I waited for him to get off his bike but instead, he moved to put his helmet on.  “Are you still leaving?” I asked, and realised that I wanted him to stay.

He stopped putting his helmet on and gave me a pointed look.  “I don’t do get togethers.  Only came to this one because Madison would get pissy if I didn’t, and Madison in a pissy mood isn’t worth the headache.  You gave me a good excuse to leave.”

I laughed.  “Glad I could help you out then.”

“Yeah, thanks for that.”  There was a hint of humour in his voice and he sat watching me for a minute.  Finally, he put the helmet on, turned on his bike and took off without a backwards glance.

I stood on the footpath for a long time staring after him.  There was definitely something about Scott Cole; something that made long forgotten desires come to the surface.  As I stood staring into the distance, I realised that I’d liked it when he just sat and watched me.  His eyes hadn’t moved from mine and somehow we’d connected.  I’d felt it but I wondered if he had.  I also wondered if it was even a good idea to be thinking these things because, let’s face it, Scott was bound to be heartbreak on legs.

***

The next day, I sailed through my shift at the vets as thoughts of Scott flitted in and out of my mind.  I’d memorised his muscles, the ink on his arms, his lips and his eyes.  These images were floating around my head all day and I’ve gotta say, they made me a happy girl.  Even my boss’s snarky attitude towards me all day couldn’t change my mood.  Nor did thoughts of the bills my Mum was facing in her café.

A couple of hours later though, I completely changed my mind about Scott Cole.  At the end of my shift, my boss called me into his office.

“Harlow, I’m going to have to let you go.  I’ve had a complaint from Rod about the way he was treated the other day.  The way you dealt with that situation was completely unacceptable,” he said, as he shuffled papers on his desk and did his best to avoid eye contact with me.

My heart started beating faster, and heat flooded my body.  How dare he fire me over that idiot.  “You’re kidding, right?  You fire me without even getting my version of what happened?  Rod is one of the rudest customers I’ve ever dealt with in my life, and you’ll regret choosing him over me!”

“I don’t think so.  He’s one of my best customers; that dog of his is always in here getting something done.  I can’t afford to upset customers like him.”

I picked up my handbag that I had placed on his desk, and stood up.  “You know what?  I don’t want to work for an idiot like you anyway.  I think this will be for the best after all,” I snapped, and then stormed out of his office.

As I drove home, I assessed the events of the last week and decided that Scott had screwed with my life.  My mother and I counted on that income from my job at the vet to help cover her mortgage and her bills from the café.  Unless I found a new job really soon, I worried that she wouldn’t be able to cover all her bills, and wondered where that would leave us.  If I ever saw Scott Cole again, I’d be sure to give him a piece of my freaking mind.

Chapter 7

Scott

“Fucking hell!” I yelled as I rifled through the beer invoice that I was holding.  Moving my eyes from the invoice to J, I continued, “How fucking hard is it for them to get an order right?”

J grabbed the invoice from me and assessed it.  “Before you take that temper out on the supplier, you’d better check with our staff to make sure it wasn’t them who fucked it up.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that, but brother, we need a new manager because neither of us is cut out for this shit.”

“I hear you.  I’ve got some more interviews to line up.”

“Good.”

J looked at his watch.  “I’ve got to head home.  Call me if something urgent comes up, otherwise I’m busy for the night.  And when I say I’m busy, I mean with a woman who you don’t want to fuck with.”

I held up my hand.  “I don’t need to hear anymore.  We won’t be bothering you.”

Nash wondered into the storeroom at that moment and the air thickened with tension as he and J watched each other.  I’d thought that once Madison made it clear she was settling down with J, these two would start getting along but it didn’t seem to be the case.  If anything, they were getting along worse than ever.

“Marcus asked me to pass along that he thinks he’s talked some sense into Blade.  Thinks that Blade will pull back on his coke distribution,” Nash shared.

“What makes him so sure?”  I seriously doubted this was true.  Blade had now had a taste of the money coke bought in; he wouldn’t give that up so easily.

Nash shrugged.  “Got no idea, brother.  Just passing on the message.”

As Nash and I talked, J walked towards the storeroom door.  “I’ll catch you later,” he said to me, ignoring Nash.

We watched him leave and then I asked, “Why’s he so dirty with you still?”

“Don’t know and don’t fucking care.  J’s an asshole who I have no time for.”

“You still got a thing for Madison?”

“Fuck no, brother.  She could do better than him though, and I haven’t been backward in telling her that.”