you again. Club life and the rest of my life are two very different worlds and I don’t want any crossover.”
She gave me a stiff nod and walked out of the tent. I released the breath I’d been holding. Holy crap. I’d done it. I’d talked to her like I owned the place which I practically did.
I let out a nervous giggle. I wondered if this is what Alfie felt like every time he bossed someone around. I was starting to see why he did it so much.
By the time the end of the day rolled around, my high had faded, leaving frustration in its place. The damn elephant still looked like a dog. A pink dog, but a dog nonetheless. I wouldn’t be going back to London tonight.
My stomach twisted up. I wanted to see Alfie, even though I was still upset.
But this had to come first.
“I can stay and work on it, if you like?” Sid offered. I appreciated it but I waved him off.
“No, you have the weekend off. I need to do it myself anyway.”
He nodded, not bothering to argue with me. “You know, aside from Imani, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get as obsessed with a project as you. That elephant looks pretty much perfect to me but you’ve been messing with it all day.”
“Sorry,” I said, though I didn’t put down my pliers. I was elbow deep in trying to correct the creature's face. “I’ve got a lot on my mind. Maybe that explains all the extra tweaking.”
Sid sat on the bench, drinking from a nearly empty bottle of Lucozade. “Man trouble?” he asked. “I don’t want to pry. I just noticed you've been quiet. Can I do anything?”
“You’re sweet but no. Thank you though.” I twisted the wire with my pliers, adjusting the eye placement on the piece.
Sid didn’t leave, just sat in silent companionship for a few minutes until I finally caved.
“So the man in my ‘Man Trouble’ isn’t romance related.
It’s my father. He left me when I was four, now he’s shown up out of the blue, wanting a relationship again. ”
“Hm.” He nodded. “Convenient now that you have a billionaire on your arm.”
I couldn’t argue with him but damn, did everyone have to point that out?
“Yeah. I’m just working through it. No big deal.” It was a hundred percent a big deal but I didn’t want to put it on this man I barely knew.
“I’m sorry. My mum left when I was ten. Just decided she was done being a mother and poof, gone. Came back when her grandkid was born though.”
I paused what I was doing and looked over at him. “I didn’t know you had kids.”
“Yeah. Just one. What? I don’t look like a traditional guy?”
I eyed his sequined shorts and his pink eyeshadow. He grinned at me. He knew damn well that he didn’t look like a traditional guy.
“How did you deal with it when your mum came back? Did you give her a chance?”
“Yeah. She’s an awesome grandma now. Just couldn’t be a mum. She had some issues, I suppose. Trauma and all that. Not my fault or my problem but it still affected me anyway.”
“I can relate to that,” I muttered. “How do you handle seeing her with your child? Aren’t you angry with her?”
“Not really anymore. I mostly just feel bad for her. She lost out because she couldn’t get her shit together.
Now she overcompensates because she feels guilty.
Getting to a point where I have a controlled amount of emotional investment has helped me.
I don’t count on her to fill the hole she left behind because she can’t.
I can definitely relate to wanting to punish the absent parent though. I had a lot of rage for a long time.”
“Yeah.” I was quiet for a minute. “I want to talk to him but every time I think about it, I feel like he doesn’t deserve it.”
“Yeah, he doesn’t but having that conversation isn’t about letting him off the hook, it's about giving yourself closure. Getting the answers you need. Fuck what he wants. Like I said, less emotional investment. If you stay invested in him being punished, in him being happy or sad, you will carry this shit forever. Talk to him for you, however you want to. Then move on. With or without him. Move on from this. Move on from being the child waiting for him to come home.”
‘Move on from being the child waiting for him to come home.’
His words cut me right to my core. Immediately, I could see myself. Four years old, watching out the window for him to come back. Fresh tears filled my eyes and I couldn’t fight them as they fell.
He flung a friendly arm around my shoulder. “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to make you cry.”
“It’s okay.” I sniffed, wiping my face. “That’s helped a lot actually. You talk a lot of sense.”
“It happens, every once in a while—” he cut off and I followed his gaze. My stomach dropped as a pair of grey eyes pierced me, cutting from me to the man with his arm around my shoulders.
Great. More man trouble. And this time, it was kind of my fault.