Page 41 of Losing the Forbidden
Not feeling strong enough to return to the house where so much has happened with Lauren, I head back to the office.
This time, all the lights are off and the place is deserted. I walk through the darkness until I’m in what was once my dad’s office. I flick the desk lamp on and power up the computer.
I’m determined to give this business the lease of life it needs to stop it from going under, and in order for that to happen I need to start getting my head around what’s going on.
I get so lost in everything that before I know it, the sun’s starting to come up and the sound of someone entering drags my eyes up from the screen.
“Have you been here all night?” Erica correctly guesses when she finds me probably looking a little worse for wear.
“Looks that way.”
“Are you okay? You seem…”
“I’m fine. Just trying to get my head around everything.”
“Did you find Lauren yesterday?” I make a noise in agreement and Erica’s eyebrow pops up in question. “I’ll go make coffee and you can tell me all about it.”
“Nothing to tell.” The pain I felt as she drove away from me last night once again tugs at my heart.
“Try telling your face that.”
I manage to distract Erica with a million work-related questions when she reappears thankfully with a steaming mug of coffee. I know she hasn’t forgotten though. I can see it in the sympathetic looks I get while she thinks I’m doing something else. I know she wants to help, but quite honestly, I’ve no idea if anyone can do anything to help right now. Lauren made her thoughts very clear last night. I now just need to decide what I’m going to do about it.
Once the others start arriving for the day, Erica leaves me to it. I need to go home and get some sleep really, but now I’ve started getting to grips with this place once again, I’m desperate to continue. This might be the only thing I have here now, so I’ve no choice but to make a success of it.
I’m looking over a set of drawings when someone knocks on the office door.
“Come in,” I call without looking up, because I assume it’s either Erica or Betty with more coffee.
“We need to talk,” an unfamiliar male voice says, dragging my eyes up from the desk.
“What the—” He might look like a different person from the first time I met him, but I know immediately that the man standing in front of me is Joe.The boyfriend.But this time, there’s no crisp white shirt, braces, or slicked-back hair. Instead, he’s wearing a skin-tight black t-shirt, tattoos on full display, and a Johnson & Son’s high visibility jacket. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”
Closing the door behind him, cutting off any prying eyes, he walks over to my desk and places his palms down. If he’s trying to intimidate me with his muscles and ink, it’s failing miserably.
My muscles twitch to stand toe-to-toe with him but I resist, not wanting to look like he affects me in any way. Instead, I rest back in my chair and plaster a neutral expression on my face.
“You need to stay away from her.”
“Not happening. Did you need anything else?” Fire flicks through his eyes and I just about manage to contain my smile. Going a round or two with this guy might be the exact thing I need to ease the tension coursing through me, but I want it to be a challenge. When I beat him, I want it to be known that it’s because I’m the better man.
“Do you have any idea what you’re doing to her?”
“I know exactly what I did to her last night,” I taunt. His jaw pops and the muscles in his neck tense. “Didn’t she tell you?”
“Of course she fucking told me. Lauren’s not a liar.” My eyes widen slightly at his admission. “I know everything, Ben. I know every bit of pain you’ve caused her. I also know that it’s time for you to disappear off to wherever it was you went before and to leave her the fuck alone.”
“Make me,” I state, deciding now’s the perfect time to properly get in his face. There’s about an inch between us when the door swings open and Lauren rushes in.
“For fuck’s sake.” She grabs Joe’s arm and attempts to pull him away. “I told you to leave it.”
“This needs fucking sorting, sweets.”
Sweets?Who the fuck does this guy think he is?
“Just get your arse to site like you promised you would.” Lauren’s anger is palpable, and it makes me weirdly happy to know that it’s not directed at me for once.
“If he so much as touches you again, I’ll fucking kill him,” Joe seethes.
