Page 28 of Kicks

Charlotte shook her head. “Brad is such an arsehole. If he was an ice-cream, he’d lick himself.”

She always brought some light relief, which was exactly what he needed. “Nice one.”

“Don’t worry. You’ve plenty of time to beat his sorry ass. I have a good feeling.”

Eddie squeezed her hand. “What would we do without you?”

He left her and walked into the office itself. Calm had been restored, thanks to Charlotte’s pep talk.

Is it the deal falling through…or the man?

Billy Webster was old-fashioned handsome. He had certainly grabbed Eddie’s attention.

Kat sat at a large desk by herself. Apart from Tyler and Scott, Kat was his favourite person at Pleasure Seekers. She had fiery red hair, often cut into wild styles. A lot of their recent success had been down to her revolutionising the company’s social media presence.

He took the desk opposite her. She peered over her laptop.

“Oh dear,” she said. “Didn’t go well?”

Eddie rummaged in his bag for his laptop. “I was sure I had them. The place is absolutely perfect. Even the bloody cafés are going for late licences.”

Kat shook her head. “Another place to avoid at the weekend then?”

“Not our problem,” Eddie replied. “Our stuff would have flown out of there.”

“What went wrong?”

“They balked at twenty percent.”

Kat widened her eyes. “Twenty?”

“I know. I would have gone down to fifteen, even ten. But one of the owners threw his toys out of the pram and it was a quick exit for Edward Channing.”

“What a bummer,” she said. “That would have set you up nicely.”

He fired up his laptop and glared. “I realise that, thank you.”

“What are you going to do?”

Eddie sat in his chair while his laptop came to life. It would be too much to hope for that an email would be waiting from one of the brothers, telling him they’d changed their mind.

“I might call him later in the week. Offer him a better deal.”

“Someone’s being a greedy-guts,” Kat said, with a glint in her eye.

Eddie stuck his tongue. “Someone has been tasked from saving you from working for Brad. You panicked me.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault you’re in this mess,” Kat replied. “Don’t take it out on me.”

“I’m sorry,” Eddie said. “You’re right. It’s… Oh, forget it.”

“What?”

Eddie didn’t really want to verbalise this feeling. Yet it burned up inside him and he knew he had no choice.

“One of the guys. The one who practically threw me out.”

“Yes?”