Chapter 35
Cleo
It had been a long week. The longest Cleo could remember since college, leaving her tired to down to her very bones.
The trouble began Monday afternoon, when Gerry Martin, point of contact for Jackson Copeland’s vast residential development, warned Lana of a delay caused by a material Mr. Copeland had insisted upon.
Cleo’s phone and inbox hadn’t stopped until Thursday morning, when the matter was finally resolved.
Cleo had to pull in favors and call on contacts she hadn’t spoken to since setting up on her own three years ago, but they eventually managed to sort the issue and source the material, and get the build back on track.
That is, until lunchtime on Friday, when Mr. Martin called to say that all of his sites, including Mr. Copeland’s, were shutting down early due to a union meeting. The result of this was that Jackson Copeland arrived at Cleo’s office blowing smoke at how unprofessional the entire operation was.
Cleo spent over an hour explaining to him that her role was not as a sounding board for his issues with the build, but she was a liaison between him and Mr. Martin. Her protests fell on deaf ears.
As she locked up on Friday evening, she turned to Lana.
“I’m calling it, after the week from hell, I’m making an executive decision,” Cleo said wearily.
“Oh yeah?” Lana asked cautiously.
“We don’t start until 10 a.m. on Monday,” Cleo announced.
“We don’t... are you sure?!” Lana asked as she took in what Cleo had just told her.
“Definitely,” Cleo replied. “If I can postpone having to deal with Jackson Copeland by another hour, believe me when I say I’m absolutely sure!”
“Oh, thank goodness for that. If I’ve to put up with his snooty assistant one more time, I’m going to scream right down the phone line into her ear until she hangs up,” Lana said with a weak laugh.
“I really don’t understand why he has us dealing with so many of his queries, I mean, doesn’t he have an entire office floor of people for that? ”
“If I remember rightly, I think he mentioned something about him paying them to make him money, and therefore they shouldn’t be wasting their time dealing with these small tasks,” Cleo sighed.
“He just has a face I wouldn’t get sick of punching, you know?” Lana said with a smirk.
Cleo laughed heartily. Wow, did she need that.
“Remind me again why that’s not an option? I mean, why are we putting so much time and effort into just one client? We’ve never done this before,” Lana asked.
Cleo took a breath. “He’s too powerful in this city to have as an enemy.
If he chose to blackball us, it could end us.
So, for now, I will do all I can to keep him at bay.
We just have to get through this build and then slowly try to push back, but I can’t outright turn him down.
He would ruin us and not even blink an eye. ”
“Yeah,” Lana agreed softly. “I thought you were going to say something like that.”
“I can’t risk my business, I won’t. He can give whatever orders he wants, and I’ll take on the bare minimum, because he’s known for doing this. For taking over and then buying out. He’s not getting mine,” Cleo stated.
“You knew? And took him on anyway?” Lana seemed shocked.
“No, it wasn’t until he started pushing for me to do additional work that I put out some very cautious feelers to some old contacts I have. That’s when I found out,” Cleo said, feeling a mixture of defeated and disappointed in herself.
When she set up her business, it was to give her control over her life. After everything that had happened, she needed to take back control somehow. She’d be damned if she had to give that up. Especially, to someone like Jackson Copeland.
She filled her lungs until they burned, then released the breath slowly, letting the thoughts slip away… if only for the weekend. “What’re your plans this weekend?” Cleo asked as they turned onto Main Street.
“Connor and I are heading to his folks this weekend, and I’m meeting his sister, April, this time. Then I’ll have met the whole family. I hope it goes well. I’d hate for it not to,” Lana spun the ring on her finger, showing Cleo how much it meant to her to get along with Connor’s sister.
“You’ll get on fine, and even if you don’t, that’s ok too. You won’t get on with everyone. Connor is the one that matters, and you have him wrapped, so you’re doing something right.” Cleo nudged her shoulder against Lana’s and was relieved to see her friend smile again.
“What about you?” Lana asked. “Do you have any plans with Ivy?”
“Yeah actually, we’re spending the afternoon together tomorrow then I’m going to her apartment because,” Cleo took a breath, “she’s cooking me dinner.” Cleo exhaled.
“That’s good though, isn’t it?” Lana queried.
“Yeah, it’s just, it’s the first time we’ll be somewhere private instead of in public bar or restaurant,” she said.
“Are you ready for that?” Lana asked gently.
“With Ivy?” Cleo replied much quicker than she had expected. Knowing that her attempt to play it cool had come across as the complete opposite. She knew that she wanted Ivy, and so did Lana.
“Not that,” Lana raised an eyebrow with a smirk and then calmed her features. “You know what you need to tell her before it gets to that. You’ve spoken about it a lot more in recent weeks than you have in years.”
“I know. I just, she’s light and sunshine, and all that’s good in the world. I don’t want to be the one to bring any sadness to those eyes. I couldn’t bear that,” Cleo admitted.
“You won’t, but you can’t hold it in either, she deserves to know. If you're going to take this next step with her, she deserves to know all of you first.”
Cleo stopped as she realized they were almost at the coffee shop.
She turned to Lana but didn’t quite meet her gaze.
“What if,” she paused, before trying again, “I don’t want her to look at me differently.
I can’t bear the thought of looking into those beautiful green eyes and seeing anything other than happiness. ”
“Maybe she’ll surprise you, but you need to trust her enough to give her the chance to,” Lana said softly as she rubbed her hand up and down Cleo’s arm.
“Now, even if you don’t get a coffee, goodness knows we’ve consumed enough of it this week to keep them all in a job, go see your girl and let those beautiful green eyes of hers you ogle so much stop this spiral. ” Lana smiled at Cleo.
Cleo let out a huff of laughter, “Ok, I might just do that.”
“Good, if you remember, say hi from me, but I’m sure you’ll forget,” Lana chuckled, as they went their separate ways at the shop door.